Nebuchadnezzar

OK this is *really* strange. My computer with it's current hardware is about a year and a half old now. I have an Athlon 1.2ghz with 512MB RAM, TNT2 vid. card running latest nVidia drivers, running Windows 2000 with SP2 & all other updates applied. Never had any problem with it before now. In the last week or so I have the following very distinct and localized problems: - Decoding of MP3's in Winamp gives me blips and bleeps with static - Importing an EPS file into Photoshop 7 results in a multitude of errors - Text formatting in Photoshop 7 also sometimes fouls up - Acrobat Reader cannot render PDF's properly, in IE or the Reader client - MS Money 2002 crashes *a lot* With all that, everything else works fine. The computer doesn't crash or bluescreen, all other programs open, run and close fine. I figured at first it was just my system showing time for a reload of everything. So I did, and the exact same problems resurfaced. I don't think it's heat - I've never had a problem before and just to make sure I verified all my fans are working and gave the system a nice de-dustiing of all the internal components. Motherboard Monitor says the chip is holding at 50 degrees C. Anyone got any ideas?

Well I just did a fresh install so no fonts but the ones that come with a new Win2000 install.

New VIA drivers didn't have any affect.

OK I should have mentioned about overclocking: nothing is. Also, yes, everything is updated to the latest and greatest except maybe the VIA drivers - I know I have installed whatever comes in the driver pack of the Windows 2000 install, where do I try updated ones? The thing that is weird is that everything has always worked OK before - is it maybe a newer Windows Update that has suddenly become incompatible with what I have installed on there now?

Regarding case fans I have 4 - I need to know what the optimal placement for these case fans are - I would think the 2 in the back should be blowing out, and the 2 in the front should be taking in cool air. That correct?

OK I have just about acquired all the parts for my wife's new computer and I'm wondering what the program these days is that you can run to sort of "burn-in" the computer and make sure all the parts you selected are in good working order. Anyone know of anything like this?

I've been way out of the hardware scene for awhile, because up till now I was pretty happy with what I had. The time has come for me to build my wife a new computer - she's always complaining about how I always get the newest and best hardware and she gets the left overs. So, this time I'm building her a comp with all new cutting edge components (relatively, there still is a bit of a budget to maintain). Here's what I got so far: CPU AMD ATHLON XP DESKTOP 1800+ PROCESSOR MBOARD Asus A7V266-E RAID with Audio MEM Corsair 512 MB PC2100 DDR SDRAM DISP SONY 19 INCH CPD-G410R HD 80GB EIDE 7200RPM UDMA 133 3.5LP BURN CDRW DRIVE 40X/12X/40X EDIE PLEXWRITER CD CDROM BLASTER 52X W/AUDIOACCEL TECHNOLOGY AUDIO SOUNDCARD SB AUDIGY MP3+ SOUND BLASTER NET ETHERFAST FAST ENET PCI 10/100 KEYB NATURAL KEYBOARD PRO MOUS WIRELESS INTELLIMOUSE EXPLORER CASE SX830 PERF WORKSTATION W/ 300W P/S & 8 BAYS SPK ALTEC 2100 3PC SPEAKER SYSTEM Any comments are welcome on what I've already picked. What I'm really having a problem with is the videocard - last time I bought a videocard was a TNT2, back when it was the best you could get. I am looking to spend about $75 to $150 on it. My needs are a fairly highend video card with excellent 3D capabilities, to play the latest games. The best of the best isn't necessary, but it should do pretty good. I've found this, is this any good? http://www.buy.com/retail/computers/product.asp?sku=10319208&loc=425 Thanks, Neb

So I've been doing this thing for a number of years. My dining room isn't really a dining room anymore, it's got this washed oak wrap around desk on the outside and on it sit 8 computers - 2 Windows 2000 Servers, 2 XP Pro Workstations, a PowerMac G3 B&W, my IBM ThinkPad from work, a 2000 Pro Workstation and an old Linux machine. It's lucky my wife likes this stuff too. Over the years I've collected an incredible amount of stuff (files and such). It occured to me the other day I don't really have a satisfactory backup plan. It would suck to lose all this stuff in some drive crash. I do have a burner, but we're talking about *a lot* of stuff - I am looking for something at least in the multi-gigabyte category. I was looking at the prices of tape drives, and it just seems that gig for gig, buying a large harddrive, loading your data onto it and taking it offline and sitting it on a shelf somewhere until you need it again is more economical than investing in the tape drive and buying media for it. I do have those removable drive bays in one of the workstations so backups (although it would be a manual process) wouldn't be a huge deal. How do you guys do it?

Hey all, I just purchased the AMD K7 Thunderbird 1.2GHZ processor (not the 266FSB), and I'm trying to decide between the Abit KT7 RAID and the Abit KT7A RAID motherboards - what the hell is the difference, besides the $20.00? Is there any advantage in buying one over the other based on the chip I got? Also, should I dump the 512MB PC100 RAM I have and buy a half gig of PC-133 RAM, will it make a difference? Thanks, ------------------ - Neb

My hardware is getting pretty long in the tooth and I'm thinking about upgrading my processor and motherboard (currently I have a o/c'ed Celeron 400 (to 500) on an Abit BX6 Rev. 2 motherboard). I was looking at getting an Athlon Thunderbird 1000 or 1100 Socket A on an Abit KT7-RAID Motherboard. A few questions: 1. I have about half a gig of PC100 SDRAM and I'm not really ready to upgrade it all to PC133 SDRAM (especially with RDRAM coming out on the market) - can I still use this stuff or no? 2. Is the performance of the 1100 over the 1000 worth the price increase? 3. Is this even a good idea to be doing this now? I know there is always something bigger and better on the horizon but my budget for this project is about $500, and I wouldn't be able to afford the latest and greatest anyway. Thanks for the help, ------------------ - Neb

OK, this might seem like a stupid question but bare with me. I have a Windows 2000 Server running on a Pentium 233MMX (remember those?) with 256MB RAM and a whopping buttload of services. I am pretty satisfied with it's performance considering the load it's under, but I do have a Celeron 300a and a Celeron 400 laying around that I could use instead. Should I change the server out and put it on a machine with one of the other processors? Yes, they might have a higher clock rate but I don't know how the Celerons will handle server responsibilities - what do you guys think? ------------------ - Neb