AndyFair

Specs for the 51m are here, but no mention of an external AGP slot thingy. I don't think a company will find a way around the wire lengths - much of motherboard design is around keeping the track lengths as short as possible to avoid signal degradation/attenuation - even on a standard ATX motherboard! Still, it's a nice dream! Rgds AndyF

Metal polish (Brasso if you're in the UK) works a treat! Failing that, a disc doctor will also work - especially with deeper scratches. Rgds AndyF

If you're running VNC you can just go to the start button (in the remote VNC window, obviously ) and select shutdown, just as if you were sitting at the machine. I wouldn't suggest switching off your machine without shutting down - while it may look OK, sooner or later your hard disk is going to start complaining! Rgds AndyF

This isn't really possible - at the speeds AGP runs at, the length of the wiring runs on the motherboard becomes a real problem, as does cross talk on any cable you could use. Since there are 132 pins on an AGP card (2 rows of 66 pins), if you used the ATA133 method of having one spare wire in between each of the active wires, you'd end up with a connector that has 264 wires in it...not really convenient Rgds AndyF

Originally posted by Alec§taar: Quote: ...bloats my posts though & makes them HUGE @ times though... Really? Your posts are bloated? I've never noticed before... AndyF

I haven't played much with .NET apps yet, at least not with large applications. It seems logical that they would be slower compared to a standard Win32 application - because, IIRC, .NET uses an interpreted code (albeit using an intermediate "common runtime language" more akin to microcode than VB interpretation) like Java. Logic suggests that this interpretation step will make the application run slower, because you're adding a step that doesn't exist in fully-compiled Win32 apps written in C/C++ etc. I'm not sure how it compares with VB apps though - which is faster, VB6 or VB.NET? .NET was developed with the idea of application portability in mind (in that all applications, regardless of the source language, all compile to the same runtime language) - but portability to what? Does .NET run on anything other than Windows? I'm not entirely sure what MS were trying to achieve here, other than trying spite Java. Maybe someone who knows can enlighten me? Rgds AndyF

550 grams - that's, like, over a pound right? Wouldn't want to mount that baby in a tower system! AndyF

Not to sound to obvious, but are you sure they're zip files - check by doing a [font:courier]dir[/font] from a command prompt I've had both Windows and WinZip identify files as being zipped, when they were actually RARed or ARJed Just a thought AndyF

AlecStaar - GRUB is a Linux bootloader, similar to lilo. It seems to be becoming more popular in Linux distros to use GRUB rather than lilo, I think it's because GRUB looks nicer zadrras - I'm not sure why fixmbr doesn't work - it's always worked for me in the past. You could try [font:courier]fixboot[/font] instead, which will rewrite all of the Windows boot files. cybersam - I suggested using the Windows install CD becuase the chances of zadrras having a DOS disk spare were slim (I don't have one either) and since he couldn't get into Windows, he couldn't run a command prompt from there either Rgds AndyF

I can't help but wonder, on such a highly spec'ed machine, why they're only bundling a Radeon 9800, and not one of the newer models. Other than that, though, I agree with you - that machine rocks, and I want one. Better start doing the lottery Rgds AndyF

This isn't really surprising, MS hasn't introduced a new file system since NTFS - which is now 10 years old. It's had a couple of tries over the past few years, and always given up half way through: OFS (Object Filing System from Cairo - IIRC, the code name for Win95?) NSS (Network Storage Services, introduced in early Win2k betas, was withdrawn mid-beta) EXIFS (Exchange Installable File System, also known as Drive M: on Exchange 2000 - which has been dropped in Exchange 2003) There are parts of Windows that haven't changed since the inception of Win95 (OLE Doc-Object file formats, for one) I think if MS were to drop WinFS it would be a great loss to Windows, and something which would have made all those vast stores of data that we all possess much more useable. It seems to me that MS are concentrating on the icing before they've made the cake - all we've seen of Longhorn so far are the graphical changes, and not much about the changes "under the hood" Just my opinion, though AndyF [EDIT]My mistake, EXIFS hasn't been dropped from Exchange2003, it's just been disabled. There's an interesting blog here from one of the Exchange developers about why they've disabled Drive M: [/EDIT]

Originally posted by Alec§taar: Quote: On "have to do a major kernel rewrite from the ground up" I don't though - MS' NT-based Operating System is VERY solid & damn near bulletproof (drivers are about the ONLY thing that can floor it if they have problems, or any process running Ring 0 priority privelege level if it too has bugs) Actually, it looks as though MS are doing a fairly major rewrite, and replacing the old Win32 APIs (at last!) with new APIs called WinFX. Take a look at this report and this report. It looks as though, rather than basing Longhorn on the XP codebase, it's actually being based on the Server2003 codebase! Interesting, but I still think they're going to have major problems persuading users to upgrade, especially if, as reported, they will be offering Avalon (the GUI) back-ported to XP Only time will tell. AndyF

Then, if the old motherboard was working before you swapped, then it looks like the CPU is toast. Sorry AndyF

Originally posted by Alec§taar: Quote: ...Microsoft'll come thru, they usually do... APK But that's what I was trying to say in my post above: in terms of file system innovation, Microsoft haven't done anything since NTFS 10+ years ago. Every time they've tried, their plans have been shelved. For Microsoft to offer any kind of incentive for people to upgrade from 2k/XP to Longhorn, they're going to have to do a major kernel rewrite from the ground up - it isn't going to be enough just to offer an enhanced 3D desktop - that's not enough for business users to upgrade, especially if it means that all of their desktops will have to contain 3D cards to work properly... I think MS have realised how much work they have to do to get people to upgrade - there are still hoards of people out there running Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000 that MS would prefer to have running the latest and greatest Microsoft operating system. I think they've suddenly realised that they can't just release a new version of Windows and expect that everyone will instantly rush to buy it - that's the whole point of capitalism, consumer choice! Just my (very) humble opinion AndyF

I've never heard of a motherboard with a built in speaker before...? Curious. Can't find anything on the Asus website that mentions an onboard speaker, either. The fact that the system beeps when you turn power off too suggests that something is majorly fubar'ed - could be the motherboard as well. Just one thought: the heatsink was installed correctly wasn't it? There aren't any scorch marks on the CPU? I would suggest that you take the motherboard and processor back to the store where you bought the mobo, see if they can test it. If the motherboard is faulty, it could have been that it fried the processor too - could be worth a try! Still trying to help Rgds AndyF

I don't think it'll be the RAM, most motherboards will be OK if you put slower memory in them, it just means that the system won't run as fast as it could. When you press the power button, can you hear the hard drives spin up? If so, it's unlikely to be the PSU. It's likely, then, that the processor is fubar. Do you have another processor that you could try? As far as hearing a beep goes, do you have speakers plugged into the connectors at the back? Some modern motherboards use these connections for diagnostic beeps, rather then rely on a system speaker. Your motherboard manual should be able to tell you what the beeps mean. Rgds AndyF

OK, so to summarise: You have DHCP and DNS running on one server DHCP scope includes an entry for DNS, which points to the DNS server (which just happens to be the same machine as the DHCP server) Suddenly, machines which lease addresses from the DHCP server are no longer able to access the internet because they're not picking up the DNS record Right? So, on one of the machines that can't see the internet, what happens if you type [font:courier]ipconfig[/font] from a command prompt? Does the IP address and subnet match what the DHCP server should be providing? Or does the IP address start with 169? If that's the case, it means that the machine hasn't been able to get a new lease from the DHCP server, part of which will include the DNS server details. It could be that your DHCP server has stopped working - check the server logs. Can you also see on the server what addresses are currently leased? Just a couple of pointers Rgds AndyF

If your application is a standard desktop app, then any modern graphics card will be able to provide 24-bit colour in Windows (it's called TrueColor in Desktop Settings) The 24-bit issue with nVidia cards only becomes an issue with 3D applications. I too seem to remember something about nVidia cards and 24-bit colour processing, but can't remember anything more than you. If you're worried about the 24-bit thing in 3D apps, then go for ATI - there isn't much to separate the high end nVidia or ATI cards at the moment, and both are available in PCIe versions. Rgds AndyF

If most of your users will be using 10/100 NIC cards, there is very little benefit in providing a gigabit LAN - stick with a 100Mbps LAN, it's cheaper. Even if you go ahead and install a gigabit LAN, be aware that at the moment, only servers with PCI-X gigabit NICs will be able to get the full 1000Mbps data throughput from the network - bog standard PCI cards do not have the throughput to benefit. However, 10/100 cards will be able to cope with gigabit kit, because the switches/hubs are backwards compatible, and should run 100 full-duplex with no problems. I'm not sure what you mean by configuration rules? One other thought - if you're providing networking points for laptop users, have you also thought of WiFi connections? Rgds AndyF

Sorry, BSOD = Blue Screen Of Death It's the blue screen that appears when you take off automatic reboot - the text one that's covered in indecipherable numbers and letters. The important part of this screen that we need are the STOP code (0x followed by 8 hexadecimal digits) and the driver that caused the error (e.g. atidrv.sys) Don't feel sorry or stupid, we're here to help in any way we can That 300W PSU may be a little small - it depends on what other hardware you have installed (hard drives, CD/DVD drives, other PCI cards, etc.) Can you get access to another PSU from somewhere just to test whether that's the problem... Rgds AndyF

If you're not getting any life from the PC at all, apart from the fans, it's likely that either your CPU is FUBAR (in which case take it back and get a new one) or your mobo doesn't recognise the new processor. Unfortunately, I can't find a motherboard with the model number 6577 on MSI's website, so I can't check whether your motherboard is able to cope with the newer processor, or look for a BIOS update for you. Rgds AndyF

Turn off automatic reboot, to show the BSOD so we can see what error is causing the reboot. It may be a flaky PSU, but it's also strange that ATI is saying that DirectX isn't working properly. Have you tried running [font:courier]dxdiag[/font]? Rgds AndyF

Originally posted by personapazzesca: Quote: ...Can I keep my 40GB h/d as my main system drive and configure two 120s in RAID 0 as a slave drive? This is the preferable way of doing RAID0, as it means that if the RAID array fails, at least you won't lose your OS. RAID0 is not, strictly speaking, RAID as it offers no redundancy - if one of the drives in the array dies, the whole array dies, and there is no (easy) way to recover your data. If your finances stretch far enough, I would investigate a single 120Gb drive as slave to the master OS to store your files on, and get 2 x 36Gb drives for the RAID0 array, which are only used as scratch disks for the video editing. That way if the array dies, at least you're not going to lose your important files. Just my tuppence worth of advice, for what it's worth. Rgds AndyF

Ghost can copy partitions as well as whole disks. I'm not sure if it can handle Unix file systems though. If Ghost will recognise Unix partitions, you may be able to boot into the original Linux partition on drive 1 and modify grub (add a new entry rather than change the original) - theoretically it should just be a matter of changing 'hd0' to 'hd1', but it probably isn't that simple. You'd also have to change you mount tables so that it mounts the tmp partition etc. from hd1 and not hd0. You could also try asking the same question on linuxcompatible if my response isn't of any help. Rgds AndyF

erm...best not use a vacuum to get rid of the dust. Vacuum cleaner = static motherboard + static = not good If you haven't got enough of your own puff, try a compressed air can Rgds AndyF