AndyFair

Looking through the list of available SCSI adapters, the AHA1522 is listed (as AHA152X) - so in theory, you shouldn't have any problems installing this card. Best advice - give it a go, and see what happens!! Rgds AndyF

Oh, yes , forgot that bit - use a text editor like Notepad! AndyF

You need to edit the web.htt file, which can be found in \WINNT\Web - edit the "body" line in between <style> settings, and remove the text "bgcolor=#FFFFFF" This will mean that the side bar of the folder will now be the same colour as the rest of the window! Hope this helps, AndyF

Are you installing a dual-boot system, or upgrading from Win98? If you're upgrading, it is much better to do a clean install - boot from the CD rather than upgrade from Win98. I haven't heard a single good story from anyone who has upgraded rather than clean installed... Note that if you have any hard drives linked to SCSI or ATA66/100 controllers, you will need to get the drivers for those and stick them on a floppy - when the Win2k install program starts, press F6 and you will need to load the drivers a little later in the setup routine (it's a bit confusing that your F6 keypress isn't acknowledged until 5 minutes into setup!!) Hope this helps, AndyF

The problem with using ramdisks is that they use RAM - which means that Windows will have to resort to the pagefile, which in turn will slow the system down. And bearing in mind the size of some of today's bloatware, you'd end up having to buy much more memory just to run, say, MSOffice from a ramdisk. Can't see the point myself, but then I may be wrong (it has been known to happen in the past ) AndyF

A hub is basically just a way of connecting 2 or more networked computers together - they are non-intelligent, and at its simplest level, a hub could be thought of as a cable connector... A router analyses the traffic coming into it, sees where the traffic is headed (what its destination is), and decides where to send it next. A router constantly updates it's internatl picture of what is going on in the network space around it, so it knows what other routers are available on the network, and what routers aren't working. This way, if one route between networks is broken, the router can send traffic over a different route, meaning that the data will get to where it is supposed to be going. It is because of this "intelligent" routing of network traffic that routers are used on the Internet, and why your route to a particular Internet site might be different from one day to the next. Hubs are used within a LAN to connect computers together; routers are used to connect different networks (or different parts of the same network) together - e.g. separate offices on a WAN, or a connection to the Internet. If you need a more in-depth explanation, you might want to look at a site called www.whatis.com Rgds AndyF

You would have to have the source code to be able to do this - and the chances of getting that from the supplier are virtually nil!! You could try contacting the manufacturer direct and explaining your problem - they may be able to help. Otherwise, you may just have to upgrade to the USB version... AndyF

If you turn off the "automatically reboot" option in the Startup & Recovery section of System Settings, this will enable you to get a better look at the exception. You could try running the exception through the Microsoft support site, but I doubt that will help you. Post the error here, and I'm sure somebody will be able to help. AndyF

Try www.3dfiles.com or www.tweakfiles.com AndyF

In the Task Manager, click on the "Processes" tab, then click the top of the CPU column (this sorts the list by those apps that are using the most CPU time). Which ones are at the top? Usually there are only 1 or 2 apps that end up taking 90%+ of the CPU time. Once you know which processes are hogging the CPU, you can try and track down what your problems are being caused by. Much easier than reinstalling every couple of weeks!! AndyF

Quote: Can't wait to see your robot Andy Hmmm...I'm in the process of up[censored] my website, but can't seem to find the time to do it! Have reposted the old version if anyone is bored enough to have a look Quote: As for the Live! Drivers, these ones work fine! I have no problems! Why release new ones?... David, all I can say is that out of all the users of this message board, you must be unique! No problems at all? No clicking, no lack of EAX, no crashes, no lockups? Share your secret, do! AndyF (with my tongue firmly in my cheek! )

Sorry. Too little too late - my Turtle Beach soundcard is winging its way here as we speak. Like most other SB users on this board, I got pi**ed off with Creative's approach to SB products under Win2k - so I'm saying hasta la vista to my SB card, and I'm looking forward to some nice smooth sounds from my PC, without the clicking, and premature finishing of sounds! The problem is that we are all fairly technically competent people on this board, because Win2k kind of dictates that - but that will not be the case when XP rolls out. Message to Creative: Get your act sorted out for when XP finally appears in the shops, otherwise you will have a lot of very annoyed users on your hands! Just my 2p worth! AndyF

As Brian said, it depends on the speed of your hard drive (for virtual memory) - but it also depends on what you're using your PC for. I don't think games benefit from large amounts of memory, but if you're using memory-hungry apps like PhotoShop, then the more memory the better!! AndyF

Have you checked the device manager to see whether there are any conflicts with another card? Have you tried swapping slots the card is in? Are you using the latest drivers? Just some suggestions. AndyF

What happens if you run the diagnostics from the "Modem" control panel applet (or whatever it's called - I'm at my work PC, so can't remember the exact names) - it's the one that goes through all the standard AT codes to check your modem is working OK. You should be able to get the model number from the results of this - it's one of the earlier AT codes if I remember correctly. Also (and it's just a stab in the dark, and I've never seen this happen yet, and feel free to shoot me if I'm being condescendingly obvious), have you checked that the modem is set to use tone dialling and not pulse dialling (or vice versa if that's what you need)? And another thought, while I'm at it - have you tried accessing the modem via HyperTerminal, and trying an ATZ, or a manual ATDT command? Does everything work there? Probably won't help, but I'm just sticking my oar in to help...! AndyF

...lunch even more so!

I had problems with some of the higher version Detonator drivers giving me grief (many hours of fun watching the "Kmode exception not handled" BSOD), I "downgraded" to the 10.x drivers, and haven't had any problems since. AndyF

I wouldn't have thought that there was a topside and a bottom side as far as hard drives were concerned - I thought that each disk platter had a head for each side? Of course, I may be wrong, and just talking rubbish (wouldn't be the first time!)... AndyF

I too have been thinking seriously about upgrading my monitor to a TFT model - maybe running dual desktop using the TFT as the main screen, and the CRT as the secondary screen. PCPro ran a review section on 17-18" TFT screens last month (Issue 80, June 2001), and their overall winner was the Iiyama AS4431D - to quote the review: "...it even scored distinctions for games and DVD movie playback. This last asset is particularly notable as the Iiyama is one of the few screens to feature S-Video and composite video inputs, along with a plain old D-SUB if you want to stick with an existing analogue graphics card". It's that last point that has me interested - I've thought about TFTs in the past, but dismissed them because they needed a new graphics card. Cost is £1052 inc VAT, although since the review is now a couple of months old, that price may have come down. All I need now is to find some spare cash, and I'll be gaming in stereo (as it were...)!! AndyF

No, the motherboard IDE channels won't be disabled - so adding a Promise card will give you 4 IDE channels in addition to the 4 channels on your motherboard. I know because I've done it - I've used Promise controllers in my PC for years - 3 hard drives, DVD, CD, CD-RW & Zip - and have never had the motherboard channels disabled. The only awkward thing is that you can't put CDs etc. on the Promise controller unless they are on the secondary channel, with a hard drive on the primary - but the way round this is to put all of your CDs etc. on the motherboard IDE, all of your hard drives on the Promise controller, and boot from the Promise controller (you have to select "Boot from SCSI" in your BIOS). Hope this helps, AndyF

Setting the upper and lower limits for the swap file size certainly makes a difference, because Windows doesn't spend half its time changing the size of the swap file on the fly. It also means the file has less chance to become fragmented. Surely all of this will result in some overall increase in system speed? AndyF

Possible? Yes. BUT (isn't there always a but?) - if you're only using the original soundcard for the IDE connections, you might as well swap that for another IDE controller, like one from Promise. You could probably pick up an ATA-33 or ATA-66 for a few dollars these days. AndyF

Have you tried up[censored] the BIOS of your controller (i.e. the Promise BIOS, not the mobo BIOS)? They are 2 separate BIOS's, and (AFAIK) up[censored] the mobo BIOS does not update the Promise BIOS... Andy