Brian Frank

True. On the flipside, I hope they don't drop Win2k so soon as well as ME ( we all know that need's all the support they can put out). Yeah, 6 years is ancient history in electronics, and Win95 is not on the cutting edge of technology. 98 added some very nice things to it in the way of support of some very important technologies like USB. 95 has enough things lacking from 98 that it should be dumped in favor of moving on. Yes, this sucks, but 95 has been dropped by some manufacturers products. If Windows NT is any indication, Win2k should have a nice life left in the way of support. Of course, that could change--depending on how much MS gets flamed over some less than satisfying "features" of XP (Product Craptivation anyone?)

Yes it does. DSL is digital and that modem is analog. You can use both at the same time, but because of the 56k modem, you won't be able to get phone calls--like you do now.

Did you read Inferno2000's post? In my experience, ATI doesn't make the most stellar drivers, so I wouldn't go with that.

There's not a problem with it, but multiprocessor support for the Celeron stops at 466MHz and the Pentium III is geared toward it. In my opinion, a Celeron based server really isn't worth the savings you used to get with it. AMD's Duron is a closer competitor to the Pentium III than the Celeron. There's no problems running the Celeron, but all Celeron's run at a 66MHz bus speed except for the 800 which has a 100MHz bus, whereas the the Pentium III, Duron, and Athlon all run at least a 100MHz bus speed. If you want a cheap system, go with a Duron based system--seriously. The Celeron is being replaced with the Tulitan Pentium III, and the fasterest Celeron runs at 800MHz. The Duron's are cheaper and stomp the Celeron all over the place. A 600MHz Duron performs very close to a Celeron 800. There are no issues with the Celeron itself, but I would say it's not a good way to spend the cash if you're a cheapskate. AMD is just as good as Intel, but if you have to go Intel get the Pentium III instead.

Hmm... I would seriously get another stick of ram just to be safe and try that. Another thing: use the repair option off the Win2k disc. FYI: boot like you normally would to install and choose the Repair option instead of the install option. Choose the options that DO NOT require the Emergency Repair Disk or require you to do anything. It should repair the ntoskernel.exe, if not, try new ram. You may also have a bad RAM slot, so try moving the RAM to a different slot. You may try to use the orginal Win2k disk for the install, then install SP2.

Yes, there certainly is an issue that's not liked by Win2k, as it is much more sensative to anything screwy. I haven't looked at the mobo, but if you have an extra IDE (onboard or separate card) or SCSI, you need to have the drivers, txtsetupoem and whatever else relates to Win2k. Off hand I can't say what exactly your problem is. However, myself or some other knowledgeable soul here might get you fixed up if you could post what the BSOD's message is and any files it names--if any. List the number codes too---pretty much everything listed on the screen.

Yeah, that D3D thing happens in anything based on HL (OpFor, BS, Gunman Chronicles,...). I have noticed a few intermittent lock-ups on BS and Gunman--regardless of any overclocking or not. I wish I knew what the problem is. All the fixes I have off the top of my head don't apply to you. You may want to check on the drivers for the motherboard. I'm not sure, but I'd guess it would be an Intel chipset, possibly a BX, but I can't say. You should be able to find that out. If all the drivers have been changed and it still happens, it just may be one of those things that you have to live with. Another thing: Did you install SP2 right after installing Win2k, or did you do it much later. I'm not saying go reformat now, but just some food for thought. It could also be heat, so make sure all the fans are working and that the dust is cleaned out. Also, check your power supply to make sure it's okay.

Of course, this trial is crap to begin with, so it's good MS has not been broken up. Not to say MS hasn't done anything wrong or illegal, but this case is just because people are pissed MS is bringing in the big bucks and they're not.

How do I do this under Win2k?

Of course, how you setup the fans in the case also can help to cool it. I have a ton of fans, and I'm thinking I've got a bit of overkill on it with the sheer amount I've crammed into it. As long as you've got a good HSF and some good thermal paste, you should be very good to go. I've heard good things about the Thermo Engine, and the Thermaltake Dragon Orb 3.

Well, I checked with the store I got it from, and the tech said I lost my data. Oh well, it not my main rig anyway, plus, I don't have a ton of stuff on it to begin with. Trial and error in this case. Thanx for the info.

I have something to add: Dell seems to think we want to purchase a Dell PC and sends us order mags. In the one that came yesterday, the high end machines were equipped with a Santa Cruz card.

I couldn't agree more!!! Yes, MS does have the right to prevent theives if at all possible, but at the same time, this Product Craptivation seems to bite the consumer who is not participating in software theft. I refuse to believe this is the only way to stop theivery. For the time being, I'll stick with Win2k, but Linux could hold more of a future if things start to go very sour.

Win2k doesn't have this problem with autoplay. I did see something about the autoplay stuff and someone posted a link to Microsoft's page on stuff about setting up autorun files...but I can't remember where I saw it. Try using the search function and look within the past week.

I haven't been much for Napster in its use, but now that the napster alternatives are out, I've become addicted to Morpheus. I'd tried one of the Guntella programs, Bear Share, but I couldn't d/l anything. My little bro started using this Morpheus and it's great! I've been able to track down a cartoon I used to watch in Kindergarten, even though they're only in German. But I like this a lot better than other Peer to Peer program. What have the masses found to work great? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!

Just because Nvidia wont produce the drivers doesn't mean drivers wont be put out. There is this Voodoo Files CA, and they have newer drivers...however, that's still no guarantee that they work. I like 3dfx cards, but there's no sense in using a piece of hardware that doesnt have drivers for it in a particular OS. Yes, this does suck, but the V4 is just a V3 with 32MB of ram instead of 16. A GF2 MX is a solid card, and with the excellent driver for all of Nvidia's chips, Nvidia is the way to go---something ATI could take a cue from. I refuse to buy an ATI card until they put out drivers that don't shame the card---and I really hope they do, for the sake of competition.

About the only thing you could do to improve the drive now would be to go to ATA100. FYI, I saw a little report that showed a 5400 ATA100 drive was pretty much the same to a 7200rpm ATA66. Not saying you have to, but I just though about giving you food for thought. Enjoy the speed.

I use both AMD and Intel cpu's and with all the speed and power they have, you WILL have a powerful system with anything you choose between the two. The exception might be the Pentium II and Celeron, as they are left in the dust. There is nothing wrong going with AMD or Intel. If you're trying to save money, AMD may do that, but first add the cost up, because the end difference is not always that great. Actually for Photoshop, in addition to RAM, you also might want to check out the speed of your hard drive. If you're using an IDE drive that's only 5400rpm, you may want to look at a 7200rpm drive with ATA100 to go with that new motherboard and cpu. Ive never used Photoshop, but I do understand that it likes a generally hefty system to run nicely. Not just the cpu power--although that helps, but the amount of Ram and the speed of the hard drive are also factors. Just something to consider...

I'm wondering what everyone thinks about the 760MP chipset, now that Tyan's is out and MSI/Microstar has one on the way. I'm gonna say it looks cool, but also take it with a grain of salt. This is AMD's first SMP chipset, so it would be wise to remeber that the first try is not always the best. So far, I've not read about any issues although I'm certain there are some out. Another thing: Am I the only one who thinks the 760MP Northbridge looks like a K6-X Socket 7 cpu? C'mon, what are u lookin' at buddy?

I'm not quite as concerned with this system, since it's my secondary system. About deleting the array: I just deleted it in the RAID bios, and that BIOS says it's free... Hmm...maybe I should try running the repair option on the normal IDE drives... That thing about screwing up the drive gave me that last idea. This is the first time I've dealt with RAID, and I'm kinda clueless on this as the mobo manual doesn't really discuss the RAID bios at all. Well, alright...I have somethings to play around with Thanx for the help you two.

There is a way to convert FAT32 to NTFS in Win2k, from what I understand...and I figure that should apply to XP. It's a special command...can anyone confirm this? Anyway, it would save you a reinstall and all the joy that brings...

Well the previews for TR look like it might be a good action flick... and besides, critics always seem to give high marks for these films that are really just crap to me. Hey, the movie's got a hot chick in it, I can live with that, plus lots of action. I've yet to see it, but the previews make it look a lot better than I orignially thought, so I'm actually considering going to it. Before, I really didn't care about it, cuz I thought it would be just a T&A movie--I am partially right on this one even w/o going to it, but it appears to have some good action scenes... I'm waiting to see HL on the big screen

Not an expert on XP, but...have you tried running the defragger in XP?

I'd guess that 2 AMD cpu's wouldn't make a diff. The PIII system bus is different than the Alpha system bus used by AMD on the Athlon/Duron, and that might make a difference, but I really don't see how that would affect it. Then again, this is the first AMD dual cpu venture, so whatever worked for Intel might not work for AMD. Of course I could be wrong... Just my 2 cents...

Mostly, its just the drivers you need to worry about. Those and the latest Windows updates...