AndyFair

Anything but that wretched Ginger-scooter thingy everyone kept talking about last year... Apart from that (and obviously computers), I'd have to say civilisation! Rgds AndyF

Quote: ...what the hell does 5 or 10 fps mean? NOTHING! Absolutely - the human eye can't distinguish many more than 30-40 frames per second, so anything more is just wasteful. And as for those people who love to push their graphics cards up to 100FPS or higher...why?? Now that most games play stably at 60FPS, we should start to see more games that put the extra power into better (read: more realistic) graphics - which is what is happening with games like Wolfenstein, Unreal2 etc... Anyway, back to the original topic, I'm about to install .NET on my other PC (just been waiting for an excuse to dig it out of the cupboard!), to see how it runs, have a play, possibly install Exchange on it...any news on when MS is bringing out Exchange .NET? AndyF Playing with servers - does that make me sad, or what?

Quote: yea you know your a power user when you opt for .NET Enterprise Beta 3 over XP Pro for your main workstation Yeah, until you get some spotty 15 year old using a w@rez copy (because that makes him l33t...) complaining that he can't get 100fps in Quake3 any more... (or am I just becoming cynical in my old age? ) AndyF

All of the RAM problems I've encountered with XP all worked when the machines were running Win9x. The WinNT-based OSes (Win NT, 2000 & XP) are all a lot more aggressive when using RAM, meaning that any problems with the RAM are more likely to appear with these systems. Having said that, I've never seen problems with Crucial RAM before (that's always what I've recommended that people with problems buy!), so it may not be the RAM - but you could try swapping slots, and see if that makes a difference. A couple of other thoughts - what model IBM drive are you using - some people have problems with some of the earlier model ATA100 drives from IBM (can't remember the model - possible 70GXP? Do a search on this msg board to find out). Also, are you overclocking at all - if so, try running at "normal" speed, and see if that helps. The only other thing I could suggest is that you remove the sound & network cards, and see if the problem continues. If not, add the cards one at a time, and see if it comes back. Sorry I can't be more specific - it's a matter of trial and error to try and find a solution for you! Hope this helps, AndyF

Haven't dual-booted since the XP betas, but then it was exactly the same as with NT or 2000. The only issue (and this has always been an issue with Win9x) is that 9x has to be on the first partition, whereas XP can be on any partition. Rgds AndyF

Quote: when I got my new system up I had to call microsoft to activate windows xp. only took a few minutes to verify everything. Same here, installed new mobo & CPU, had to reinstall XP. Phoned MS, took no longer than 5 minutes - when they asked why I was reactivating, I told them the reason, they seemed happy with that. What axactly was the problem that took 3 hours to solve? It sounds like yours was an abnormal experience, not the norm! AndyF

I would check your RAM - the only time I've seen this happen is in a PC with bad RAM. Swapped it out with some decent stuff, and everything worked happily ever after. The other suggestion would be to check your hard drive - although the chances of errors re-occurring on exactly the same file every time are slim. I would go with the RAM problem. Rgds Andy

I went to Windows Update this morning, and got offered new drivers for my GeForce card - Microsoft was calling them 23.12... But when I checked on the nVidia website, they were still offering 23.11 Detonators. Has anyone tried the new MS versions - if so, is there any difference to the nVidia 23.11 drivers? Just wondering. AndyF

Hmmm, Shrek I think you're getting confused over the infinite part - Brian's not talking about the nVidia "infinte loop" BSOD, I think he means that once the drivers have been installed, and the computer restarted, WinXP crashes, resets, crashes, resets, crashes, resets, ad infinitum... Brian, what error is appearing before the system resets? The only time I've seen this happen is when I installed XP on a friends PC which contained some bad RAM (took me a whole afternoon, and several re-installs before I got it worked out)...is XP stable before he installs any drivers? Rgds AndyF

Absolutely - too many people install NT or Win2k server, and assume that MS has automatically set all the security options...it's a bit like buying a car with a super-duper alarm, then expecting Ford (or whoever) to set it when you're not in the car! I believe that the majority of security problems arise because people assume that the default settings are secure...for which MS is only to blame for a small part - using the analogy above, it's like leaving your car unlocked, then blaming Ford when it gets stolen! AndyF

Quote: This is happening, indirectly. Check out GNU-Darwin. Darwin the basically the core of OSX, and this is an attempt to make it a more general OS, including a port to x86. I haven't tried it yet, as I don't want to risk a dual-boot screwing up (it is only beta, after all), and I have heard it won't run under VMWare. Hmmm...I also seem to remember reading somewhere that it would only run on Intel processors too (not sure whether that was the Apple port or the GNU port - or are they the same thing?). Bummer! AndyF

Yes, absolutely - there's probably nothing wrong with your system, it's the POS Alcatel modem - both the hardware and the software. Apparently, Alcatel have never read the USB specs before they designed the modem Unfortunately, that doesn't help those of us that are forced to use modems because that's all that BT let us use. Lets just hope that with the "wires only" installation model starting, that BT will let us use whatever modem/router we want! AndyF

I have to agree, the concept sounds good, it's just that the author didn't really know what he was talking about, or what's involved in porting an OS to another processor and from 32-bit to 64-bit... AndyF

erm...is it just me, or does the guy think that an OS and software written for a PowerPC processor will run on an AMD (i.e Intel-compatible) processor...? Or that Apple can knock up a 64-bit version of OS X just like that? Or did I miss something (have to admit to getting bored after the first couple of paragraphs ) AndyF

Hmmm...depends on what you're planning on hooking it up to - certain hubs and other NICs don't like talking to certain other networking kit - I think NetGear are the worst affected though! Rgds AndyF

nursmgr.cpl is the User Manager Control Panel file - there is no application that opens it, it's part of Explorer! If you can open it from the control panel, there's no (logical) reason why you couldn't open it by clicking the link. Rgds AndyF

I don't know about using a totally separate USB adapter, but I did see somewhere that the Alcatel ADSL modem does sometimes pull more power than is usual for USB; if it can't get this power, it can do some strange things. The usual suggestion is to try plugging the ADSL modem into an external hub, which, being separately powered, is able to provide the extra power that the ADSL modem appears to need. See adslguide.org for more info. Rgds AndyF

When it gets to the boot screen, have you tried "Use Last Known Good Configuration"? If that didn't work, I would suggest re-installing XP... Rgds AndyF

It could also be to do with the fonts that you are using - if you're using TrueType fonts with no Adobe Type 1 equivalent, then the PDF distiller is usually forced to render the fonts as bitmaps. However, if you tell the distiller to use a decent resolution, the PDF should look OK, and be good enough to print. Of course, if it really is a problem, you could always change fonts! Rgds AndyF

OK - I've decided it's time to update my PC speakers from the 2 poxy little things that sit beside my monitor. So what do you guys use? Any recommendations. Cost not so much of an issue - I'd rather pay decent money for something that sounds good and lasts a few years rather than go the cheap and cr@ppy route. Also, what about Dobly* 5.1 or quad 4.1 setups? Do they work? How widespread is 4.1 or 5.1 sound in games? Any help and suggestions much appreciated. TIA AndyF * Yes, I know it's a typo. What can I say? Dwarfs around Stonehenge?!!

Palos, I know what you mean about looks, but I was really talking about functionality and the guts of the OS, not the shiny wrapping paper around it! At the end of the day, talking at the heart of each operating system, is there really that much to distinguish XP from OS X? They both look good (although I have to say that OS X looks more "professional" than XP), and they both have their own set of "bundled" applications, but at the heart (API level and lower), is there much to tell them apart? That's what I'm trying to say here. Rgds AndyF

What I think your tech guy is trying to say is that you can't use Ghost on a Win2k system because Ghost can only write the image to FAT partitions, not NTFS partitions. So if all of your partitions are NTFS, you won't be able to use Ghost (at least AFAIK) - but you should be able to use Drive Image because this can write to NTFS partitions (I think) Hope this helps more! AndyF

Mac cases look cool, but they don't really push forward the boundaries of computing do they? And how far does MacOS X push forward the boundaries of OS design, apart from a few usability issues (about as much as WinXP pushed forward the boundaries ) Apple, as with MS, Sun, Oracle, etc. are all just full of hype and hot air - I would say that the only companies that are really pushing the boundaries are Intel & AMD - and that will come to an end as people start to realise that multi-gigahertz processors are a little OTT for every day computing Just my 2 cents... AndyF

WinXP doesn't require all the components that Win2k needed - the only 2 are the IDE driver and the updated inf file, plus some updates that it installs quietly (the nVidia infinite loop "solution") It doesn't offer any other options, becuase they're not needed. Rgds AndyF

I think it's a piss take - just follow some of the links on the page!! Unfortunately, I'm sure there are some people in the world who think like this...I'm just surprised that no-one in the US has called for the banning of pretzels after George Dubya's little "incident"... AndyF