Brian Frank

http://www.memtest86.com/ http://www.mersenne.org/prime.htm Google is thy friend.

www.nforcershq.com

The nForce 2 seems to be kinda picky about the RAM you use...so unless you want A64, I can't see a real reason to say you must go AMD at all costs. I've got the Abit IS7-E and it's a nice board. If you want their Canterwood board, look at the IC7 series. Definitely go with a dual-channel memory setup. I've got some plain Kingston ValueRAM in my IS7-E and it works fine. PSU: Antec or Sparkle

If you set it to 3.45V, you may have fried the CPU. From the info I looked at in the manual, it was for the CPU core voltage. 2.3-2.4V is for the CPU's. I'm not sure of tolerance limit for overvolting (depends on the cooler used), but I suspect that you may have fried it...especially if you smelled something burning...

It's for the core voltage.

Not all CPU's use the same voltage, so it does vary. I believe the Duron should do a voltage of 1.65V. 2.2V will fry it unless you have something like watercooling or liquid nitrogen on it. CPU voltage on the K6's seem to be 2.4 and 2.3, for the 450 and 550 respectively. The I/O voltage should be left alone or at the default setting. For the K6's it looks like 3.3V. If you have the manuals for these motherboards, check them out as even the crappiest ones will show info on the voltage settings. Overvolting a little is usually okay if you have decent cooling, but jack it up too much and you'll know the smell of a fried CPU.

Uhh...What motherboard and CPU do you have?

It hurts to think about using ME. I'm scarred for life, dude.

Try a different driver.

Good one...just now saw this.

Getting a different sound card from Philips or Hercules.

IIRC, driver updates have fixed that awhile ago...

Under the RAM tab, it should list the speed, or Frequency possibly right above the timings. You might be able to lower the timings, but it all depends on the RAM. If you want to get every last drop out of the system, try it, but it really depends on the RAM you have. It should say you're memory is running at 166MHz, but it's okay if it's running at 133. You can change it (in BIOS) to run at 166MHz---consult your mobo manual for this.

No. Asus hardware is fine...it's their software that is kinda funky.

You don't need a new motherboard to run that card, but, yes, that motherboard will work with the card just fine. BTW, what is your power supply brand and wattage rating? If you buy a new motherboard and the PSU is the problem, you're still going to have the same issues. See if you can find out what the BSOD says, so we can track down the root of the problem.

Try the Omega Drivers here. Also, check your power management for the monitor.

To hit 3k. Been awhile since I was top spammer here. :x

It's probably a software issue. If your system is running stable, don't worry.

XP and 2k have been good to me. Unfortunately, my college hasn't quite gotten all the boxes running Win2k, and now I really despise Win9x...of course, WinME was the worst of all.

I believe there is a way to add the driver into your own custom XP disc, but I don't have a link, and it's more work than hooking up a floppy drive.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.as...ycodevalue=4807 3rd one down is a 256MB plain 9600 with a passive heatsink from Sapphire. $104 with free shipping.

I'm not sure if it's going to make it, but look for Abit's IS7-E. Also, the Via PT880 chipset boards are quiet cheap, and I'd look at Abit's VT7 for that matter--since Abit is known for overclocking.

Yes, that's one way to do it. Very handy.

It's still got a way's to go before it's going to hit the desktop for primetime. Alot of it isn't with the OS as much as the hardware and software community. People need to be able to walk into Best Buy and grab the software/hardware they want and not have to worry about if it's going to be supported under Linux. The average joe doesn't want to have to look around for the latest device drivers and do kernel compiling. They want to turn it on and have it work. Some distro's are getting pretty good at that part, but you've still got the 3rd party software and hardware support issue. They're coming along, but it's still going to be awhile before Linux can really be considered a real mainstream Windows alternative.

Well, I know for a fact that Abit's IS7 series boards have a PAT function enabled that normally is only on the more expesive i875P boards like their IC7 series. Asus, Abit, Epox, and MSI all have them, but I'm not sure about Gigabyte. If you want alot of IDE ports, Gigabyte is the way to go. Same if overclocking is not a concern. They do have an i875P board with IDE and SATA RAID, and Ultra 320SCSI. That may be overkill, but if you want disk controllers up the wazoo, that would be one to go for.