Category : PC Hardware (archive 2)

PowerUsers.info - Paul Doherty Askme Archive of Questions and Answers

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QAId : 640721
Asker : ajreller@...
Subject : motherboards for celeron cpus
Private : No

Question : is there a motherboard for an intel celeron processor (500mhz) for under $175 that you would recommend?

Answer : Yes the Abit BH6 is an excellent motherboard for Celerons... I run a Celeron 300A at 450 in one.

Here's a link to their site:

http://www.abit-usa.com/english/product/index.htm

You'll actually be OK with just about any of their 440BX chipset Slot 1 motherboards...

Paul Doherty

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com

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QAId : 653880
Asker : khalid5
Subject : different hard disks
Private : No

Question : Will you please explain me what is the difference between IDE and SCSI hard disks, how they affect the hardware and Operating System of a computer.

Answer : IDE and SCSI are simply competing standards for hard disk interfaces (as I'm sure you already knew).

They differ in a few key areas:

1) SCSI supports mode devices per controller than IDE (7 for SCSI versus 2 for IDE).

2) IDE is less expensive - IDE controllers come with every motherboard made today and the drives are about 25-50% cheaper at the same capacity.

3) SCSI drives are, on average, somewhat faster than comparable IDE drives. This has been mitigated greatly by 7200 PRM IDE drives with large caches but some new SCSI drives are up to 15000 RPM now so the margin is the same.

4) IDE is supported for booting in every motherboard, while SCSI is supported in most, but not all.

Physically there is no difference between the two types of disks - the difference is the controller board electronics attached to the bottom of the drive. As far as the operating system being affected it isn't really. Once the proper drivers are loaded the OS just sees (either a SCSI or IDE) it as a mass storage device that supports 'XYZ' features (DMA, bus-mastering, etc).

Paul Doherty
Rating : 4
Rating : 4

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QAId : 658160
Asker : petri3
Subject : tech advancements
Private : No

Question : Hi!
I'm looking for web sites about technology advancemnts. Can you please tel me some. I'm most interested in computers.
Thank you
petri3

Answer : Here's some:

http://www.discover.com/
http://www.popularscience.com/

Paul Doherty

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com

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QAId : 681939
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : missing memory
Private : No

Question : Dear Paul, I've just finished trying to clean up my hard disk and have found that there seems to be atleast a gig that is hiding! My, brother is baffled also. I am using a cheap E machine and wonder what you recommend? Thanx, Claybo1

Need More Information : By 1GB missing, how are you measuring this? What is the total size of the drive? Is it FAT or FAT32 formatted (you can run fdisk in pure DCOS to tell - do NOT change anything though - just read the partition type)?

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : Paul, I will have to get back with you. My brother is the one who can anawer question. I am new to the computer game and don't understand all of the terminology. Thanks Claybo1

Answer : You're welcome...

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5

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QAId : 696381
Asker : webbt
Subject : Computer lifespan
Private : No

Question : Will your computer last longer if you leave it on or cut it off everytime you finish?

T. Webb

Answer : I answered this in another question - here it is:

http://www.askme.com/ViewAnswer.asp?vid=280480

The concise answer is to leave it on 24x7 (with the monitor set to sleep after 15-60 minutes, depending on your preference).

Paul Doherty

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com
Rating : 5

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QAId : 760032
Asker : quirkypics
Subject : problems
Private : No

Question : Hi Paul
Excuse me if I take advantage of your expertise in two questions at the same time.
(1) As I have no experience of DOS, how can I learn. I wish to remove private information from my computer as it is soon to be moved into an office where I will be working with people who are fairly whizz in techno stuff. I have been told that even if I delete files, they can still be read from DOS. Is this true.

(2)In my cookies file I have one dat file of 64kb which I cannot open or delete. Access is denied in one request and 'document is being used by another application' is what I get when trying to open it in a word doc.

Help appreciates.
Thanks
John

Answer : I'm here to be taken advantage of... :-)

1) To learn DOS start writing batch files to accomplish things. To start with write a few simple BAT files to do something simple like change directories and run apps. For example let's say you have a program called XYZ.EXE and it's in C:\PROGRAM FILES\XYZINC. You could write a basic BAT file that launches this program:

@echo off
c:
cd "\program files\xyzinc"
start xyz.exe

Save it as C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\XYZ.BAT and now you can launch that app by typing 'XYZ' at a DOS prompt under Windows. Get more fancy by making it a menu of applications, letting the user choose which one they want to load:

@echo off
:start
cls
echo.
echo.
echo LAUNCHER MENU
echo.
echo.
echo 1. XYZ app from XYZ Inc.
echo 2. Solitaire
echo 3. Minesweeper
echo 4. Exit
echo.
choice /c:1234 /n Your choice?
if errorlevel 4 goto exit
if errorlevel 3 goto mine
if errorlevel 2 goto solitaire
if errorlevel 1 goto xyz
:error
echo An error has occurred!
goto end
:exit
goto end
:mine
start c:\windows\winmine.exe
goto start
:solitaire
start c:\windows\sol.exe
goto start
:xyz
start "c:\program files\xyzinc\winmine.exe"
goto start
:end
exit

Paste the above into a file - let's call it C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MENU.BAT and the just type MENU at a DOS prompt under Windows to test it out. Obviously the XYZ entry won't do anything but the others will give you something productive to do at work... ;-)

To get rid of any files you can delete them from Windows Explorer anywhere (empty trashcan when done, or hold SHIFT while deleting to force it to not go to the trashcan). Alternately you can open a DOS prompt and use del and deltree to remove file and directories you want to be rid of... and no, they can not get at your files once they are deleted. Only specialized recovery shops can do this, and if you want to make sure even *they* can't get at it here's a trick to ensure the files are truly gone. Delete all the files you want to be rid of... then open your System control panel (Start/Settings/Control Panel/System), enter the Performance tab and open the Virtual memory button. Click on the button that says "Let me specify my own virtual memory settings" and enter the largest number it will allow (1538 MB is the largest mine takes). Let the system reboot and then to really mess with them, reset the swap file back to automatic sizing and defrag the hard disk in Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Disk Defragmenter. Defragmenting moves files all over the place, overwriting sectors that may have previously been reserved (and holding) for storing your deleted files (essential for 99% of recovery techniques that these sectors be unchanged).

To nuke that problematic cookie file try getting at it under pure DOS - reboot and hit F8 as soon as the system starts to boot (before the graphic pops up). Then select safe mode command prompt only. Then cd to where your cookies.txt file (or whatever your is called) is located. Note sure where it is? Note the location before leaving Windows or do this:

c:
cd \
dir cookies.txt /s /a

and note the location in the results. If the path has spaces in the names use quotation marks around the name (as in the "program files" examples in the batch files I wrote for you above).

Paul Doherty

Paul Doherty

End :
Rating : 4

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QAId : 770708
Asker : ducedoh
Subject : INTEGER DIVIDE BY ZERO
Private : No

Question : AFTER INSTALLING WIN/98 VER2 ON MY FREINDS COMPUTER, ALL SEEMS FINE EXCEPT WHEN WE TRY TO LOAD/INSTALL GAMES FROM CDROM,WE GET THE MESSAGE"INTEGER DIVIDE BY ZERO"!!!WHAT DOES THIS MEAN &/OR HOW CAN WE FIX IT??

Answer : Try removing the CD-ROM (of it's IDE) from the Windows config and letting it get redetected and configured.

Start/Settings/Control Panel/System/Device Manager/CD-ROM/(select it and press DEL)

Then reboot. Let me know if this solves it or not.

Paul Doherty

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QAId : 772926
Asker : davidsco27
Subject : DMA or not DMA
Private : No

Question : Hi, Should I check the DMA checkbox in my Hard Drive and CD-Rom properties or not? I have a WD 13.2 Gb Hard Drive and an Asus DVD-Rom Drive. I have run 2 benchmarks on the HD performance and get conflicting results. Using Sisoft Sandra 2000 I get better results with DMA checked, but using Norton System Information 2000 I get better Physical Read Performance with it unchecked.

Answer : It should be checked regardless of what the benchmarks say. DMAs function is not to speed up hard disk or CD performance - it's purpose is to *take the load of disk transfers off the CPU* with a secondary benefit being an increase in some disk performance areas. It's far more important that you drop the load from the CPU to keep multitasking and real-time apps like games from stuttering than it is to get an extra 500K a second off the disk. Try running a program like WinTop to get an accurate view of how much CPU time is used in DMA versus non-DMA disk copies and you'll likely find that with DMA disabled your usage will be between 20%-50% (depends on CPU) and with DMA enabled it will be between 2%-6%.

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : Thanks Paul. Now Acer has said that for their CD-RW drive, I should uncheck the DMA. (I have a third, CD-RW drive as well) Does this sound accurate?

Answer : Some CDR drive manufacturers will recommend turning off DMA on their drives - but this is usually only for people who call in - and people who call in are having problems, not raving about how good things are, so I would say leave DMA if the unit works. If it starts to give you trouble burning only then try it with DMA off.

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5

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QAId : 774866
Asker : alan_k_14626
Subject : VIDEO WOES!!!!
Private : No

Question : Ihave a P-166 runningWin98,FIC (PA-2002}Mainboard I can't seem to get it to recognize any video card except the Cirrus Logic 5446 that it came with! I have tried installing drivers (ATI XPERT128) thru device mgr @ installing basic VGA drivers from WIN98 disc. Monitor is modern auto-sync SVGA. Have Award BIOs w/chip 4.04AG800 s/n 029401887 u.Checked updates-none seem applicable.ATI drivers install OKbut it still refuses to even light the bios screen on boot-up!PLEASE don't hesitate to askfor more info!I have been trying for 2 wks. and tried other things also. I quit drinking years ago, but I'm getting ready to start again!!!!!! PLEASE HELP! THANX. AL

Answer : Haha...

Are yout trying mulitpl video card types? Make sure when you do that you *also* try different card slots - be it ISA or PCI video cards you are using. If you're using AGP, well, you've only got one.

Here's how you should install the card:

1) Boot in with the old card

2) Set (inside the display control panel) for:
(standard display adapters) VGA display device

3) Shutdown and switch the cards

4) Reboot into Windows and run the installation (or provide the disks if Windows detects the new card)

If that has trouble, drop back to VGA and try another slot or video card.

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5

FUQuestion : PAUL-Both cards ere PCI-no on-board AGP-I have tried all 4 PCI slots-evenremoved allother cardsand drivers-this is not the first new card to not work, I returned two already! AT one time I had two monitors hooked up at one time trying to get it to install.I got a DOS screen that Windows had recognized the card and to change settings on display to use it.Still could not get it to work.The best I could get it to do was to show my wallpaper as monitor #2.I tried to transfer my desktop to it {#2},then makeit mon#1. Windows would not let me do this! With 2 mons. using multiple mon. setup ATI card still did not light bios on startup.Am I further confusing the Issue?I also tried removing the Cirrus card and mon using device mgr. Itmust have removed them because I was back toa blank screen with ATI card and mon after re-boot. THANKS AGAIN. IF you think I am causing my own problem somehow, don't hesitate to tell me, It won't be the first time!

FUQuestion : PAUL-some additional info. The ATI drivers DO INSTALL-they show in device mgr. But when I re-boot and take out the Cirrus Logic 5446PCI and put in the ATI card I just get a blank screen. The only time that Windows has detected the card was when I was in the multiple monitor mode that I described earlier, and it did install the proper driver {ATIR3}.Could my problem be in config. of my bios? I tried manually dedicating ALL the IRQ,s to the PCI slots-no luck there either and the CL5446 will work in any slot.I am running an ATI all-in-wonder 128 in my other PC and it boots the bios screen and installs in safe mode just fine.This card uses the same drivers I believe.I also tried the XPERT98{ATI} which uses a different video chip and it acted the same. THANX!THANX! humble guru!! AL

Answer : It sounds like you've done things the right way - is this a recent install of 98? Has it ever worked successfully with this (ATI) type of video card? If not I would suggest you look at a better dual monitor card (if you can still return the ATI) - the Matrox G400Max. It has the additional benefit of being able to output one signal to a monitor at, say, 1024x768, and the other out to a TV or VCR (for recording your awesome wins in BattleZone :-) at the correct res for their needs.

One thing you can do to get Windows back to square one as far as hardware is concerned if you really want to try to make this thing work:

1) Reboot and hold the CTRL key or press F8 to get the boot menu - select Safe Mode Command Prompt Only

2)

cd \windows
attrib -r -h -s *.dat
copy user.dat user.bak
copy system.dat system.bak
attrib -r -h -s \system.1st
copy \system.1st system.dat

3) Reboot with the new video card (only) in the machine and Windows will boot in with no hardware detected (just like it did on the first boot after install). If you don't have luck there I'd say get rid of that card.

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : PAUL,Iwill be happy to try your suggestions . In answer to your one question,no this machine has never had any other video card in it. thank you-I mean that! You are the first person to give me an answer that I am quite sure I can trust.If you would like to know what my final resolution turns out to be, I would be happy to let you know! I am an ex-dealership auto technician and antique motorcycle restorer from Rochester NY and if I can ever be of service my email is alan_k_14626@Yahoo,com. AL

Answer : You're very welcome Alan!

And thank you for the offer of assistance - I very well may be taking you up on that since I many times need to know things about my car but am not well-versed in that area...

Thanks,
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

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QAId : 783764
Asker : geofffox96106
Subject : humidty's effects on pc's and digital cameras
Private : No

Question : Hi
i live in central java in a couple of chronically humid rooms; no condensation occurs that i am aware of; a tv and tape recorder work fine and have done so for a year i've just bought a sony mavica camera and am about to buy a pc.

should i move to a drier environment to protect the equipment? (apart from the humidity the current place is perfect for me)

mailto:geofffox@hotmail.com

thanks

Geoff

Answer : If you can discover the relative humidity in the room you could compare it to the computer manufacturers preferences for the system and know whether you are inside or outside that range.

Best bet is a general rule - if you are uncomfortable in the environment the computer is too... IOW - if the humidity is such that you are soaking with sweat it's probably too humid for a computer.

Paul Doherty
Rating : 4

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QAId : 817360
Asker : hyppoli_erro
Subject : data
Private : No

Question : What is the difference between sequential access and random access?

Answer : Sequential means "in order" and that's a good way to describe this type of access. A tape is a good example of sequential access. you can't get to any part of the tape without going through the parts that precede it.

Random access means you can get to any area of the storage medium without passing through other areas. A hard disk drive is an example of this type of device. Any area can be read without first reading the other areas between it and the current head position.

Paul Doherty

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com
Rating : 5

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QAId : 900554
Asker : pelletie54215
Subject : cannot read drive
Private : No

Question : I have a hewlett packard computer that will boot up to the point where the windows screen appears and then will tell me that it cannot read the c drive or the d drive. What is the next step in repairing it?

Answer : Have you run scandisk yet? Hold the CTRL during the very beginning of a boot (mem test) and you will be presented with a boot menu - select "Command Prompt Only" and then type:

scandisk

and hit ENTER to check your hard disk(s).

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : Dear Paul,
My computer did not respond the way you thought it might possibly because I have a virus protector on it already and it automatically scans c but it does run scan disk and reports no viruses. For some reason it still does not read from drive c: do you have any other suggestions? Thanks for the first try. I do appreciate it.

Answer : Try booting in with safe mode and follow the ste-by-step instructions on here to disable the items in your system.ini and win.ini from loading:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q188/8/67.ASP?LN=EN-US&SD=SO&FR=0

Paul Doherty, CNA (3 & 4), CNE (4), MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 5

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QAId : 903667
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : How many drives can I have?
Private : No

Question : I am looking for a new motherboard. I don't know if all motherboards can support a certain amount of disk drives or what. Eventually, I would like to install a couple CD-Rom drives, two floppy drives, two hard drives, and a tape back-up. What specifications should I look for in a motherboard.

Answer : The maximum number of IDE devices you can have is 4 on any motherboard out these days, with few exceptions. You can always add a controller like Promise's ATA-66 controller to add 4 more IDE devices for a total of 8, or go with a SCSI controller which can support 7 or more depending on the variation of SCSI. Floppy drives do not use these ports and have their own controller that can handle two.

So without adding anything you can have this:

2 Floppies
2 hard disks
2 CD-ROM/CDR(W) drives

Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 5

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QAId : 905120
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : plug n play device trouble
Private : Yes

Question : I just purchased a 'Plug and Play' device called 'Dazzle' for capturing digital video images from a camcorder through USB slot on my PC.
The instructions that come with the device say that when I plug it into the USB slot, 'Windows 98 will automatically detect the new hardware and launch the 'Add New Hardware Wizard'', at which point they instruct me to insert the CD that comes with the device.
Unfortunately, though, immediately upon plugging the cable into the USB, my display blacks out, the computer reboots, and hangs up on the 'Windows 98' logo screen. The only thing I can do at that point is unplug device and reboot.
Please advise!!

Answer : Apply any Windows service packs for your machine from the Windows Update site.

Also check your BIOS settings and see if you have an IRQ assigned to the USB controller. Change it to the opposite of what it is set to, and try again.

Also check the Device Manager under the System control panel and see if any devices are flagged as having a problem.

Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 4

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QAId : 916596
Asker : y2kflex
Subject : POST problem
Private : No

Question : Hi,

I had just ordered parts to a new pc which I built myself from scratch. As far as I see, all jumper settings and connections are correct as per the motherboard manual, but I run into the problem where when I power on the PC, the 1st thing I notice is that the floppy drive light does not come on. The light from the case will display, as well as the CD-ROM power light, but not the floppy. If I flip the data ribbon cable from the floppy updside down, the light stays on, but won't blink when it is normally positioned. I also noticed that the keyboard (PS/2) lights on it blink once when the system is powered on, but they don't stay on. They seem kind of dim. I have not configured the system BIOS and CMOS settings yet because of this problem. Any suggestions you have will be very much appreicated. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Keith

Answer : It sounds like you don't get anything at all - no POST or BIOS setup. So your problem is one of a couple of things:

1) Toasted CPU

2) Toasted motherboard

or the most likely...

3) Misconfigured hardware - take it all apart and put it back together again.

Paul Doherty, CNA (3 & 4), CNE (4), MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com

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QAId : 937464
Asker : burtfamily
Subject : file recovery
Private : No

Question : My son accidentally deleted some files I needed. Since they were deleted (I didn't notice it) I have defrag'd and installed a new program...is there any hope? (dos based system)

Answer : Not much chance at all, I'm afraid. It's bad enough to recover from DOS a deleted file anyway but after a defrag just about EVERY cluster will contain different info (or will have been used as scratch space) so the chances of you finding all the parts to any one file, let alone multiples, is about nil.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 3.7
Rating : 3.7

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QAId : 943852
Asker : nickky
Subject : I'm confuse
Private : No

Question : Hi!!
I have a question about How to tell the different between Pentium III 800 with 100 Mhz and 133 Mhz? I think I may have been fooled from the shop that I bought.

Answer : The difference in markings:

800E = 800Mhz with a 100Mhz bus
800EB = 800Mhz with a 133Mhz bus

The easiest way to tell for sure:

If you have a motherboard with CPU settings in the BIOS (press DEL during beginning of boot - POST) you can enter it and see what it autodetected your CPU at - it will have it as an 800Mhz, of course, but what you are interested in (and what will definitively show which CPU you have) is the multiplier it says the chip is running at - if it says 6.0 it is an 800EB (133Mhz) - if it says 8.0 it is an 800E (100Mhz).

If you somehow got an 800E by mistake - rejoice - as that chip actually has overhead to spare. What do I mean? An 800EB is meant to have a 133Mhz FSB and needs it to run at it's rated speed. An 800E expects a 100Mhz FSB but *is the exact same chip* except for this multiplier difference. Stick an 800E into the motherboard and feed it a 133Mhz FSB and - bingo - you have a 1064Mhz Coppermine CPU! You've just stumbled upon the arcane art of overclocking. Put a good cooling system on the CPU if you try this - if you can run a fe days with it like that you just got a healthy boost in system speed for free!

Paul Doherty, CNA (3 & 4), CNE (4), MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 5

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QAId : 953594
Asker : khand
Subject : Invalid System Disk Error
Private : No

Question : Hi Paul

I have an unusual situation. We have a lab of 32 computers all running Windows98, all purchased at the same time. We have not experienced any problems with any of them, until now. All of a sudden four of them boot with the "Invalid System Disk ' error message. Why would this happen to four at the same time? And is there a way to fix them without doing a reload? (I have checked the Virus Detection in the CMOS setup to make sure it was disabled. It was). Thankyou for any help you may be able to give me.

KHand

Answer : Well there's either a floppy in the drives ( :-) or you may have had a power surge. Try booting with a *same-version* floppy disk that has been sys'd and has the sys.com and fdsik.exe utility on it on each machine and then run

sys c:
fdisk /mbr

This will restore the boot sector and OS files on the drive without changing anything else.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com
Rating : 5

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QAId : 960297
Asker : mcrustk288030
Subject : Pc hardware
Private : No

Question : Hi, i have built a system for someone,

system :

mouse, kb, case
mb - jetway bf530 onboard agp graphics + sound
32mb dimm
cyrix m2 300
56 modem
500mb hd

the system kept crashing and locking up
the graphics went sqewif so i thought mabe if i replaced the memory as it uses system memory for graphics that may cure the problem, it didnt, i re installed every thing , still happened, i replaced the motherboard & memory for the same thing, the error still happens!, it just locks up, resets sometimes, or graphics may go as suddenly pushed into a too high graphics mode the monitor cannot handle, could it be because i have a 500 mb hard disk, it it worth telling the person to replace there heard drive, or is it antthing todo with the on board graphics being AGP and running windows 95, or the motherboard having usb, but i did load usbsupp.exe but that didnt do anything, please help - James McDowall

Answer : I hate to be the one to tell you, but it may very well be:

the motherboard

the chipset supporting a Cyrix CPU

In which case no amount of replacing will fix the problem (you've already replaced enough to confirm this hypothesis for me).

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com

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QAId : 994575
Asker : smokeyblue1
Subject : Motherboards
Private : No

Question : I am looking to buy a dual CPU socket 7 mother board for two AMD K6-2 500 mhz processors.

Is this a good set up and does it provide me with any advantags or disadvantags over the more powerfull single socket CPU's?

If so, could you provide me with details of affordable dual CPU motherbaords as I have found nothing suitable.

Dave

Answer : The answer, as usual in anything like this, is it depends. What you plan to do with the system, the programs you will run and the OS you run it on will all be factors. I'm sure you're aware that running dual CPUs will limit your choice of operating systems. BeOS, Windows NT/2K, and Linux are about it. You can likely run 98/ME on it but it will be with only one CPU, negating the point of buying two.

There are also very few applications that make use of more than one CPU - of course if the OS is designed around it any application that uses OS services (most do to some degree) will see some benefit.

My own opinion is that at this time in the market you should go with a faster single CPU that costs about what you were going to spend on the two CPUs.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 4
Rating : 4

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QAId : 996786
Asker : kjmoore1
Subject : HDD Buffer slack
Private : Yes

Question : I know what cluster slack is, but from where in memory is the buffer slack taken from and wrote to the ending of a particular sector. Is it the current file, last file or random memory dump?

Thanks in advance.

Need More Information : Are you asking what will fill the rest of a cluster on the disk when the file occupying the cluster doesn't completely fill it up?

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

FUQuestion : I know the rest of the cluster is really the remainder of another file (cluster slack), but when the OS writes to a particular cluster, the remainder of the last sector written to (if not filled completely by the file being written) is apparently filled by whatever is in memory, i.e. buffer slack. Is this data a random dump from memory, or the parts of another file currently in use or open on someone's desktop?

Hope this clarifies,

Cheers

KJM.

Answer : Where did you get the idea that this is what occurs? Why can't the disk write end with the data and an EOF character, ignoring the rest of the last cluster? That makes more sense from an efficieny standpoint, and is consistent with what would happen if a single file were being written that were smaller than a single cluster.

In any event I have never heard that this is what happens and cursory searches did not turn up anything on it so I will just have to say if this is indeed how this is done you will have to search elsewhere for the method used for different operating systems.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

FUQuestion : I have been told this from a forensic science course I attended at the Royal Military College of Science, Shrivenham, UK. I may not have made myself too clear, if that is so I apologise. For example, if a file being written to an 8k cluster is just over 6kb, then it will fill the first 12 sectors then the EOF marker in the 13th, but the remainder of that 13th sector has to be filled with something (contents of memory?) because I have been told that the operating system has to write to the end of a sector, therefore leaving the 14th, 15th,and 16th sectors untouched as cluster slack.

Sorry it took me so long to reply, you don't have to reply to this if you so wish, but this is my understanding.

KJMoore

Answer : If that is the case it's news to me. And since the OS will never look at that data and from a user's standpoint it is useless as well that would explain why I had never heard that. It seems somehow inefficient to retrieve more data, and write more to the disk buffer (and subsequently to the disk) than you actually need to write. But I guess this would only be in two instances:

1) Where the file is smaller than your cluster size

2) Where a large file's clusters used do not end in an even usage of the last cluster (most likely about always).

So is this something you are interested in from a security standpoint? As in you're interested as to whether you could obtain that last "random" bit of data stored as filler in these clusters? I'm intrigued...

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

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QAId : 1012187
Asker : philleme25249
Subject : computer hard disk drive upgrade
Private : No

Question : I have a 486dx2 with 2 hard drives and I want upgrade to a 10 gig hard drive. I understand that the bios doesn't support drives over 2.1 gig and needs an overlay. The installation software only supports western digital brand drives and one of the drives I want to copy to the new drive is not labeled nor is it a western digital. The computer sometimes has problems detecting the old western drive and cant detect the unlabeled drive. When I connect the new drive and one of the old the computer sometimes locks up or wont start up. It works fine with the two original drives so is it possible to connect three drives? And if so how? Any info would be appriciated. Thank you.
Phil

Answer : Try putting the new 10GB disk on the primary controller as master by itself. Put the other two as master/slave on the secondary controller. Then boot with a boot floppy and install the new 10GBs overlay. After that you can boot with a DOS floppy and fdisk/format/sys the new disk, then copy your data over (before install of Windows to new disk with xcopy; after with Explorer).

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com

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QAId : 1012968
Asker : wzimmer827
Subject : Everytime I sign on the internet the cpu spikes to 100% usage
Private : No

Question : Hi, Paul

I just bought a hewlett packard pavillion 6648c. Everytime I sign on the internet the cpu spikes to 100% usage. I tried 2 different software packages (the built in win 98 monitor and a program called TClock) to monitor this and get the same results.

I use bluelight.com to connect to the net, but other ISP's also result in the cpu 100% usage. Even the win 98 telephone dialing software causes this spike.

When I sign off the cpu returns to normal.

Will this burn up my cpu? Do you know what might be causing the problem? Can you tell me how to go about correcting it?

Thanks very much!

Bill Zimmerman

Answer : I wouldn't put any stock in the CPU usage the monitor that comes with Windows reports - it spikes for any activity. As for the other one you tried I've never used it - try this one instead and if you're still peaked let me know:

http://ftpsearch.lycos.com/cgi-bin/search?form=lycosnet&query=wintop.zip&filetype=All+files

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5

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QAId : 1020130
Asker : ragreen7@...
Subject : updating escd
Private : Yes

Question : My PC froze and I restarted it and it reads updating escd, after that it just stays there and windows 98 does not load up. What does updating escd mean?

Answer : ESCD is Extended System Configuration Data - this is info the BIOS collects about the devices installed in your computer. Is it still hanging? You may want to wipe the contents of the ESCD and try booting again. Many BIOS setups have this function - press DEL while the system is just coming up and is testing memory to enter the BIOS screens and look around for this option.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

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QAId : 1032748
Asker : AstroConstant
Subject : FAT32 Mechanism
Private : No

Question : i want to know about the real Mechanism of Fat-32. Why data takes less space on Fat-32 than on Fat-16.

Answer : FAT32 supports a larger maximum number of clusters per disk. The reason FAT16 wastes so much space on large hard disks is that it's maximum number of clusters is lower, and that manes for the larger disks the amount per-cluster must go up. A FAT16 hard disk with a 4GB or larger partition will use a cluster size of 64K. A FAT32 partition of the same size may use as low as a 4K or 8K cluster size. So if you stored a 300-byte text file to the disk (a file cannot take up less than one cluster normally) it will use one cluster on each partition with the FAT16 partition wasting 65,236 bytes of space, and the FAT32 wasting 7892 bytes or less. So you can see that the smaller cluster sizes are more efficient in terms of space utilization.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com

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QAId : 1034406
Asker : carteron34443
Subject : PC connections
Private : No

Question : I have a Gateway G6 350mz with a burner,, and my friend has a Packard Bell 90mz. I have a NIC card for my @home cable connection, but he doesnt. We want to take a couple hundred megs of info off his drive and put it on CD. What is the easiest way to hook up the two machines for transfer, or is it easier just to take his HD out and make it a slave in mine. If the latter, what are the configuration procedures? Thanks.
SR Carter

Answer : Unless he wants to buy a NIC your best be5t is what you just said - take his HD out and put it into your PC. No need to slave it - just take his disk *and* controller cable and with your case open and machine off connect him to the secondary IDE controller - reboot and make sure the secondary is enabled and is set to AUTO for all parameters. Reboot again and you're off to the races.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com

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QAId : 1040778
Asker : bulgari
Subject : Floppy drive
Private : No

Question : We have two desk top DEll's and a laptop Dell. My daughter will put her work on a floppy , and she uses the laptop, she will bring the floppy into my office to print it, and my disk drive wont acknowledge the floppy. When you click on the icon after opening the drive, it shows the files on the floppy, but will not open them. What is wrong???
Also, when I start my computer a logon screen comes on that my son put in and I cannot get rid of it. How do I do it???

Answer : One of the floppy drives is likely out of alignment. To test this make a floppy with both computers (full format and then fill them) and verify that each can read their own disk. Then take the disks to the opposite computer and test. If hers fails at your computer then take that same disk to a third PC and try to read it. If it is read successfully then your machine has the faulty drive. If the third machine can not read it then her machine has the faulty drive.

The logon is likely to be the Microsoft Family Logon - in your Network control panel you should be able to select Windows Logon instead and get rid of it (be careful if you are not familiar with this control panel - you may disable your internet connection if you are not careful).

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com

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QAId : 1065919
Asker : franknan
Subject : usb and lan both using same setting cannot change
Private : No

Question : In the "computer properties" screen both
my sis900 pci fast ethernet adapter
(NDIS5) and my Intel 82371ab/eb pci to usb universal host controller are using the same setting (12) Neither one will let me change the setting.
My conflict is I have purchased a hp 1100 photosmart printer w/usb port.
When I plug in the usb to the computer it blocks my access to the web. I can not longer log on to a web site. Unplug the usb connection re-boot the computer and everything works fine for surfing the web. Also the printer works ok when using the usb port, just don't have access to the web pages.
Appreciate any help you can give.

Answer : A couple of things:

1) Enter your BIOS and set your USB to NOT use an IRQ.

2) Move the network card to another slot and it will take a different IRQ.

I'd suggest you try #2 first, unless your PC is majorly crowded.

That should fix you right up...

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

FUQuestion : have put network card in all the slots available - had terrible time getting drivers loaded for card. I am running ibm aptiva L5H w/windows 98.
please give details on how to enter bios and change usb to not use an irq.

Answer : Boot the machine and press DEL (or whatever other key is mentioned by your BIOS) to enter the BIOS setup screens. Once in peruse the menus and find the "Integrated Peripherals" or other similar screen (they differ so I can't tell you step-by-step) that has the USB entries in it. Change them with PgUp/PgDn keys and then hist ESC to get back to the main screen and use ESC or whatever key is indicated to exit and save the changes.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com
Rating : 5

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QAId : 1110055
Asker : tonystephens
Subject : keyboard
Private : No

Question : I o-perate with windows 98 and m
keyboard is giving strange results
enter at the end of a line gives m
m defaults to F11 in IE5
back space key does not work
y key requires 3 taps to work and then deletesm
previous character
mm
please tell
me how to correctm
i have re installed w98 to no availm
m

Answer : Try another keyboard. If it still happens (and you have reinstalled the OS as you said - does this happen even in pure DOS (F8 during boot)?) then your motherboard's keyboard controller has gotten zapped and you will likely have to get another motherbaord (about 100 dollars) and do a reinstall of the OS.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 5

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QAId : 1240984
Asker : octospider0
Subject : processor upgrade?
Private : No

Question : hello,
I have a amd k6 333 on a pc chips m571 mother board with a 100 mhz system bus.
can I upgrade grade it to say a amd k6-2 550? I have check pc chips site and found no info on this but the manual says:

The advanced features of this mainboard include:
¥ 66MHz Advanced Graphic Port
¥ Supports either P54C/P55C Pentiumª (MMX)
CPUs with 321-pin ZIF socket and Cyrix/IBM
6x86L/6x86MX (M2), AMD K6, IDT C6 Processors
with External Clock Speed at 50/55/60/66/75/83
MHz;
¥ Supports 3 banks of FP/EDO SIMM/DIMM and
SDRAM DIMM expandable memory up to 384MB;
¥ Four 72-pin SIMM sockets and two 168-pin DIMM
sockets;
¥ Supports 64M-bit (16Mx4, 8Mx8, 4Mx16)
technology DRAM/SDRAM;
¥ Supports onboard 64-bit 512KB L2 cache;
¥ Provides dual 20-pin ATX power connector and AT
12-pin power connector, and ATX power support
Modem Ring On & Suspend Switch;
¥ Supports both ACPI and Legacy PMU;
¥ 4 PCI Local Bus slots and 3 16-bits ISA Bus slots, all
4 PCI slots support master mode;
¥ Supports Ultra DMA/33, PCI Bus Master IDE
interface onboard with 2 connectors which support
4 IDE devices in 2 channels; the PCI IDE controller
supports PIO Mode 0 to Mode 4 and Ultra
DMA/33 at maximum transfer rate of 33MB/s and
Bus Master IDE DMA Mode 2;
¥ System BIOS supports 4 IDE hard disk drives
which do not need device driver for S/W
application and the capacity of each hard disk can
be larger than 528MB and up to 8.4 GB;

I am unsure of what the processor info in this mean exactly any help would be appreciated.
thx
bill

Need More Information : Do you have a K6 or a K6-2 in there now? You said K6 but I think you may have meant K6-2 as I don't think the K6 went to 333Mhz.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

FUQuestion : must be a k6-2. how high did just k6 go?

is is possable to upgrade it?

thx again
bill

Answer : I don't know the highest speeds the K6 went to, but I doubt it was about 200 or so. Couple that with the fact the K6-2 has been out for 3 years or so and it's likely that's what you have. That and the 100Mhz FSB which I'm pretty sure the K6 didn't use either.

So it looks good for your upgrade to the faster-speed K6-2... I'd say you will be successful.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

FUQuestion : is there anyway to know for sure, id really hate to but the new cpu and not have it work.

thx
bill
Rating : 5

Answer : Well a surefire way to know what CPU you have now is to open the case, remove the heatsink, examine the top of the CPU. It will say K6-2 if that's what it is...

Another way without opeing the case is to run a CPU ID program - here's one:

ftp://ftp.skypoint.com/pub/members/c/curts/cpuid.exe

I'm not sure if it can ID your AMD but some can so if this one doesn't do it look around.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

FUQuestion : just 1 more question then I promise I will leave you alone :)
are you sure that if I have a k-2 then my sys. bus has to be 100 mhz. one other expert thought that the org. info I gave stated that I did not but only had I think he said a 66 or something and a 550 would not work without a 100 mhz.

you have been great, lots of help :)

bill

Answer : Right you are... 100Mhz will be required to reach 550 so if you motherboard does not have settings for 100 you won't be able to use that speed. What threw me is this statement from your original question:

"hello,
I have a amd k6 333 on a pc chips m571 mother board with a 100 mhz system bus."

That 100Mhz system bus is the critical piece. You said here that you had it and if you do then you will likely be able to upgrade. If not (consult your manual) then you won;t be able to use any chip that requires the 100Mhz FSB (Front-Side Bus) speed.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

End :

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QAId : 1242142
Asker : KIMCAT
Subject : What's the Difference?
Private : No

Question : I was wondering what the difference is between a AMD-K6 3D processor (which is what I have now) and a pentium III processor (the pros and cons of each if any)? Also was wondering how I can find out what mhz my processor runs at.

Answer : Well there are many differences, but the most important ones would be:

Architectures
Cache
Clock Speeds

Architectures - The AMD K6-2 is an older chip design and does not benefit from as many advancements as the P3. As a result it cannot process as many instructions per second as a P3-Coppermine.

Cache - A K6-2 has a small L1 (Level 1 - meaning the first cache it checks) cache on-board the chip, but keeps it's larger L2 cache on the motherboard of the system. This is bad for two reasons - 1) It slows down the CPU when it has to leave the CPU to check for cache data, especially when it's a cache "miss" and the CPU has to load the dta from RAM anyway. 2) It *really* slows the system down since the K6-S has to traverse the same 100Mhz bus that the RAM uses to get to the L2 cache, since it is on the motherboard. A older P3 that followed the contruction designs of the P2 has a L1 cache on-board the CPU and a L2 cache *on the same chip cartridge* (that's where those plastic casings came from - the need to place L2 cache closer to the CPU, but the inability to yet put it on-board) as the CPU on a relatively high-speed bus. For example a 450Mhz old-style P3 would have a communications line to L2 cache at half the CPU speed, or 225Mhz. This is still far faster than the 100Mhz system bus the AMD uses. The newer P3-Coppermine one ups even this speed increase by placing the L2 cache directly on-board the chip alongside the L1 cache, and runs at the full core speed. So this means on even the fastest P3-Coppermine chips (like the latest 1Ghz one) the L2 runs at 1Ghz, right along with the CPU.

Clock Speeds - The P3 is available in higher clock speeds than the K6-2. All things being equal (which they really aren't) a P3 will be faster simply due to this, even before architectural and cache issues are addressed.

The Pros of a K6-2 vs a P3:
Lower Cost

The Cons of a K6-2 vs a P3:
Chipset incompatibilities, especially with other operating systems (BeOS, Linux)
Slow(er) and less-well supported extensions for performance (3D Now! vs Intels' SSE)

Cache Explanation - why is it so important?:
Since the CPU spends a great majority of it's time fetching data to and from both cache and RAM the speed of the caches makes a huge impact on the performance of modern CPUs. Part of this is due to the way CPUs reuse data which makes the ability to temporarily store results and instructions close at hand with fast access important. Part of it is due to the huge disparity that exists between the speed of the system RAM (typically 100Mhz these days) and the speed of the CPU (500-1000 Mhz). With a CPU running 5-10 times faster than the RAM the CPU can be forced to burn a lot of time waiting for RAM to be available. Cache helps that by placing this high-speed, low-access-time memory close to the CPU.

To dicsover your CPU speed you can do one of two things:

1) Reboot or power-up and watch the text that appears before the Windows screens start (may have to press ESC when the pic shows up to see it again). Usually the CPU type and speed are listed at the top-left.

2) Examine the manual the determine what jumper settings control the CPU settings for speed, and examine where your jumpers are set on the motherboard to see what speed that setting corresponds to in the manual.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 5

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QAId : 1245600
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : computer problam
Private : No

Question : I am building a computer from scratch and when I get just about every thing loaded my computer gives me a corrupted registry error and makes me reboot and dumps all my drivers. I have tryed windows 95 and 98 with same problem. I've checked all my documentation for proper jumper setup several times, even experimented with a few different setups. I've also experimented with my bios settings trying to manually set the Hard drives parameters with no success and using auto detect which works, but with the registry errors. The auto detect is the only way I can get my Hard drive to take a Fat32 partition. I am currently checking the Motherboard and Hard Drive manufacturers for updated IDE drivers and such.
I am trying to install a ASUS P3V133 mother board, 15Gb Maxtor 7500rpm ATA/66 hard drive, Pentum III 600mhz w\133bus, Richo dvd/cd-rw/cd-rom, 3DFX Voodoo 3000 AGP video card, Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live sound card, and a Motarola 56k modem... Is there anything else I can try to make this thing work? Am I correct in suspecting its a problem between my Hard Drive and Motherboard?
Mark Garza

Answer : I would agree that you are looking in the right areas (motherboard especially). WIth the VIA chipset you really must apply any patches on the CD or floppy that comes with the motherboard since that chipset came out after 98 was released (and thus it knows nothing about it). Apply those first thing after the base OS install and see how it goes then.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com

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QAId : 1251908
Asker : pbrealey
Subject : PC Components
Private : No

Question : Because of the way PC's loose their value so quickly I've always been inclined to just buy clones. But recently I had the opportunity to compare 2 "identically" configured PIII 800Mhz pcs, one a Gateway and the other a clone.

the Gateway was significantly quicker, why would this be?

Keep up this great service guys, it is very much appreciated.

Best Regards
Paul

Answer : Significantly quicker at exactly what? There can be lots of things different - the motherboard design being of major importance. A couple of other things that come to mind that can also affect performance:

Memory type and settings in the BIOS
Video card chipset and drivers (& settings)

If all systems were the same based on only the CPU there wouldn't be any reason to benchmark them, eh? Your best bet is to benchmark these systems with real benchmarks that simulate actual working applications to determine which is faster. A good example is 3D Mark 2000 (http://www.madonion.com).

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com
Rating : 3

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QAId : 1251931
Asker : pbrealey
Subject : PC Components
Private : No

Question : Because of the way PC's loose their value so quickly I've always been inclined to just buy clones. But recently I had the opportunity to compare 2 "identically" configured PIII 800Mhz pcs, one a Gateway and the other a clone.

the Gateway was significantly quicker, why would this be?

Can u suggest what type (brand) of motherboard and Ram to use, as this is where I suspect the difference might be.

Keep up this great service guys, it is very much appreciated.

Best Regards
Paul

Answer : There are lots of things besides the CPU that make the speed of the PC.

I like Abit and Asus motherboards. Check the Asus P3V4X as a good mobo that can handle a 133Mhz FSB and has AGP4x and ATA66 drive controllers. For RAM get either Crucial or Kingston RAM (or try Step's at http://www.step-thermodynamics.com). Look for CAS-2 performance (as opposed to CAS-3) at the speed you intend to run it at...

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 5

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QAId : 1283649
Asker : carl944
Subject : Secondary IDE
Private : No

Question : I built a new system using some new components (case, mainboard, video card, modem/sound card, CDR W) and some old components (2 hard drives, zip.)

When I boot up, cmos auto detects all devices but after boot up one or neither of my secondary devices show up. Have tried all configurations I can think of, including my old cd-rom which worked fine with my zip in the old system, and have come to two conclusions. Either (1), Windows 98 is not detecting the devices or, (2) my secondary IDE controller is not supporting both devices. If I hook up just the CDR W, it works just fine. If I do the same with just the zip, it works fine. Together I get little to nothing.

Is there an answer to had to my problem???

Answer : Make sure you have all the IDE controller ports set to "Auto" to ensure the BIOS will see all available IDE devices.

Secondly ensure that for all devices on an IDE cable in the machine that you have the orientation of each cable correct (pin 1 (red stripe) towards the power connecter on most IDE drives, including CD-ROMs) and that for cables with more than one device ensure that one is jumpered as "Master, Slave Present" and the other is jumpered as "Slave".

Once that is done if you still don;t see them in Windows yet, open regedit (Start/Run/regedit - hit ENTER) and look in the following location for an entry named "NOIDE":

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES\VXD\IOS

If you see one click on it and press DEL to get rid of it.

Here's a shortcut to the above search if you have the Windows 98 CD handy...

"If you are using Windows 98, navigate to the Tools\Mtsutil folder on the Windows 98 CD-ROM, right-click the Noide.inf file, and then click Install. This should remove a NOIDE entry if it exists. After you use this file, restart your computer. "

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

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QAId : 1341649
Asker : veedubius
Subject : installing second hard drive
Private : No

Question : I have just put a second hard drive into my computer. i knoe a little about computers but not enough to be able to install it properly. It the person who connected it used a single ide cable to connect both the original hdd with O/S and program files etc and the new drive. from what i can remember he made the new drive a primary slave in the bios set up and the orignal the primary master. He said that all I need to do now is to use f-disk to format the new drive but i am not sure how to do this. I am basically zero experience in dos so this is not that easy for me. I was hoping you could tell me the exact steps i need to take to install this drive. I am using windows 98.
Thankyou

Answer : Ok - boot your machine and hold the CTRL key down while it starts booting and a menu will appear. Select "Safe mode - command prompt only". Then type:

fdisk

Answer Yes to the question on large drive support.

Press 5 to change which disk you are working with and select the new disk (probably item #2). There should be no partitions defined - if you see any you probably have the wrong disk selected. Now with the right drive selected press 1 to create a primary partition and let it make it the whole size of the disk. Then ESC out to DOS, reboot and let Windows come up. Then open My Computer and format the new drive letter there by right-clicking and selecting format. ALternately you can open a DOS prompt and type the following (do a "dir X:" first to ensure you are formatting the right drive! - the dir *should FAIL* since the disk is not formatted. If the dir succeeds you are about to format the wrong drive!):

format X: /u

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

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QAId : 1363917
Asker : mathis0169
Subject : Processors
Private : No

Question : I was wondering if you could list from best to worst a few processors for me. The processors are Pentium, Pentium II, Pentium III, Amd-K6, AMD-K6-2, Athlon. Thanks for your time, and reasonable response will get a 5.

-Mathis

Answer : Ok here's the order as I see it (best to worst - and since you didn't list how "best" is to be measured I will be taking this from the standpoint of best to buy as a home user):

Pentium 3 - Coppermine
Athlon
Pentium 2
AMD K6-2
AMD K6

I put the Pentium 3 above the Athlon (despite the Athlons' excellent design) due to a couple of things:

1) Chipsets for Athlons have problems
2) Chipsets for Athlons are less compatible with alternative operating systems (Linux, BeOS, etc)
3) Athlon CPUs are wattage-eaters and require special attention to the system power supply.

If you are purchasing a system from a vendor prebuilt and only intend to run MS operating systems the choice is closer between the Athlon and P3.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 5

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QAId : 1680254
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : DVD
Private : No

Question : Hi,
i would like to knowt he difference between a DVD and CDR. and does one replace the other? i mean if i have a DVD do i need a CDR?

Answer : A CDR is a recordable CD-ROM (capacity around 650MB)

A DVD-ROM is like a CD but larger capacity - (4.7GB) - and newer drives can sometimes record them too - but generally DVDs are used as read-only devices like CD-ROMs.

Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 5
Rating : 5

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QAId : 1691493
Asker : kinship1
Subject : External Syquest Syjet SCSI drive
Private : No

Question : Hello, I have a custom built computer that has a ASUS P2B mobo, Adaptec 2940 UW scsi card, 2 seagate internal scsi hard drives and a maxtdor EIDE drive for booting. I have Windows 98 installed and 256 megs ram. The system was built in May of 1999.

My system has been running flawlessly and I purchased a Syquest Syjet drive for a low cost storage solution to save large files. I have tried everything imaginable to get the Syjet installed. Windows freezes up right before it loads the desktop whenever the Syjet drive is plugged into the SCSI slot. If I unplug it, Windows starts just fine. I have tried swapping PCI slots for the card and other peripherals, nothing helps. I tried installing a new driver for the SCSI card but windows states the best driver is already in use.

The strange thing is, If I boot without the Syjet plugged in, plug it in after windows boots and then use the install new hardware option of windows to look for the drive, it finds it and load the drivers perfectly. As soon as I reboot, it hangs up again if the drive is still plugged in. This tells me that the drive works fine and windows sees it and assigns it a drive letter, but a fresh boot can't happen with it installed at startup.

I am not an expert by far, but I can find my way around a computer. I have not and am reluctant to mess with my BIOS (Award). I have entered the BIOS settings to try changing the PNP settings, but nothing made a difference, so the settings were restored. Syquest is being sold, so their support is pretty non-existent. Have you encountered this? What can I do to get the Syjet drive to be recognized on boot up?

Thanks
kinship1@hotmail.com

Answer : This sounds like it might be a SCSI termination problem. If you have only internal devices on a SCSI chain terminators must be present on the SCSI card and on the last device internally (at the end of the cable). If using only external devices the SCSI card again is terminated and the last external device is terminated. In the case where you have both internal *and* external devices you need to *remove* the terminators from the SCSI card and again terminate both the last internal and last external device.

Check your terminations (and perform a CTRL-A during boot to examine SCSI card settings) - I think this is where your problems lies.

Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 4

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QAId : 1710694
Asker : remaltailor
Subject : hardware terms
Private : Yes

Question : hi i i was wondering if you know a web site which tells you about hardware terms. don't know much about hardware terms such as ATX,PCI,BX ECT. it does not make sense to me. can you help me please.

thanks

Answer : Here's a good one:

http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/glossary/glossaryindexfull.html

Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

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QAId : 1717955
Asker : kinship1
Subject : Upgrading cpu
Private : No

Question : Hello, you helped me tremendously by directing me to the SCSI termination on my system. I am now interested in swapping my Pentium III 450 with a Pentium III 750. Again, I have an ASUS P2B mobo and checked the website to ensure that the board can accept the processor. Are there any special considerations I must be careful of when making this swap? I know the PIII 750 would require a cooler environment than the 450 but I plan on using a retail boxed cpu with a fan included that should work. Are their any BIOS changes I need to make to run at 750 from 450?

Thanks!

Answer : Nope - a 750 sounds to me like a P3-750 that runs on a 100Mhz FSB so it should just be a plug and go operation. Shouldn't even need to reinstall the OS or any apps. I would suggest flashing with the latest BIOS from Asus's website (http://www.asus.com.tw) before switching chips.

I'm glad my answer solved your problem with the SCSI question (a 4-star is all you give for correct answers? Does a 5-star require psychic abilities beyond even mine? :-)

Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 5

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QAId : 1724092
Asker : akkha
Subject : midi?
Private : Yes

Question : dear sir/madam

why i cannot listen .mid file on my computer?
but i can listen .wav .mp3 etc...
I have try many ways but still cannot.
Pls tell me the solution?

My computer
-IBM pc compatible
-win98
-use winamp and etc.. to listen the songs
-nothing wrong wiz my computer

PS. If i'm in a wrong category, pls tell me where should i ask?

Thanks in advance

Answer : Try double-clicking on the little speaker icon at the bottom-right of your Windows desktop (that are is called the Systray). When it comes up there should be a slider for "Wavetable" or MIDI - ensure that the "mute" checkbox is NOT checked and slide the slider way up. Then try playing another MID or RMI file (some are stored in \WINDOWS\MEDIA - and you can play them with Windows built in media player by doing a Start/Run/mplayer.exe - then go to the Device menu and select MIDI Sequencer (then open one of those MID/RMI files).

Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

FUQuestion : dear paul

thanks for answer.
but i already try that but still cannot hear it.
do u think it's sound card's problem?
but i can hear other format....???

thanks in advance

Answer : Yes if you can hear WAV files and the sound for MIDI is turned up I'd suggest you try a different driver set. Try

http://www.winfiles.com

Click on the drivers section and find your manufacturer to get the latest drivers.

Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

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QAId : 1764595
Asker : RichardEllis1
Subject : Buying a desktop and a laptop
Private : Yes

Question : I am about to purchase both a desktop and a laptop PC for my work as an IT consultant.Any thoughts on where I will get the best value and what I should be looking for? I don't need to be state of the art - but I wouldn't want to be too far off the pace either.

Any help appreciated.

Answer : The answer always depends on budget - how much you want to spend.

I can give you some reasonable targets, however.

Desktop -
P3-600 or better
128MB RAM
10-20GB hard disk
19" monitor .25mm dp/agp maximum
CDRW burner

Notebook - these are tougher since they are mostly frozen in time and become outdated very quickly -
P2-333 or faster
10-12" LCD (no active matrix necessary unless you're going to play Quake too :-)
64MB - 128MB RAM
CD-ROM and floppy
2 PCMCIA (PC Card) ports for Ethernet, modem or removable storage

For the notebook I would search ebay.com or other sources of auctions/sales and pick one up used. It's easy to tell how a notebook has been handled so you can avoid the bad ones without difficulty. And you'll save a fortune as the cutting-edge of notebooks costs plenty but drops in value like a rock with an anvil tied to it.

And please don't make me waste this great humor by asking the question privately (unless you really need it to be). Others can't enjoy and learn from the answers that way. Thanks...

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

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QAId : 1779681
Asker : jonnieo
Subject : dial up networking freezing
Private : No

Question : I just built a new dual celeron system. I did a clean installation of win2k. I think my problem lies with dial up networking. After as few as 3 minutes or as many as 25 minutes, the connection goes dead. The connection icon remains in the tray, but shows not data transfer. I am unable to connect to anything (no browsing the web, irc, mail etc.) If I try to disconnect, nothing happens. In order to get another connection, I have to reboot the machine. When I do so, I get a message that dial up networking is not responding, press a key to end the program. Because it's a new drive, I just formatted and reinstalled win2k with the hopes of it working, but unfortunately, the same thing happens.

I know it is not a problem with the ISP because I use the same account with no problem on my other computer.

It is a 56k USR voice winmodem, abit bp6 motherboard, celeron 366's, soundblaster live, voodoo 3 3000... any other details you may need?

Thanks,
John

Answer : Can you temporarily obtain a different modem to test for the same behavior?

That would be the first thing I would test - and if it solves the problem you'll actually have solved two if you get something other than a WinModem. Those are not a good modem to have for a couple of reasons:

1) They rely on the CPu for their processing and slow your system down unnecessarily.

2) They use true drivers (as opposed to a real external modem which uses Windows' native serial port drivers) which can have memory leaks and bugs as any driver can - they complicate your OS environment.

In fact I'd be willing to bet that your problem lies with the drivers for your WinModem and that either upgrading the drivers (when new ones are available (perhaps now?) or replacing the modem with a nice external (or internal non-winmodem if you must) unit will solve your problem.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 5

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QAId : 1880623
Asker : mohammad127
Subject : video card
Private : No

Question : hi
I have 166MGZ P1 computer (not MMX or PRO) and I was have 12X cd-rom and coz of that I cant run video cds on my computer (the pic was come for small time 1sec then stop and so , the sound was like that too, and its not smooth at all) , my friends tell me that i have to buy new cd-rom ,so I do and buy (acer 50X) but i test it again with video cd and the pic and sound was better but not good at all , its not smooth at all , I have 2MG video card (trident) and I have lost it driver disk , so i use (sic tish) universal driver it look very good ,do i have to buy new video card or get the driver from its web site , or the proseccer ,or the motherboard(66MGZ) is the resone , i have 32 EDO ram, help me plzzzzzz.

Answer : When you say "video CDs" I'm assuming you mean AVI/MPG/MOV type movie files on a CD. If these are in any reasonable resolution (say, above 320x240) then your video card (and to a lesser extent, your CPU) is your logjam. A 2MB Trident card from the P166 days is either an ISA card or a very early PCI (or VLB) card. Either way, picking up a 16MB NVidia TNT-based card for about 40-50 bucks on EBay would be a good, inexpensive way to spruce up the system.

A few on auction right now on EBay:

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&ebaytag1=ebayreg&ht=1&query=tnt+pci&ebaytag1code=0&SortProperty=MetaEndSort

If your sound card is an ISA card you may also consider getting rid of it for a PCI one too (Diamond MX300 or SBLive Value). Note that the money you spend on these cards will not be wasted when you eventually get another machine - they can be migrated into the better machine if you plan around them.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

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QAId : 2189157
Asker : litespeed
Subject : hard drive format problem
Private : No

Question : after adding a SECOND hard drive,
seagate ata33 8.4 GB
and letting bois auto detect. (Abit BP6)
WIN2000 has identified the drive, and has excepted a primary partition, (but did not set active).
The drive drive will not except a format, either
fat 32 or ntfs.

I have tried both my ata33 and ata66 controllers
but problem persists.

thanks for your time!!!

Answer : Be sure all settings for this disk in the BIOS are set to "Auto"

Then boot from a pure DOS diskette (make one on a Windows 95/98 machine by going to Start/Settings/Control Panel/Add-Remove Programs/Startup Disk tab) and fdisk and format the drive there. Then reboot on your normal Windows 2000 and it should use the disk.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

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QAId : 2217958
Asker : Citt
Subject : choosing a motherboard
Private : No

Question : Could someone please recommend a motherboard for an Intel PC with a pentium III? I have heard ASUS & ABIT are good names. I would like to get it with the 133 RAM!! I looked on ratings boards, but it just rates one or 2 motherboards & does not list the board by manufacturer so I could see a whole line of product. I am looking for not more than $225. The most important thing is stabilty. Thank you.

Answer : The Asus P3V4X is a great board *if* you install the proper drivers - after much tweaking I install *only* the ATAPI drivers from the 4-in-1 driver set and the 4.03 AGP driver in "turbo" mode with the BIOS AGP setting locked to 2X operation. System runs fast and stable as a rock (now) - this was a bear to figure out and you will encounter this with (or something similar) since every non-Intel chipset (Via Apollo Pro 133A in this case) motherboard will have these type of drivers.

This board is also well within your price range... (probably under 140)

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 2229866
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : OEM drive
Private : No

Question : dear expert,

i am interested in possibly purchasing an OEM dvd drive. i was wondering if these drives come with the screws, etc. necessary for installing it? please get back to me

thanks,
Faye :O)

Answer : Generally speaking yes, nearly all drives will come with the screws you need (the cable is unneeded as you can use the third connector off your standard IDE cable for the DVD drive).

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 2236727
Asker : aparna
Subject : computer science hardware
Private : No

Question : what is the difference between adaptor and a interface card

Answer : They usually both refer to an internal expansion card, though I would say that "interface card" always means that, and "adapter" could sometimes refer to external devices as well. But generally most people use them interchangably.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 2250645
Asker : arcangel
Subject : Adding CDR
Private : Yes

Question : Hi,
I just recently purchashed a new CDR for my computer. The problem I'm having is that I want to use my existing CD Rom in one bay, and the CDR in another bay. I currently have the just the CDR hooked up in the computer, and have removed the CD Rom.
When I purchased the CDR it came with another cable to hook up the sound on it, so I'm just using the one that was there from the old CD Rom and it seems to be working fine.
The problem I'm having is I want to run then both in the computer, and there is only one of those wide flat cables to hook them up. Not only is there only one, I don't see any place to add another one if I had it.
How do I go about having them both in the computer, and functional at the same time? Do they make a cable that connects as a single at one end, and a double at the other end?
Thanks,
Arcangel

Answer : Yes - your local computer store should caryy IDE cables with three connectors - one is at a "long" end of the cable and the other two are relatively closer to each other at the other end. Use the long end to reach the motherboard IDE port you're currently using, and plug each drive into one of the other two connectors (making sure to orient the cable so the striped wire (pin 1) is on the side of the power connecter of the drive. Also you will need to set the jumpers on each drive (jumpers are the small (usually black) plastic devices on the back or underside of the drive that, when attached, cover (and connect) two metal pins to make decisions about the device configuration). One of the CD drives need to set to Master (sometimes abbreviated as "MA") and the other as Slave (sometimes abbreviated as "SL").

Finally after doing this ensure the BIOS settings are set to auto for all IDE device so both drives will be found and used. Enter the BIOS with a DEL keypress (usually) during a cold powerup (from off state). In the main BIOS screen you can turn all IDE devices (primary and secondary) to "Auto". Then save and exit the BIOS and let the boot continue.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 5

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 2252038
Asker : shakeykev@...
Subject : logging into a novell netware 3.12 server
Private : No

Question : I need to know the steps taken to log on to a Netware 3.12 server from a windows 98 client.

Answer : 1) Either obtain the Netware client for 98 from:

http://www.novell.com/download/
(click on Client 3.21 for Windows 95/98 English) & Install it

OR

Install the Microsoft Client for Netware in your Network control panel. once either of them are installed you will simply need to indicate what the server name is (and have IPX/SPX installed (automatic with both clients)) and then just login.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 2263221
Asker : niceroy
Subject : window 95 startup disk
Private : No

Question : I have lost the Window 95 Startup Disk.
I cannot install Window 95.
What should I do?

Answer : OK - Make a boot floppy (on another Windows machine) as follows:

Start/Programs/MS-DOS Prompt

(put a blank floppy in the drive)

format a:

c:
cd \
sys a:
copy windows\himem.sys a:\
copy windows\smartdrv.exe a:\
copy windows\command\mscdex.exe a:\
copy windows\command\xcopy*.exe a:\
copy windows\command\format.com a:\
copy windows\command\edit.com a:\
copy windows\command\sys.com a:\

Download the following file to A:\

http://members.home.com/iqueue/idecd.sys

Now create a config.sys as follows:

edit a:\config.sys

The config.sys needs the following in it:
device=\himem.sys
device=\idecd.sys /d:cdrom001

Save the config.sys

Now edit A:\AUTOEXEC.BAT and put the following in it:

@echo off
\mscdex.exe /d:cdrom001 /l:f
\smartdrv /n c+ f 4096 4096

Save the file and exit.

Now you will have a bootable disk that will bring up your CD-ROM as drive letter F: - the best thing to do at this point in your reinstall is NOT to launch the install, but rather ensure you have XCOPY.EXE and XCOPY32.EXE on the floppy or in the C:\ directory and do an xcopy of all the files in the "Win95" subdirectory off the CD to your hard disk and perform the installation from *there*. Why? A couple of reasons - one is the installation goes faster from the hard disk, but that's a minor reason. The primary reason is that after installation you will no longer be bothered by that annoying "please insert your Windows 95 CD" when upgrading drivers, installing new versions of DirectX, etc, since all the source files for the OS are on your disk. the XCOPY command looks as follows:

(boot from floppy and format the hard drive

a:
format c:
sys c:

if necessary - be sure you have a backup first of whatever you want to keep!)

xcopy f:\win95\*.* c:\win95kit\*.* /e

Now boot off the hard disk and do:

cd \win95kit
setup

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

FUQuestion : Would you send the Window 95 Startup
disk to me?
wisdomroy@yahoo.com
Thank you.

Answer : OK - even though I laboriously typed in all the instructions for you to do it yourself... :-)

Check your email - it should be there now.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 2303674
Asker : jsunshine301
Subject : CD Recorder
Private : No

Question : I just tried to install a cd-recorder on my machine. It is one of the original "smart and friendly" devices (2x). I replaced my original cd-rom (not cdr) with the cdr and turned on my computer. It gave me a whole bunch of error messages (which I neglected to write down) and then went to the windows prompt. I recorded one CD and then turned the computer off. Then the next time I turned on the computer it tried to enter windows and then it frose. The next time it gave me a window asking if I wanted to enter windows: 1)normally 2)log mode 3)safe mode 4)dos prompt. I tried all options and the only one that doesn't cause the computer to freeze is DOS prompt. I removed the CDR (without replacing it with the old drive) and tried again and it produced the same result. HELP! Thanks for any tips you can provide.

-Josh

Answer : Initially I would have said you had the jumpers for an IDE device (the CDR) set improperly (I may still say that - check it). Since the behavior stayed with the machine even after removal of the drive you have done something permanent to the install of Windows. A couple of things you can try:

(I'm assuming Win98 since you didn't say)

1) Open a DOS prompt (or boot to pure DOS since it's all you can really get to anyway) and type the following:

c:
cd \windows\sysbckup
dir *.cab

You should see a list of files - these are backups of your registry that are taken at intervals determined by Windows. Find the newest-dated one and type:

extract /e newest.cab

now you will have four files:

system.ini
win.ini
system.dat
user.dat

Now type the following:

cd ..
attrib -r -h -s *.dat
copy /y system.dat system.ped
copy /y user.dat user.ped
copy /y system.ini sysini.ped
copy /y win.ini winini.ped
copy /y sysbckup\system.dat .
copy /y sysbckup\user.dat .
copy /y sysbckup\system.ini .
copy /y sysbckup\win.ini .

Now press CTRL-ALT-DEL to reboot and see how you fare (keep the CDR disconnected for the moment).

2) A more drsatic measure you can try is to make Windows redetect all hardware as if it was the first boot again. Type the following into a DOS prompt to try this one if #1 fails to help:

c:
cd \windows
attrib -r -h -s *.dat
attrib -r -h -s \system.1st
copy /y system.dat system.ped
copy /y \system.1st system.dat

Then reboot and let Windows redetect all the devices (drivers and your user settings (wallpaper, Start menu, etc) should remain.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Answer : One thing I just realized you'll need to change in step #1:

The first line below is new and needs to be executed before the rest...

attrib -r -h -s *.dat
cd ..
attrib -r -h -s *.dat
copy /y system.dat system.ped
copy /y user.dat user.ped
copy /y system.ini sysini.ped
copy /y win.ini winini.ped
copy /y sysbckup\system.dat .
copy /y sysbckup\user.dat .
copy /y sysbckup\system.ini .
copy /y sysbckup\win.ini .

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 2378919
Asker : jcbrs3764
Subject : computer upgrade
Private : No

Question : i have an ibm ps/1 consultant running on a 486 Dx2-50 mhz processor with 4mb of memory. i want to upgrade the motherboard so i can put a better processor in it for more speed. something like a pentium 3 550mhz processor. i need to no what type of motherboard i need. something around $100 to $200. i want to know if i need a slot 1 socket 370, or a slot A, or a socket 7 motherboard i dont know what type my computer has. the pentium 3 only goes on slot 1 motherboards. i just want to know what type of motherboard can go into my computer

Answer : here's no point in keeping the case (and letting it restrict your choice of motherboards) since the current case is very likely an older-style AT formfactor and the newer ATX motherboards will not fit it. That, and the fact that a new case is the least expensive part of your upgrade, with good cases (like the Inwin A-500) going for 50 bucks:

http://www.markonecomputers.com/cases_in-win_a500.asp?OrderID=39596263929357546567916

Your best bet is to grab a P3-600 or 800, a 128MB PC133 DIMM, and a new case and then gut the old machine for usable parts and build your new machine in the new case.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 5

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 2396640
Asker : wildcarrot
Subject : Purchasing products.
Private : No

Question : i've grown quite frustrated.
is there *anywhere* i could get these products:

Athlon 1ghz slot A (most places go up to 950mhz)
256MB PC133 *unregistered* (most places don't say one way or another)

(the kicker) GeForce 2 GTS AGP card. *64MB*
the best price i found was at www.west-tech.com at $325 although most places price around 350 360.

and at this point, i'd prolly be willing to pay a bit above best price to get all three products from the same place. and without month of backordering to wait through.

help. please. ...

Answer :
CPU - 1GHz (doesn't indicate whether it's slot or socket):

http://www.markonecomputers.com/cart/getlist.asp?OrderID=39596368540482729673385&ItemCat=CPUS

Unbuffered 256MB DIMM:

http://www.markonecomputers.com/cart/getlist.asp?OrderID=39596368540482729673385&ItemCat=MEMORY

As for the video card...

http://www.mysimon.com/isrch/index.jhtml?c=videocards&pgid=shop&InputKeyword=geforce+2+gts+64&key=UC_20000810_105914_0378125211

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Question : I have a NT 4.0 system with 2 hard drives. The new one is a 26gig DMA66 Quantum fireball. Since my current motherboard only uses DMA33, the drive is acting like a DMA33 and was formatted as such. IT's NTFS as one partition. I want to install a new mother board that supports DMA66 and I wanted to know if I have to reinstall the hard drive or re format it. There is data on it now.

Answer : No you don't need to do anything... you're confusing transfer methodology with disk format. the ATA33 or ATA66 relates only to the motherboard-to-harddisk interface and determines the speed at which they communicate. The disk will in both cases support DMA transfers and the disk format (in this case, NTFS) does not come into the picture at all.

In fact when it comes time to put the new disk in, you can transfer the entire disk you have now to the new one, switch the jumpers and be booting off of, and using, the new disk with no preparation required. A program that can accomplish this is Ghost -you can get it here:

http://www.symantecstore.com/Product/0,1057,2-1-SN104675,00.html

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

FUQuestion : Could you solve a problem I am having with NT? My Netscape communicator suddenly showed up with a guest profile I did not creat. I can't delete it, and I can't modify it. Can you help?

Answer : Sure - please don't forget to rate the answer since we've already finished with this previous one... also please refrain from making private questions unless they really need to be - no one else can benefit from our discussion if it's marked private as they can't read it.

As for Netscape if you look under Netscape's folder in the Start menu there is a user profile manager, with which you can delete the unneeded profile.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 5

FUQuestion : Sorry about the private thing. I'm very bussy and it is easier to just keep this going. My NT problems continue. I used to have a PCI modem problem were the comm port assigned was showing up as invalid, although it worked fine. This caused an event error every time I started NT and displayed an event error banner on startup. A new driver for the modem fixed the problem. I don't see an error event in the event viewer under system. However, I still receive a banner that says a driver failed to load on startup. I can't find any error in event viewer responsible for this message. Perhaps loging this event is turned off somewere and I don't know were to turn it back on. Question 2. Do you have any experience with Win2000 Advanced Server. I want to upgrade from NT Workstation 4.0. At the same time I want to put in a new 500MHZ Mother board in. What's the difference from Advanced version and non advanced?

Answer : The primary differences are more SMP (up to 8 processors instead of 4) and clustering/load-balancing ability.

Have you checked all the logs for this error? Under Event Viewer's top-left menu you can choose one of 3 (?) logs to examine for the error.

You will not have much success upgrading the motherboard underneath an existing NT4 install. The OS is wrapped too tightly around the motherboard's resources. You're juts asking for trouble doing that. Best bet is to backup what you needs from NT4, blow away the disk, install the new motherboard, and do a clean install of Win2000 Server (or NT4, then 2000 if it's an upgrade edition - doubtful since you said it's Workstation and not Server you're running).

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

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QAId : 2446425
Asker : griss08
Subject : page/image compression
Private : No

Question : I just launched a website with many grapic and animated images. Since looking at it live, some pages are loading slowly. I am worried becaused I don't want visitors to leave without looking. so, I'm inneed of a good file/page compression software that will allow faster loading. any suggestions?
Thank you
Donald Cordray
griss08@themail.com

Answer : Here is a site that will hit your URL and tell you where you can tune-up to save bandwidth -

http://websitegarage.netscape.com/P=nscp_sitecentral/O=wsg/tuneup/

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

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QAId : 2457198
Asker : bunik
Subject : asus system board problems
Private : Yes

Question : I am currently building a system using a ASUS system board and a coppermine P3 processor. Right after the computer runs the POST I get the error "VCORE ERROR". Any ideas?

Thanks,
Scott

Answer : It sounds like a voltage issue - ensure you have the proper voltages set in the SoftBIOS settings for that CPU (normal internal voltage is 1.65 volts, I believe, external voltage is 3.x volts).

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

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QAId : 2505408
Asker : menasheh
Subject : Upgrade or buy new?
Private : No

Question : 1) I have a Cyrix 133MHz system with 32 MB RAM. I browse the web extensively and need to have a little more speed. I have a Cyrix M-II chip which I believe is 333 MHz. I want to know if replacing this chip will cause any bad things to happen to my computer. If so what? There is tons of valuable info on my hard-drive that I can't afford to lose. Should I open my computer and replace the CPU or not?

2) I am contemplating buying a new computer. I would like to have a labtop but cannot afford the high prices. Is it possible for me to build my own? If so how can I make sure to build a good system that has compatible components and will not brake down? What are some good cheap places to buy the components?

Answer : In answer to question #1

If the motherboards' manual indicates that this CPU (and speed) are supported then switching in the new CPU will not damage anything, and will not necessitate a reinstall - just pop it in and turn it on. If you have problems with the new CPU that you cannot resolve just switch back to the old one until you figure out what went wrong.

#2 No, you will not be able to build your own laptop. They are highly-integrated and highly-proprietary pieces of gear. unlike a desktop where there are case and peripheral card standards notebooks are designed for maximum space savings - sometimes at the expense of adhering to any standards with regard to shape and placement of any particular items. Your best bet if you really must have a notebook (I generally dislike them since they are generally overpriced and underpowered) and don't have much money to spend is to check on http://www.ebay.com and do a search for the term "notebook" and see how many you find that are within your budget and if they will meet our needs.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 2549906
Asker : brobinson516
Subject : Hard drive upgrade
Private : No

Question : Hi,

I have installed a Maxtor hard drive with Ez bios.
The computer is a Gateway Pentium 75.

I installed Windows 98 on the system which took forever to do. The computer is running extremely slow with 32 meg of memory.

Could LBA mode being disabled in Ez bios setup cause my computer to run so extremely slow? How about the other settings in Ez bios?

Please Help!

Thanks.
Bill

Answer : Using the BIOS overlay software (MaxBlast/EZ-BIOS) does not normally cause any significant performance hit as I believe it's only involved at boot time, but it should be avoided when posible. To get max performance from your system you really need a minimum of 64MB in Windows 98, preferably 128MB. ALsoo be sure and enable DMA on the hard disk:

Start/Settings/Control Panel/System/Device Manager tab/ open the Hard Disk item and double click on the IDE hard disk/ Settings/ check the box for DMA and reboot.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 4

Answer : I don't follow your last comment. Where in your original question did you say that you couldn't enter Windows? Nowhere I see... all you indicated was slow performance. Oh well.. guess I need to go back and take that refresher Mind-Reading 101 class.

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QAId : 2553024
Asker : simon@...
Subject : ibm pc architecture
Private : No

Question : Is there any advantage to having a PCI chipset if you i have any peripheral cards to plug into the bus

Answer : As opposed to...? ISA? VLB? EISA?

Yes, PCI is the best architecture for PC add-in cards that is out there. It is fast and highly supported so for any card you buy new and plan to us in your PC, look for a PCI version first and foremost.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

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QAId : 2594163
Asker : andysandler
Subject : scsi adapter
Private : No

Question : I just bought a burner for my laptop, the only problem is the burner is SCSI. Is there an adapter so it might work on my laptop?

thanks

Andy

Answer : If the laptop has PCMCIA slots (also call "PC Card slots") you can get a SCSI controller for that slot and use it that way. Here are some:

http://www.us.buy.com/retail/searchresults.asp?search_store=1&qu=pcmcia+scsi

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 2686298
Asker : jkno
Subject : w2k /Netware
Private : No

Question : I work in a Netware(IPX) environment authentication, printing etc.

When attempting to add a network printer in Windows 2000 (through the Add Printers wizard) there is a delay for 30 or more minutes before any servers are displayed. I have installed the service pack, rearranged bindings, fiddled with protocols, etc. and nothing seems to speed this up.

Have you seen this before? Is there a Fix?

Thasnks in advance for your help.

Answer : I haven't seen this...

Are you using Novell's client or Windows'?

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 2729104
Asker : alienbust
Subject : about CD-R and CD-RW
Private : No

Question : hi, i just wondering which one should i get, a cd-r or a cd-rw, is cd-rw worth the money? and also, if i buy a 4x write cd-r, do i have to buy 4x cds? or i can buy faster cds to write on./
thanks alot.

Answer : A CDRW doesn't really carry a price premium so I'd definitely recommend you get one with CDRW support. It may not sound so useful at first, but belive me it is once you start using it. the ability to use a CD without having to worry about the vost (since you'll erase it later) to move large files around - it's definitely the new floppy (though not quite as easy to work with yet).

If you buy a 4X then buy 4X media - buying media rated at a higher rate than your drive can write is a waste of money, and anything lower will not give you the speed you paid for...

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 2734751
Asker : rvilla
Subject : Server keeps locking up???
Private : No

Question : I have a problem at work and we can't figure it out! Our Windows NT server goes down/locks up a few times a day and my boss is getting ready to explode!

We are running Windows NT 4.0, and we have a production database program called WinIQ32 using Oracle 7. Our server used two Pentium II processors; together it's about 700 mhz which is what is recommended to run WinIQ32 & Oracle. Our hardware guy tells us it's a software problem and our software people tell us it's a hardware problem.

This is what happends when it locks up. It sounds like it is processing something then the red light goes on and the server goes down, then we have to reboot the system to get it running again.

Help!

My email at work is:
rvilla@mastercraft-companies.com

Thanks!

Need More Information : Define the following items:

"sounds like it is processing something"

"red light goes on"

Are there no error messages? Are you saying it shuts itself down? Is this machine patched up to SP6a? Are you using the latest drivers for all devices and ODBC (if present)? Make sure the server is also using the *standard VGA* driver for video as it is:

1) All you need on a server - lightweight 640x480 and puts no extra strain on the system displaying a console you won't be looking at much.

2) STABLE

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

FUQuestion : Sounds like it is processing something: "You can hear the CPU searching".

The red light comes on: "I'm talking about the red light next to the reset button".

It doesn't display any error messages because it just locks up. It still displays but you can't select anything. Also when we turn on the task manager to monitor the CPU's performance, it locks up at 55% usage.

What is an SP6a used for?

Could you explain what the ODBC is used for?

Thanks, I really appreciate your help.

rv

Answer : It sounds like the disk drive gets a lot of activity just before it locks. Have you tried pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL when it does that to see if you can get the task manager up?

SP6a is a service pack - it's a series of updates to the OS that Microsoft puts out to keep up with bugs they've found. Install it to be sure your problem isn't covered.

http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver/nts/downloads/recommended/sp6/allsp6.asp?FinishURL=%2Fdownloads%2Frelease%2Easp%3FReleaseID%3D15805%26redirect%3Dno

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

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QAId : 2755957
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Computer Monitors health
Private : No

Question : In your judgment and experience, what is the best way to preserve the monitor's life and well being if you are going to be away from the monitor for a couple of hours or more: 1) Permit to power down in sleep of screen saver mode, or 2)Press monitor on/off button to turn monitor off. I have a monitor that came with my Gateway that has one button that you press when you wish to turn on or off. I shut down the whole system at night when retiring, monitor and computer.

Thanks.

Answer : I leave my systems on 24/7 all year long. Why? When a system first powers up it is at room temperature. Over a short time it heats up until it reaches an equilibrium point (where the heat it produces is counterbalanced by the environment's ability to take on the extra heat). At that point unless the environment changes the system temperature is fairly stable, fluctuating several degrees but nothing like the initial powerup. Powering systems off allows them to cool back down. Doing this power off, power on cycle repeatedly decreases a system's life by stressing the power supply and all ICs and other components by the sudden application of power. The heating up/cooling down cycle can also lead to traces failing on the CPU and motherboard, and can add to the tendency of solder to become brittle. So leave the system on...

As for the monitor - I leave mine on all the time too, but I have my screen saver set to come on with 30 minutes of inactivity, and have the monitor power down after an hour. Why is this better than turning it all the way off? Well this stand-by mode:

1) Uses less electricity by far (about 1/10th of normal full-on state).

2) Maintains some heat inside the monitor to avoid the full cool-down discussed above/

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 2873559
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : about computer memory
Private : No

Question : hi, i just wondering whats the differences between all of the 168 pin memory chips, like there are SDrams , EDOrams, 66mhz ones and 133 mhz ones, whats the differences? can u mix them together in one computer?
thanks.

Answer : The chips you see in motherboards for the last few years and today are called "DIMMs" (Dual Inline Memory Module). They come in 3 basic flavors, all related to speed:

66Mhz ("standard" DIMMs for older machines)
PC100 (100Mhz for fast P2s/P3s/Coppermines)
PC133 (133Mhz for P3 Coppermines)
PC150 (relatively new - non-supported by Intel/AMD but useful for overclockers)

That's basically it - the other things you mentioned like EDO (older SIMMs) and such do not apply. One thing you may see is ECC-enabled DIMMs - this is an error-correcting technology that is of dubious value - stay away from ECC unless you know you need it.
Rating : 5

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QAId : 2974262
Asker : hansb2000
Subject : Missing RAM
Private : No

Question : I want to add more RAM to my computer. It has six slots for SIMM modules, slots 0-5. 0 and 1 have 8 MB each. Slots 2-5 have 16 MB of Ram in each one, for a total of 80 MB. My computer is only registering 72 MB of RAM. How can I tell if a module is bad or if its a bank on the motherboard?

Thanks!

HansB

Answer : It sounds like one of the SIMMs in slots 2-5 may be an 8MB and not a 16MB like you think?

Try pulling all the SIMMs out, and do some testing - put a single SIMM in slot 0 and reboot (to DOS only - press F8 to stop Windows) and see what the post and a "mem /c /p" command give you...

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

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QAId : 2992550
Asker : personaje
Subject : CDRW not working
Private : No

Question : Hello,
I own a creative CDRW 2442 (or is it 4224?), well, it writes x4, rewwrites x2 and reads x24. And it started not writing CD-RW (the only brand it still worked was Smart and Friendly). But I didn't used it that much on CDRWs, so I didn't care. But now it's starting not to burn common CDs (and I use any brand, from sony to who-knows-50cents-CDR) and I get a lot of diferent results, but all of them are the waste of CDs. Sometimes it will say the burnprocess went succesfully, but when I turn over the CD, it's half burnt or unusable, or hard to read (the CD spins a lot before I can see what's inside).
My question is, have I been tricked into buying a piece of junk or it has solution? I've upgraded to firmware 1.44 and nothing happened.

Thanks.

Answer : It's quite possible... many burners have troubles and produce many coasters. Sometimes it's due to things beyond the burner's control, such as a slow host system or fragmented disk that cannot feed data quickly enough (or often enough) to feed the sometime meager buffers on some drives. more often, however, it's simply a poor-performing drive. The only drive you should get is a Plextor, period. They are the most solidly built, fastest and have the largest buffers of any drives out. Using the proper software they can also make duplicates of any disk you care to name. Dump that drive on EBay and get yourself a Plextor... you'll be glad you did.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 4
Rating : 4

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QAId : 3083754
Asker : muhammad89
Subject : what does 32bit bus mean?
Private : No

Question : MY DEAR:

WHAT DOES 32BIT BUS MEAN?

DO IT MEAN THAT THERE IS 32 WIRES TO TRANSFER THE

DATA. PLEASE REPLY ME WITH DETAILS. THANK YOU

VERY MUCH.

MUHAMMAD@ITSQ8.COM

Answer : Yes, or more simply, that 32 bits of data can be moved across the bus in one operation. This may or may not involve 32 wires since various techniques in theory could move 32 bits with less wires (although they usually do not employ these for speed/noise reasons).

When referring to the width of a bus, depending on whether you are referring to a data bus or an address bus, can determine the maximum amount of memory that can addressed (in the case of the address bus). A 32-bit address bus can address 4GB of memory.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 4

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QAId : 3096919
Asker : niilo
Subject : System does not recognize new hd
Private : No

Question : I have a 16.8Gb Deskstar disk in my system and have recently bought a 40.9Gb Maxtor DiaMax disk. First, I installed the Max in my (also new) external usb cabinet and the combo works fine - after I created a partition on the Max and formated it within Win98 using fdisk.

Now I'd like to swap disks - the larger Max into my pc and the IBM in the usb cabinet. However, the Max is not recognized when I try to boot the system so I can't install Win98 on it (or copy the Ghost image I have of the IBM main partition to the Max).

Any suggestions?

Rgds
/Niilo

Need More Information : How does this USB cabinet work? Does it integrate with your internal IDE controller or does it have custom drivers to make it work? How old is your PC? Can your BIOS boot from a disk that large (40GB)? Are the drives properly jumpered (this goes back again to the functionality of the USB cabinet) - are both set to master on their own cables, or do they somehow exist as a master/slave pair?

For the purposes of ghosting why don't you simply hook both drives to the internal IDE cable, ghost them so you have to partitions where you want them, and *then* put in the case the one you want there. And before I did that I'd ensure I could boot from the new 40GB *in isolation* without the USB case even hooked up. Be sure your BIOS is set to Auto for the HD settings for all drives (at least all drives actually present).

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

FUQuestion : Paul, the usb cabinet came with custom drivers allright - I just put the Max disk in there, it was jumpered as master and I didn't change anything so both disks are jumrered as masters. My pc is less that two years old but I'm also suspecting that perhaps I should flash the BIOS before trying anything else.

When I crank up my system - with the Max disk in the pc - everything halts with the msg "auto detecting primary hdd" so there's nothing I can do. BIOS trouble??

Rgds
/Niilo

Answer : Could very well be... as I said enter the BIOS setup screens (will come up before the "detecting drives" message) - usually DEL is the key needed to enter. Once in set all 4 IDE devices to Auto across the board (both for size detection and for transfer method). Then see if the system will come up with *just* the new Maxtor installed as master on the internal IDE cable.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 3100559
Asker : kdp9374
Subject : bootup and other problems
Private : No

Question : have a Cumetrix 6420 w/AMD K6-2 500, 64MB, 13GB HD. I
have had this for a little over 4 months and it has had strange
quirks since day 1. No stereo then I have it. It smoothed out
for a while and then went down hill.
I don't have a lot of programs installed and no games. What I
do have is Yahoo Messenger, Dialpad, Callwave Internet
answering machine,Microsoft Works,and Mcafee Virus scan
and clinic. Oh yeah, Vista scan and AdobePhoto Delux.
About a month ago a friend told me that there was a
whistleing sound when we were talking over Yahoo Messenger.
Shortly after that when I tried YM or Dialpad the computer
would shut off when it connected. Cumetrix decided that the
Diamond Supra modem was bad and we traded. Same problems
and same solution from them. While the modem was in transit I
installed a HSP56 micro modem and was able to connect to
the internet. I'm useing it now while waiting for a replacement
from them. Another brand this time. They also tried formating
my C drive. I get this message when(sometimes) booting up:
C:\WINDOWS SYSTEM\vmm32.vxd Missing or unable to load.
Press any key to continue. When I press any key it shuts
down and goes to a screen with 6 options for booting up with
#3 Start in Safemode selected. The record is 17 tries before it
would bootup. There are times when it starts fine.
Tech support says it is my software but I have the same
programs in a 2 year old computer and it works fine. The tech.
guy did ask me if I had another memory stick to try but then
acted as if he never mentioned it. I rarely play music on it but
I tried the other day using the CD player in 98 and after less
than a minute it shut the computer down.
I didn't start out to write a novel but this is about it with the
exception of the colors running together at times when I
connect to the internet and my home page comes up.
I would be eternaly grateful to anyone who can help me deal
with Cumetrix. Thank you. Have at it.

Answer : If you've done a complete OS/apps rebuild as you described and got the same result out of the gate it's apparent to me that you have a hardware issue.
Rating : 5

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QAId : 3151492
Asker : big_bopper
Subject : Plextor 1210 ta
Private : No

Question : Hi

I am having problems enabling DMA on this drive, i have been back and forth to both the plextor technical and Soyo (motherboard 6BA+IV) and each of them is passing the buck it seems... If I enable dma on the writer it then isnt accessible yet it shows up in the device manager.The minute I disable DMA the writer becomes available. Plextor say on their web site to disable DMA when flashing the firmware but to enable it when flashing is done. Thats how I found out I could use it, because as soon as I enabled DMA the writer dissappeared from Windows explorer....

Thanks

Answer : Have you done a regustry search for the term "noide" yet? Sometimes when Windows attempts to enable a device for DMA and initially fails it puts this NOIDE entry into the registry which essentially means "don't try it again in DMA mode". Remove any NOIDE entries you find (Start/run/regedit.exe - CTRL-F, noide, ENTER) and try enabling it again.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

Rating : 4

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QAId : 3208740
Asker : kchow@...
Subject : hardware resourses
Private : No

Question : Hi, I have a little question about os and hardware. Hope u can help.
I know that OS make efficient usuage of hardware resouces but is it possible that OS will waste any hardware resources? when will it be?

KIt

Answer : An operating system can "waste" hardware resources in a few ways I can think of off the top of my head:

1) Overutilize memory and diskspace - this is a misuse (waste) of the user's precious storage and should be avoided by designing an OS that is as small as it can be.

2) UNDERutilization of hardware. Suppose a particular piece of hardware has capabilities X, Y and Z, but a given OS only supports feature Y. Thus the unused features are wasted in that the user is not getting the performance they paid for in the hardware. This is a common problem with Linux whose X support for the latest hardware is always lagging 6-12 months (through no fault of it's own, but yet the problem is a large one and detract from the usefulness for power users who buy cutting-edge hardware).

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

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QAId : 3223957
Asker : sirkevin
Subject : dma 66 ata 100
Private : No

Question : My Motherboard supports dma 66 Hard drives. There is a deal going on for ata100 hard drives can I hook this up to a dma66 controller. Will it work 66 or something less?

Answer : ATA100 drives should work at the lower ATA66 spec with no problems. Once you upgrade motherboards (or transplant the drive into a new machine with an ATA100 controller) you will see *some* speed benefits, although how much is a shaky bet since there aren't any drives out at the moment that can even choke the ATA66 controllers. Better to put the extra $ into a higher-capcity/faster-spinning drive... A 7200 RPM ATA66 will beat out a 5400RPM (or 7200RPM) ATA100 when price is a factor and the ATA100 carries no performance boost even when on an ATA100 controller, no?

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 3333851
Asker : cwg25
Subject : MSCE
Private : No

Question : Hi paul, is there any way I can find free practice mcse tests? I'm looking to get certified. I've been dealing with computers for about 15 years but never have been formally trained. I know some computer "stuff" like getting around in dos...some windows, etc. But I don't know what I need to know to become more comfortable with being able to work towards an mcse certificate. I don't want to take an expensive class or program. I don't have the time or money. So I'd like to try to get it on my own. I've talked to a family friend who works in the field and he says I should familiarize myself with the hardware of a computer first, then fool around with windows and look into different things with that. What else can I do? Any good websites that deal strictly with this? (mcse education). What kind of a job besides a helpdesk position could I hope to get with an mcse certificate? I have a lot of experience with research on the internet and basic computer knowledge. Thanks for your time.

-Chris

Answer : Here is an excellent resource of training for the MCSE and other IT topics...

http://www.freeskills.com

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 2

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QAId : 3382520
Asker : cognis
Subject : Hardware locks
Private : No

Question : Hello,

I recently borrowed a copy of 3D Studio Max R3 from a friend. After having installed it, I wanted to use it, but during its upstart, it suddenly stops to complain, that a "hardware lock" is not present, incorrectly adjusted or something similar. I have no idea what a hardware lock is! The help file did little to help, refering to many other things I had equally little knowledge of. Please advise!

Thank you.
Henrik S. Larsen

Answer : The hardware lock it's referring to is almost without a doubt what is referred to as a "dongle". A dongle is usually plugged in on a port of the system to run the app (serial or parallel port) and the application will look for it before running. this is intended to reduce piracy and limit the number of machines on which the app can run at once.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 4

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QAId : 3387622
Asker : cindy_lens
Subject : dual CPU
Private : No

Question : Hi

After installing a dual-CPU Ultra Sparc 60 with Solaris 2.7 and ran the "top" command, I only see 1 CPU. How can I configure the system to recognize 2 CPU?

Thanks
Cindy

Answer : Holding STOP-D while booting enables the second CPU

STOP-N disables the second CPU.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

Rating : 5

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QAId : 3401343
Asker : naveenmg@...
Subject : computer networking
Private : Yes

Question : What exactly is a Network Domain?
What is Work Group?
Explain in detail with an example

Answer : Here is a great discussion on exactly that:

http://windowsitlibrary.com/Content/169/01/11.html

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

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QAId : 3423174
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Network or not?
Private : No

Question : I have a relatively old pentium 133 computer that used to work fine with win 95. I attached a larger hard drive (3 GB plus the original 1GB) in that machine. I also bought a newer win 98, k6-2 400 system. I am debating whether I should remove the hard drives and the CD-ROM drive from the old machine and attach them to the new one (as external drives) and 'beef' it up, or buy a network card and connect the two computers.

What I am thinking of doing is using one of the hard drives as my 'test' and 'development' drive, where I can download beta software and install/uninstall trial versions of software. I also plan on playing with some software development on that machine. I don't know if networking will be a good idea or 'beefing' up will be a good idea.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Answer : Unless I am out of desk space I consider a full mahcine to be worth much more than the same machine, gutted for parts. Turn it into a secondary machine so you can network them together for games, or turn it into a server. Unless you really can't afford it I'd say keep it intact and buy a NIC for it.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 3455961
Asker : acetaminophen@...
Subject : Power-off
Private : No

Question : Is there a way I can make it so that my pc stays running when I shut down windows(and I cut power manually)? This way I can have one power switch for the pc, monitor, lamp etc....

Answer : This will need to be ste in the BIOS. Enter your BIOS during boot with a keypress before botting begins (usually the DEL key). Then poke around and find the power management section and look for any related items.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

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QAId : 3644440
Asker : rrigginsa@...
Subject : hom to drasw on computer
Private : No

Question : i9 draw i paint would like 6to do it with cursore on pc screen download programs help sec assumes i aleady know need basic info have 10yrs highere ed 5 in aqart little expierence with computer

Answer : Try this paint program...

http://www.jasc.com/psp.html

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

FUQuestion : thank you i haqve tried other free programs but dont understand how to use them the HELP section is no help.I am an artist with some skill but newe to computer
forexample i just downloaded ImageForge(ZDTV Downloads) But I can"t get the cursor to make az markI woud like to draw freehand.

Answer : I suggest you just "play" with the program - over time you will get more familiar with the functions. One thing I can tell you is that the cursor (mouse pointer) changes function based on what thing you have selected from the toolbar on the paint program screen. Look at the toolbar - you may see a hand (moves image around), a pen/pencil (freehand drawing I think), capital "A" (adds text to image), etc. Try clicking each and then click inside the canvas area to see what happens.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

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QAId : 3720764
Asker : marcomar81000
Subject : vmm32.vxd
Private : No

Question : My problem is VMM32.dxv.
In these days, I have tried to change the memory of my old PC (Pentium 100 MHz),
passing from 16 Mb of RAM SIMM to 32 Mb DIMM.
As soon as, my PC begun the first boot, with its new memory configuration,
the problem pop up.
PC soon communicated at me that the VMM32.dxv file was not loaded and arrested the system;
so I have check the BOOTLOG file and I have observed that VMM32.dxv file
is not exist between the many lines.
Following, I report a short part of the BOOTLOG file,
in which I believed to read the exact name VMM32.dxv, but I only found some similar commands.
...
[000E083B] Loading Vxd = VMM
[000E083C] LoadSuccess = VMM
[000E083C] Loading Vxd = C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV.EXE
[000E083C] LoadSuccess = C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV.EXE
[000E083C] Loading Vxd = C:\WINDOWS\system\VMM32\IOS.VXD
[000E083D] LoadSuccess = C:\WINDOWS\system\VMM32\IOS.VXD
[000E083F] Loading Vxd = vnetsup.vxd
[000E0841] LoadSuccess = vnetsup.vxd
[000E0842] Loading Vxd = CONFIGMG
[000E0842] LoadSuccess = CONFIGMG
...
[000E0843]LoadingVxd= C:\WINDOWS\system\VMM32\IFSMGR.VXD
[000E0845]LoadSuccess=C:\WINDOWS\system\VMM32\IFSMGR.VXD
[000E0845] Loading Vxd = SPOOLER
[000E0845] LoadSuccess = SPOOLER
...

Maybe is enough to add any code line in this file?

Please, help me.
Many thanks.
Marco Marchesini (Italy)

Answer : If you switched out the 16MB memory module for the new one you may want to do two things

1) Enter the BIOS and set for the maximum latencies in the memory section. Look around and you will likely find settings that relate to the RAM speed. Set the numbers as high as they will go (higher numbers indicate more wait states between reads and writes).

2) Boot Windows (pressing F8 or holding the CTRL key_ in Safe mode and then when you get to the desktop:

right-click on My Computer and select Properties
Open the Device Manager tab
Go to the virtual memory section
recreate your swap file by setting it from "Let Windows manage" to manual and set the minimum and maximum numbers both to 64 MB (64000?).

Then reboot the machine and see what results you get - hopefully these two steps will remove the error you are getting.

Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 5

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QAId : 3740837
Asker : iizzo
Subject : Interview with an expert
Private : Yes

Question : Hello my name Isaac Mualem and I'm a college student in Miami Fl.
I need to do a research/interview an expert in the major I am in, Computer Information systems/network specialist.
So if you'll be so kind and answer the following questions:
· How long have you been in the business?
· What is your field of expertise?
· Describe your field of expertise in your own words?
· Where or in what sectors in the industry you can work in?
· What are the skill requirements to become one?
· What made you choose that occupation?
· How often are you sent on a business trip?
· What sort of a future do you predict to the occupation?
· What kind of salary range should I expect?
· What kind of assignments do you get during the week?

I thank you for your cooperation.
If you please send the answers to me by e-mail (iizzo@yahoo.com), or post it on the web.
ISAAC MUALEM

Answer : 1) 12 years in computing - 5 in this type of job

2) General computing specialist with emphasis in systems administration, networking, hardware, and programming.

3) see #2

4) Any area of the US labor market - all companies need people with my skillset.

5) Degrees are usually preferred but exceptions are often made for exceptionally bright candidates with experience.

6) I have loved computers since I played games on home "pong" and Atari systems when I was an early teen. When I finally had the money to get a computer I did and haven't looked back since. You have to love it to do it for a long time.

7) Rarely sent on business trips. I did spend 3 months living in England for an employer a couple of years ago - very nice indeed to be able to spend that kind of time in a foreign land without expense!

8) I see nothing but bright prospects for the IT industry as a whole. The numbers of jobs and the pay keep moving up at a steady pace. They may well slow soon but anyone skilled in IT will have no worries for employment in the next 10 years I expect.

9) Salaries differ based on credentials and experience (and skill area) but you can generally expect to start with a college degree around 35-45K per year.

10) Assignments vary - I'm currently a UNIX Systems Administrator so my weekly duties would revolve around building new systems, maintaining or troubleshooting existing systems, and writing custom programs to handle chores in a more efficient manner.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

Rating : 4

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QAId : 3811797
Asker : stu48@...
Subject : Native code and P-Code
Private : No

Question : Hi Paul
i was wondering if you could possibly help me. You see i am doing an assingment and i am finding it very difficult to find anything about P-code or native Code so i was wondering if u could explain each one for me. I would be very grateful. Also i was wondering if i could have it in the next 12 hours :)
Thanks alot

Answer : I believe the primary difference is that "native" code has been compiled for a specific architecture, while P-code requires some interpretation before execution.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

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QAId : 3847770
Asker : goodman168@...
Subject : computer
Private : Yes

Question : Dear Sir/Madam:
Would you please tell me how can i save 4MB files to the 1.44MB disk, if i have 4 piece 1.44 MB disk..or does it has another way to do that......please help me, by the way, i dont have ZIP floppy

Thank you very much

Andy

Answer : The easiest way would be to use WinZip and set it to "span" across floppies.

http://www.winzip.com

Right-click the files/dirs to be backed up, select "Create Zip". Then in the WinZip dialog choose the span option and put A:\WHATEVER.ZIP (name it whatever you like). It will fill up one disk, then ask for more as it needs to until the whole file is done.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

Rating : 5

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QAId : 3848175
Asker : dj_adam
Subject : cdrom prob
Private : No

Question : i have 2 cd drives, one of which is a hp 8200i cd-writer. the other is a mitsumi 12x/16x normal cd-rom.
the cd-drives have stopped working properly and only work with selected cds. it appears that they only worl with cds using ms-dos filenames. any filename with spaces or in lower case letters as seen when typing "dir" under dos just dont work. i tried installing a game and when clicking on the setup.exe it says file not found and askes you to enter the location of the file. but the cd i use to install ntl world worked fine. and ideas?
cheers in advance.
adam marsden

(djadamm@aol.com)

Need More Information : First in a directory you know has long filenames (from DOS) issue:

dir /b

to see long filenames.

Also check to see if your CD-ROMs are in "compatibility mode" where the 32-bit drivers are not being used for some reason.

Right-click on My Computer and select Properties, then click on the Performance tab and see if it says anything about compatibility mode there.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

FUQuestion : thanks for your response but the problem has now been resolved. it was a boot sector virus causing the problem. cheers.

Answer : No answer required...

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QAId : 3869926
Asker : bpn55
Subject : Wallpaper changes
Private : No

Question : I have windows 98 with a pentium II processor. For the past several months, no matter what wallpaper we put on or download new, it always reverts back to what we had last spring. I can never tell when it will change but usually when we shut down and turn it back on, the old wallpaper is back. Also, my daughter (11) set up an under water sceen. Instead of an hour glass when waiting for a web sight, we see a starfish and all underwater sounds when we shut down or click on something. The undersea wall paper is gone but the affects are still there. I can't figure out how to change it back. Any help with directions how to correct these two items woud be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Brad

Answer : You can change the mouse pointers under the mouse control panel (Start/Settings/Control Panel/Mouse) and can change the sounds under the Sound control panel (pick a different scheme).

As for the wallpaper if you are picking one and having a different one come up at boot-time it would seem that something in your startup is setting the wallpaper back to the one you're trying to get rid of. Check your Start/Programs/Startup for any apps that may be doing this - there are many wallpaper manager apps out there that do this sort of thing.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

Rating : 5

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QAId : 4231371
Asker : stevenjac
Subject : Puchasing a CD Recorder
Private : No

Question : I'm planning to buy a CD Writer for my Pentium ll PC. I already have a 24X CD reader. Any useful tips about what to look out for would be gratefully received, as there seems to be a huge sselection available. Or can you point me to a recent comparative review of some?
Many thanks, Steve

Answer : Plextor 12/10/32 or TDK VeloCD 12/10/32

Nothing else comes close and both will serve you well.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA3/CNE_4/CNE_IW/CNE_5/MCP/MCSE/A.A.Sc./B.A
Rating : 3

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QAId : 4231372
Asker : stevenjac
Subject : Puchasing a CD Recorder
Private : No

Answer : Plextor 12/10/32 or TDK VeloCD 12/10/32

Nothing else comes close and both will serve you well.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA3/CNE_4/CNE_IW/CNE_5/MCP/MCSE/A.A.Sc./B.A

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QAId : 4231373
Asker : stevenjac
Subject : Puchasing a CD Recorder
Private : No

Answer : Plextor 12/10/32 or TDK VeloCD 12/10/32

Nothing else comes close and both will serve you well.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA3/CNE_4/CNE_IW/CNE_5/MCP/MCSE/A.A.Sc./B.A

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QAId : 4263183
Asker : james_p2091
Subject : hard drive problem
Private : No

Question : I use my pc to do a lot of video editing with a Miro DC30 card.

The problem I am having is that my drives are not being fast enough to record the video onto them and I keep getting little horizontal black flashing bars throughout my captures.

I have the following on the system:

AMD k62 400 CPU
64mb ram
1 6gb 5400rpm drive (system and program use)
1 20gb drive 5400rpm (video)
1 46gb Drive 7200rpm (video)

I am only getting 3mb per sec max from any of the drives even the 7200rpm one. Even material at 1.5mb sec has these flasy lines on it. I am wondering if it may be a fault in my setup of the drives or something else. Apart from this problem the system works quite well.

Do you have any suggestions on how I might be able to fix the problem or optimise the transfer rates of the drives?

Thank you for your time

James

Answer : With a K6-2 system you'll need a better HD controller. At the least you need to ensure that DMA is enabled for those drives to leave as much CPU time left over as possible during disk transfers. To enable DMA:

Start/Settings/Control Panel/System/Device Manager tab/Disk Drives/double click each item here and under "Settings" check the DMA box. You may want to set this on your CD-ROM(s) as well.

If you do not have the DMA option available you may have an old enough motherboard that does not have a bus-mastering DMA-capable IDE controller. If this is the case you can purchase one like the Promise FastTrak ATA66 controller that will fit into a PCI slot and run your disks.

http://www.computers4sure.com/product.asp?Productid=51238&catid=500

Before changing anything on the system (including enabling DMA) I'd suggest you obtain and run a benchmarking program on the drives. That way you can do a "before" and "after" snapshot of any changes to see what effect the changes had. Here's one:

ftp://ftp.task.gda.pl/mirror/ftp.cdrom.com/pub/3dfiles/tweakfiles/drives/htach261.exe

Without DMA enabled you'll probably see transfer rates tank and CPU utililization go up to around 40-50% on your system. With DMA on and working you should see better transfer rates and CPU utilization of around 5-7%.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

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QAId : 4306574
Asker : ashlie_2005@...
Subject : Who invented the computer?
Private : No

Question : Who invented the computer and when?

Answer : I know it sounds like a cop-out answer, but it isn't. No one person gets credit for that accolade because so many people have contributed to its development, and so many have provided necessary technologies that there can be no one person or group that can claim to have invented the "computer". If anyone can be stated to be the "father" of the modern computer it would probably be Charles Babbage. He designed two mechanical computers during the mid-1800s that he never got to see come to fruition, but whose workings laid the groundwork for many to follow. If you have to pick one person I'd say he's the most likely candidate.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

Rating : 3.7
Rating : 3.7

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QAId : 4345170
Asker : Master_Alpha_1
Subject : Computer just shuts down
Private : No

Question : okay here's the deal, I've got this computer and it just shuts down at random. I'm not talking windows shutting down I'm saying the computer just turns off.

Now for some background stuff:
It's an AMD/K6/2 350 with 64M SDRAM (one chip, nothing major in there just a simple 4M vid card, a soundblaster 16 and a NIC card.

Once the machine shuts down the power seems to be there partially. I know this because it flickers like it's attempting to restart but never does. After the thing dies it wont turn back on. This is not entirely true...it will after some undetremined time. That time may be 2 minutes or 8 hours. I've found that if I pop it open and move the SDRAM to a different slot it will often fire right back up, but not always.

I don't think it's a heat issue because nothing inside has any real heat to it when it shuts down and it will sometimes shut down after 30 minutes of running and other times it will stay up for days.

If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them.

Thanks.

Answer : That sounds like a bad power supply... try switching it out for a known good one.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

Rating : 2

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QAId : 4354137
Asker : rayeni@...
Subject : networking
Private : No

Question : Hello,

I was wondering, as a student in an IT program (emphasis on Network Admin), should I pursue any certs while in school? If the answer is yes, can you give list of feasible certs that a student can attain?

Also, I decided to attend an IT program to make a career change, because governmental accounting just isn't cutting it. Is this transition worth it? (i.e., the compensation for govt accountants is in the range of 36,000/yr...will this transition yield more than that?)

Thanks in advance
Rufdawg

Answer : I'm not sure of the end result of your IT program (is it a degree?) but it, combined with a certification should get you in the door to a junior systems administration job. I would suggest you look at obtaining an MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional) or NCA (Certified Novell Administrator) during your coursework.

You can except starting salaries between 30,000 and 50,000 for these types of positions.

Best of luck,
--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

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QAId : 4367549
Asker : I_Shall_Answer
Subject : Philips CD-R
Private : No

Question : Hi, i just bought a Philips CD-R 800 series, 8x4x32 and it didn't come with any drivers. I bought it out of state and i don't know what to do...is there somewhere where i can download the driver? As much help as you can supply me will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Shawn

Answer : It sounds like it's an IDE drive - if it is you don't need drivers per se. Just install your CD burning software (hopefully Adaptec's Easy CD Creator Deluxe 4 as it's one of the best) and it will seek the drive out.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

FUQuestion : I had to take out my old CD-ROM drive to install the burner, and windows is not recognizing the cd rom drive and i know it is hooked up right, cause the green light on it is flashing and stuff.

Answer : Make sure of two things:

1) the new burner is jumpered correctly - "master" or "slave" as appropriate.

2) the BIOS is set to auto for all IDE devices (master and slave on both primary and secondary IDE controllers).

Then reboot and see if there is a CD-ROM device in:

Start/Settings/Control Panel/System/Device Manager

If there is and the burner is the only CD-ROM on the system then install your burning software.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

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QAId : 4372032
Asker : jolly2
Subject : window ME
Private : No

Question : I have problem with my window ME.The msdos does not seem to functioning well.So I think I need to reinstall it but I didn't prepare the boot up disk.Do you have one ? Please send to me if yes and thanks a lot.We cannot reinstall in window explorer by click setup.exe, isn't it?

Answer : Try here for a boot disk:

http://www.bootdisk.com

You can start a new install by just inserting the disk (if autorun is enabled) or by running setup.exe from the CD. I'd rather hear what the specific issue is before I suggest you do that, however.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 5

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QAId : 4390550
Asker : asadv@...
Subject : FDC error and mouse not found
Private : No

Question : Since the last few days I am facing a weird problem with my machine. Whe the machine boots up, it searches for the Hard Disk and CD Rom and then gives an error "FDC ERROR Press F1 to continue" and then the machines starts properly loading windows etc. but its comparitively very slow. Then when windows starts it gives an error that mouse not found.

I tried changing the mouse also but no success. Also that in System properties > Device Manager, it shows the Floppy disk Controllers when i removed it and refreshed the device manager list, it detected a FDController

I faced this same problema few days back but then it got rectified automatically and my machine was working fine again

What could be the problem, pls reply back to me.
And a Happy 2001 to you.

Need More Information : Since the error comes up before the boot even starts it's definitely a hardware (or firmware) issue. Check your BIOS settings, especially those that pertain to the floppy drive. Entering the BIOS is done by pressing a key during the boot tests (usually pressing DEL does it, but sometimes F2 or other keys are used). Have you switched floppy drives or changed any hardwware out recently? You have have loosened the floppy drive's cable.

Is the mouse USB, PS2 or serial?

Happy New Year to you as well!

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

FUQuestion : hi,

Ive checked my connection my connections and they r untouched and firm, ive even tried entering the BIOS and checking the settings they r perfect unchanged. Also the mouse ports they are also fine.

Last night when my computer went into suspend mode, as a common habit i shook my mouse to get the machine back in live mode and at that time to my surprise, the mouse responded and it worked perfectly fine, when i rebooted my machine, mouse went off again

What shud be done?

Answer : Well then you very likely have either a motherboard problem. You can try obtaining and installing the latest BIOS revision for your motherboard and hope that it helps.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

FUQuestion : Last night i dismantled my whole PC, i celaned all the wires and connectors, then i reassembled it back and cleared my BIOS settings by pressing "f" then i resetted the basic settings in BIOS and restarted, then the FDC failure did not come, my Machine was working perfect even mouse worked fine.

Today morning, again i got the FDc failure msg and mouse did not work, i restaterd and cleared BIOS settings by pressing "F", so now mouse works but FDC failure is yet there!

Reg updating my BIOS, this is my AMIBIOS string:

51-1228-008031-00111111-071595-VIAVPX

Can u give me the latest drivers (or BIOS software)

Answer : What make and model motherboard do you have? It looks like it's using a Via chipset. here are some of the major manufacturer's websites:

http://www.abit-usa.com
http://www.asus.com.tw/
http://www.soyo.com.tw/

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

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QAId : 4407191
Asker : havaiti7
Subject : I want to partion my H/Drive
Private : No

Question : I have 2 ?'s. 1. I have a HP pavillion PC 6735. It has win ME. I want to partion my H/Drive so that I can run win 98 as well. How do I do this? 2. How many x's a year should I defrag my H/Drive?

Answer : A utility like Partition Magic can help with that - you can change the size of the current partition to be a few GB less than its current size, and then create a new partition with the free space that is created. I must warn you though, I don't expect you'll be successful installing 98 *after* Millenium. 98 tends to believe it's the only OS on the system and at the least will overwrite the MBR (Master Boot Record) and nuke booting from ME.

As for defragging I have an automated scheduler task set to scandisk once or twice a week, and a defrag once a month or so. There really isn't a number to stick to so these are as good as any others. But a fairly frequent defrag schedule like this keeps the drive from going too far down the path of fragmentation and thus the defrags take less effort and time on the hard disk.
Rating : 4

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QAId : 4430121
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : computer dictionary
Private : Yes

Question : We just got our computer about 4 months ago. We need education about terminology. Don't know how to proceed using options that we get. Can you help? E Mail address is honyok1@msn.com

Answer : Since you seem to be looking for general information on computers check this site - lots of info and easy to use - just type in a word you're interested in:

http://www.whatis.com

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

Rating : 3

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QAId : 4439764
Asker : niilo
Subject : "SCI IRQ used by ACPI bus"?!
Private : No

Question : "SCI IRQ used by ACPI bus" - that's it, whatever it is, (hardware??!) it's in the System devices and it takes IRQ#09 in my Win98 Celeron466 system. I'm trying to install a TB Pinnacle sound card (no games stuff, serious music) and the main MIDI synth on the card conflicts with this whatever.

Anyway, I'd be really glad to know exactly what I'm up against - and, even more, how I could possibly cope with the situation!

Thanks
/Niilo

Answer : ACPI is an acronym for Advanced Control and Power Interface. It's responsible for things like making your monitor power down, and putting the system into hibernation. If you want to remove ACPI you can follow these instructions:

http://www.d-sheppard.f2s.com/acpi.html

But I would suggest that you not do this, and instead simply move the new sound card to a different PCI slot and attempt its install from there. The motherboard only allocates certain interrupts (IRQs) to each PCI slot and you have simply picked one that will remain in conflict with the existing systems and devices installed in your system. Try a little musical chairs with that new sound card and you may very well find the problem is a non-issue.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.ne

Question : Greetings, I write you because I have been havign troubles with my Ensoniq Audio PCI sound card ever since I bought and installed my AGP creative labs 3D Blaster TNT2 Video Card... the problem found both under unix and windows is that any 2D operation pertainign the graphics card cause from soft to really unbearable noise in the audio card if it is playing any sound... (or midi wich on this Synthless card is the same as audio.) now, I wonder, as far as I know about the architecture of AGP an AGP card will use the internal bus to comunicate with in system memory only for using system memory for texture cachign and maping under 3D aceleration, also I know that the PCI bus after it's bridge uses the same bus path where AGP is located to access both the CPU and the system memory, I wonder, will it be that the data flux from the cpu to the video card is interrumping or slowing engouth the PCI to CPU bus conection as to cause the card to not be able to read the sound data from memory and thus generating noise? the main question here is, if that is correct do you think that exchanging the audio card for another chipset based PCI audio card (Maybe with a diferent PCI bus ussage, if the card cared to enforce it's bus assigment until a big engouth chunk of data can be transfered..) well I consult the hardware guy as I belive this is not a driver issue given it happens under linux, windows 98, windows ME, and windows 2000..... do you think then that changing the soudn card for another brand would solve the problem? is there a way to test if the PCI bus is the problem or not? would for exampel a DMA HD transfer rate drop while makign graphic proceses or something like it?

Answer : The very fact that you experience this problem in two different OS environments (also evidence that there will be NO similarities in drivers) means to me that your problem is one of a few things (listed in order of most probable):

1) Noise/conflict on the bus - try a different PCI slot for the audio card.

2) Bad audio card

3) Motherboard issue/problem

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 4

Answer : To my understanding the PCI is controlled by the same main "chipset" (Via, Intel, etc) as the other major functions of the system (memory, AGP, CPU bus). I don't know enough about motherboard architecture to get specific on the chip(s) that may be involved. Suffice it to say since they are all soldered in place it's not repairable in any event.

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QAId : 4555129
Asker : ocbalboaboy@...
Subject : stopping msn account
Private : Yes

Question : Dear Paul,

I had a job where I opened a MSN account on my credit card (specifally for the job). A few months ago, I moved and I've been trying to stop the account. I can find no information on the account # or anything as a result of the move. Who do I contact and how can I stop the account without any info?

Thank you,

ocbalboaboy@aol.com

Answer : This site should have the contact numbers you need so you can call and get it cancelled.

http://supportservices.msn.com/us/help.asp

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

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QAId : 4576492
Asker : mahashya
Subject : KERNEL32DLL ERROR MESSAGE
Private : Yes

Question : Dear Expert
Please help me,five day ago I window 98 and format hard drive and install window me,i got too many error in this window ,Can I install window too with window me.error as follows:

1. warning: explorer has caused an error in
KERNEL 32DLL,explorer now close
2. The set up program was unable to turn on your USB port,Please contact manufacturerssupport, turning on your USB support in BIOS setting. Please give me instructions step by step,how fix BIOS setting what I have to change in BIOS setting.
3. 1st. Important imformation about a potential with some disk defragmenting tools running in window me,if you use disk defragment (or a third party defragmenting) to defragment , your hard disk,computer works correctly.

2nd. When you restart it,you may receive an error message and unable to start window.
Please see our on line KB article ,Microsoft .product support series. Error came when we shutdown window the error name file is as follows: VMM(01)+0000coc1 error:OE:0028:cooo doc1 or filename VMM(01)+0000EC00 error: c000Fc00

I hava a window me hard drive = 8.4 GB
Memory = 128 of ram
Speed =800MHz
Modem =56k

Answer : The KERNEL32.DLL error could be anything, but more than likely it's a hardware driver that is not correct for your hardware. Check here for the latest drivers for your hardware:

http://www.winfiles.com/drivers

The USB port controls in the BIOS can be accessed by pressing the key indicated during the beginning of a boot. Usually this is the DEL key. Once in the BIOS screens poke around until you find the settings for the USB ports (it will differ a lot depending on whose BIOS you're using).

Do not attempt to use any defragmenter not warranted to work with:

FAT32 partitions
Windows ME

Not adhering to these criteria can cause you to lose data or even your whole install.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 4

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QAId : 4633075
Asker : maxx_m
Subject : MY COMPUTER KEEPS FREEZING!
Private : No

Question : I'm a A+ certified computer tech and this one has baffled me so any help is greatly appriciated. A little while ago I decided to reformat my hard drive. I then proceded to install WindowsME which went flawlessly. I did the usual installations, video drivers, sound drivers etc.. everything seemed fine until I tried to play a game. As soon as the game tried to redraw the screen the computer completely froze, the mouse froze, ctrl+alt+del wouldn't working...the only way to unfreeze is to reboot. My video card at the time was a Diamond Viper..I had the latest drivers installed. My motherboard is an ASUS k7m running an Athlon 550. I figured it might be some kind of driver issue because it was upgraded before to ME from win98. So I tried reformatting and installing win98.. but it was still freezing! So I decided I needed a new video card (something I wanted anyway). I then installed a Hercules 3d Prophet II (the dual display one). I installed that video card, and it does exactly the same thing as the other card did. So I reformatted the hard drive again with the new video card in it. It was still having the same problem. Both times I installed all of the motherboard drivers, both from the cd and the asus website. Then I tried reformatting again and installing windows 98 with the new video card, it was still freezing when I try to do anything that uses the video card for multimedia type things(such as games). I've done lots of uninstalling and reinstalling of drivers. I actually got it to work for a little bit when I was uninstalling system drivers (such as those under "system devices" in device manager). But as soon as I rebooted it quit working again. So I tried duplicating that by uninstalling the system devices and reinstalling them, but it wouldn't work again. I then reformatted one more time and installed windows ME fresh again, which is where I am right now, I have not installed ANYTHING except for the motherboard drivers,video drivers, and the modem drivers. It is still freezing when I try to play any video! and now something new has come up, when I try to open Outlook Express it freezes!!!!! I have been racking my brain trying to figure out what is wrong with this setup, there are no device conflicts, as far as I can tell I've installed all the proper motherboard drivers, and the video drivers are the one's that came with the video card. Any assistance in this matter is GREATLY appricated!

Answer : Man, you've run this one through the wringer! With all the clean OS installs (did you ever try playing vide/games *without* having installed the motherboard-specific updates??) you've tried I'm going to really have to point the finger at your motherboard/chipset. Obtain any BIOS updates from the Asus website (if you haven't already). If that doesn't help try putting a PCI video card in and see if the behavior changes (may be your AGP slot or the functions in the chipset that support it).

I hate to say it, but it's these kind of headaches that are why I only buy Intel now. I had a K6-2 300 a few years ago and it was nothing but hassles. It's not the AMD CPUs that are to blame; it's the supporting chipsets that lack polish.

Best of luck!

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 4655254
Asker : lestar@...
Subject : Computer networking
Private : No

Question : Paul,
What do I need exactly to network my 2 computers together?
One computer: IBM Aptiva, 450 MHz, 10 GB hard drive, modem.
Other computer: Canon, 120 MHz, 2.3 GB hard drive, modem.
Thanks.
Best regards,
Frank

Answer : At a minimum you'll need an ethernet network card in each machine. If you want to do it the cheapest route you can then string a crossover ethernet cable between the network cards (a crossover cable switches the send/receive lines to simulate a hub connection). To do it in such a way that you can grow your network (the hub or switch will typically have between 4 and 8 connections available) you will want an ethernet hub or switch along with the two NICs (Network Interface Card). Each machine will a normal ethernet cable from its NIC to the hub/switch completing the network connection.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 4689482
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Adding second drive to Compaq
Private : No

Question : Hi,

I just bought a 10GB drive to be used as a master for my Compaq 5030. I have a 7GB already. I opened up the mini-tower and did not see a drive. Where do I put my new drive because there is no bracket setup for another drive. I will be using this as a master and the original as the slave. Should I remove the ZIP drive to make room? I know about switches and making a recovery disk but this is all new to me. I know about formating. Presently I have Windows 2000 prof on my old hard drive.

Thanks,
Isabella

Answer : Yes, you'll need a place to mount the disk.

Also you will need to make sure you can reach from the drive to the IDE connectors on the motherboard with the cable. You can either piggy-back the second drive off the same cable that the first one runs from (jumpering the 10GB as "Master" and the original drive as "Slave", or you can run a second IDE cable (with both drives as "Master") from your secondary IDE controller port on the motherboard to the new drive (actually you'll need to switch the cables to make the 10GB be your boot drive - that is take the ccable off the original drive and plug it into this one, then then run the new cable to the old drive).

Be aware that in either case you will be making a new empty drive your boot drive so prepare your boot disk with the procedure below first so you can begin installing your OS.

----

You may need to access a Windows 98 or 98SE box for my instructions below to be 100% accurate. Otherwise search up the paths in 2000 or make a recovery disk from within 2000. In any event make sure the boot disk boots and brings up the CD-ROM drive before installing the new hard drive (unless you just plan on booting from CD to start a new install of 2000).

------ DISK PROCEDURE ------

OK - Make a boot floppy (on your or another Windows machine) as follows:

Start/Programs/MS-DOS Prompt

(put a blank floppy in the drive)

format a:

c:
cd \
sys a:
copy windows\himem.sys a:\
copy windows\smartdrv.exe a:\
copy windows\command\mscdex.exe a:\
copy windows\command\xcopy*.exe a:\
copy windows\command\format.com a:\
copy windows\command\edit.com a:\
copy windows\command\sys.com a:\

Download the following file to A:\

http://members.home.com/iqueue/idecd.sys

Now create a config.sys as follows:

edit a:\config.sys

The config.sys needs the following in it:
device=\himem.sys
device=\idecd.sys /d:cdrom001

Save the config.sys

Now edit A:\AUTOEXEC.BAT and put the following in it:

@echo off
\mscdex.exe /d:cdrom001 /l:f
\smartdrv /n c+ f 4096 4096

Save the file and exit.

Now test the disk and ensure it boots and brings the CD-ROM drive up successfully as letter F.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 4691308
Asker : lesterlsb@...
Subject : which direction should I go?
Private : No

Question : I want get certified but I'm sure which path to take. Should I get my A+ or mcp first? Please advise me on which cert path to take?

Answer : If you want to do desktop support (a good place to start) either will do you well. But if you intend to do any type of server or network work the MCP (leading later to the MCSE with the full complement of exams) is a better direction.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 4696680
Asker : hgillens@...
Subject : computer disposition
Private : No

Question : Paul,

I was just handed a task to provide guidelines for asset disposal. The task involves exchanging several workstation that are currently processing Sensitive But Unclassified information with new workstations. The old computers will be used as donations to local schools and/or non-profit orginizations. I want to make sure the memory is wiped clean with no residual information remaining on the data storage media.

What steps should I take? I am trying to find industries best practices.

Thanks,
Harold

Answer : There are utilities that do this. The general idea is that data is recoverable even after it's been overwritten or deleted a few times with the proper equipment. So to truly make it unrecoverable you need to change every storage location on the disk several times to effectively scramble the data.

A few of the utilities that do this:

http://winfiles.cnet.com/apps/nt/disk-repair.html

(press CTRL-F and search for terms, like 'securely')

I also have a "poor-man's" method that accomplishes this same feat for free if you're interested. It makes more time to run but it will definitely scramble the data.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 4

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QAId : 4725263
Asker : n0patients@...
Subject : computer viruses
Private : No

Question : I need to know how to get rid of this virus: apstrojan.gen or mine.exe I have mcafee but I am not getting any support from them..can you help..Thanks

Answer : I've never heard of that one. Try looking here for good info on viruses:

http://www.sarc.com

Also try donwloading a free trial of Norton Anti-Virus from symantec.com - perhaps it will cover this virus where McAfee has failed to.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 3

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QAId : 4742237
Asker : aceeley@...
Subject : Computer Microphone Hum
Private : No

Question : I have noticed that whenever I have my microphone plugged in or not muted, I have annoying hum. I tried cleaning the contacts on the sound card, and I inspected the microphone for frays in the cable. I also tried to adjust the microphone plug and volume level. As I was messing around with that stuff I noticed that whenever I touched the metal case the humming would go away. I tried checking to see if the case itself needed to be grounded, checked the resistance from the chassis ground to ground on the motherbord (which there was less than an ohm of) I have tried several other ways of grounding this bugger, but nothing I do seems to work, just when I touch the case and it goes away. Do you have any ideas of what my problem may be and if so, any possible solutions?

Thanx,
Aaron

Answer : Do you have an on/off switch for the microphone? This could possibly be feedback from the speakers, coming back into the microphone. You may want to make sure that the mic is *not* set to be reproduced on playback. To do that double-click the speaker icon in the systray at the bottom-right (or go to the Multimedia control panel). Inside there go to Options/Properties. Under playback select the box for microphone then click OK. Now check the box beneath the microphone slider that says "Mute".

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 4750729
Asker : jassifi
Subject : solaris 8.0
Private : No

Question : I neeed help on how to manually configure my solaris box on our network. I want to be able to surf using netscape. I dont want to use dhcp, i want to give it its ip address, netmask and gateway and have it surf the net. Please help me with the steps to do this. Thank you very much.

Jeff

Answer : Become root and do a:

ifconfig -a

This will tell you what network card you have available (ex - le0 - be aware that lo0 is the "loopback" device and is not for use).

Now issue this command:

ifconfig le0 10.11.12.13 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 10.11.12.255 up

where

'10.11.12.13' is the IP address you want to give the machine

'10.11.12.255' is the broadcast address for that network

Then you may also need to perform a:

echo 10.11.12.1 > /etc/defaultrouter

which will create a defaultrouter file which contains the IP address of the machine that provides your default gateway to machines outside your LAN segment.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

FUQuestion : Hi

I am was also wondering. During the installation of the sun OS, I was not able to add a network card. How do I configure my network card so that the operating system sees it before i can actually configure it with the ip address and so on???

Answer : If the card was in and operational when you did the OS install it should be there. If not then reboot the machine, and press STOP-A at the banner display (before the boot really gets started). At the "ok" prompt type:

boot -r

That will force the machine to rebuild the device tree and it should then find the network card.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

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QAId : 4803732
Asker : dia1722
Subject : YPAGER virus ON win982ND?
Private : No

Question : A friend with yahoo viewed anoffline message SWEARS thats all he did. Now he gets the following message(YPAGER caused an invalid page fault in
module at 0000:2a2a2a2a.
Registers:
EAX=00000001 CS=0167 EIP=2a2a2a2a EFLGS=00010202
EBX=00000000 SS=016f ESP=0071da3c EBP=2a2a2a2a
ECX=c14fd3d0 DS=016f ESI=01b938b0 FS=29d7
EDX=00000000 ES=016f EDI=bff55836 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
Stack dump:
2a2a2a2a 2a2a2a2a 2a2a2a2a 2a2a2a2a 2a2a2a2a 2a2a2a2a
2a2a2a2a 2a2a2a2a 2a2a2a2a 2a2a2a2a 2a2a2a2a 2a2a2a2a
202a2a2a 4e252a2a 63785b3c 4c412f6d )
it only appear on his computer and his ID i logged into his yahoo from my computer no problem his wife uses her own no problem. Is this a virus or worm? Someone on yahoo "lostinwoods" claims to have sent something. Does anyone know how to fix

Answer : You need to reinstall (or remove and reinstall) Yahoo Pager:

http://help.yahoo.com/help/pager/twin/twin-10.html

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 4834845
Asker : medicalme@...
Subject : Defrag
Private : No

Question : Me again, The computer completly locks up......I tried what you said and ended everything with a-c-d and still no go. I tried running scan disk and that won't go either......Yikes!!

Rachel

Answer : I would suggest that you:

1) Obtain the latest video and audio card drivers from the site below and install them

http://www.winfiles.com/drivers

2) If that doesn't help the problem you can try restoring some registry backups.

3) If steps 1 and 2 don't get you back to working order you can restore the c:\system.1st file as c:\windows\system.dat and reboot to force Windows to behave like it's the first time you've ever booted again.

4) If some of the above steps are unclear, or you've done them and gotten no joy it's time to punt and rebuild the machine. Backup your C:\MY DOCUMENTS directory and any other data you've created. Make note of apps installed that you want on the new system and then level the machine and reinstall a clean copy of the OS. Instructions for this step are here:

OK - Make a boot floppy as follows:

Start/Programs/MS-DOS Prompt

(put a blank floppy in the drive)

format a:

c:
cd \
sys a:
copy windows\himem.sys a:\
copy windows\smartdrv.exe a:\
copy windows\command\mscdex.exe a:\
copy windows\command\xcopy*.exe a:\
copy windows\command\format.com a:\
copy windows\command\edit.com a:\
copy windows\command\sys.com a:\

Download the following file to A:\

http://members.home.com/iqueue/idecd.sys

Now create a config.sys as follows:

edit a:\config.sys

The config.sys needs the following in it:
device=\himem.sys
device=\idecd.sys /d:cdrom001

Save the config.sys

Now edit A:\AUTOEXEC.BAT and put the following in it:

@echo off
\mscdex.exe /d:cdrom001 /l:f
\smartdrv /n c+ f 4096 4096

Save the file and exit.

Now you will have a bootable disk that will bring up your CD-ROM as drive letter F: - the best thing to do at this point in your reinstall is NOT to launch the install, but rather ensure you have XCOPY.EXE and XCOPY32.EXE on the floppy or in the C:\ directory and do an xcopy of all the files in the Win98 subdirectory off the CD to your hard disk and perform the installation from *there*. Why? A couple of reasons - one is the installation goes faster from the hard disk, but that's a minor reason. The primary reason is that after installation you will no longer be bothered by that annoying 'please insert your Windows 98 CD' when upgrading drivers, installing new versions of DirectX, etc, since all the source files for the OS are on your disk. The XCOPY command looks as follows:

(boot from floppy and format the hard drive

a:
format c:
sys c:

if necessary - be sure you have a backup first of whatever you want to keep!)

xcopy f:\win98\*.* c:\win98kit\*.* /e

Now boot off the hard disk and do:

cd \win98kit
echo y | lock c: /off
setup

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 2

Answer : You're welcome. But if it worked in Safe mode then it would have worked had you followed my initial instructions and killed all tasks except Explorer and Systray. When you said you had done so, and that the defrag/scandisks were not just never completing but *hanging* (that implies the system is dying) I assumed your problems were worse.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 4851004
Asker : johan8
Subject : formatting hard disk
Private : No

Question : I am trying to format a compressed hard disk with windows 98 installed over windows 95. When I insert the windows boot disk it will not go furrther than the message: "verifying DM pool data"- Can anyone help me please, thank you. Johanna (sorry if this message comes out twice: I tried to post before, it slipped out of sight and I don't find it)

Answer : If you don't care about the data (seems apparent since you're trying to format it) try this:

Boot from the floppy disk and hold the SHIFT key while it boots - it will skip the processing of your boot files entirely.

Then execute

fdisk

Within fdisk press 4 to view your partitions. You probably only have one. Delete any partitions you find (press ESC to get back to main page) and then create a new partition that is the full size of your drive. ESC out of fdisk, reboot on the floppy and then format the drive C:

format c: /u /autotest

Now you can start the install process of 98 - I'd suggest you follow these steps to install 98 (skip the steps you don't need like building the boot floppy if you already know your bootdisk will bring up the system *and* the CD-ROM drive):

OK - Make a boot floppy as follows:

Start/Programs/MS-DOS Prompt

(put a blank floppy in the drive)

format a:

c:
cd \
sys a:
copy windows\himem.sys a:\
copy windows\smartdrv.exe a:\
copy windows\command\mscdex.exe a:\
copy windows\command\xcopy*.exe a:\
copy windows\command\format.com a:\
copy windows\command\edit.com a:\
copy windows\command\sys.com a:\

Download the following file to A:\

http://members.home.com/iqueue/idecd.sys

Now create a config.sys as follows:

edit a:\config.sys

The config.sys needs the following in it:
device=\himem.sys
device=\idecd.sys /d:cdrom001

Save the config.sys

Now edit A:\AUTOEXEC.BAT and put the following in it:

@echo off
\mscdex.exe /d:cdrom001 /l:f
\smartdrv /n c+ f 4096 4096

Save the file and exit.

Now you will have a bootable disk that will bring up your CD-ROM as drive letter F: - the best thing to do at this point in your reinstall is NOT to launch the install, but rather ensure you have XCOPY.EXE and XCOPY32.EXE on the floppy or in the C:\ directory and do an xcopy of all the files in the Win98 subdirectory off the CD to your hard disk and perform the installation from *there*. Why? A couple of reasons - one is the installation goes faster from the hard disk, but that's a minor reason. The primary reason is that after installation you will no longer be bothered by that annoying 'please insert your Windows 98 CD' when upgrading drivers, installing new versions of DirectX, etc, since all the source files for the OS are on your disk. The XCOPY command looks as follows:

(boot from floppy and format the hard drive

a:
format c:
sys c:

if necessary - be sure you have a backup first of whatever you want to keep!)

xcopy f:\win98\*.* c:\win98kit\*.* /e

Now boot off the hard disk and do:

cd \win98kit
echo y | lock c: /off
setup

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 4860889
Asker : crazyd83
Subject : i need a driver for a atapi cd-rom drive for winodws 3.1 or Dos
Private : No

Question : i need to know where to find a driver for a atapi cd-rom drive for Windows 3.1 and Dos system

Answer : http://members.home.net/iqueue/idecd.sys

Once you have it put the following line in C:\CONFIG.SYS

device=c:\dos\idecd.sys /d:mscd001

And then add the following line to C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT

c:\dos\mscdex.exe /d:mscd001

Both commands assume the files in question have been copied to C:\DOS

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

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QAId : 4881831
Asker : aliasgarv
Subject : What is directory services?
Private : No

Question : Hello,
Can you pls explain to me the terminology Novell Directory Services???

Thankyou

Answer : A "directory service" is just a technology of an NOS (Network Operating System) that allows all items used by the NOS (servers, users, printers, apps, etc) to be symbolized as objects. It also allows for easy organization of these objects into a hierarchical tree structure. The primary benefits are scalability and ease of administration (far easier to admin large networks with NDS than without). An NDS network is easier on users too. Instead of them having to login separately to all the servers which contain things they need, they login once to the NDS tree and have instant access to all the objects of the network they have rights to, no matter where they are physically located.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 4895052
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Microprocessor chips
Private : Yes

Question : Hi, I was just wondering what microprocessor chips are currently available on the market?

Thanks~

Answer : This site is good for answering that question (plus it shows prices):

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/hardware/weekly_cpu/

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 4939029
Asker : samma04
Subject : the ultimate gaming machine
Private : No

Question : How would you build the "ultimate gaming machine" within a reasonable price range?

Answer : In my opinion the primary components for the best bang for the buck right now would be:

Asus or Abit Pentium 3 motherboard (preferably with IDE RAID built-in).

P3 700E CPU (may overclock with good cooling to 931 but even if it doesn't (or you don't) an excellent CPU and reasonably-priced).

Maxtor IDE 60GB 7200 RPM hard disk (if you go with the RAID setup go for two 40GB Maxtor 7200s).

GeForce 2 Pro 64MB video card

These are the core components to the best for the money, IMO. Use http://www.pricewatch.com when you get ready to order - just beware vendors with the best price but that nail you on shipping costs.

Good luck!
--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 4976196
Asker : ckinsung
Subject : upgrade
Private : No

Question : I’d like to upgrade my RAM. My RAM I use now is 64 MB SDRAM 100mhz. Can I buy a RAM with 128 MB 133mhz? I mean can I put a different RAM in the slot either MB or MHZ.

Answer : Yes you should have success doing this, but since you'll still presumably be running at 100Mhz FSB you only need PC100, not PC133. I suspect you're probably doing this so that you can use the PC133 at a later date in a new machine and run *it* at 133 FSB. So go for it. But be aware that you may need to set the DRAM timings in the BIOS manually in case the BIOS doesn't pick a speed that is compatbile with *both* DIMMs.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 5154827
Asker : jslieber
Subject : keyboard, modem
Private : No

Question : Thanks in advance for your help-
2 problems

1- the bottom row of keys (most of them) have quit working on an HP keyboard-
did someone spill something or ?

2. I had to do a reinstall on the HP, Windows 98. After reinstalling everything,the computer worked fine; however, I cannot use the modem anymore-
I did a check on it and the computer recognizes it, but tells me that the port cannot be opened, thus, no connection- Is the modem bad? What other tests can I perform before changing it out. Also, what limitations are there if I replace the modem?

Thanks again for your help!!!!!

Answer : 1) Sounds logical - try switching out a known-good keyboard before you replace the bad one to be sure no components on the motherboard are to blame.

2) Make sure in your BIOS setup screens that you are not attempting to leave enabled the COM port the internal modem is trying to use. Disable all internal COM ports you do not expressly need and ensure that the internal modem is set to reside on a COM port address that you aren't using.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 5171217
Asker : GWBO
Subject : Floppy
Private : Yes

Question : I have a Hewlett Packard Pavilion 8240. For some reason, I cannot get the PC to recognize the floppy drive.

Recently, the system crashed. I may have had a virus - I really don't know. I re-installed Windows 98 SE from CD. Everything went OK, but now I can't talk to the floppy. Assuming that the floppy had a hardware problem, I replaced it with another one that I knew worked. I have the same problem.

Where can I go from here?

Answer : Floppy drives are notoriously hard to plug in correctly. It's easy to either put the cable on upside down, or for you to put it on right-side up but move it slightly left or right and miss a row of pins. Check to be sure it's on right. Are any messages generated during the BIOS check about "Floppy error 41" or something similar? If so then these cabling issues are likely to blame. If you check and the cable is on properly you can try another known-good floppy cable. If that still doesn't fix it then you are looking at a motherboard floppy controller issue. At that point your choices are limited to having HP replace the defective part (probably at your cost since you changed the drive) or buying an add-on floppy controller card from your local computer store.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 4

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QAId : 5204945
Asker : kaustubh20@...
Subject : About Modem speed
Private : No

Question : My Modem now-a-days connects at 4,800 bps,sometimes at 12,000 bps , or 16,000 bps
and sometimes at 31,200 bps,
although it is a 33,600 bps modem which I have
been using for the last 2 years.
Which utility can I use to check it's proper
functionality ?
My ISP's (I am currently using 3 of them) all
support 33,600 bps connectivity
Reply ASAP
Kaustubh

Answer : There's no utility to test this - you'll have to use your mind. ;-)

First thing to do is rule out the obvious things like a cable issue (try a different serial cable (if external) and a different phone cable or jack) and see if the situation changes. Or a modem issue (use a different modem if you can get one for testing) and see if the modem or the PC has issues. The fact you have 3 ISPs and have tried them all tends to point the finger at your phone lines. Did they add DSL in your area or otherwise disturb the area in a way that might have led to noise or a loss of bandwidth? Have you changed your modem settings (like disable error correction)? Call the phone company and tell them you are getting static on the line when calling XXX-XXX (prefix of your ISP) and they will clean the contacts and ensure a clean connect. If you tell them you're using a modem they may try to sell you a "digital-ready" line.

Good luck,

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 5260483
Asker : alhoori
Subject : NETWORKING
Private : Yes

Question : WHAT IS THE DIFFENCE BETWEEN MODEM AND NIF?

Need More Information : I've never heard of "NIF" - do you mean "INF"?

FUQuestion : sorry for that I meant

WHAT IS THE DIFFENCE BETWEEN MODEM AND NIC(network interface card)?

Answer : Ah OK...

A modem and a NIC (Network Interface Card) both provide a communications link. A modem is an analog device intended to translate the digital on/off states of a computer into tones that can be sent over a phone line. It also then converts those tones (from the other modem) back into digital signals. A modem is named after this process of modulation (digital to analog) and de-modulation (analog to digital) - MO-DEM, MODEM.

A NIC is similar in that it connects a machine to a network device or another computer. It differs primarily in speed and connection type (and purpose/tasks). NICs are used on networks of many machines like Ethernet and Token Ring business networks, while modems provide only a point-to-point link between an individual machine and some other end-point.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 4

FUQuestion : 1) Is hub only working as repeater?can it work as a router?
2)what is the difference between server? workstaion?client?mainframe?
3) what do we mean by server down and what cause it to be down?
4) what do we mean by network down and what cause it to be down?
5)what is different between modem and fax modem?
6)can we connect 2 computers with a modem instead of NIC?

Answer : Yes a hub is essentially a repeater.

Server provides file or printing services to other machines. Workstation doesn't. CLient uses services of another machine. Mainframe - large computer where all users use terminals to access it - not intended for individual use.

A server is down when it is no longer running or is otherwise unavailable for normal service. Disk crashes, operating system errors, bugs in applications can all cause downtime.

A network is down when it is unavailable to move traffic. Cable cuts/breaks, router misconfigurations, or hardware failures can cause this.

A fax modem can also send faxes. A normal modem can only connect to other computers.

Yes I believe you could, though I've never tried. This really is no different than what you're doing when you dialup another computer with your modem. It's just you're taking the phone company out of the loop.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

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QAId : 5318542
Asker : TBoNe1989
Subject : Hard Drive
Private : No

Question : I am trying to reformat my hard drive, it is a WD 4.0 GB Hard Drive…I have tried to run FDISK though DOS and delete the partitions but I get an error message saying disk could not be locked. Than when I try to run format c: I get a message saying the disk is being used in another operation. I have tried the HD on 2 different systems and I keep getting the same error….any advice?

Answer : Before running the fdisk command issue this command:

lock c: /off

The later versions of DOS include protection for the disks that must be disabled before you can use commands like fdisk.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 4

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QAId : 5319733
Asker : hoolash@...
Subject : Monitor Screen suddenly goes Black
Private : No

Question : I have been experiencing a problem with my PC lately. While browsing the Net, my monitor screen suddenly goes black and I need to reboot for everything to get back to normal.I have not insalled any new softwares before this problem occured. Any ideas where the problem might be located?
My Pc Configiuration is as follows: AMD-K6 2 450Mhz processor with 229 SDRAM, Asus V-3800 Display Card with 32MB on board RAM, Wiindows 98 SE.

Thank you!

Need More Information : Is the system still running at the point it goes black? For instance if it ws playing an MP3 in the background while you surfed did it keep playing or stop when the blackout occurs? I'd expect it to keep playing and that the problem is likely with the monitor. Your monitor may have a transformer or other part failing.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

FUQuestion : Hello Paul,

I have never experienced the problem while running an audio file or playing music. So I cannot answer the part whether the PC is still active. What i can add is that at times when I boot my PC, I do get the "blue screen" saying it had met with a GPF at "000167.....". When I click on any key, it continues to load Windows without any problems. I do not know if this is related to my problem.

Answer : It may or may not be related. I kind of doubt it, however. Without any more details I can't be more specific than I've already been. You will need to put a song file into a loop or some other task that will enable you to tell if the system is still running when the monitor goes black again. Once thing you can do to verify it is or is not running:

1) Open a DOS prompt (Start/Run/command - hit ENTER)

Type in the following commands:

c:
cd \windows\command
edit alive.bat

(now editing a new file - enter the lines below)

@echo off
dir c:\ /s /a /-p

(now press ALT-F to save and exit the file)

2) Make a shortcut to this file - right-click on an open area of your desktop and select New/Shortcut. Use the browse button to dig into C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND and select the ALIVE.BAT file we just made. Name it whatever you like and an icon will appear on your desktop. Right-click that icon and select Properties. Under the "Program" tab select the field labeled Shortcut Key. With that field selected press CTRL-ALT-A all at the same time and you should see it in that field. Click OK out to the desktop. Now try the key combination CTRL-ALT-A (A for "Alive" to remind you of the key to use). It should open a DOS prompt on your screen and start spitting directory contents at a fast rate. This will not hurt your machine at all - we are doing this so that:

A) Your machine will have a task to perform for a while

B) We'll be lighting up your hard drive light on the front of the PC so you can see if it's on or not (and likely hear it too).

If the keystroke worked and ran the program (may have to reboot once for keyboard shortcut to start working) then you're all set. Next time the monitor goes black press CTRL-ALT-A and watch for the HD light and listen. If it doesn't run like it did when you tested it then the system has died and you have a problem other than a monitor issue. If it runs as expected it's probably the monitor, video card or drivers (most likely the monitor or video card drivers).

Let me know what you find.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

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QAId : 5321295
Asker : yuchieh4638
Subject : DRAM and SRAM
Private : Yes

Question : Hi,
What's the difference between a DRAM and an SRAM? Could you explain them in detail? Thank you very much.

Answer : The primary difference between them is the need for refresh. DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) uses a capacitor to hold a charge that represents the value stored in the memory. That energy will "bleed off" over time so DRAM needs to be constantly refresh every few milliseconds to hold the data that's stored in it. SRAM (Static Random Access Memory) does not need this refresh. Once it's data is set it maintains it as long as power is provided. SRAM doesn't use the "hold" method of data representation that DRAM uses - it uses a principle of a current which can flow in one of two directions to represent a 0 or a 1.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 5338688
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Partition Commander ?
Private : No

Question : Hi expert,

I would like to know if it is possible to re-partition my hard drive (from one to two or more) without destroying all data on the drive. I have been doing some research, and it seems that Partition Commander might do it. Do you have any experience with this software ? If not, any recommendations ?

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Answer : I haven't used that particular app, but I have used FIPS and Partition Magic and both work fine. ALl you'll be doing is resizing the existing partition to be smaller than it is now, to free up space for new partitions to be created. Just make sure and delete whatever you don't need from the main partition first (to make more room) and you might want to do a full defrag before shrinking the partition (optional).

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

FUQuestion : Hi,

Thanks for your quick response. Based on my research, if I partition my 20GB drive into 2 partitions of 10GB each, the default cluster size will be reduced from 16K to 8K. Will this damage my existing data, or will Partition Magic handle this properly (by rewriting the data)?

Thanks again.

Answer : Partition Magic will give you the *option* to change the cluster size. I doubt it will change it by default to what you are stating. Those are the defaults when a partition is created new, not when an existing one is resized.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

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QAId : 5406862
Asker : lida
Subject : Using old hard drive in new computer
Private : No

Question : My new computer is sitting beside me. I want to put the HD that is in this computer in the new one because of a critical program (and its data files) that I use for business.

I have heard that there are 2-3 options but that each of them have their potential problems.

I'll want both my current HD and the new one in the new computer and I suppose I do not care which one is the Master...just as long as I have no problems with TenantPro (the software I spoke of).

Can you offer advice or help? I've seen a half a dozen sites about installing HDs and some of them do a nice step by step job but I have not found one that deals with my situation specifically.

Very, very thankfully,

Rick.

Answer : The best way to approach this is to treat the old hard drive with the software on it like a backup and not modify it in any way. Leave it out of the new machine for now. Do the base install on the new machine - get the OS on there, along with any needed drivers to support your hardware. Once that's all done then shut down the machine and install the second drive (either as master on the second IDE controller or as slave on either). Close up the machine and as it boots that first time hold the CTRL key down until the boot menu appears. Choose "Safe mode - command prompt only". Then ensure you can see both disks (before adding the drive ensure the BIOS is set to "Auto" for the IDE spots you'll be using or just set all to Auto to be safe). Issue a few DIR command:

dir c:\
(should be the new hard disk)

dir d:\
(should be the old)

Assuming you see everything is OK do this:

d:
cd \
move windows windows.bak

This will change the directory name on your old hard disk to avoid Windows seeing two installs of Windows. I'm not certain it would cause you any trouble but it's better to be safe. OK - now reboot normally and when you get into Windows copy the installed version of your application and data from the old hard disk to the new. So if the app was in D:\PROGRAM FILES\MYAPP copy that dir (MYAPP) to C:\PROGRAM FILES - copy the data directory (if different) the same way. Once the directory is copied there you will want to create the shortcuts that launched the program. If there was only one or two you may remember what they were and can make them in your Start menu. If you can't remember them or there were a lot you can open the My Computer icon and drill down to:

D:\Windows.bak\Start Menu

That subdirectory on down represents what you saw when this was your Windows drive. IOW - What you saw when you click the Start button is directly reflected in this subdirectory structure. Notice there is a "Programs" subdirectory. Open it and you'll likely find your program's shortcuts folder. If you do just copy that folder or icons to your own C:\WINDOWS\START MENU\PROGRAMS directory and you should be done with this step. Or you can right-click each and examine the properties to see what they point to.

Once you're done with the program/data move and the shortcut creation you'll want to try running the app. Be aware it's likely to fail the first time as it may be missing some DLLs or other files it may have copied when it was installed. If it does fail and gives an error message about a missing DLL or other do a Start/Find/Files and Folders and search the D: drive for the file you need. When you find it copy it to the same path on the C: drive and try again. Repeat until the app works or you get stuck, in which case respond back with details.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 5412420
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : file extension names
Private : No

Question : Hi, I have this folder name TEMP and inside there are a lot of files that have an extension tmp.
I was wondering what does tmp mean and are the files in there important
These files are taking up too much space and I would like to delete them, would it screw up my computer if I did?

Answer : You can delete these files - they are temporary "scratch" areas for programs and are non-critical unless the app is currently using them (in which case you suaully can't delete them - sharing violation). Just to be safe add this line to the C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT file at the bottom:

if exist c:\temp\*.tmp del c:\temp\*.tmp

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

FUQuestion : hi, I deleted the .tmp files but inside the temp folder there are other files with different extensions such as .exe,doc,url,cab,hdr,dll,smi and so on also there are several folders name temp with .aaa aab extensions.
Can I delete them as well?

Answer : Yes anything in the C:\TEMP directory can be considered fair game for removing - if you institute the removal line like I showed you above I'd recommend changing it to this:

@echo off
if exist c:\temp\*.* echo y | del c:\temp\*.* >nul

Save this into a file named c:\windows\command\cleanup.bat

and create a shortcut to this cleanup.bat in your Start/Programs/Startup folder and it will run at each boot. You'll want to change the properties the first time it runs by clicking the top-left icon on the window and going to Properties at the bottom. Inside there drop-down on "Run" and select Minimized, and check the box for "Close on Exit".

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

FUQuestion : where would I type that line that you have recommended?

Answer : Use notepad (Start/run/notepoad.exe - hit ENTER) - type in the lines so the file appears like this:

@echo off
if exist c:\temp\*.* echo y | del c:\temp\*.* >nul

Then save the file with the path and name:

c:\windows\start menu\programs\startup\cleanup.bat

(this will save you the step of creating a shortcut I mentioned earlier).

Now just reboot and every time you boot it will run and cleanup the TEMP directory. Be sure to set the properties as I mentioned above the first time it runs.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 3

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QAId : 5421858
Asker : harry1403
Subject : keyboard
Private : No

Question : hi there i own a logitech new touch keyboard. I have a problem with it, when i press the power button it goes on standby mode instead of shutdown mode. What could be the problem? i know that i can change the settings in the control panel to make the power button to shutdown the computer, i've tried that but it still goes to standby mode.
thanks.

Answer : ATX cases and motherboards support a "soft-touch" for the power - to standby you press the button. To poer off you hold the button in for about 4 seconds.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

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QAId : 5468563
Asker : rdrunnerr
Subject : monitor
Private : No

Question : I have a Vodoo3 2000 AGP with a CTX 17" monitor, 128 ram, and win98. I have a problem that has happened twice in the last month. My screen will develope a very light pinkish tint even when booting up on the DOS screen. I tried shutting down and turning off the electricity several times and it boots with the same pinkish tint. I even put another drive in and still had the same problem. I can shut the system down, unplug the monitor from the AGP card, immediately pulg it back in, boot up and everything is fine, no more pink tint. This will last about 2 weeks then the same thing again.
Any idea what is going wrong?

Thanks JIM

Answer : You are probably losing contact on the monitor cable. The red, green and blue information are transmitted on separate wires inside the VGA cable and if any of them get damaged or don't make good contact at either end the result is a shift of color. I would try a different cable (assuming this isn't the type of monitor where the cable is permanently attached to the back). If the
monitor cable *is* attached just ensure that the wires in the end that plugs into the PC isn't damaged. It could also be a loose video card - shut down the system and reseat the video card to confirm this isn't the issue.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 5520719
Asker : nadian
Subject : PC upgrades
Private : No

Question : Hi,
I have a Compaq Presario 9232 Pentium 120. It has a 28 modem and only 16 megabytes of RAM. The hard drive is 1-1/2 gig. I installed Windows 98 on it a couple of years ago and ever since then it hasn't worked properly. It freezes constantly. I am wondering if the reason it freezes is because it needs more memory? Please let me know what I need to do to upgrade this dinosaur! Thanks

Answer : A clean install of the operating system may be in order, as well as a RAM upgrade. Check to see what type of memory your PC uses (I'm guessing 72 pin SIMMs) and then you can order it online - check http://www.pricewatch.com or get it from your local retailer.

I wouldn't spend too much money on upgrading it as you can get yourself a new PC with upwards of a 1Ghz processor with monitor and everything (including 64-128 MB of RAM) for around $1,000.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 4

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QAId : 5529932
Asker : freeeast
Subject : how to relate my graphic card to the monitor resolution
Private : Yes

Question : Hi,

I want to know how to relate the graphic card to the monitor.

e.g.1) my graphic card has 2M memory, 24 bits (2^24 = 16.7 millions colors)

2) My monitor resolution is 1024x768

regards,

vincent

Answer : Please don't ask questions like this as private. No one gets to read them! Others would likely want to know about this too.

To calculate the highest resolution you can support a certain color depth at:

1024 * 768 = 786432 (number of pixels on the screen)

24 bit color = 3 bytes per pixel (8 bits-per-byte * 3 = 24 bits of color information)

So now we know the total number of pixels at this resolution, and we know the color information that will be required per pixel to have 24-bit color (16 million colors).

Now we simply multiply the two to see how much memory will be needed at this res:

786432 * 3 (bytes per pixel) = 2359296

Since we used bytes in our multiply we can now just add our commas:

2,359,296

and we can see that we need about 2.2 MB of RAM (a MB is actually 1024x1024 bytes) to map out the screen at this res. So a 2MB video card can't hack it. Let's try a res down, 800x600

800 * 600 = 480000 pixels
24 bit color = 3 bytes per pixel

480000 * 3 = 1,440,000

So your 2 MB card can do 800x600 with 24-bit color.

How about 1024x768 with 16-bit color (65,000 colors)? For most purposes this is an excellent choice - the colors are deep enough that you will only rarely be able to tell it's not 24-bit, and we can jack it back up to 1024x768 I'm betting:

1024 * 768 = 786432 pixels on screen

786432 * 2 bytes per pixel (16 bit = 8 bits-per-byte * 2) = 1,572,864

So your choices for your 2MB video card are:

800x600 at 24-bit (16 mill)
1024x768 at 16-bit (65K)

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 5537832
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : 256M or 512M SDRAM?
Private : No

Question : Hi,

I am going to buy a good computer. My computer will be used for PC games and sometimes for graphic software e.g. 3D studio etc.
So, do you suggest I buy 256M SDRAM or 512M SDRAM?
Will the performance has a sharp different for games or graphic?

Note:i)In Hong Kong, 256M (US$30) or 512M (US$65) is very cheap! So, cost is not the problem.

ii) My computer hardware will be

Intel PIII 1G,
256M or 512M SDRAM?
Gerforce 2 Ultra 64M DDRAM graphic card
30G 7200 rpm Harddisk
etc.

Regards,

Vincent.

Answer : If you can afford it and will be running Windows 2000 go for the 512MB. You may find it useful when working with complex scenes in 3D Studio and the like.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 5539596
Asker : Lenzyb
Subject : Major Computer Crash
Private : No

Question : I am completely stumped. My computer after about an hour of working and it seems mostly working on the internet crashed. I have new memory 192mb and a new processorc intel 633 as well as a new motherbaord and hard drive. The icons on my desktop and internet explorer tool bar go blank and the computer moves extrmely slow. I cant click any menues including the start button.

Please help me! :-)

Answer : Without more information it's hard to say exactly what's going on, but I'd highly suspect a driver issue since it works for so long and then eventually slows down and locks up. It sounds like a memory leak in a video or audio driver. Try getting the latest drivers for your main components:

video
audio
network (modem or network card)

Drivers can be found here:

http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-10010.html?tag=st.wn.4235214.dir.10010

or here:

http://www.windrivers.com/

Also get the latest DirectX from Microsoft's site:

http://www.microsoft.com/directx

--
Paul Doherty, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, CCSA, CCSE
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

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QAId : 5542051
Asker : kamraniqbal
Subject : Bad sectors on hard disk
Private : No

Question : Hello ]
Any body tellme which software removes bad sectores of hard disk also tellme site where is fing that one

Answer : SpinRite is a good utility for this - it will attempt to recover the data from bad sectors and then mark them out of service so they won't be used anymore. If you are getting a lot of bad sectors I would replace the drive as it probably won't last much longer.

http://grc.com/spinrite.htm

--
Paul Doherty, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, CCSA, CCSE
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

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QAId : 5542094
Asker : dan68
Subject : scrolling can be heard in the speakers
Private : No

Question : When I turn up the volume on my cambridge soundworks speakers I can hear a noise when I scroll with the mouse. I have reinstalled the mouse drivers with no effect. What causes this and can I stop it? Everything seems to work ok. thanks

Answer : The last time I heard noise when I moved my mouse it turned out my speaker cables were not securely plugged into the soundcard.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 4

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QAId : 5563346
Asker : tikigoalecho
Subject : hardware not seen.
Private : No

Question : I was changing a harddrive in a computer
to a bigger one. The computer didn't see it there. So i figured it was no good. I was jumping from a 432MB to a 4 GB. I then put the old harddrive back in took out the 4AGB and now the computer doesn't see it. It was a working harddrive. Just to be sure i put another harddrive in that i know works and nothing again. I changed the motherboard but still can't find harddrives. I had also changed cpu from a 75 to a 133 could that be the problem. It says the cpu is there on screen startup. I have tryed everything i could think of....hope you can help. dreama33@hotmail.com

Answer : Have you tried it with the old CPU installed (not that this should be the problem but it is the only thing that's changed once you put back the old drive)?

I would check:

BIOS settings (press DEL or whatever at boot)
Cabling - try another IDE cable
Jumpers on the hard drives - ensure that you have the drives set correctly - Master for a single drive, Master with Slave present, Slave, etc.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 4

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QAId : 5729405
Asker : dcap3
Subject : COMPUTER CRASHES
Private : No

Question : My computer (Compaq 1000mh 128k) has started to crash about every 15 minutes giving me the following error message:

WINDOWS – AN ERROR HAS OCCURRED

OE:0028:C0012D2C

It then freezes up and must be shut down by turning it off and re-starting. What can I do stop this

Answer : With no more information than that I would suggest backing up your data and doing a clean install of Windows as this is most likely an operating system or driver fault.
Rating : 5

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QAId : 5771127
Asker : Ironside
Subject : copying a backup
Private : No

Question : How do you copy another cd backup ?

Need More Information : I'm not sure what you're asking. Please elaborate.

FUQuestion : I mean to copy another cd backup instead of an original.Im asking this because after i finnish the process of copying a backup i get this error response"E:/xxxxxx.exe is not a valied Win32 application" and i use nero

Answer : It sounds like the copy didn't complete correctly (or the autorun.inf file on the CD was modified). Try copying the original with CloneCD.

http://www.elby.de/CloneCD/english/

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 5789954
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Network kits
Private : No

Question : Hello Paul
I am interested in networking 2 home computers together both running Win98. I have never done this before and I was told to buy a Network In a Box Kit.I have been looking at 3 differant kits. Dlink DFE-910 Syslink FESWESK5 Netgear FB105 They are all about the same price. I plan on having Warner Cables Road Runner cable modem.Installed and they said I needed a network card in each computer . and I was wondering if you would tell me what you think of the 3 Kits. and which you would recommend.

Answer : If you are going to use a cable modem service you may want to think about something else. Try looking into a cable modem router (Linksys and DLink both have one - there are others too). This type of device will allow you share the cable modem's internet connection with all your PCs plus connect the PCs together too (like the hub or switch that would come with a kit).

http://www.us.buy.com/retail/computers/product.asp?sku=10235958&loc=419

And this one has a 20 dollar rebate, too.

As for network cards just pick up the number you need at your local computer store for 20 bucks each (get 10/100 autosensing Ethernet cards - Sohoware, Bay or 3Com are good bets).

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

FUQuestion : I was under the impression that all 3 of those kits I mentioned in my first question were hub/switches/routers 5Port each and that they were either designed for DSL/Cable modems Can you find that out for me. I heard that 3Com network cards Model 3C905 were good , but I haven't seen them listed new for less than $40.00 each.
I have a chance to pickup a D-link DFE-910 used kit through a classified add, He claims it is 18 month's old and that he stopped using it a year ago He wants $25.00 plus $7.00 for shipping& Insurance. He has the 2 network cards and the cables & router switch but lost the Install drivers disk. My question is if this unit is 18mo old how come it has the same model number as a Brand new one at best buy. Do you know what the newest version is for the D-Link DFE-910 Can you recommend a better kit in the $90.00 to $100 range? Do you know of any sources where I could pick up these kits cheaper?
jerry

Answer : No those are not "cable-ready" in any other sense than a cable modem has an ethernet port, and so does the switch. To use one of those with your cable modem will have two negative side effects:

1) You will have to pay for additional IP address if you want more than one PC to be able to use the cable modem connection. If you only want one to have access then that PC will need to be *directly* connected to the cable modem, with a *second* NIC to be connected to the switch for communication on the LAN.

2) You will open up all your machines to attack from the Internet (if you set them up for internet access by buying additional IPs), and they will all need to secured individually.

The cable modem routers/switches I've mentioned perform what is called NAT (Network Address Translation) and will protect your internal machines as well as save you money by allowing the whole LAN access to the Internet through the one IP.

The 25.00 bucks for the switch sounds like a good deal, though it won't do more than function as your LAN's centerpiece.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

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QAId : 5803070
Asker : robruns
Subject : File management on HD
Private : No

Question : I have an older PII 300 clone with two HDs installed. One is a 6.2G and the other a 20G. I also have 128mb of RAM. Apparently, because of an older BIOS, the WD installation program divided the two HDs up into 2.1G partitions from C to N. I am running Win ME and the C drive is getting too crowded for efficient operation, sometimes getting down to only 15-20mb, leaving almost no room for the swap file. My question: Are there any programs or files, other than the operating system, that absolutely have to be on drive C or can I safely move everthing else to one of the other partitions?

Answer : If you like you can move the swap file to another disk entirely, which will save you probably 100-300MB of space on C:. Also you can sometimes get away with moving an entire folder from C:\PROGRAM FILES to, say, E:\PROGRAM FILES. The only thing to wacth out for here is that the shortcuts will be wrong (still point to C:) and there may be registry changes needed. Open regedit.exe (Start/Run) and browse down to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software

and look for the folder that the app you're thinking of moving uses. Change any reference to the directory you're moving from C: to E: and then move the folder from C: to E: and test the app by running it (after you fix the shortcuts).

Repeat that process for as many apps as you need to free up enough space.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

FUQuestion : Paul, thanks for the very prompt response. I think moving the sway file my be the most immediate thing I can do to free up my C drive. Now, how do I go about doing that? When I tried to copy the win386.swp file to another partition, it wouldn't do it. saying there may be a sharing violation. Any further help is greatly appreciated.

Bob

Answer : I don't use ME but under 98 you go to the System control panel and under the Performance tab there is a Virtual Memory button where you can set which drive to use and how much space to allocate.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

End :

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QAId : 5911287
Asker : donjoh27
Subject : Program File
Private : No

Question : I messed up my computer> Now when I go to the "PROGRAM" which has 3 three columns, now I can
only see 2 columns and a small part of the 3rd
column...How would I reduce these columns so all 3 show?????
Thank You, John McManus E-mail:donjoh@aol.com

Need More Information : Explain this better so I can understand what you did and what you're doing:

"Now when I go to the "PROGRAM" which has 3 three columns, now I can only see 2 columns and a small part of the 3rd column"

FUQuestion : Hi Paul,
Hope that I'm not confusing you too much!!!!
1) I have windows ME
2)I goofed I reinput the start up software that came with my computer in AGAIN and thats a NO NO.....
Now when I go to start then to program I have 3 columns But the 3rd column is over too far to the
RIGHT...............
I hope this is making some sense!!!!
John McManus donjoh27 23697

Answer : So this is your Start menu you're referring to? In that case try right-clicking the Start button and selecting Explore - then reorganize the folders in there and see if you can clean it up (reduce the number that are directly under "Programs" to clean up that base menu.

Hope that helps...

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

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QAId : 5930061
Asker : kaelpyralis3
Subject : server software/router problem
Private : Yes

Question : Alright, here's the problem.

I have a home network running behind a router. at the moment this router is set up to send all the junk requests to my computer. This is so things like ICQ file transfers and such can work. I now have some server software for a game of mine (Ultima Online) and I wish to host from behind the router. I know most of you probably arn't familiar with any of this but I don't know where to go for help.

when the server software starts up it does an auto search for an internet IP address, which it can't find though the router. Then searches for a LAN IP address wich it finds no problem. the problem is when clients try to connect to my software the server sofware isn't looking in that spot anymore. now.. I can manual set the software to look on my internet IP address... but when the client requests come into the router they are shiped to my computer (the router setting) however even though my computer is looking on that IP it can't find them. However the server software also looks on a specific port. so I'm wondering if the router just isn't sending it through the right port. of if the server software just can't recignize the IP....

I'm afraid that's a bit mixed up and i'm quite sure no many if any could help me out. but it's worth a shot.

thanks

Answer : I have a similar setup at home with cable modem and a home LAN. I would suggest you inspect your router interface and ensure that *all* ports above 1024 are being sent to your PC that you have "DMZed". It appears that even after configuring the Ultima server to know the IP of the router's real internet interface that the data is not being actually forwarded by the router to that machine.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

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QAId : 5948055
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : memory
Private : No

Question : Hi Paul,
We are upgrading our SDRAM.We would like to have the right part.Our motherboard manual advises we can use PC 133 SDRAM DIMM 168pin.
We are considering DIMM 256MB SDRAM, 168pin 32x64 PC133 NON REG.
What is the difference between reg and non-reg?
Our manual also states we can install;"16MB to 768MB memory using VCM,unbuffered or registered DIMM."
Should we expect to have problems if we chose the DIMM 256MB SDRAM, 168pin 32x64 PC133 NON REG.

Answer : That would be buffered (registered) vs unbuffered (non-registered). Most motherboards out now need the unbuffered - I think the RAM you picked out should work just fine.

Since you didn't specify the motherboard you're using I'd suggest you find out what it is and then look up the compatible memory on this site to be sure unbuffered is OK (99% sure):

http://www.crucial.com/UK/index.asp

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

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QAId : 5951349
Asker : lanemom56
Subject : replace cd-rom
Private : No

Question : I have a Compaq Presario 5301. I think the cr-rom is bad and I want to replace it. How do I know what to buy? Does it have to "match" my computer, or are they one size fits all? I don't want a cd-burner, just to replace what I have.
Thanks!

Answer : You can buy and use any IDE CD-ROM drive. Just look for a good brand like Plextor, Yamaha, or Acer. Any speed 30X or above will do just fine.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 6031811
Asker : BeNzE6
Subject : CD-Rom Drive - IMPORTANT - PLEASE HELP ME
Private : No

Question : Hi!
My problem is about my cd-rom drive.
When i play music cd's, while it's playing, i can't hear anything at all.
When i play games using the cd-rom, there's nothing wrong at all, it plays, music also plays.
When i'm listening to music on my cd-rom drive USING a headphone i can hear the music. I just cant hear the music on the speakers on my computer. This only happened today.

I want to listen to music cd's on my computer speakers, not headphones!
My speakers are connected properly by the way.

O/S: Windows98 SE
Ram: 32 MB
MGz: 400
CD-Rom Drive Speed: 40 X
Sound Driver Manufacturer: Sigma Tel

Please help me!!
***If i re-install windows 98 SE, will i hear music on my cd-rom drive, when i'm playing music?***

Answer : It sounds like the CD audio is turned down or muted. You hear music in games probably because they are not CD-Audio, but rather audio stored in a compressed form on the CD and spooled off for decompression and playback (which would make them come out the same way as any other digitized sound effects, and why they are unaffected by your situation). To rectify the problem:

Double-click the volume control (speaker icon) in your systray (far right of the taskbar at the bottom of your screen where the clock is).

Check that the slider for "CD Audio" is at least as high as the "Wave" slider and that the "Mute" checkbox at the bottom is not selected. Then try playing an audio CD again.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities
Rating : 3
End :

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QAId : 6078288
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : diagram of a computer
Private : No

Question : Could you please tell me where I can get the diagram of a computer which shows the CPU, Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, Speakers etc.

Answer : Here is one:

http://www.howstuffworks.com/pc.htm

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QAId : 6262121
Asker : bindi1965
Subject : HDD problem
Private : No

Question : Hi there,

I have a 2-year old Western Digital Caviar 10.2GB HDD running in a Pentium III – 400MHz computer. I seem to be having problem booting from the HDD.

This is my observations:-
1. The HDD has it’s own BIOS called EZ-BIOS that starts up every time the HDD is booted.

2. EZ-BIOS needs to be started every time (even when booting from the FDD or CD) or else the system will not be able to read the C: or HDD.

3. I tried booting the system directly from a FDD or CD before starting EZ-BIOS. After typing the DOS command “cd c:” the system returns the “invalid drive specification” error. Hence the conclusion in the previous paragraph.

4. I tried running Microsoft’s scandisk and Norton’s Disk Doctor. Both programs hang mid-way through scanning the HDD directory structure.

5. The system BIOS (motherboard BIOS) comes equip with Trend Micro’s built-in anti-virus detection. Every time I try to boot from the CD or FDD (after starting EZ-BIOS and before inserting the floppy or CD), Trend Micro alerts me with a virus warning stating that the boot sector of the HDD is infected with a virus.

6. I then burned a CD containing Norton Antivirus (dos) program and the latest virus definition files. When I use this to scan the HDD, Norton says there were no viruses found in the either the master or boot sector of the HDD.

7. I am still unable to boot to windows from the HDD.

I need help to figure out what’s wrong with the HDD or system. I’ve ruled out the HDD’s IDE cable or port since both the CD drive and HDD share a common IDE cable and there’s no problem booting and running from the CD. I’ve also auto-detected the HDD in the motherboard’s BIOS and verified it against the HDD drive label parameters.

My questions:-
1. Is EZ-BIOS really required by the HDD? Shouldn’t the motherboard BIOS be doing the job of controlling it?

2. How can I disable or remove EZ-BIOS without jeopardizing data on the HDD? Should I even try this?

3. When using EZ-BIOS, should the HDD SMART capability in the motherboard BIOS be enabled or disabled?

4. Why is scandisk and Norton’s disk doctor having problem checking the HDD?

5. Could a virus still be the problem? If so, how can I detect/remove it?

6. What in your expert opinion is the best and least destructive way to solve this problem?

Thank you for your patience in reading my long narrative.
Gill

Answer : 1. Is EZ-BIOS really required by the HDD? Shouldn’t the motherboard BIOS be doing the job of controlling it?

(EZ-BIOS and other software like it (Maxtor's MaxBlast comes to mind) are required only when the BIOS on your PC is too old to support the size disk you want to add to a system. Older BIOSs had limits at 2GB, 4GB and 8GB, roughly)

2. How can I disable or remove EZ-BIOS without jeopardizing data on the HDD? Should I even try this?

(see steps below)

3. When using EZ-BIOS, should the HDD SMART capability in the motherboard BIOS be enabled or disabled?

(SMART is a disk failure monitor - I'd leave it off. If your disk fails and you don't notice it's probably for the best ;-)

4. Why is scandisk and Norton’s disk doctor having problem checking the HDD?

(They can't deal with the translated disk without the translation software in operation - the EZ-BIOS is what makes the disk available at its current capacity. Without it running the disk may as well be laid out in Chinese)

5. Could a virus still be the problem? If so, how can I detect/remove it?

(Doubtful this is a virus - the drive may have become unbootable from changes to the disk settings when adding a device like a CD-ROM - using "Auto Detect" may have changed the settings from "Auto and LBA" which is likely where they need to be)

6. What in your expert opinion is the best and least destructive way to solve this problem?

(see below for steps)

You very likely do NOT want the true geometry of your drive reflected in the BIOS as that is the primary reason for EZ-BIOS type extenders - they get around older machine disk-size limitations. You will likely want the disk set to "auto" for type and set to LBA for EZ-BIOS to work.

From Western Digital's website on how to remove EZ-BIOS (only IF your BIOS will support that capacity hard disk!):

"Insert the EZ-Drive disk in drive A then reboot the system.
From the EZ-Drive main menu, select Advanced Options, then select EZ-BIOS Setup.
Highlight Controlled by EZ-BIOS and press ENTER to toggle the selection to Disabled. (If EZ-Drive displays the message "Your ROM BIOS is not set up to correctly handle this drive" see the note below).
Select Exit - Save Changes. Exit EZ-Drive (your system will now reboot).
Verify that the hard drive boots properly and that your data is accessible (if not, see the note below). If so, reboot the system again with the EZ-Drive disk in drive A.
From the EZ-Drive main menu, select Advanced Options, then select EZ-BIOS Setup.
Select Uninstall EZ-BIOS and press ENTER. EZ-Drive will display the following message:
"Be absolutely sure that your BIOS can access all of the drives correctly before uninstalling EZ-BIOS."

"Press Y if you really want to uninstall EZ-BIOS.
Press ESC to cancel uninstalling EZ-BIOS."

Press Y to uninstall EZ-BIOS. EZ-Drive will display the message:
"EZ-BIOS has been removed from drive 1."

Press any key to continue, then exit EZ-Drive. EZ-BIOS has now been uninstalled.
NOTE: If, after EZ-Drive releases control of the drive, your drive/directories are NOT accessible, then the BIOS LBA translation is different from the translation EZ-Drive used. In this case, enter your BIOS Setup and disable LBA translation. Leave the drive parameters as they are. Boot to a floppy boot diskette, then insert the EZ-Drive diskette and run EZ. Have EZ-Drive regain control of the drive. Backup your data. Once your data is backed up, re-boot to a floppy (make sure the boot sequence in your BIOS looks to the floppy drive first), run FDISK /MBR, re-partition and format the drive using FDISK and Format, then restore your data."

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 4

FUQuestion : Hi,I would like to thank you for your comments and input on the above problem. Although I had read of your comments earlier, I waited to reply to them because I wanted to test the advice given. So far this is the status of the hard drive:-

1.I noticed that BIOS identified the HDD correctly has being 10.2GB but EZ-BIOS said it was only 8.4GB. Furthermore the HDD had only one partition of 9.7GB.

2.I obtained from WD’s website the DataLifeGuard software containing all their diagnostic and repair tools.

3.I disabled but did not uninstall EZ-BIOS using the DataLifeGuard software.

4.I run Norton Disk Doctor on the HDD. It took a few hours to go through the first portion of scanning where the boot sectors, directory structure, file structure and lost chains are checked for. A lot of problems were encountered which lead me to believe the HDD logical data structure was all screw up. During the surface scanning, NDD kept reporting of bad clustors. I aborted the surface scanning since it was taking too long.

5.I booted the system from a Windows98 Startup Disk and run FDISK. I deleted the primary partition. I then re-created a smaller primary partition of about 4GB. After rebooting, I tried to format the new partition. Windows started formating by stating it was trying to “recover allocation units”. This went on for about an hour and finally the formatting was automatically aborted with the message “Not Ready. Aborting format”. If you don’t mind, can you answer these questions:-

1.Could the conflicting sizes indicated by the motherboard’s BIOS and EZ-BIOS plus the different size of the primary partition be the cause of the drive’s problems?

2.Why did Windows aborted formating with the message “Not Ready. Aborting format”.

3.If the drive is faulty, how come I was able to delete and re-create a new primary partition?

Please advice. Once again, thank you.Gill

Answer : Your drive is dying (physically). You could reparition it because a partitioning does little to the disk; it just updates the partition table. Once you tried to format it is when it starts doing some real work, laying out the sectors on the disk. The fact that you are getting "trying to recover allocation units" indicates you've had a head crash or the disk surface is going out. Since you had already resigned yourself to reformatting you aren't going to be missing any further data. Go on up to Best Buy or other retailer and get a shiny new Maxtor 40GB for 100-140 dollars. Here again you'll need MaxBlast to extend the size (probably - but try it first without anything to be sure) but at the least it's a much larger hard drive and you can move it to the next machine you get.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

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QAId : 6279795
Asker : firestarterxl
Subject : memory question
Private : No

Question : I really need to find out what is the difference between:
Unbuffered memory and registered memory. Also what is ECC.

thanx for help in advance

Edit: which one is better/faster?

Answer : From DalanTech.com:

"Buffered refers to where the RAM contains a buffer to help the chipset with the large electrical load for when a computer has a lot of memory, while unbuffered lacks a buffer. They are two different types of modules, and are not interchangeable as some even use different printed circuit boards (PCBs). To determine if the RAM is buffered or not, check the leads next to the first notch. If evenly spaced the RAM is buffered. If you attempt to install the wrong type, the stick will not sit properly and be offset.

Registered RAM means that the RAM has a delay on information transferred to the stick or module by one (1) clock cycle. This type of RAM is meant for servers or workstations that serve data to multiple users to ensure the quality of the data being served. Also note that unbuffered and registered RAM is not interchangeable (See Table 1).

Table 1

Buffered Unbuffered Registered Unregistered
Buffered Yes No Yes No
Unbuffered No Yes No Yes
Registered Yes No Yes No
Unregistered No Yes No Yes

What is parity, non-parity, ECC, and how are they related?

Non parity RAM is "regular" RAM - it has one (1) bit for every bit stored, while parity adds a single bit to every eight (8) bits (1 Byte) for a very basic form of error detection - that means that a 64 MB module of parity RAM is actually 72 MB due to the extra bit added to every Byte.

ECC stands for "Error Checking and Correction". To figure out whether you have ECC, parity, or non-parity RAM you need to count the number of chips on the stick or module. If the total number of chips is divisible by 3, then the RAM is ECC or parity. Otherwise, the stick or module is non-parity. To differentiate if the RAM is ECC or parity, look at the part numbers on the chips of the stick. If the part numbers are the same, then you have ECC. Otherwise, you have parity. What is the difference between parity and ECC? ECC and parity will both work in ECC mode, but ECC won't work in parity (see Table 2) because although ECC adds a bit just like parity for error checking, the bit isn't able to be individually accessed like in parity. When building a system, keep in mind that ECC is said to decrease your PC's performance by 2% as ECC is intended for servers or workstations that are serving data that needs such precautions.

On a side note: ECC and non-ECC RAM can't be mixed.

Table 2

Error Code Checking (ECC) Parity
Error Code Checking (ECC) Yes Yes
True Parity No Yes

Motherboards can support SPD and non-SPD RAM. SPD stands for Serial Presence Detect, which is done by a small Read Only Memory (ROM) chip that is attached to SD RAM and it contains information about the RAM. This information includes: the number of row addresses, error detection and/or correction, number of column addresses, data width, and the interface standards to name a few. When your computer boots up, it accesses the SPD to set the column and row settings as well as the module timings based on the information that the SPD gives. SPD is required 66 MHz, PC100 and PC133 compliant SD RAM.

Brand name computers (Compaq, Hewitt-Packard, Dell, etc.) typically ship with a proprietary version of RAM (among other things). This means that this RAM will work in other computers of the same brand, but more then likely will not work in home-built systems or other brands of computers. You can add other brands of RAM to the brand name systems though - there are little (if any) reports of brands of RAM not being compatible, but be sure that the new RAM is supported by the motherboard!"

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QAId : 6529535
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Deleted information on hard drive
Private : No

Question : Is there a way to recover information that has been accidently deleted? I have Windows 98 if that makes a difference and have reformatted my hd since the info was deleted. Thanks

Answer : If you have reformatted you have about zero chance of recovering anything. UNless you want to spend some serious bucks and get a data recovery service after it.

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QAId : 6582959
Asker : rrganesh
Subject : HDD
Private : No

Question : Hi Mr. Paul,

I need your help.

We have a small Network of 200 PCs connected to NT PDC. Now the fact is very recently there had been too many HDD failures. I mean suddenly System says that HDD cannot be found. We get replacement from Compaq. But still we loose all our Data.

Is there any way to recover the data. Or how do we analyse and prevent such problems in future.

Thanks and Regards

Ravi

Answer : If the drives are truly dying it can be difficult to prevent. One technology that aims to do so is S.M.A.R.T., which is built into some hard disks from Seagate and other manufacturers and monitors the health status of disks, and can alert you to possible problems.

http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/whitepaper/enhanced_smart.pdf

Software to monitor existing disks:
http://www.santools.com/smartmon.html

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 4

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QAId : 6587216
Asker : mv503a
Subject : Swap file
Private : No

Question : I have a machine that is configured with 1.8Gig of RAM and a Swap file size of 2.7Gig. The machine always runs out of Virtual memory. Upon investigation, the Swap file size remains at 256Mb, no matter weather I let Windows ME manage the Swap file size or I set it. Using, various memory programs, confirms that the Swap or Page file does not go above 256Mb. What is wrong? The motherboard is a MSI 694D Pro dual processor with only one 866Mhz processor installed. The hard drive is a Quantum Fireball ATA 66 7200RPM 20Gig drive with about 12 Gig of free space. Everything seems to work very well, with the exception that multitasking is impossible and I now know that the Swap file is to small, and will not exceed 256Mb, even though, I can make the setup in Windows to different sizes. Where should I start to look to find and correct this problem?
Thank you so much for your consideration in this matter.
Vince

Answer : Try removing some of that RAM - most of the Win 9X generation OSs do not respond well to RAM beyond 512MB, and the large amount of RAM you have may be causing this.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 6599850
Asker : dewey99
Subject : Mix of 100 & 133
Private : No

Question : I have 128mb of pc100 in my computer. I want to add more. Was told I could use the pc133 also. True or not?

Answer : If you're running the RAM you have now at 100Mhz then yes you can mix them. Plus that PC133 will serve you better if you step up to a CPU with a 133Mhz FSB.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 6599866
Asker : luiseugerp
Subject : Where is the limit to change a hard disk?
Private : No

Question : I have a Pentium, 125 Mhz, 1.2 GB and is giving problems the Hard disk.
The question is It is possible to install a 20 Gb hard disk in place of tha actual?
How can I know if it is possible do that?
Thanks a lot
Luis Riquelme
Maputo, Mozambique, Africa

Answer : If the 1.2GB is still operational and you want to put it's data in place on the new 20GB drive I'd suggest you get a copy of Symantec's GHOST - it will allow you to plug the new hard disk into the machine (along with the existing one) and then transfer the full contents (data, partitions, boot sector) from the old to the new. Then simply unplug the old drive, switch the jumpers on the new drive to "Master" and reboot.

Info and purchase site for Ghost:

<http://www.symantecstore.com/dr/sat/ec_MAIN.Entry10?V1=336925&PN=1&SP=10023&xid=27674&DSP=&CUR=840&CACHE_ID=0>

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 6606053
Asker : gpeters45
Subject : RAM
Private : No

Question : HI, can i put RAM rated at pc100, into a MACHINE THAT HAS 133MHZ FRONT END BUS?

Answer : No you cannot. You will be overclocking the RAM beyond it's rated speed. It may work (poorly, or barely) but it is not advised and can lead to instabilities.
Rating : 5
Rating : 5

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QAId : 6606088
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Realistic CD -RW Write Speed
Private : No

Question : Hi,

I recently purchased a 16x CD-RW drive, which is working fine. However, it took about 20 minutes to write 650MB of MP3 files to a CD-R disk. I was disappointed, since the reviews I read indicated 7 minutes or so.

My question is... what performance should I be expecting ? I know that the reviews are probably the best-case scenario for marketing purposes.

Thanks for your help.

Answer : You should see the faster speed ONLY if you are writing the files as *data*. If you were writing the MP3s as an audio disk (capable of being played in your home stereo, for example) it takes much longer to make the disk. Try burning a CDR with 650MB of data files and see how long it takes. be sure your CD burning app is set to burn at the 16X speed (and that you have 16X rated media).

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 6606133
Asker : weetoonguy
Subject : Hard drive...
Private : No

Question : When I run a diagnostics check on my computer (3 weeks old) it repeatedly flags up the same "serious" problem...i.e. "your system has an uncached speed of 1.3 megabytes per second. Systems with the same cpu (1.2mhz) clock speed and memory ( 256 ram) have an average uncached speed of 4.18mbs."
How serious is this problem and what can be done to rectify it? A friend mentioned a bios upgrade. What is this and how do I go about it?
I have 25.9 free space on a 30gb hard drive.
before running diagnostic ckhecks I close a ll running systems including screensavers. my operating system is windows ME.
Thanks in advance for your answer....
Gus, Glasgow, Scotland.

Need More Information : What benchmark is this? Is it referring to uncached speed from your hard disk (I expect so, but want to be sure)? Two things to try:

Depending on the motherboard you have (tell me and I may assist here) you may want to get the motherboard manufacturers drivers - newer motherboards use unsupported chipsets that OSs will not have native support for, and this requires that you get these patches. Via chipset-based mobos need Via's 4-in-1 drivers:

http://www.viahardware.com/download/index.shtm#4in1

Intel has drivers here:

http://appsr.intel.com/scripts-df/support_intel.asp

Second thing is to ensure that DMA is enabled on your hard disks - Start/Settings/Control Panel/System/Device Manager tab/dbl-click hard disk device to get Properties. Check DMA (if the option is present).

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

FUQuestion : Hi Paul. Thank you for a prompt response to my question. Yes, you are correct in assuming I am reffering to the uncached speed of the harde drive. When I run a diagnostics check (at www.pcpitstop.com) it flags up as a hard drive problem....
My mainboard is LEX (ver 20000801). I took this information from a disc supplied by the computer suppliers.The disc was for the instalation of the requisite drivers. (The system was supplied with everything fully installed including, I assume, all relevant drivers.)
My system is powered by a ADM Athlon processor.
Thanks again for your attention to this matter.....

Answer : If you're not seeing any real problems (other than this message from pitstop.com) then you may not really have a problem at all. Is this error condition corroborated by any other utilities? Try HDTach, a disk performance measuring tool.

http://www.tcdlabs.com/hdtach.htm

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

Answer : Say again? 99% "efficiency" or 99% CPU *utilization*? If HDTach showed 99% CPU utilization that's a bad thing. And is likely due to DMA not being enabled as I mentioned in my first message to you. Be sure DMA is checked in the Device Manager properties for each hard disk (if you have more than one).

DMA-capable disks on motherboards with DMA IDE controllers should get only about 4-10% CPU utilization. Anything higher means your CPU is being used to offload data to/from the hard disk controller. DMA enables the IDE controller to do its own transfers, which frees up CPU time.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

FUQuestion : Paul. Sorry for being such a dumbhead! I done as you advised and checked the DMA in the device manager properties. I now have CPU utilisation of 4.6%.
I ran another diagnostic check and it flagged up no problems and actually classed my system in the top 8% tested!!
Thanks a million! You are a star......Gus.

Answer : Excellent! You are all set, and you're very welcome!

Best Regards,
Paul

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

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QAId : 6612571
Asker : sammy_lb_2000
Subject : Replacing the hard drive...
Private : No

Question : Hello paul,

i would like to replace my old hard drive with
a new one, should we fdisk the new drive first,
or do we need to format it first? NO partition
is needed.
thanks a lot for your help...!
sammy. ;-)

***

Need More Information : What do you mean that no partition will be needed? What do you intend to do with the new drive (what OS will you run)?

Do you want to keep the same OS that is on the old drive when you put the new one in?

FUQuestion : Hi paul,

no partition means keeping the entire drive as one
main drive (c:\ drive). The new drive should replace
the old one due to worn-out and Noisy old drive.
both drives have the same size (20.0 gigabytes).
We will keep the same os (windows 98se).
thanks a lot for your help...!
sammy. ;-)

***

Answer : Ah, in that case all you need to do is plug in the new drive (as slave on the primary IDE controller, or master on the secondary controller) and use Symantec's Ghost utility to duplicate the old drive to the new in one step. It will setup all partitions (you're using one - C:), boot sector information, etc. Then all you do is unplug the old drive and put the new one in on the primary controller as master and reboot. Ghost can be gotten here:

<http://www.symantecstore.com/dr/sat/ec_MAIN.Entry10?V1=336925&PN=1&SP=10023&xid=27674&DSP=&CUR=840&CACHE_ID=0>

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 6629959
Asker : abidali
Subject : Single board computer
Private : No

Question : We r designing a 8086/8088 SBC....
is there any place on web where can i find circuit diagram of Single Board Computer....
thanks
Abid.

Answer : Here's several:

http://www.google.com/search?q=circuit+diagram+sbc+single+board+computer

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

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QAId : 6641872
Asker : taveric
Subject : S-T-U-T-T-E-R-I-N-G
Private : No

Question : hi

Im having a starnge problem with my pc.. I notice that it has been stuttering alot.. But this only has been happening recently.. and the only thing that I remember doing is adding RAm to my Pc.. my pc is now maxed out at 384 Mb ram.. Do you have any idea why this is happening?

(by stuttering I mean.. music and games i play skipping)

also other things i've done.. was i tried to over clock my proccessor it's P2 at 266Mhz.. but when I tried to overclock it..... it started to read ~166mHZ... now i set it back and it read 266mhz again.. I also updated my bios...
my pc model is a Sony PCV-210

I would really appreciate it if you could help me slove this problem.. I want to thank all you experts at askme.com because you guys always help...

Need More Information : The two biggest causes of MP3s and such skipping are:

1) Underpowered CPU - this is not likely the case since I assume it used to work fine.

2) Fragmented hard disk (also unlikely) or DMA not enabled on hard disk (likely).

To enable or check the DMA status of your hard disk right-click on My Computer, select Properties, and go to the Device Manager tab. Open the Disk Drives and Hard Disk Controllers sections and double-click on each item inside them, ensuring that those who have a "DMA" checkbox are checked.

FUQuestion : there wasn't an option to check DMA on some of them...
but all of them are enabled... maybe it was because I updated the bios.. I think what I might do is reformat... I think that's best....

Answer : It sure would isolate the problem! ;-)
Rating : 5

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QAId : 6690656
Asker : zybler
Subject : Quantum hard disk went dead
Private : No

Question : i own a quantum 20GB ATA100 Fireball 5400rpm hard disk. when i put it in my PC. At first the BIOS detected the hd with no prob. after that i re-arrange the hard disk (i have 2 hard disk) a bit and the quantum hard disk now goes undetectable.

There is no weird sound coming out of the hard disk but the hard disk appear to be very quite.... the thing inside doesn't seems to be spinning.

I check everything, the electric cable and data cable. I'm not very sure if i get the master/slave settings correct but when i swap the quantum hard disk with my old seagate hard disk the BIOS detect with no problem.

wat is happening here?

Quantum hdd = Fireball LCT 20 3.5"
Seagate hdd - ATA33, 54000rpm, 8.6GB

Answer : It sounds like one of two things:

Master/Slave jumper problem - Ensure that the drive at the END of the cable is the one jumpered as Master, with the one in the middle being the Slave.

80-pin conductor cable needed for newer Quantum? Did a newer (finer in appearance) cable come with the Quantum? If so it may be the newer 80-conductor variety (with blue, black and gray connectors). The blue end goes to the controller on the motherboard, the black is for the Master drive and the gray is for the Slave.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

FUQuestion : well, the quantum hard disk was set to slave while the seagate was set to master but it still don't work.

i even try swaping out the seagate hard disk and put in the quantum hd in primary master mode where previously the seagate hd work without flaw but still, the quantum hd dun work.

I also noticed the small LED under the quantum hd. At first the LED shines a while then after a while the LED shuts off without a reason. Any clues?

and ya.. i did have the 80-pin conductor cable. the blue end did went to the mbo while the black is in the hd. but the black end went to the seagate hd (which is master) where the third end goes into the quantum hard disk. (which is previously a CD-ROM)

Answer : The only other thing besides ensuring the Master is at the end on the black connector, is to make sure the BIOS is set to autodetect all drives. Press DEL during boot to check.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

FUQuestion : i've taken the hd to the repair shop and they said it's beyong repair. they say i've touch the electrobics board under the hd and static electricity might be the culprit. do u think tat this is a feasible explanation? os it they trying to exaggerate the things and vow me to buy another new hd? is it possible to just change a few components if the board below is damaged by static electricity? (assuming the warratnty is out)

Answer : Modern motherboards are not fixable in that sense. They are made of far too delicate of components. If static electricity has harmed your motherboard just switch the motherboard (keeping the CPU, RAM, etc). A new motherboard shouldn't be more than 100 dollars (parts cost).

Without further troubleshooting I can't say whether I believe static electricity was the cause or not.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

End :
Rating : 5

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QAId : 6801700
Asker : cher37
Subject : DVD HARD DRIVE
Private : No

Question : Had for 2 years and was fine. Now developed a fairly loud noise upon playing a cd. Not all are as loud as others, some can't hear a noise at all and others are quite loud.

Is there something I can do to stop this loud noise

PS: functions perfectly fine exept for the loud buzzing noise.

Thank you

Answer : If it's only buzzing (and misbehaving) with a few discs it's possible those discs are not perfectly-shaped and may "wobble" inside the drive, causing the noise. Barring that possibility the drive may have become damaged, from physical jarring or through normal wear (may have injured itself). Luckily they are relatively inexpensive to replace if it comes to that.

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
DOS/Windows Utilities

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QAId : 6966503
Asker : learner3
Subject : Back-up my HD data
Private : No

Question : Hello experts,

I have a problem backing up my date with my CD-Recorder and hope you guys and help me with it.

I have recently moved and I also moved my PC to my new home. After the move, my CD-Recorder can no longer copy anything.

What I want to do now is back-up some important data on my HD and keep them on a disc. I used to able to do so without a problem, but after the move for some reasons, it no longer works for me.

So if you could help me, I would be really appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Answer : Since moving the PC obviously didn't change any of your OS or software I'd suggest that something got worked loose. Open the case, unplug the power from the back of the case, and reseat all the cables and try again.

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities

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QAId : 6982420
Asker : hykell
Subject : Intel 680*0 CPU info resources
Private : Yes

Question : Where can I find information on the intel 680*0 Cpu family of computers.
I am trying to learn a little more about the computers architecture; instruction set; addressing modes; special design features; and general internal organization....

If there's any resource(s) you know of internet wise, or anything you personally know about this area of computers please don't hesitate to divulge...

If you could atleast give a brief overview of typical systems that use the CPU that would also be good.
Thanks in advance

Answer : Here are some relevant resources:

http://www.google.com/search?q=68000+motorola+family+cpu+architecture
Rating : 4

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QAId : 6982423
Asker : hykell
Subject : 680*0 CPU info resources
Private : Yes

Question : Where can I find information on the 680*0 Cpu family of computers.
I am trying to learn a little more about the computers architecture; instruction set; addressing modes; special design features; and general internal organization....

If there's any resource(s) you know of internet wise, or anything you personally know about this area of computers please don't hesitate to divulge...

If you could atleast give a brief overview of typical systems that use the CPU that would also be good.
Thanks in advance

Answer : Here are some relevant resources:

http://www.google.com/search?q=68000+motorola+family+cpu+architecture

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QAId : 6987273
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Problem with starting the computer
Private : No

Question : Everything worked ok with my computer until a while ago.
It's been a few weeks that right after starting the computer, instead og getting the Windows screec right away, I get a black DOS looking screen with some information about my computer, but in the end it says:
"Pri Master Hard Disk: S.M.A.R.T status BAD, Backup and Replace. Press F1 to Resume."

After fressing F1 everything goes on noramlly. all the data is loaded and everything seems ok (or maybe not?...)
It all seemed to start since we took off the old MSM Messenger through "Add/remove", and installing the new version of the MSN IM. (I have windows 98 and a Microsoft Explorer browser)

Are these two things connected?
What do those sentances mean? Did it harm the computer in any way?
What can I do to change is back the way it was, taking me straight to the Windows Desktop?

Thank you in advance!

Answer : SMART is a BIOS-based disk-monitoring tool. it is intended to alert you to a potentially failing hard drive. If you are receiving those messages I would run a thorough ScanDisk (Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools) and ensure no errors crop up. If the drive comes back as clean and you don't have troubles with it, you can disable SMART in your BIOS - usually pressing DEL during the memory test right after powering up will enter the BIOS.

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 4

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QAId : 7030083
Asker : sammy_lb_2000
Subject : Control sequences to print...
Private : No

Question : Hello paul,

can you please tell me why some programs send
control sequences to the printer before they
print any thing?
thanks a lot for your help...!
sammy. ;-)

***

Answer : They may be trying to setup things like the margins, or selecting a particular font on the printer.

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 7045533
Asker : mikel1249
Subject : ATX power down
Private : No

Question : I have upgraded my system from Celeron 366 to Pentium 4. I am using an ASUS P4S333 motherboard with an ATX case and p/s designed for P3 and P4 boards and features. When the computer is now shutdown (either via front panel switch or from windows), the CPU fan continues to turn and the drive power supply rails remain live, hence the two system fans also keep turning. The mouse (which is a Microsoft optical run through a PS2 adaptor) stays on as does the HDD activity light. I have checked the BIOS settings and the motherboard and found nothing astray.

Where I purchased this unit from, they claim all ATX units behave in this way. Frankly, this is sounding a bit far-fetched. Is it correct?

Thanks,

Michael

Answer : I'm not sure where they get that from. All of my ATX systems shut themselves down when performing a Start/Shutdown and nothing runs afterwards - the drives spin down, no LEDs are on, and certainly no fans are running. Perhaps this is a "feature" and can be disabled in the BIOS?

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 7055173
Asker : cool_expert
Subject : Geforce 3 or Geforce 2 MX?
Private : No

Question : Hi,
I just want to know whether it is better for me to use a geforce 2 mx 400(64 MB RAM) or geforce 3 ti200(64 MB RAM) for a Dell 4300, 1.5 Ghz, 256 sdram.i know geforce 3 has a very good power than the geforce 2, but i am an average(not diehard) gamer who counts framerates, i just want to know whether the gameplay will be smooth with the geforce 2 mx 400, using latest games, wolfenstien, quake 3, max payne e.t.c.
Or for these games, would a geforce 3 be good, i want it to run the latest games?

Thanks
Rahul S.

Answer : I wouldn't get either. The best for the money is the GeForce 2 GTS 32MB DDR cards like the Asus V7700. They are fast as anything out except the GF3 (but GF3 is only fast for DX8 games, which are few).

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 4

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QAId : 7065590
Asker : BlazerPsx
Subject : Computer Hardware Questions
Private : No

Question : I have a few questions
1)I was wondering, which is better, the newest athalon xp or the pentium 4.
2)What is the best video card on the market for consumers (ie 64-124 meg cards)
3)Out of the cards on the market, what is the best on the market that is also tv in and tv out compatabe and also has a high end graphic engine so I can play the latest video games.
4)Currently I have a VERY crappy computer..well atleast to me, it is a k62-500 mhz 128 megs of ram and a 4 meg 3D now vid card, with some stupid audio card. Now all of this is built in, I was wondering if I could mabe disable my other cards and put in newer ones since right now I dont have enough to buy a new mobo/proccessor. But will in about six months.

Answer : 1) That all depends on how you define "better". The Athlon is cheaper and faster than a P4 by some margin, but I feel it's a poor investment as the motherboard support still is not there on the AMD side with regard to support of various types of hardware, and general stability. I've owned AMD in the past and to this day refuse to purchase another due to the multitude of problems. It's just not worth the trouble for me to save 100 or 200 dollars over the cost of a whole system.

2) The best videocards out now are probably the new Titanium GeForce 3s (Ti200 and Ti500 I believe are their monikers). The best for the money is probably still the GeForce 2 GTS 32MB DDR or 64MB DDR cards. With your machine either of the above is overkill (you won't see the benefits as your CPU is too slow). The best card for your machine, if you intend to keep it a while, is probably an NVidia TNT2 Ultra-based video card. You can likely get one cheap, too. Check http://www.mysimon.com for prices.

3) ATI has some cards with decent acceleration and TV in/out, though cards with those video features never have the fastest graphics for games.

4) Yes you can disable the onboard video and audio and use better add-in cards. You'll need to decide whether you're buying the hardware that will work best *in this machine*, or that will be the best when you move to your next machine. That will call for differences in your chosen hardware, as I described above.

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 7113573
Asker : towerofpower
Subject : Rambus DRAM vs. DDR memory
Private : Yes

Question : Hi,

There seems to be some confusion with the performance of memory. RDRAM is more expensive and runs at 800MHz, which is faster than the cheaper DDR memory running at 266MHz. Then why is it generally perceived that DDR memory enhances performance of the CPU relative to RAMBUS memory?
p.s. it is also generally perceived that RAMBUS memory services P4 CPU and DDR memory services AMD-which yields better performance for the price and why?

Answer : RDRAM runs at a best (current) speed of 800 Mhz. It is 16 bits wide (2 bytes) so it moves:

2 (bytes) x 800,000,000 (Hz) = 1.6GB/sec

DDR 266 (133 Mhz double-pumped) is 64 bits wide (8 bytes) and moves:

8 (bytes) x 266,000,000 (Hz) = 2.1 GB/sec

So the newest DDR does have a speed advantage over RDRAM.

Intel used RDRAM because back when it came out it ran roughshod all over the current memory technologies (PC100 mostly). It has far greater bandwidth than PC100. Using PC100 for the then-new P4 would have choked off its performance. Intel even has a new 845D chipset on the way out to service the new Northwood Pentium 4s - it will fully utilize DDR memory and will likely perform very well because of it.

P.S. Please do not ask questions of this sort as private. This is not a private question or of an embarrasing nature, and marking it private means no one can read and learn from our interaction.

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 7131105
Asker : spoddo
Subject : large disk support
Private : No

Question : Just bought a maxtor 40gb drive.
Installed it on my machine and it wasnt detected.
After looking at the maxtor site I found out my bios doesnt support disks this size, drive works fine in friends machine.
Is there some sort of utility I can use to let my bios support large disks?

Answer : There is a utility called "MaxBlast" included on a floppy disk with your hard drive. Installing it will give you access to the full capacity of your drive. Just be aware that this utility is difficult to be rid of and when you get a new machine moving the drive over will likely require a full cleaning of the drive.

FUQuestion : tried using maxblast, but when it tried top setup my disk it crashed everytime

Answer : I'd suggest updating your motherboard BIOS - get the latest from your motherboard maker's website. If that doesn't help or you aren't comfortably doing that contact Maxtor for tech support.

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QAId : 7224359
Asker : Citt
Subject : Fault Tolerance RAID 3 & RAID 5
Private : No

Question : Please don't send me to def. site. I know what RAID 3 & RAID 5 is. What I want to know is practically what does RAID 5 have over RAID 3 in fault tolerance and speed. I know with RAID 5 and hot swappable drives they can rebuild themselves if 1 dies. Can RAID 3 do such a thing? Is RAID 3 fault tolerant in that if either data drive or the parity drive fails, it will rebuild the drive?

Answer : That depends on your controller. The only difference between 3 and 5 is that 3 doesn't stripe the parity across all the disks; it uses one dedicated disk for the parity information. RAID 5 stripes parity along with data across all the disks. Why most people treat 5 as more resilient is beyond me, since both have identical abilities to protect data, and RAID 3 is faster than 5 in performance.

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 7273668
Asker : ruprety
Subject : what is ide
Private : No

Question : What is ide

Answer : IDE stands for Integrated Drive Electronics, and is a standard for hard drives (and their control) in PCs. It defines what the interface for a hard disk will look like, what the command set for the drive will be, and how devices will attach to the IDE controller.

It's primary competition in the marketplace is SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) which is used on some Macintoshes and server systems, but generally costs more.

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities

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QAId : 7273676
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : RD Ram as opposed to SD Ram
Private : No

Question : When it comes to speed on the desktop and in programs within the computer or Internet whats the best Ram or memory to have?

Answer : There are a few varieties out there right now the primary ones being:

SDRAM
DDR SDRAM
RDRAM (aka Rambus)

The SDRAM is used primarily in Pentium 3 and AMD Athlon systems. It runs at a maximum speed of 133 Mhz.

DDR SDRAM is the same as regular SDRAM except it doubles the incoming clock rate, so what was 100 Mhz or 133 Mhz SDRAM runs at an effective 200 Mhz or 266 Mhz, respectively.

RDRAM, or RAMBUS, is used strictly in Pentium 4 systems. It runs at either 600 or 800 Mhz but uses fewer data lines so it's not as fast as it's speed would indicate. That being said it IS the fastest memory available at this time with a maximum throughout of 3.2 GB/sec.

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 7361326
Asker : BlazerPsx
Subject : Computer Slowness
Private : No

Question : I have worked with computers a few years and I have never seen this before, I have tried to fix my friends computer but to no avail. First of all whenever I try to install an os it either stops or goes very slow..I am installing windows xp on his new dell system and it it took about 8-12 hours to install. Once it installs it sais that all the system resources are taken up, and that 800+ megs of ram are being used when he only has 256. What could be the problem?

Answer : If this is happening during install or on the first few boots after install (before any other software is installed) I'd say he has a BIOS problem or a driver problem. Try this: Remove all non-essential hardware (audio, network cards, modems, etc) from the PC's slots (note which card went where so you can put them back the same way). Do the XP install with this bare configuration, all over from scratch. If the problem still exists I would hit the motherboard manufacturer's website for a BIOS flash update. Also check Microsoft's website for their HCL (Hardware Compatibility List) to ensure his hardware (mobo and all peripheral cards) are supported by XP.

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities

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QAId : 7369216
Asker : flossist47
Subject : rattling cpu sounds
Private : No

Question : hi could u please help me.when i boot up my system i hear rattling sounds like what u hear if u try to access the floppy drive when there is no diskette in.i hear this rattling type noise when the items are loading in the lower right hand corner of the screen.i also hear these noises when i shut down.recently i heard these noises when i clicked the start menu and just pointed to documents.i would really appreciate it if u could help me since i even fear that i may have a virus since it seems as tho my hard disk space is increasing slowly but surely.

PLZ HELP!!!!

NB-if it helps,i use ME.

Answer : This would be either a fan getting dust in it and no longer spinning correctly, or more likely since it seems to coincide with disk activity, your hard disk dying. I'd suggest the first thing you do is backup your files you can't replace (C:\My Documents is a good place to start) and then open the case and boot the machine and see if you can isolate where the sound comes from and what the state of the hard disk is when it occurs (is the hard disk in use).

Rating : 4

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QAId : 7407414
Asker : jijihana
Subject : computer hardware
Private : No

Question : I want hard disk picture that internal and external picture ?

Answer : Click through a few pages of the images this returns and you'll have what you need:

http://images.google.com/images?q=hard+disk&hl=en

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 7597104
Asker : unspecifieduser
Subject : Buying a new hard drive
Private : Yes

Question : Hi.
I'm buying a new computer with a 40GB 7200 RPM IDE Maxtor Hard Drive. What I would like to know is if there is an special requirement to install this kid of hard drive. For a 5400 RPM I only had to plug it to the motherboard through the IDE cable. A friend has told me that I should get a 80 pins IDE cable, so I'd like some advice.
I know I won't be using a SCSI interface, just an IDE interface, but I'm a little confused also with the ATA terminology.

If you require information about the motherboard, processor and memory, here they are:
Motherboard Intel 850MD (478 socket).
Pentium 4 Processor 1.8GHz
256 x 2 MB (512MB) RDRAM RIMM

Thank you for your answer.

Answer : You'll need the 80-conductor (still 40-pin) cable to hook the new drive up. But you're in luck - there will be one in the box with the new drive. Just plug the blue connector into the motherboards IDE connector, the black connector to the master drive and the gray to the slave.

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 7651526
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Heat sink
Private : No

Question : What exactly is a heat sink and what does it look like? I know that it has something to do with the CPU fan, but not sure what it is.

Answer : "Heat sink" is just a fancy way of saying "a device made of a thermally-conductive material, usually metal, whose purpose is to draw heat away from sensitive devices and disperse it into the air". "Heat sink" doesn't sound so bad after that, eh? ;-)

The basic idea is simply to put this conductive material in an area that is known to become warm during operation (like a CPU) and by thermal conduction (transfer of heat by touch) move the heat from the hot component into the inert metal. The heat sink usually also has ribs or fins. The purpose of these is to dramatically increase the surface area by which the heat the heat sink draws into itself, can be discharged into the surrounding air. This increases the efficiency because heat transfer from the metal to the air is reliant on the amount of air that can actually come into contact with the heated metal areas.

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 7668146
Asker : osman@...
Subject : advice
Private : No

Question : Dear Expert

An-amalgam of freinds advice and price dropped on PC Hardware have being suggested to Build my own pc.If I decided to explore that experience,what would be your advice?.Please also advice me books or web-site's on matter.
Thank You in advance for your help.

Need More Information : What kind of PC do you want, and how much money do you want to spend on the whole system?

FUQuestion : Dear Expert
I would like to spend upto $1000.PC I am trying to buy is athlon but I can let you advice me on that.I am looking decent one.Thanks

Answer : I'd suggest you use a site like the one below to configure the barebones pieces yu want (motherboard, case, CPU and RAM), and then populate the video card, sound card, network card, hard drive, floppy and CD drive separately.

Barebones systems:

http://www.accessmicro.com/hotdeal/computersystemwindow.php3

A good site for pricing on the other components:

http://www.pricewatch.com

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 3

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QAId : 7702570
Asker : Zodd
Subject : IEEE 1394 wire
Private : No

Question : Hi. I just bought a digital video camcorder that requires and DV cable (IEEE 1394) to hook up to my PC. I do not know USB and Firewire stuff very well so I am wonder if this type of cable can hook up to a USB plug or if I have to buy a Firewire card and the DV cable in order to hook my camcorder up to my PC to download pictures. Thanks!

Answer : USB and firewire (IEEE 1394) are completely different standards. You will need a firewire port in order to get the video to your PC. There are several ways to get one. One way is with a video capture card - some will have a firewire interface built in. Another way is to get a dedicated video capture board with one. Also a dedicated PCI card with a firewire (or multiple firewire) port can be bought. Finally the Audigy series of soundcards from Creative include a firewire port in them, in case you'd like to upgrade your sound at the same time as adding the port.

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 7748461
Asker : saliz
Subject : restore
Private : No

Question : i have no restore CD
i was told i was able to restore the system using a startup disk
i have reformated the PC
and i need to comands in msdos to reinstall the original operating system on the pc.
(windows 98)

Answer : OK - Make a boot floppy as follows:

Start/Programs/MS-DOS Prompt

(put a blank floppy in the drive)

format a:

c:
cd \
sys a:
copy windows\himem.sys a:\
copy windows\smartdrv.exe a:\
copy windows\command\mscdex.exe a:\
copy windows\command\xcopy*.* a:\
copy windows\command\format.com a:\
copy windows\command\edit.com a:\
copy windows\command\sys.com a:\

Download the following file to A:\

http://members.home.com/iqueue/idecd.sys

Now create a config.sys as follows:

edit a:\config.sys

The config.sys needs the following in it:
device=\himem.sys
device=\idecd.sys /d:cdrom001

Save the config.sys

Now edit A:\AUTOEXEC.BAT and put the following in it:

@echo off
\mscdex.exe /d:cdrom001 /l:f
\smartdrv /n c+ f 4096 4096

Save the file and exit.

Now you will have a bootable disk that will bring up your CD-ROM as drive letter F: - the best thing to do at this point in your reinstall is NOT to launch the install, but rather ensure you have XCOPY.EXE and XCOPY32.EXE on the floppy or in the C:\ directory and do an xcopy of all the files in the Win98 subdirectory off the CD to your hard disk and perform the installation from *there*. Why? A couple of reasons - one is the installation goes faster from the hard disk, but that's a minor reason. The primary reason is that after installation you will no longer be bothered by that annoying 'please insert your Windows 98 CD' when upgrading drivers, installing new versions of DirectX, etc, since all the source files for the OS are on your disk. The XCOPY command looks as follows:

(boot from floppy and format the hard drive

a:
format c:
sys c:

if necessary - be sure you have a backup first of whatever you want to keep!)

xcopy f:\win98\*.* c:\win98kit\*.* /e

Now boot off the hard disk and do:

cd \win98kit
echo y | lock c: /off
setup

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 5

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 7903659
Asker : huslu67
Subject : monitor
Private : No

Question : Hello,
I have an HP pavilion mx70 17" monitor, there is a very small area about the size seven pin points that miscolors dark especially when displaying light colors. I work with graphics intensively and it is in the same location everytime. I have completely reinstalled Windows and all graphic drivers, as well as monitor drivers. From the physical hardware standpoitn what could be causing this? It is my understanding that pixels do not exist in these monitors as these have tubes.

Answer : The coating inside the glass tube may have a problem (some of the coating may have come off or become misaligned) causing the darkening you describe. There is no real fix for this.
Rating : 5

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 7939015
Asker : gtrgeoff
Subject : scsi card - uses ?
Private : No

Question : Hi,

I'm working an older HP Vectra VLi8, 450 mhz, PIII, w 256k RAM, Win98 SE. It has one dedicated 16-bit expansion slot, a second combination 16-bit/ other (standard pci slot), plus 3 of the smaller slots (I have an ethernet card in one, a 2-port USB in one, a 56k modem in one).

A friend gave me an older Iomega Zip Zoom SCSI Accelerator card.

My question is: what are some common uses for SCSI? I'm currently running an Epson C80 printer via usb 1.0.

I'm thinking of getting a scanner (Macrotek 4800, maybe?) - are scanners good candidates for SCSI?

Lastly, I'm also into music, and I'm thinking of getting an external hard drive to suplement my woefully undersized 8G internal. Would an external hard drive hook up via SCSI?

Thanks,

- Geoff (a fellow Expert, but in Guitars)

Answer : SCSI is mainly useful if you want to hook up devices you can't get any other way, or if you have several you need to be hooked up at once. Scanners are easily accessible through parallel or USB (if your machine has USB that's the preferred method). Printers never use SCSI so that's out. Guitars won't use SCSI - music devices need a MIDI port which comes with most decent soundcards.

You *can* hook up a SCSI hard drive or CD-ROM externally but you already have two free IDE controllers inside your machine that can support up to 4 drives (hard drives and CDs). And you'll pay a premium for SCSI hard drives which run generally 30-50% more for the same storage space as IDE. So in other words unless you *really* need to use that SCSI controller I wouldn't.
Rating : 5

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 7962162
Asker : khirsah_1
Subject : stupid PC won't start up
Private : No

Question : Last night I was merrily typing away when suddenly my PC froze and shut down, I attempted to restart the dreaded machine with no success. My PC is a Dell deminsion xps T500. The motherboard light is comming on, but the powersupply ond harddrive are not powering up. The System and Powersupply fans are not spinning either. Could it be my powersupply? The outlet is fine, I tested that and also tried taking out my memory and sound and video cards and tried booting, no luck, I just bought a new harddrive, and it worked fine for about 3 weeks. I apriciate your help
Sincerely Stacey D

Answer : The power supply certainly seems suspect at this point. I'd try a known good one to see if that's indeed the case. Either swap one out of a working machine or buy another from a store that accepts returns if that doesn't turn out to be a correct diagnosis. If you have a volt meter you can switch on the power supply and get a reading directly off one of the hard drive power connectors. The two center pins are ground and the outside pins are 5 and 12 volts, respectively. Measure with the volt meter probes the voltage between an outside pin and one of the ground pins in the middle.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 7973917
Asker : mia_do61
Subject : .pre file extension?
Private : No

Question : What is a .pre file ext. and how do I view it and convert to any microsoft office?

Thanks!

Answer : The only I've found indicates the .PRE extension refers to a "Lotus Freelance presentation". I'd suggest looking at converting it to an MS PowerPoint file if you need to view it with Office - this article tells how:

http://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles%2Farchive%2Fr0504%2F25r04%2F25r04%2Easp&guid=lehm1ng0&searchtype=&WordList=

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 7983026
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : average access time of CD drive
Private : No

Question : How can I find out average access time of a CD dirve or writer? How can I make it independent from the test media? Which program does that?

Answer : I believe SiSoft Sandra has a module that will report the average access time:

http://www.sisoftware.demon.co.uk/sandra/index.htm

As for making it media-independent try running it with several types of CDs and average the results (if they vary enough to matter).
Rating : 5

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 7987671
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : memory installation
Private : No

Question : I have two 256MB of crucial memory cards(PC2100). Does it matter in which 3 of the slots I put the cards in?

The closest slot to the cpu is dimm 3...once I've been told to put the cards in from dimm 1..is that true? Thanks for your time.

Answer : Usually you start with the lower-numbered slots yes.

Consult your motherboard manual (they are also usually online in PDF form if you don't have the paper one) for more details.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 8011987
Asker : pammos
Subject : Error message following download
Private : No

Question : When I try and download a programme or sometimes games from the internet i receive the following error message after the dowload has finished.

Microsfot connection manager

The service profile is damaged. Re-install the service profile.

Can you explain the problem and suggests how this can be rectified.

many thanks
Pam

Need More Information : What version of Windows is this?

FUQuestion : windows 98 second edition

FUQuestion : windows 98

Answer : Click this:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q232628&

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 8012213
Asker : togettyout
Subject : cursor stuck
Private : No

Question : Toshiba Satellite Pro 420 CDT
Windows 95

Suddenly, the cursor is stuck at the top of the screen. Using the "pointer stick" on the laptop, I can move the cursor very slowly around the screen, but then it goes right back to the top. I figured out how to turn on the mousekeys accessibility option, but I couldn't move the cursor using the keypad keys.

Can anyone help? Thanks.

Answer : It sounds as if the mouse pointer stick is broken. And it is broken in such a way as to have it be sending a constant signal in one direction. Give it a good thump with your finger to see if it can be dislodged from doing that. And if that doesn't help you may have to disable it in the BIOS setup which is accessed right before boot begins by pressing the indicated key (or by just holding a key down all during power up - most notebooks will read a key down like that as an error and offer to enter the BIOS setup).

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

FUQuestion : Thanks for the excellent advice. I suspect you're right that the pointer stick is broken. We bought a Microsoft mouse and it works. I guess it overrides the pointer stick. We haven't tried disabling it in the BIOS, but we still might do that.

Answer : No answer necessary - good luck with your notebook!

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 8054760
Asker : huslu67
Subject : ram
Private : No

Question : Hello,
How does DDR SDRAM compare in preformance to RDRAM?

Is RDRAM worth the extra cost in a Pentium 4 system?

Answer : RDRAM has more bandwidth at this time that DDR but Intel is rapidly moving towards DDR for P4 systems and appears to be leaving RDRAM in the lurch. For a current system RDRAM is unbeatable with a P4 but just be aware of this trend when purchasing a system or upgrade components.

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 4

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 8106158
Asker : wjames10
Subject : Mouse parts
Private : No

Question : Hi, I am a teacher in a computer lab, and some of the balls in our mice were taken, along with the little cover that keeps the ball in. Two questions for you...

1. What is that little cover called? I would like to order some, but I don't what word to search for.

2. Where can I get those little covers and some mouse balls...I figure I will have to order them from the Internet, but I wonder if you know of a reliable source which you have dealt with.

Thank you for your time,
wjames10

Answer : I feel your pain - I as a former teacher have also known the heartbreak of ball-less mice. ;-)

I know of no such place to order replacement parts for these from. Mice are so inexpensive and the mouse balls/covers of so many different configurations and sizes, that you may as well junk them. Your best bet? But some cheap Logitech or Microsoft *optical* mice - they're direct replacements as long as you can use USB or PS2 connectors and *no mouseballs to steal or even clean*.

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 8212537
Asker : vishal72
Subject : computer configuration
Private : No

Question : dear sir,
for a last few days i am facing a great problem.
i have intei PII 400Mhz computer with an ordinary motherboard that came alongwith modem, ethernet card, sound & vga(sis 620).

i had purchased a new computer with intel PIV 1.5Ghz, intel motherboard (850MD), 128MB RDRAM (PC600) & 32MB AGP card(SiS, 125Mhz SDRAM).

the HDD is same Seagate 20GB (IDE)

but with Operating system as Win ME, i cannot get the speed as compared to my old one. can u be kind enough to help me find out what is the wrong in the configuration.
(the card movement in spider solitaire is too slow & the blending effects in coreldraw 5.0 is not so appreciable).

Pls help me take the decision on the right kind of configuration.
(i don't want to change the motherboard, processor & RAM)

thankx in anticipation.

harikant
(west bengal,India)

Need More Information : What operating system were you using on the old machine?

Did you reinstall the OS from scratch, or did you try to transplant the HDD from the old machine to the new with the OS already installed?

Do you have all the latest drivers for your video card and audio card?

FUQuestion : dear sir,
thankx for the immediate reply.

as per the questions u asked.
the OS was installed on a new one barracuda(with same capacity)

the drivers were provided with the products having importing date as may 2002 & jun 2002 for motherboard & processor.

the video card bore the date as may 2002.
(the audio is onboard AC'97)

thanx again
harikant

Need More Information : What video card is it?

Have you gotten the latest drivers? If it's an NVidia-chipset based card (GeForce series) I suggest you get the Detonator drivers from here:

http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp

Also get and install the latest DirectX (8.1) drivers here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.asp

FUQuestion : dear sir,
yes! its the nvidia's geforce mx200.
as per ur suggestions i will try to act accordingly & let u know later.

but, what i need noe is that whether the type of configuration specified works well or not?
do i need a change in my configuration.

thanks again,

bye for now

thankfully
harikant

Answer : From the information you've provided about your system I don't see anything wrong. You should be seeing a significant speed increase over your prior system.

Best of luck with it,
Paul

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 4

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 8310329
Asker : DRobe65483796
Subject : Adding memory & hard drive space
Private : Yes

Question : Hello,

I just upgraded the operating system on my PC from Windows 98 SE to Window XP Home Edition. I am very pleased with it. :o)))

Right now I only have 8 GB of hard drive space in my computer and I have 128 MB of memory.

To keep from buying a new computer anytime soon, I would like to know how do I install more GB of hard drive space onto my computer? How do I install more MB of memory? I know I have to buy it, but is either of them on a disk, which I just install? Please explain. Plus after upgrading my computer do you think there is any need for me to buy a computer for the next couple of years? I also have DSL Broadband service which helps my computer to go fast on the Internet.

Thank you very much, waiting to hear from you.

Dotty

Answer : Well you didn't indicate the current speed of your system, but you appear to be satisfied withit, so speed won't likely compel you to upgrade anytime soon.

For adding memory I suggest you add another 128 MB stick (for 256MB total). This can be gotten for about 35 dollars online.

As for hard drive space you will need to add a second hard drive. This too can be gotten online. I'd suggest you get a second drive of the same capacity as your current one. Doubling in this manner by adding a second drive is usually enough for quite some time, unless your needs change drastically. If you don't already have two drives adding a second is pretty easy. When you get the new drive out of the box look for a jumper (small black piece of plastic with metal inside that connects two metal pins) and documentation of how to set the jumper positions on the new drive to be the "slave" drive. Once it is jumpered as slave and the old current drive is jumpered as "master" (may already be set correctly) you can install the new drive on the same cable as the first one.

Once the hard drive is physically installed you will need to enter the BIOS (look for the key to press at the beginning of a power-on cycle - it's usually the DEL key). Once inside the BIOS ensure that the slace on the primary controller is ON and set to AUTO.

Once the drive is on in the BIOS and is being detected during boot go on into Windows XP and once inside right-click the "My Computer" icon and select "Manage". In the interface that comes up you will see an entry called Disk Management. Single click it and the right pane will be filled with information on your drives. Once you understand which represents the new second hard drive use the controls (right-click on things mostly) to create a partition on that new drive and then format it.

A good place to purchase these items online is:

http://www.pricewatch.com where you can find the best prices for the items you want. Or to just browse try http://www.googlegear.com

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 4

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 8326285
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : computer performance
Private : No

Question : ear sir,
i have a question which i could not solve myself & by my friends.
so giving u trouble.

when i copy a movie file from one diskdrive to another the machine stops working on other process which is not the case when small files are copied or any other process is carried out (maybe 10 simultaneously)

the machine is PIV 1.5Ghz, intel 850MD original motherboard, nvidia Geforce AGP card 64MB Ram at 200Mhz, 20GB seagate harddisk &
WIN Millenium as operating system

thanks in anticipation

vishal

Answer : I would check and confirm you have DMA enabled if your controller supports it. It seems you have high CPU utilization during disk transfers, which DMA will alleviate.

Here are the steps:

http://www.windows-help.net/windowsMe/tip-0011.html
Rating : 5

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 8330773
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Standby Feature
Private : No

Question : Hi,

My computer has been going to "sleep" when not used for sometime, according to the Power Management setting ... home PC. The problem is that for the past few weeks, it is taking a LONG LONG time to wake up and re-activate. Often times it was not waking up at all and I had to switch the power of and re-boot (hot or cold). This is very annoying, because scandisk has to run, etc. etc.

Two days ago, I got the message that goes something like ... "your computer has NOT been successful to go on standy a few times. Do you want that this feature is changed (!!) or cancelled (!!)". I said yes. Since then, the Power Mangement does not switch of the hard disk ... only the monitor and I lost the "standby" option under "start" > "shutdown". I only have three options now : shutdown, restart, restart in DOS.

What went wrong? How can I get the standby option back? and how do I get over the problem of LONG wake up times??

Thank you

Answer : I would forget about standby and simply let your monitor go off and the hard disks spin down. Your power usage is next to nothing at that point and the system is instantly ready to go.

If you insist on using the standby mode the problem you describe is quite common and is usually solved by patching the OS, tweaking the power mgmt settings in the BIOS, or both.

You didn't indicate what version of Windows this is, so I suggest you take a look at this link below for help with standby problems:

http://search.support.microsoft.com/search/default.aspx?Catalog=LCID%3D1033%26CDID%3DEN-US-KB%26PRODLISTSRC%3DON&Product=&KeywordType=ALL&Titles=false&numDays=&maxResults=25&withinResults=&Queryl=standby+mode&Query=standby+mode&QuerySource=gsfxSearch_Query

FUQuestion : Thanks,

I checked most articles under the link you supplied. Most are not related to Win98 2nd Ed (the OS I have on my computer), or caused by devices and s/w that I definitely do NOT have on my machine.

Also most relate to "going on standby" rather than "waking up from standby", which was my problem.

Are there any patches to 2nd Ed. for this problem?

Thank you

Answer : Yes, that was one of the primary bugs introduced with 98SE that 98 did not suffer from. Ensure that you've gone to Windows Update and have all the latest patches for 98SE.

Your problem may very well be caused by an expansion card that is too old and does not support APM (Advanced Power Mode) or ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) commands, and causes this problem when the system tries to come back online. If you have adapters cards installed that are ISA or perhaps even some PCI that are very old at all they may be the reason your system is having this issue. I would disable ACPI and power management in the BIOS and do what I suggested earlier, and set your monitor to blank after 30-45 minutes of inactivity, and have your hard disks spin down after an hour or two.

--
Paul Doherty
http://home.attbi.com/~bitbucket911
DOS/Windows Utilities

Rating : 5

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 8344602
Asker : Tyler_069
Subject : RCA to computer video input
Private : No

Question : is there a way to play my playstation on my pc monitor
i want something like an rca to usb or rca to computer\something cheap not like a video editing thing that is over 150

i just dont know what to ask for or where to look thanks

Answer : http://www.psreporter.com/ps2_vga_adapter.html
Rating : 5

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 8345978
Asker : Zima99
Subject : CD drive question
Private : No

Question : My CD drive stopped working, so I took a CD drive, that I know works, out of another
computer, and put it in my computer. It won't work either. It makes noise, like it's
spinning, and the light comes on, but nothing shows up on the screen. What could
be wrong? Do you have any idea how I could fix this?

Thank you,
~Karen

Answer : If the drive works in another computer (reading the same CD) but not yours, then I would try the following:

1) Use a different power cable to run the drive.
2) Ensuring the IDE data cable is cabled correctly and that both ends are secure.
3) Jumper settings on the CD-ROM drive are set for master or slave as appropriate.
4) Use a different IDE cable.
5) Ensure the BIOS has the IDE device port you're using (example - Primary controller, slave device) enabled, and set to autodetect.

--
Paul Doherty
http://ped.deadartists.com
DOS/Windows Utilities

FUQuestion : Well....after messing with it, I found out that it will work when I go to RUN, then type D:
But, how can I get it to work without having to do that? None of my CD's will run automatically.

Thanks,
Karen

Answer : It sounds as if Autorun has become disabled. Try enabling it:

http://www.moonvalley.com/products/cdultra/enable.htm

FUQuestion : The option for auto run is already checked. What else could be the problem?
Any ideas?

Thanks,
Karen

Need More Information : What are you saying doesn't happen correctly at this point?

FUQuestion : When I put a CD in the computer CD player, it spins, and the light comes on, but nothing happens. Nothing appears on the screen.
But, if I go to 'Run'... and type
D: the CD will start functioning.
In the settings, the Auto Run option is checked, but none of my CD's will automatically start up when placed in the computer.
So, this is where I currently am at this point.
I want the CD's to 'auto run' when I put them in.

Hope I haven't confused you :)

Can you help?

Thanks,
Karen

Answer : You can also get to the CD by opening My Computer or any Explorer window and opening the D: drive.

If you have autorun enabled but the CDs do not autorun you may need a firmware upgrade on the CD-ROM drive. Look on the drive manufacturer's website for a flash update.

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