Sampson

From your side you can do the standard operating procedures like scan your machine using Ad-Aware or Spybot search and destroy or even Microsoft's Spyware to see if you have something untoward operating in the background and stealing your bandwidth. Did your ISP tell you what they did; was it a simple ping test? Since you are using DSL, you may have some crossover noise in your telephone lines and this is causing the modem to drop packets. You will have to call your phone company to have them check that out. These are just the standard things most people start with.

I see you are using Firefox. Unlike other browsers when you minimize them, Firefox does not always release the memory. You can do the following to force it to do so: Step 1. Use about:config to create a new, Boolean value. Type or paste the following string into the dialog box that appears: config.trim_on_minimize Step 2. Click OK to close the dialog box. Change the value from "false" to "true" and restart Firefox. Generally, this will reduce Firefox from about 69,000kb to around 6,000.

Have you tried booting from a bootable CD (like your windows CD)and hitting F2?

FDLxStudios, how a person likes to run their computer is as individual as the computer user. You had complained about your machine slowing down. I don't see any viruses, but you could improve your startup folder and save a little ram and perhaps some memory swapping by not allowing them to load up front. This would mean that the programs might load a little slower, but if during the day, you don't load a particular piece of software, you would have more ram and less juggling of your resources. Some suggestions you might consider not loading at bootup are the iTunesHelper, the Java jusched, the Apple qttask. iTunes helper just speeds up itunes help file. The Java jusched just goes out to look for updates to your java runtime edition (apparently, not working since the latest is _05. and qttask just makes Quicktime come up faster. Disabling these from your msconfig will help. I would call the following programs discretionary since they don't have to be loaded but if you use these programs frequently you could leave them as is. However, if your use is occasional, disable them from your startup. The programs associated with them will work fine without loading them when the computer first boots up. The following are good candidates - AIM, Windows Messenger, Adobe Version Cue and even OSA-Windows Office Startup, and iPod Service. By getting rid of some of these startups, your machine will "breath" a little easier. Because several of them cause Windows to run svchost, it will not need to be loaded reduntantly.

If this is onboard sound and is Realtec, you can download the AC '97 drivers from here: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4400

I know this will sound crazy, but it does work (sometimes). Power down your computer. Then, unplug it from the wall. Wait about an hour before you plug it in and power it up again. I am not sure why this works, but it often brings back usb's into synch.

And while you are about it, you could run hijack this in order to list the processes, some of which many of us can identify as spyware.

I am never surprised at what graphics cards can do, and your FX5200 may have seen its last, but those things are build like tanks and I have seen very few fail. Anyway, explain how you updated your drivers and what drivers you used. What it sounds like is that the old drivers were not completely removed before you installed the new drivers, and, this is very important with nVidia drivers, did you turn off your Anti-virus software before installing them? You should also look at the settings for your monitor. (Right click anywhere on your desktop that is blank, when the menu comes up click on Properties, then click on the Settings tab, then click on the Advanced button, then click on the Monitor tab. You want to check that it says Plug and Play on nVidia 5200. It may be that your monitor had drivers installed for it so that it would read NEC or Samsung. Sometimes these drivers mess up both Windows and nVidia drivers. Finally, if you have any kind of funky screen savers, get rid of them. These things do change settings in Windows that can play havoc with both your display and your sound.

It is most probably the bushing for the fan on your grafics card that has failed or is failing. Don't know why some manufactureres of motherboards put the graphics placement next to memory modules but graphics cards do get hot all by themselves and it gets compounded when there is such a placement. Since you smelled something, it may have overheated the card itself and if that is the case, the card may become quirky. Anyway, you can replace the fan on the graphics card. Most electrical stores will have little cooling fans that with some jury riggning can be fitted on to the card. However, it will have to be powered from the motherboard or from the powerpack not from the graphics card.

Well as far as AGP goes, the 6800 GT is both available and pretty fast. I have seen reviews of the 6800 GS, but I haven't yet seen any of them on the shelves. The 7800 GT is a PCIe card. Given the very slow speed of your processor, I made the assumption that yours has only an AGP slot and no PCIe slot. The bottom line, however, is just as Relic stated, to do video work you need a much more powerful computer.

Have you made "windowsmedia.com" one of your trusted sites in your Security options? Sometimes when the security is set too high, the Radio tuner won't connect.

I believe that what Relic was trying to point out is that video editing really taxes a machine. So, even if you were to put in a top of the line AGP card from Nvidia or ATI or even a Quadra card, your system would be driven to its knees. He was suggesting that you would need a more powerful machine. If you were to go the Intel line, you would want a 3.0+GHz Hyperthreading processor, a motherboard bus that would run at 800 or higher. A Gig of Ram (two if the motherboard could handle it) and some very large hard drives since video files can get monstrous. But, if you don't mind the slowness of your machine, right now, for an AGP, you might consider the Nvidia 6800 GT

As Relic indicated an old cable wire or one that has been compromised by the rigors of time will increase impedence or can short out intermittently and it may be the problem. Also, the distance of your connection to the pole is another factor. And, finally, the greater number of users on your trunk line can also have an effect. Normally, your ISP bunch will measure the strength of the signal at the pole and then take another measurement as it enters your house/office. This should indicate how severe the loss is and whether they 1) need to replace the line or 2) adjust the signal at the pole to compensate for the loss in the line. If the line signal is fine, then it comes down to replacing the modem. I have used drop amplifiers to correct low signal loss. Cable companies use them also just so that they don't have to replace a cable line. It is an interim solution especially if the line is going bad. But, drop amplifiers are inexpensive. If there is nothing the matter with your line and it is that your connection is too far from the pole, drop amplifiers should fix the problem.

It might be a question of drivers or resolution. Depending upon the amount of memory of your FX5200 the resolution changes the way the card actually interacts with windows. Have you tried changing the resolution or the drivers?

More than probably you have a signal problem. Your signal is most likely border line, but at peak times it drops below that so that you start to lose packets. You can go here: http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ and test out your speed. Try it at different times of the day. This will tell you when your signal is dropping. You can try all of the tricks that you can find through Googling for increasing the throughput from the modem to your computer, and they may change things, but if the signal is marginal, it will do little. You can call your provider's help line. They will probably take your through a ping operation and then watch the response of your modem to see the packet loss. The problem is that your loss is intermittant and will not always show up. Don't be fooled by the fact that when you go to your "regular" sites that they come up quickly. Your browser is most probably reading the cache on your machine and. therefore. has fewer packets to drop. Anyway, what can you do apart from calling your provider and having them come out and test your signal strength? What you may need is a drop amplifier. It will increase the signal strength, but, unfortunately, it will also increase the noise. However, it may keep your signal at a level that your modem will stay connected signal-wise to the cable servers. The Electroline EDA 2100 is a pretty good unit. It needs an electrical outlet since it is an amplifier. It is installed where the cable comes into the house. Depending on whether you have cable TV, cable companies make the connections in different ways. Generally, most will split the signal with a splitter and one wire is used for TV reception; the other for the modem. You will want to install the drop amplifier in front of the splitter to amp the signal. If your TV in the VHF range of channels has herring bones in the signal, you can reduce the signal amplification by using an attenuator to dial it down and install it in front of the TV set. If you do not want to go to that trouble, you should at least, find the connections and using a simple pencil eraser "clean" the connections for better contact. You might think about replacing a splitter if you think that the other is dampening the signal. Splitters will normally drop the signal down anyway. Bypassing it and hooking the cable directly to the modem (you will need a male-male connector) and letting your modem receive the signal without the drop in signal because of the splitter will also indicate that you have a signal problem. Doing this means that you will have to forego the TV connection temporarily for the test. If the modem has less of a problem connecting to links, you will know that you have a signal problem.

Which Nvidia driver set are you using? Have you updated them lately? You might need to go to Right click on your desktop, choose properties, then Settings, then hit the advanced button. Then click on the Monitor tab to see if you have Refresh rate that may be too high for your monitor.

On many Dell's there is a special diagnostic mode when you hit F8. What this does is go through the hardware to see where the errors are found. Going to Dell's support page and looking under FAQ might help to see if they have changed the key sequence you push to bring up the diagnostic mode. Or, a call to their support, might save you a lot of time.

It used to be that video cards could not share the same IRQ with certain other devices. Since XP now sets the IRQ, there is not much you can do except to re-install windows and doing so manually. In any respect, the "incompatibility" issue may be a question of IRQ sharing. Nonetheless, since it seems that many are upgrading from a lower cost Nvidia card to an ATI, it is extremely important that all video drivers be removed from the system before putting in a new card. And, before putting in the new card selecting the Standard VGA driver from Microsoft as the default driver. You can use a program like Driver Cleaner to remove the Nvidia drivers in Safe Mode while still using your older video card. After seating your new card, if the Standard VGA driver has been selected, you should at least be able to see the machine boot up on the screen. If you don't, try moving your sound card or ethernet card to a different slot. If those things don't work, particularly since many of your devices are onboard, and this can get to be tedious, put back in the old card that works, and upgrade the BIOS and any new drivers for sound, etc., or look in the Hardware Device Manager to see if there are conflicts in memory or IRQ with other devices, delete those devices, exit, put in the new card and see if it can capture the IRQ or memory address that had been held by a conflicting device.

The biggest suggestion is for you to list your motherboard, video card, sound card, size of memory, etc.; what software is running when it locks up; what kind of anti-virus and spyware programs you run and how often. In other words, your problem could be simple or complex depending on your equipment and software, but you have to list what is there for anyone to help.

As Relic indicated, all you need is a router. Use only ethernet connections. Most computers today have ethernet connections. Under no circumstances use the usb connections. They may work for a while, but will drop out over time. Plug your modem into the router and your computers into the router. While there is no hardbound rule, generally, turn your modem on first and let it synch, then, when it has acquired the isp, turn on the router and the computers. One further note, while the router does act like a hardwire firewall, it really isn't. What it actually does is ignore any pings sent to it that was not initiated by your computer. In that sense it is a firewall, and this is an enormous convenience for your software firewall since so many machines out there on the net have been set up to ping addresses to gain access. You should also install a software firewall, anti-virus package, and a cookie controlling software.

Bring up Windows explorer on your laptop. Right click on the folder you want to share, and click on Share from the drop down menu. Then you can put in a password or just make it shareable. For your printers, it is similar. Bring up your printer on the control panel, right click on the icon. Make it shareable.

It is disconcerting to have something like this happen, but to be able to help, give us the soundcard you are using, your motherboard, and your video card. Did you install some new software before this happened or did you just update windows?

Rather than download and install, why don't you just download it into a subdirectory and install it after you are offline?

You do have a driver problem. The main problem is that your previous drivers were not entirely deleted. Go here: http://www.driverheaven.net/#news76417 and download driver cleaner. You will need to go into Windows in Safe Mode, then run driver cleaner to take out all the bits that are embedded in your system. Once you do that, it will want to reboot. If it doesn't want to reboot, reboot anyway. When your system comes back up, do not let windows install new drivers because it should tell you it has found new hardware. Use the CD that came with your card, or get the newest drivers from ATI.

You say that the card is not compatible, how do you know this? Does Gigabyte specify that it is not compatible? Or, do you mean that the card simply isn't working well? What was the previous card in the system? In any event, put the old card back in. Delete the drivers for it. Reset the machine when it says it has discovered new hardware. Choose Windows Standard VGA for its drivers. (Or you can boot the machine into Safe Mode and use a driver cleaner program to remove all of the video drivers). Exit Windows and turn the machine off. Insert your new card into the AGP slot. Turn the machine on. When it comes up it should display your Desktop in 640x480. Take out your Driver installation CD from ATI and install the appropriate drivers. Sometimes it will want to reboot, so let it. It should work then unless the card itself is damaged.