Sampson

d-link probably has an edge in the faster/longer range; netgear is settling a suit about maybe exaggerating its speed a little. It still is a solid product though. I would recommend Belkin right now. It is just so easy to set up. I doubt that this opinion probably doesn't help settle your original quandry I suppose.

First, should uninstall sims 2. If there is no uninstall in Add/Remove programs - then, don't worry about it. It is possible that this error appears because the spin rate of your CD varies during the installation and aborts at the Tsdata folder. If that is all it is and the disk is not scratched or defective you can try to install it from the hard drive. You will have to have about 6 Gig of space. Use your Windows Explorer. When it comes up it will probably default to your My Documents folder. Left click to My Computer and then clink on Local Drive C: You are going to make a master folder and some subfolders to hold the contents of the CD's. From the menu at the top click on File-New-Folder. Over on the right side you will see a new box that says something like "New Folder" type the following: "Disk Images" Don't type the diacritical marks just the text Disk Images and be sure that there is a space between Disk and Images. Then click over to the "+" on left side of the screen on Local Disk C:. Disk Images should appear. Click on the folder Disk Images and you will make in succession four folders as subfolders under Disk Images. Call each folder by the following names "Disk1" "Disk2" "Disk3" "Disk4" (again type only the word Disk1 not the diacritical marks. Make sure that there is no space between Disk and the number 1 through 4. So it should look like + Disk Images Disk1 Disk2 Disk3 Disk4 Now, put your 1st CD of the Sims 2 into your CD. It will try to spin up and run, so hold down the Shift button on the left side of your key board. If it manages to start, just cancel it. Now, using Windows Explorer click onto the icon that contains the CD drive. You can do this either of two ways. Click on Edit from the menu, then click on Select all, then click on Edit again and Copy, then move your cursor to the subfolder called Disk1 and click on it to make sure you are in it. Then, click on Edit one more time and then Paste. (You can do these steps using the keyboard alone CTRL-A, CTRL-C, and CTRL-V. When the first cd copies all its files to Disk1 on your hard drive, put in your next CD, go through the same process, but Paste it to Disk2. Do the same for Disk3 and Disk4. When your have finished copying these to your hard drive, go back to the Disk1 folder and double click on Autorun. If everything install fine, you can erase all the folders you created. If during the process of copying the files, one will not copy, that means that either file on the CD is bad or there is a defect in the CD.

Exactly. Depending on the game the graphics card may be stressed and if the internal temperature within the case of the computer is high, and if the fan (if there is one on the graphics card) gets mucked up with dust, the components on the card may run too hot and cause the card to eventually fail or not be able to keep up. Also, some cards are overclocked by some companies. This makes the card faster, but it also runs hotter. On the other hand, some games really rev up the CPU. The cooling mechanism above the CPU can likewise get encased in dust causing the processor to run hot. Memory chips, the southbridge, all of these run hot. Last (and sometimes the first to go) are the tiny capacitors on the motherboard. They overheat and increase resistance and the computer will reboot at odd intervals. Heat, improper air flow, and dust clogging will take their toll on any machine.

Just installing certain games can give you no end of grief since some will deposit incompatible .dll's in the windows subdirectory, which can affect displays, sound, and mouse movement. So, it does not have to necessarily have anything due to stress. Having said that, the biggest factor for card failure is heat. Some games will certainly make the machine run hotter. It is not only the chips on the graphics card but the CPU itself. When your heating solution won't keep up, chips begin to fail.

I think that there are two dvi outputs on that card. There is also a cable that will convert dvi to vga. Depending on the monitor, you can go straight from dvi output to dvi input on many flat screen monitors. The card can also power two monitors - one vga and the other dvi. What cord are you using and which of the outputs and inputs do you have connected up?

You'll find DirectX here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.aspx Download and install it. You do not have a graphics card, rather yours is onboard (meaning it is part of the motherboard). In theory, your onboard Intel should be able to play Sims 2 though not as fast as if you had one that you would put into the AGP slot (presuming yours has AGP 2x or 4x.)

You might want to consider XP-Antispy. It is a remarkable program for allowing your to toggle several kinds of things that will make XP be a little less bulky.

If you are using Word or Excel, you can password protect your documents from with in the program If you are using XP and depending which version Home or Pro, you can encrypt folders anc keep your documents in that folder. For Pro do the following: 1. Select the folder you wish to encrypt. 2. Right-click the folder and click Properties. 3. Click the Advanced button. 4. Check "Encrypt contents to secure data" option. 5. Click Ok. For Home (if you are using NTFS 1. Select the folder you wish to encrypt. 2. Right-click the folder and click Properties. 3. Click the Sharing tab. 4. Check the box Make this folder private Two free third party solutions are AxCrypt and WinCry

I know that Intel no longer supports that graphics controller - see here: http://support.intel.com/support/graphics/intel810/ and Sims 2 is a graphics memory hog. When it says it supports the following cards, it means it: * ATI RadeonTM series (7000 or better) o Radeon 7000/VE series (non-T&L; requires 2.0 GHz processor) o 7200, 7500 o 8500, All-In-Wonder 8500 o 9000, 9200, 9500, 9600, 9700, 9800 o X300, X600, X800 * Nvidia® QuadroTM series o Quadro, Quadro2, Quadro4 * Nvidia® Geforce series (GeForce2 and better) o GeForce2 o GeForce3, 3 Ti o GeForce4, 4Ti, MX 420, 440 o GeForce FX 5200, 5600, 5700, 5800, 5900, 5950 o GeForce 6600, 6800 * Intel® Extreme Graphics (non-T&L; requires 2.0 GHz processor) o 82845, 82865, 82915 In other words, you should put in a new graphics card with plenty of memory on it. The problem is I can't suggest one since I don't know if your card support AGP 4x or if you will have to install an old PCI card. Even if you can get Sims 2 to work on your machine in its present setup, all the cute bells and whistles graphically will most probably be unavailable to you.

It is very probable that the gamepad will never work under XP because the highest the driver ever got was Windows 98. Unfortunately, you cannont run drivers in compatibility mode. What might happen if you do find a driver is cause XP to fail and then you will have to go into your recovery console to dig it back out again. You could install Windows 98 on that machine and run it as a dual booting machine and install the gamepad, but I really wouldn't recommend it. Your best bet - stick it on ebay, get some money for it, and get a gamepad compatible with XP.

Put your old card back in. Bring up windows. Go to Control Panel, Add/Remove programs, and Remove the nVidia drivers. Let it reboot, when it comes back up, it should be displaying 640x480 of 800x600. That should put it into VGA Standard mode. Windows should be nagging you that it has found new hardware and wants to install new drivers. Then, click the Start button and Turn off computer. Put your new card in and give that a try. It should boot through and come up with windows. If it gets that far, use the CD that came with the card to install your ATI drivers.

At this point you don't know what shape your hard disk is in anyway since it crashes whenever it gets to a certain point. All you actually want to do is get to the Recovery console to get XP to accept the new hardware it finds and reconfigure the drivers for your new machine within the parameters of Windows when it boots up. So, try to see if you can get his CD to work. If it doesn't work, you may have a faulty CD drive. If it does work and allows you to proceed, it will either let you "repair" or not, and it will probably tell you to call Microsoft to re-register. Your second question was "it shouldn't be this hard?" The answer is that XP is configured with the hardware it finds on a machine when it is first installed. This scheme was to insure that the program wouldn't be pirated or used on more than one computer. So, yes, Microsoft made it this hard.

You might want to post this question on the Linux compatible sister site to NTcompatible.

You might have to set the default browser manually * In Windows XP, go to "Start -> Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs -> Set Program Access and Defaults (on the left) -> Custom". After expanding the "Custom" category, you will see Internet Explorer and other installed browsers listed under "Choose a default Web browser". Select Mozilla or Mozilla Firefox. If that doesn't work, * In Windows Control Panel and if Windows XP is using the Control Panel "Classic View": o Click on "Folder Options -> File Types". * In Windows XP using the Control Panel "Category View": o Click on "Performance and Maintenance". Then, click on "File Types" in the left column under the heading "See Also". Assign the following filetypes to Mozilla or Firefox: * URL:HyperText Transfer Protocol * URL:HyperText Transfer Protocol with Privacy * URL:File Transfer Protocol * HTML File * HTM File (optional) Note that you may find the URL file types above under extension "N/A" or "(none)".

The honest truth is that you will need a faster processor along with a faster card if you want the game to pick up any speed. I think that machine is an old PIII and if I am guessing right the AGP might be 2X if that. It is a good machine for most office applications - not for games. If you are determined just to put a card in it, then you need to find out the speed of the AGP slot. You will need at least a 4X. If your APG is not up to that, you will have to get a PCI card. Do not confuse a PCI card with the newer PCIe standard. Both nVidia and ATI still make the old PCI cards. nVidia's fastest PCI card that will support DirectX9c is the FX5200. Not really a game card, but it will be a tad faster than what you have. ATI has a comprable card in the Rage series I think. Again, having said that, don't expect miracles. You really need a new machine to play the Sims at the speed you want to see it at.

You will need to go into your BIOS. When you reboot the computer or whenever it starts up, you will see a message like hit DEL or F9 to enter the BIOS. When it comes up, you will see one of the options is Boot sequence. Change if fro C:\ to the CD rom.

This article is something similar to what you want to do: http://www.windowsnetworking.com/article...NAT-router.html

And, given that you do successfully repair the installation, you may have to reactivate or re-register your copy of XP since a number of of your components have changed and XP thinks you have a pirated copy.

This is one solution though the best would be to upgrade your card: The following steps can be used to eliminate or minimize the issue(s) reported with the game: 1. Set the display to 16-bit color. To make this change, follow these steps: a. Click on the Start menu and select Settings, Control Panel, and then double-click on Display. If using Microsoft Windows* XP: Click on the Start menu and select Control Panel, "Switch to Classic View" if the category view is shown, and then double-click on Display. b. Select the Settings tab. c. Change the Color Quality (Color Depth) to 16-bit color. 2. Run the game with the -w switch which forces the game to run in a window. To add this switch, follow these steps: a. Right-click on the The Sims 2 game and left-click on Properties. You can do this either on the game's shortcut on the desktop or on the game's entry in the Start menu. b. Add a space and -w to the end of the Target field, so that it looks like this: "C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\TSBin\Sims2.exe" -w Note: The actual path may vary depending on where the game was installed. Make sure that the -w goes outside the quotation marks and that there is a space between the last quotation mark and the -w. c. Click OK. This applies to: Intel® 82815 Graphics Controller and Intel® 82810 Graphics Controller

Found this on one of the Paradox support pages: http://www.bdesupport.com/errors.htm "Insufficient memory for this operation" ($2501) Problem: Your application (or another BDE application) has exhausted the memory available to the BDE. Solution: 1) Close all BDE applications. 2) Find the program BDEADMIN.EXE. This is usually in a directory somewhere under "\Program Files\Borland...". 3) Run BDEADMIN.EXE and click on the Configuration tab. 4) There should be an item in the treeview on the left side called "Configuration". If it's not expanded, expand it. 5) Next, expand the System entry below it. Under System, select INIT. 6) In the right-side window, find the entry called "SHAREDMEMSIZE". Change this value to 4096. 7) Next, click on the word "Object" in the main window's menu bar, and select Apply. 8) Answer "OK" to the confirmation to "Save all edits...". You can now try to start your application again. If you still have trouble running the application and you are running Windows NT or Windows 2000, follow the same instructions above, but this time leave the SHAREDMEMSIZE property at 4096, and change the SHAREDMEMLOCATION property to "0x5BDE". Then apply the changes as before, and retry your application. If you still receive the same error, try changing SHAREDMEMSIZE to 8192. If the error continues to persist, you can also try "0x6BDE" for SHAREDMEMLOCATION. If the error still continues to persist, you can also try other values for SHAREDMEMLOCATION. (See solution for error $210D below.) "Shared memory conflict ($210D) Problem: The BDE is trying to use a location in memory that is already in use by the operating system or another application. Solution: 1) Close all BDE applications. 2) Find the program BDEADMIN.EXE. This is usually in a directory somewhere under "\Program Files\Borland...". 3) Run BDEADMIN.EXE and click on the Configuration tab. 4) There should be an item in the treeview on the left side called "Configuration". If it's not expanded, expand it. 5) Next, expand the System entry below it. Under System, select INIT. 6) In the right-side window, find the entry called "SHAREDMEMLOCATION". Change this value to 5BDE. 7) Next, click on the word "Object" in the main window's menu bar, and select Apply. 8) Answer "OK" to the confirmation to "Save all edits...". Other values that may also help solve this issue on NT or Windows 2000 are: 1000, 7000, and 7F00. If none of these values resolve the issue, you may try 2000, 3000, 4000, etc. or any values in between the specified ranges below for each operating system: Windows 95/98: SHAREDMEMLOCATION = 9000 to FFFF Windows NT/2000: SHAREDMEMLOCATION = 1000 to 7F00 It has also been reported by some users that removing or disabling the driver for a sound card on Windows NT can resolve the issue as well, but normally just "relocating" the BDE's memory pool using the SHAREDMEMLOCATION setting will suffice.

You might try downloading the program G-Spot at this address to let you view your codecs: http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/video_tools/gspot.cfm

Is this a Toshiba laptop? Anyway, the CD you are trying to use is attempting to restore a Ghost image to your hard drive so that the laptop will be restored to the way it was when you first acquired it. It is possible that when the image was made that an earlier form of Ghost was used that required an A:\ drive. Since you don't have an A:\ drive it can't find the image. Two things I might suggest: 1) go into your Bios and select Boot from CD. 2) If that doesn't work, use Windows Explorer to look at the CD. Look at the subdirectories and write them down. See if there is a batch file in the root of the CD - it might even say autoexec.bat. Then, read what it says. It may indicate what subdirectory or folder, the batch is calling for. If you can find it, then you can try the following. At a Dos prompt type: subst a: d:\name of your subdirectory. What this does is to direct the program that when it reads a:\ as a drive letter, it will go to the CD drive and subdirectory as if it were a:\

By the way, what kind of modem are you using? It wouldn't be a Westell 6100 would it? Anyway, some DSL routers have their own internal router that need to be run in bridge mode or they will drop connection.

By the way, be absolutlely sure that your Anti-virus is shut down before installing the video drivers. So many times have I seen the drivers not install properly because the A-V was left running in the background.

While I have read that the 81.95 drivers had some media problems, the 81.94 seemed not to have the same problems. However, it looks like it is a video driver problem on your machine. Rolling back to a previous driver does not always work. Uninstall the 81.94 drivers and let the machine reboot, but bring it up in safe mode. Install driver cleaner: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=3214 and run it to remove any residue from previous drivers. When done, reboot again and come up in normal mode and then install the nVidia drivers of your preference. You didn't mention what kind of card you are using and this can determine which are the preferred drivers for your system. The older the card, in general, the 77.xx series is often recommended. This isn't always the case since I have a fairly old card and am running the 81.94's without a hiccup.