Brian Frank

Oh, lets see...it may have an update to patch some gaping security hole, or prevent some kind of corruption. MS could also tag something on to one of the critical updates too, or something else that most people would d/l to get the software pirates. Honestly, if you've legally purchased a copy of XP, MS can't nail you for it (at least they shouldn't). If you have gotten w4ar3z, that's your problem. I don't mean to be a jerk, but MS does have a right to stop software pirates. I'm not sure I agree with the way they're going about it, but they are making an effort to put a wrench in the works for pirates. If MS does screw up (heaven forbid!), if you have proof of a legal copy, they have to make sure it works for you. The way to deal with XP registration/activation is to buy a legal copy of XP, or don't use it.

Solution: get a different card. Creative supposedly has ignored standards by Microsoft and Intel. Via just was in the wrong place at the wrong time in some cases, and did their part to fix it--despite that it wasn't their problem.

You could try the NT 4.0 drivers, but I'm not sure they will work. -Edit- According to the compatibility list, the NT drivers seem to work. See here and scroll down.

Did you check SiS site?

In BIOS, make sure it's set to UDMA 4 or 5, whichever is the highest you can set it.

Try going to either McAfee or Norton Antivirus (Symantec) sites and run the on-line virus scanner to see what it is at least. If you have a virus scanner installed, you have to keep it updated or it's wasting space on your hard drive.

Also, to add to my earlier sentiments, XP's NetBEUI protocol hidden on the disk isn't too friendly with every PC running 2k. It's not really beneficial to us, so I can see myself and the rest of the PC's here running XP approximately when hell freezes over. XP is good for some people, but mostly those not running Win2k right now. Microsoft's licensing is also not pleasing now. I really hate the excessive strings attached.

You don't need the 4-in-1's for XP. I didn't install them when I tried XP in Beta 2 and RC1; didn't need 'em anyway. The 14.40 Dets worked well in XP, so you might wanna try those. Just to see if it does anything, pull out the BSLive! while you're at it. May work for you, may not--wouldn't hurt to check.

That's happened to my dad in Win2k, but he doesn't care since his system runs fine anyway. It's a quirk that's annoying at worst. I suppose if yer really picky, it's a big deal, but there's other things that bug me more. It's not messing anything up, so I don't care.

I ran 98se, then thought that ME would be better, which wasn't true. Got fed up with it after a month and jumped to Win2k after I saw that the programs and games I mostly ran worked in 2k. I don't feel that the loss of my DOS games was that bad. I had two PCs at the time and my test PC had 2k on it and seemed to work well. Been using 2k for well over a year now, and probably will for a while. XP doesn't offer me anything I want or need, and other OS's are too time consuming to fiddle with right now. I'd like to get around to messing with the copy of FreeBSD I d/l, but that's not likely to happen until Christmas break at the earliest. Win2k works very well for me, and since I've gotten my tweaks sorted out, I've not been screwing the system up enough to demand a reinstall for a long time. My dad has reinstalled once since he went to 2k, and he probably didn't need to it---too bad he found the fix later on.

Yes, but unfortunately not to as many as those who have problems. Networking was bad news for me, as ME refused to connect to any Win2k machine no matter what we did. It's no longer a problem as all the networked PC (5 of 'em on the network) run Win2k. There's another one with 98, and my dad's laptop with Win2k on it, but that's it. (3 people own 2 PC's, 1 owns the other, 2 don't own any). I'd say it's safe to say Win2k will probably be running on our systems for a while. XP is too much of a hassle since we use NetBEUI, and the included version doesn't like the family PC (which I rarely use). And I'm waaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy off topic.......

I don't know if this is an option at all or if it works, but you may want to try reserving an IRQ in BIOS. Not having the BSLive! has probably been the best thing for me, and explains why I haven't had many problems with Intel or AMD rigs in Via boards (I know this ain't a Via board). If you can, avoid having the BSLive! in between filled PCI slots. Leave one above or below it unused. Above all, LEAVE ACPI ALONE!!!!! I've never had success in changing to or from ACPI. Whatever it is set as, leave it as is unless you'd like to reinstall Windows (at least in my experience).

www.2cpu.com It's a site devoted to dual processor systems. One thing you should know is that Windows95/98/98se/ME/XP Home do not support dual processors. You can install them on an SMP system, but it's worthless if you're not using another OS that does--like Win2k. Also, look around the forums there so you know what's available and what you want. A dual rig isn't terribly more expensive than a similar single cpu rig, but it depends on what you get. ECS D6VAA is a cheap motherboard, but it's apparently pretty good. Another popular board is Abit's VP6--which seems to be just one of their boards to have somewhat of a cult following. Before it gets asked: The only Celeron's that we know for a fact do run in SMP are the 300A-533. The 533A-1.1GHz absolutely do not work in SMP, so don't bother. The 1.2GHz Celeron and above may, but I haven't seen a reliable source confirm this. Any Celeron 1.2GHz and up and any Pentium III above 1GHz requires a motherboard that supports the Tualatin.

Tried the compatibility app with Win2k? It's on the CD. Also, having Service Pack 2 wouldn't hurt.

Win2k might have drivers with it. Try to install it and see what happens. You may have to do it without PnP detection.

I seriously wouldn't take that out. If you are running out of space, buy a bigger drive. Don't remove files from the WINNT directory to save yourself a headache later on. You can delete it, but I advise against it--you're call. MS did that so you wouldn't have to stick in the CD everytime you install new hardware for one.

Crash Guard--no, Crash Causer--yes. Back to the topic at hand: I remember seeing an earlier post about this. 98 doesn't acknowledge the sovrenity of XP on its own partition, so what's best for 98 isn't necessarily so great for XP. Try a few rounds of defragging XP in XP. Do 98 in 98, and don't cross over. It's not optimal.

Did you check under the game controller's in the control panel?

Did you look here?

Not sure, although it certainly could be with anything that works with internet functions. I didn't have that problem with my legal copy. That Windows Messenger could be a rat too (probably why it won't go away). The solution is to register or do something else. Or just not use XP. How your buddy deals with it is up to him.

My dad used a USB network adapter when we first had a lan going. Wasn't that great though. Probably look in the cheap bins at shows or a local shop. I've used one before, does the job for what we usually need.

Many color ful words are ************** out because the admin felt like it. It's Philip and SHS call. If you don't like it, tough.

See what Abit has up for XP drivers, if any.

I fell for a con game yesterday. Called up with a promotion for owners of credit and/or debit cards with Visa, Master Card, Discovery, and a few others I can't remember. Free watch and 3 mags for 4 months with purchase of US News for 24 months. I started to get a bad feeling later in the day, and called them to verify their location. To you S.O.B.s from Consumer Readers Service: 'Robert','Lori','Vallery', and your cohorts I have a big **** you for you cons. I sincerely hope that your collective *** is busted and you rot to death in prison! I've done some precautionary measures to cover myself, and am keeping an eye on my accounts. You bastards haven't gotten my money yet, and I'll make sure it stays that way.

Well, well, well. I finally got ahold of them and was able to cancel the deal. I know there's a time zone difference, but give me a break! Not getting ahold of them until 5pm Indiana time is crap. If anybody was there, they weren't pickin' up the phone! They still seemed iffy to me, so I'll keep an eye on them.