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

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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 qui