Sampson

One other thought. If there is a tech support for your ISP/modem provider, ask them to run two tests on your modem. The first test is from them to your modem. The second test is from them to your (computer/router)through the modem. The first test will tell them of packet drops to the modem; the second test will actually test the ethernet port from the modem to your computer/router. You can have a perfectly pristine test on the first and a drop in the second. What that means is that the ethernet connection on the modem may be messed up. If the first test shows packet or signal drops - it is the telephone line crossover and a signal problem.

Ah, you are using a router. Do you also have a software firewall running on your computer in addition to the router? I am sure that you went through these steps, but normally, you would first power down the computer, then turn off router and modem. Then, connect the modem directly to the computer. Turn on the modem and let it sync with your provider. Turn on your computer. This will allow it to connect with your ISP. If you have a software firewall running you may have to adjust its settings. Do your ping tests. When satisfied, power down the computer - then the modem. Reconnect your modem to the router. Power up the modem. After it is synched power up the router. Finally, power up the computer. If you are running a software firewall, it might also popup and you will have to accept the new default settings. Check out your hosts file. Some folks use this to eliminate software ads. Unfortunately, certain spyware programs also use it for redirection. Generally, it has only one entry. The reason I asked you to run ipconfig is to flush the entries from the DNS cache. Your ISP provides the "translation" for this cache such that when you type google.com into your url it has a database that translates this to the numeric address. That database is put into a cache for your machine to speed up the translation. If you are running a software firewall behind your router, check your rules to see if there is a conflict. Cookies - how do you have them defaulted? Some sites want you to have their cookie on your machine and they put in a delay penalty if you choose not to accept it or if you have concretely denied it. Finally, ADSL is dependent upon how far your connection is from the local "base". The further you are from it physically, the greater the delay because of signal strength.

How long have you overclocked this machine? While you say that overclocking it is not the problem, overclocked machines always run hotter. While you may have compensated the airflow to the processor with a better fan, the condensors on the motherboard are also running at internal temperatures for which they were not rated. Overheating leads to timing problems. If you overclocked by raising your frontside bus through the Bios - reduce it to the default. Then, see if it will reboot. My guess is that you tried this already and it hasn't worked. Sometimes letting it sit for a while (a day or so) will allow you to boot successfully and if it is a capacitor or other component on the motherboard, the problem will return. Then, you know that it is time for a motherboard "transplant".

Try: http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/default.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=gen

It's a Dell. You will have to get it from Dell. Dell makes odd offsizes of their components and different current setups just so you have to use their parts.

When you "re-installed" it, did you just install XP and overwrite what was there, or did you clean install in which XP reformats the hard drive? If you clean install XP you will lose all of your data and programs on the hard drive, which is a drag to replace everything, but formatting the drive will find any bad sectors on the hard drive and not allow programs to be placed on a bad sector. Programs in bad sectors are corrupted and will cause problems. As to your specific question about the power supply, an older computer is a likely candidate for a power supply failure as is one that gets spiked by a higher voltage or if your machine is not well ventilated, power supplies will start acting up. Given what has happened to your machine and what you observed happening when it happened and what it does now with games, in order of preference I would suspect 1) the hard drive, 2) possible RAM damage, 3) video card, 4) audio card, 5) a motherboard, and then only power supply.

I wish I knew the magic number to give you. Actually, the default in Windows is generally good enough. I want to say that it is 65540 or some such. TTL is around 64. The only time that I found changing these values was beneficial was when I began running browsers through a proxy. On one XP machine those values are 514024 and 64. On one of the W2K machines, it is 256960 and 64. Since you are using PPoA, 1492 (or 1490) should be right. Having said that, since I am on a cable modem and not ADSL, the slowdown in resolution (in downloading a page) is, more often than not, a function of the strength of your signal and the "noise" in the line than anything else. Making the Rwin value larger, it seems to me, allows larger packets to be sent without the error checking such that it seems faster since the "noise" doesn't cause the computer to ask for a repeat as often. The problem is that when it does have to repeat a sent packet because of excessive noise, it takes longer. You might also want to try (and I'll bet you already have) ipconfig: IPCONFIG /all Display full configuration information. IPCONFIG /release [adapter] Release the IP address for the specified adapter. IPCONFIG /renew [adapter] Renew the IP address for the specified adapter. IPCONFIG /flushdns Purge the DNS Resolver cache. ## IPCONFIG /registerdns Refresh all DHCP leases and re-register DNS names. ## IPCONFIG /displaydns Display the contents of the DNS Resolver Cache. ## In the end, it may be the telephone line and crossover noise that has become a problem for your signal.

You might also consider the processor you are going to put in your board as a start. Check out: http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q2/athlon64-venice/index.x?pg=1 and then see what board will support it, if games are what you are interested in.

What the fellow in the store may have meant is that XP pro allows for hyperthreading while W2K is really set up for two processors. W2K should run on the board you are looking at, it is just that if you are going to do some graphic intensive stuff hyperthreading does speed things up.

One of the best is http://dfw.speakeasy.net/

Perhaps this article will put your mind at ease if all you are worried about is the internet gateway icon: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/...nw_dc_using.asp

Try here: http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/Mozilla_Firefox_for_Windows/1032985422/1

You might want to update your Firefox to the 1.03RC since the 1.02 is susceptible to a malicious Javascript that can read your memory buffer and cache according to Secunia. As to the Java that is installed on your machine, it could be either 1.4 or 1.5 on your system. The 1.5.2 is the latest. If you are using 1.4.6 your automatic update from Java may be telling you that you have the latest update for 1.4 and not "upgrading" you to 1.5.

What version of Java runtime environment are you using? I have found that up[censored] it will often have a remedial effect on certain calls on pages from a website as in this instance where there is a combination of html coding and shockwave/flash player.

I went to the site as you described and through the steps you listed. What I found was that the site attempted to place close to 10 cookies on my system - all of which I deferred. The use of cookies is not unusual for automobile sites - Honda won't even let you view their page if you won't accept their cookies. In any case, I ran the whole thing without incident. In any event, if your ATI drivers have no conflict with the Flash Player, do you have something running in the background that does? Could there be a firewall, anti-virus, or possibly a spybot program that is intercepting the transmission causing your computer to freeze? You could try shutting down one or another of them when you came to this site to see if you still have the problem.

On the outside chance it is DirectX, you can go here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/detai...;DisplayLang=en which will allow you to download a tool which you can use to query Microsoft about the latest components for DX9 and .Net both.

Could be anything from memory going bad to heat issues. Here is the generic answer given by Microsoft: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q314063

What set of Nvidia drivers are you using? Your card is older and I have found that going back to an earlier version of Nvidia drivers sometimes corrects the difficulty.

Generally, you will need to go into bios and by-pass the onboard graphics. Save the changes when you exit the bios, then power down your computer. Then, put in your new graphics card and power it up. You might want to include the type of computer you are using and the operating system you have in case you run into further bumps.

1. Open Internet Explorer. 2. From the File menu, click Import and Export. This launches the Import/Export wizard. Click Next. 3. From the list of actions to perform, highlight Export Favorites and click Next. 4. If you want to back up all your favorites, leave the Favorites folder selected. Otherwise, select the specific folder you want to back up. Click Next. 5. Select where you want to have your Favorites backed up to. Click Next. 6. Click Finish.

This may sound silly, but be sure that the cable is making good contact between your sound card and your speakers. I have had plugs at the end of the speaker have too much plastic surrounding the metal contacts such that the metal on the plug does not really make good contact with the metal input in the sound card. I had to shave the plastic back a little or rotate the plug until I could hear some scratching noises to be sure full contact was being made. All the while I kept getting a message that I had no sound card.

As Dosfreak pointed out, XP home is only capable of workgroup mode out of the box. Putting all of your computers into the same workgroup is a start, but it also depends on how you connect them physically - through a switcher or through a router, etc., or as some people try to do - to one another through an intermediate computer with two cards. If all you want is file sharing, all you need is a switcher. If you want to connect them all to the internet you will need a router. As small a network of three computers as you have (3) you could do it using a router alone. Simple file sharing in a workgroup means that you can access files on each computer. Therefore, you will have to designate the folders on each computer where the shared files are resident. It is best to use Windows Explorer for this task and by-pass Windows wizard. Just right click on the folder you want to share on that particular computer, choose share and just do a simple share. Keep in mind that workgroup sharing was intended only to access files on each others computers or printers on each other computers. You are not limited to one folder to be shared. You can share multiple folders per computer, but it is best not to make your root directory or your \windows directory shareable. The software that reads and writes to the shared files must be installed on all the local computers. Files that you want to share must always be saved to the shared folders. There are always ways around some of these things, but it gets more complex. In any event, once connected to a router or switcher, designate a folder to be shared on each computer, usually \shareddocs. Put all documents and files that you want to share in that folder. While database files can be used simultaneously by all computers, most wordprocessing documents cannot be accessed at the same time by all computers generally.

Check your TCP/IP addresses in the permission's area of your firewall. Depending on your firewall, you can have it lookup a computer on the network. There are times that, for whatever reason, after rebooting, that a computer will have multiple addresses.

Sygate makes a good firewall; the one that most people like is ZoneAlarm. eTrust EZ Armor makes a good firewall also

Your system is infected by the famous W32/Agobot-EL worm. You will need to go into your registry and edit the following: Locate the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE entries: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\ Generic Service Process = nvsvc.exe HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices\ Generic Service Process = nvsvc.exe and delete them if they exist. Then, go to the Hosts file usually located at WINDOWS>\System32\Drivers\etc\HOSTS There will probably be a number of entries which are mostly anti-virus addresses so that your browser won't access them. You can try this first. It is the least invasive. But, to be honest it looks like you have actually been hacked and your computer is owned by someone else. The only sure way to get it back is to reformat and clean install your operating system.