some of you may be able to help me ... I need some sort of proggie that can clean out the Pagefile every now and then ... I mean short of rebooting .... anyone know of one ?

that a big task because the page file is an extension of the memory on your hard disk. It would be like clearing your memory when your PC in running. I think the only way to clear the page file is on every reboot. Other options don't jump to mind but let me check my connections.

My mouse when I try to move to toolbar, or the bottum of the page at all, once it goes on the blue bar ( xp ) it goes to the top of the page.

???

Can you explain it again or perhaps a screenshot. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I just restarted and it worked fine, thanks anyways. And I have no clue how to take screenie of my desktop.

Just a sort of error, about Splinter Cell, don't want to go on offical forums.

I try to go into an elevator and press' up' and it crashes and says "general protection error" and every time I do this it happens.

The splinter cell site suppourt sucks, and when I try to install patch it says version number not found!!!

hmm yeah figured that much, thanks anyway Morbo <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

click the printscreen key.
open paint.
paste.

Sounds like a dodgy install. I'd try reinstalling with a full install if possible.

I installed it a while ago, and this is on maybe the 5th level, I'd really like not to go through it all again.

You should be able to keep your saved games.

E-mail me a copy of your DxDiag.txt and I'll see if there are any potential hardware problems.

Click Start/Run...
Type dxdiag and click OK.
Click Save All Information and save it somewhere easily accessable, such as the Desktop.
E-mail the file to hand_e_food@hotmail.com

What part of the information do you need?

Just click Save All Information. It will save all of the pages.

Ahhh.

Mea, are u on WinXP? can't help u (sorry!) in thar case. but i know in Win9x, u can sort of disable paging in favour of maximising the use of the physical memory (RAM). this is only good if u have 256MB or more.

wish i can help more. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />

ok,
winXp recognice the wrong tv capture card.
unfortinaly, everytime i reboot, Xp automaticly installs drivers for thaa card i don't have!
can i disable auto-detect-install? (plug and play i believe)

Windows XP and Tv tuner cards == hell on earth. (personal exp)

Give brandname and version.

Who can answer me this... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Just bought a new motherboard agp x8 and Graphics card, geforce thingy agp x8

Every thing is up and running now expect the AGP port. It's in PCI mode.

The direct X dialog says that AGP is not available.

I've installed the AGP drivers that came with the card.

Card and motherboard are full compatible (from same vendor).

Is it something in the BIOS that I need to do to enable AGP?

Splinter Cell - the first game featuring the "third eye".

[color:"orange"] Is it something in the BIOS that I need to do to enable AGP?
[/color]

For sure i know that it is able to set the speed of the AGP Port in the BIOS.
But to change betwen PCI and AGP <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/think.gif" alt="" /> i don`t know.
But this is not difficult to find out. Just look in your BIOS if you start your PC.
In every Bios exist an option to set the BIOS on the default settings, so you cant really make a mistake.

OK everybody, I've got this problem, called "extremelly stubborn/stupid father". The thing is (you might have heard this one before) I'm on a wireless LAN for my internetconnection, and I'v whant a wire drawqn so I can get faster internet. For the moment I'm on a temporary wire for when I game online or download stuff (this one is drawn 24/7...). Well, a friend of mine has a father (I know it might be hard to believe, but do believe, he has) who works with this kind of thing, and he knows of a whay to draw a wire through the telephone network. This would hardly show at all, my father wouldn't have to lift a finger AND I would have fast internetconnection all day long. The thing is, when I mentioned my friend's father's idea, he first stated that I obviouslly hadn't heard what he's said about drawing a wire (NEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), and when my mother pointed out what I was just telling him what my friend's father had suggested he told me it was very interesting to hear, and then completelly ignored it. Please, what should I do? I could buy my fathers desission if I understood it, but since I don't I just feel unjusticlly treated (right term?). This makes me very sad, since my father allso has told me that he whants my computer to work allright, since he cares about me (compare with his feelings about drawing a permanent wire. He acually told me I had to plug out my temporal wire when I was't playing online or downloading. This is just one of the things that would be avoided by drawing a permanent wire).

Übereil

Look at this Site Devolo.
Thre a some products to realize a LAN Wire with the in-house power circuit.
But i think a normal Wireless Lan is allways faster than a DSL Connection.
Wireless Lan can reach speeds up to 11 mb/second and more.
And (ok, i know it only about Germany) you can only have DSL Speed up to 3 mb/second.

So i think you dont get faster with moving in the internet, or downloading some stoff.
You only get faster in Ethernet connection betwen your Home PCs

Cheers for that stone...I'll go rooting through the BIOS later and see if I can get it running.

Stone, some facts: My wired connection has a speed on 7-8 Mbit down. My wireless has a speed on max 500 kbit down. So, the wired network is 15-16 times faster.

Übereil

Ok, so look in the link and you will find a solution.
But is it not really Cheap.

You could've at least mentioned your father's reasons for not wanting to draw a wire. You did ask him why, didn't you?

Never got the chance... I'm planning on doing it in some time when he has cooled down. Asking him now will just piss him off, and he don't answer questions when he's pissed off. Period.

Übereil

Yup if I am not wrong there should be a setting on your Bios/CMOS asking if you want Initial display on AGP or PCI <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Thanks, but I figured out the problem. No way to fix it without cd-hack/crack.

i can't find any reference of brand name or type of my tv card.
but i found out that it must be a lifevieuw because th eicons of there software are the same as the ones on my instalation cd rom.

i already visited the website and tested the differend drivers.

Mea i don't know if this is what you want but i believe it can help:

This is to make windows unload all dlls in memory what are not in use like when you close a program the system keep some dlls loaded using more memory:

Go to regedit:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
There you'll create a new key called AlwaysUnloadDLL. How to create a new key? Simple, right click in the key explorer - new - key. A new key will be created inside of the item explorer. Rename it to AlwaysUnloadDLL and change the value from 0 for 1.
______________________________
Another tips:

This is for better cache L2 control.
If you know how much Cache L2 your processor have go here:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\
Look for the value SecondLevelDataCache. Double click on it. In the window what will appear click on the radio button "Decimal" and type in Kbytes your value of cache L2.

__________________________________
Do this too, minor time to turn off(kill process).

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\

Value HungAppTimeout must be 5000 (padrão). If is not, change it. Look to for the value WaitToKillAppTimeout. Change the value for 4000.

Later go here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\
and change the value of WaitToKillServiceTimeout for 4000 too. Another thing is go to Administrative Settings(or something like this) in the Control Panel, click in Services and look for the service Nvidia Driver Help, into your properties, mark it for manual and not for deactivated.

More one thing here:
start -run - type "gpedit.msc"

Local Computer Police
- Computer Configuration
- System
- Users Profiles
- Maximum retries to unload and update user profile(double click)
Active it and change the value for 0.
If i'm not wrong this path is almost correct, if not you can find it easy.

_____________________________________
One bar to initialize winxp Professional, works fine with the most of computers, if don't work try to change the order of your devices - master and slave - ramdon order you choose and test to see if it works.

Open the notepad and type:
"del c:\windows\prefetch\ntosboot-*.* /q" - without the quotes of course.
save it with the name - "ntosboot.bat" into C:

start - run - and type: "gpedit.msc" - only works for winxp professional.

Maybe you'll have to look for the right words here cause i don't know what is in english version but already tested on it.
go Computer configurations, and later Windows Configurations. At the right side of the screen click on Scripts (Starting/Ending).
Double click on Ending(or Turning off).
In the next window go in add and look for the file what you have created - ntosboot.bat, select it and click all Oks. Restart the pc and test it.

Clik all OKs close and restart the pc.

This is really doing my nut now - I still cant get AGP enabled...

I've set the Bios video card to the AGP settings and nothings changed. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers about 20 times now, trying different versions, and no luck with any of them.

I wonder if my op system or motherboard has anything to do with it.

Motherboard is a asus K8n, amd sempron 3100 agp x8
card is asus v5520 geforce agp x8

op system is win 98se.

I know the card is ok because before I put in the new motherboard I tried the card out in my old motherboard which was over 3 years old and after installing the drivers agp was on, though I never did anything to enable it. Now with the new motherboard nothing that I do makes agp enable! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cry.gif" alt="" />

...urge to kill......rising......rising.......

Plowking try a benchmark like Futeremark05, then note your points and look at the this site, if you can find something to compare with your System.
If the Point are right, its maybe only a Bug in Displaying.
Try to get the newest Biosupdate for your board.

@ Plowking

In Win98SE there are other things that will affect your AGP capabilities.... interestingly enough they often has NOTHING to do with AGP...

AGP in 98 wont work if:

1. Your USB drivers are incorrect / outdated according to the card's requirements (No i dont know what AGP and USB has in common, but since the bery first AGP cards, this has been a problem witn 95 and 98)

2. You dont have the motherboard vendor's Chipset drivers installed (even though 98 installs their "own" drivers, it very often just doesnt initialise the PCI to AGP bridges.

3. Your "boot from" option in the BIOS is not set to AGP (i think you mentioned that you did change it already)

4. If all this fails, go to www.driverguide.com and search for your card's FCC ID or chipset number (The FCC number on your card will be marked FCCID: XXX-999999 or soemthing similar, the chipset number is the number on the biggest chip on the card). The reason why you search for this chipnumber / FCCID, is that it may be tat your card requires a chip-specific driver (not nesisarily by the vendor) to work in 98 (it happens,a good example is the Nvidia cards made by ASUS, you first have to install the ASUS nvidia drivers, and then you can optionally update the drivers with the nvidia generics - in 98 not XP for those who were about to argue the point) So, searching for the chipset numbers, will point out which drivers you need.

Other than that, you can search the windows update for driver updates, this may also help to update the relevant stuff.

Edit:

(I just read that you have the asus nvidia, so make sure that your motherboard drivers are installed, the USB updated etc, and then first do the asus driver installation before you attempt to update this driver or install the generic from nvidia.)

If your motherboard only supports up to 4x AGP, this may cause the card not to work.... just check your motherboard specifications...

When you do get it installed and fuctional, you may have hangups or freezes if your motherboard only supports 4x AGP (but the card works, on some boards it will, while others are more fussy), The easiest way to correct these will be to go into your display settings and set your performance down to 50% or 75%. Doing a update on your motherboard's BIOS version also sometimes fix problems with AGP handling... your motherboard vendor will have it listed (if it will fix the problem) as a fix on the Bios updates.

Wow, thanks for that information Lady Rain. And thanks stone for the BIOS update. I've downloaded my bios update file (I'll try this tonight) - is there anything I should be vary of when updating a Bios?

My mother board is agp x8, so is the card. agp was enabled with same card before I changed to the new mother board. Now it's not.

I notice that when I update the drivers for the g card, win 98 then installs its own vga driver for the same card. Though win 98 may be using a file that came from a driver pack i had installed perviously though. I'm a bit fuzzy on the subject.

@ Shyon I thank you from the bottom of my heart <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> well done <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />

@ Plowking I had the same prob with 98 se I just didn't worry about it after a while as everything seem to work fine even though it said PCI *shrug* I stalled XP Pro and it went away so hmm its up to you but I guess Lady_Rain has the answer there .... as usual she tends to be very right ...... getting the feeling I want to marry her <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/kissyou.gif" alt="" />

Just make sure that your motherboard drivers are all installed (if you are unsure, just pop in the cd that came with the motherboard and run the options under driver installation. (installing this over cant cause any hassles).

AS for Bios update, just make double sure its for te right bios (motherboard model), if its the wrong one, you wont be able to boot again until the right bios id installed) *All my confidence in stone, so i am sure its the right one*

If you right click on "my computer" and go to properties, then to hardware. You can rightclick on the graphics card and choose "update driver" (sometimes you have to go to properties and then in there choose update driver). You can tell your computer NOT to search for the "best" driver, but to use the one you browse for... that will force the computer to not use its own drivers.

Running the setup from the CD, normally bypasses all the normal driver issues, as well as the setup should test for any incompatibilities.... (note i said SHOULD.... some dont)..

Good luck... if these dont work, take the pc to a computer dealer and get them to install the card (if you bought the card / motherboard from them, they SHOULD support it for free)

Since i havnt read the earlier posts, is the card giving you any display at all? or just wont install the drivers properly??

Nope the card is fine. Everything is up and running perfect, the only problem is AGP not being enabled.

Checked this in the dxdiag and also in the card properties. In the card properties (where you configure stuff like direct 3d, anti-alias etc.) it says


PCI Bus: AGP (PCI mode)

Naturally, I want it to be in AGP mode. I've done this in the BIOS but that hasn't changed this result.

Ok, i went to just confirm what the problem is.... and according to Nvidia...

Link on "My AGP card displays in PCI MODE"

You need to install your motherboard chipset drivers....

That is all that is happening... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Hope you have it sorted out soon...

About the old drivers in WIN98 SE you can hide your win98 folder.
Go into Security mode and at the system settings check if don`t have more than one driver installed of your card, if have remove all them and not restart the pc.
Go here: C:/windows/inf/other
Inside of "other" folder you`ll find your driver card name, delete it and go at the system settings - and remove your card, do not ask to update(could work, but is more safe this way) - the win98 will ask to restart the system - you`ll follow it suggestion - when the reboot is complete the system is going to compile the drivers again and will ask for you to insert the correct disk driver of the card, since its not going to find the win98 folder and not the old driver - so you get your cd and select the location of the correct driver and install it correctly from your cd.

The inf folder is hidden you have to be able to see hidden folders and files.

About what Lady_rain said is absolutely correct, in some motherboards you have to install the agp motherboard driver - this maybe can solve your problem, and even for who don`t have any problems this can enhance the performance, since it will be properly installed and used(the drivers was made for it better control - using generic drivers(windows drivers) or none driver make it not work, or work with low performance.

Plowie, go get the latest driver for your NForce mobo.

Well guys I've had no luck with anything I've done thus far...

Thanks for the info. I went to find updated drivers for my motherboard and the only ones available are for windows 2k and xp. It seems that if I want this to work I may have to upgrade my op system.

I'll live with it for now. My computer is still vastly improved as it is.

thanks for all the info. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

I've just read on a forum somewhere that there's a problem with the bios of this motherboard where the agp is locked in PCI mode unless the agp clock speed is set to 67 instead of 66! Doesn't make sense to me, but what the hell, I'll try it.

Hi all, just a thank you for helping me this annoying problem I had with the AGP slot on my computer! I got it working, finally!

Have you ever tried to fix something and you KNOW you tried a particualar thing so you don't try it again? Well I tried it again out of frustration and it worked! Bloody drivers! I just removed them again and reinstalled them, for only the 10th time or so!!

Yayyyy...happy gaming! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/delight.gif" alt="" />

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/XmasJump.gif" alt="" />

i know the exect feeling <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
why can't windows make a list of all the grivers you/it installs in a list.
the manufactuer have to make an ID file wich give a disscription of the files they give you in theire drivers
and you can select these drivers in a list to delete them.
it could also work with installed codex ... etc

is this soo hard to do??? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

You're not talking about the Device Manager in Windows, are you?

^^^^ <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ROFL.gif" alt="" /> ^^^^

"griever" = driver with grief ? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/delight.gif" alt="" />

Grief with the so-called "DLL Hell" ... that would make sense ... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/think.gif" alt="" />

What way should fans be place.

I'm thinking that my 120 mm fan in the rear of the case should pull the warm air out of the case or does it need t push fresh air into the case. Same with the side fans do I push cold air in or pull fresh air in?

At the side will be one 90mm fan that cool the GPU now the gpu already has a fan so I thing the 90mm should push cold air in the case?

Any ideas or should I just experiment.

I think by ATX it is the best to pull the hot air out of the Case.

I think do you push the air in, so the hot air from the Graca, or the Prozessor, can be moving over other parts of the board and maybe in some corners, the hot Air will be catch.
So this Parts are getting hotter and hotter.

But with the new BTX? System Architecture is its still possible to blow the Air in the Case. There are some Heatpipes which will work in this way, and the Airstream is in the new System is better.

Morbs, classical way of putting fans.

One in front soaks cold in.
one in the rear that pulls hot out.

==> PC ==>

Air should move.

If you plan to place just one than Stone is absolutely right, place vent to take the hot air out of PC. Ahh, and don't forget about dust. There is great difference if you PC case is on th floor (70% of all dust) on the table, etc. If you have vent to soak air in, think about filter. That's my suggestions.

here take a look mate.

sorry but I have to disagree with the above, I feel the best way is to have the air blown out of the case, as it is easier to extract heat than to cool it down, further more there is the question of dust particles that would get sucked in like a vacuum cleaner, even though PC's are not as susceptible to dust as they used to be it is still something to keep in mind, however this is only "my opinion" and would love to hear from Lady_Rain about this particular subject <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

So the lower 120mm blows warm air out(rear view)
the lower vent(90mm) in the middle blows cold air in the PCI slots (side view)
and the upper vent in the midlle is situated in fornt of the CPU that wil be cooled by a zalman. (side view)

[color:"orange"] further more there is the question of dust particles [/color]

If you dont use a Filter you have the Dusk problem anyway.

So the best is, open the PC min. two times per year, and clean it carefully.

Don't worry my case will be open once a month to add parts or replace old once.

So let it open and use a Ventilator <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

The case is basicly screwless and the side-panel swings open. How easy is that. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />

I have a question, is it possible to add fans even though there is no whole in the case for them? I kinda wanted one or 2 more 120 mm fans in the case I'm getting, but not sure if thats possible.

First 120mm are heavy fans. So for just to speed up air circulation in your case its serious overkill. Also just borrow your faters drill and poke some holes in it so you can add fans. Otherwise the fans only purpose is the increase air circulation.

The case has 2 fans, one in front, one in back, both 120, I was thinking of one 80 or 90 for the GPU, and maybe 80 or 90 for the top of the case, to bring heat out.

Just rememberred I HAD something to do in this thread...

I am currentlly trying to dl the WoW beta (no, I don't think I will fail school), but it's going pretty slow. The thing is, I have the PC cillin (who updates all the freaken time :angry:) firewall enabled. But I allso have a firewall through my router (the curced wireless one. But I'm on a temporal wire 24/7 anyway), and I was wondering if this might slow it down. Since I dl once in a while, a friend of mine has opened some ports in the wireless firewall, but nothing has been done in pc cillin, could this be an alternative too (and if opening ports is, how do I do it)? Since my dl speed is slow in genereal I mean...

Übereil

Edit: speed between 10 KB/s and 700 KB/s. Sudenlly it's nice speed here... It's been crawling all day . With this speed it would be home by now...

Question . Is there any way to import displ<y layout settings (you know, colours, fonts, etc.) from a regedit file ( *.REG ) ?

Also, is there a way to open a regedit .DAT file with an regedit-like editor ? Does there exist something like that ?

AlrikFassbauer >

.dat is not a standard format like .doc or .xls, it is a "generic" format where one can store information either in text or binary format. You have to know how the data is stored.

It's a big pain in the neck if you are not a programmer.

Tsel

I mean Registry files. They are usually stored in binasry format, .DAT , only when I export them (or before I import them), they are stored in readable format, .REG.

That's what I've meant.

well I think you are best with VB scripts. I have a script that when I press enter on it changes my ip address from DHCP to a static one. It's easy when you have a laptop and you don't want to switch setting al the time by going trough all those windows.

Scripts are nice, btw nice ava Morbo. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />

Yep but be sure to allow em in your anti virus software.

ty it's scooty puff sr: the doombringer

Back to my question : Last year I had a HD failure and had to translocate and safe everything. Unfortunately thiswas my C: HD , that's why I hadto rebuild a completely new system.

I was so dumb not to export mywindows rgistry into .REG files so everything from there is still stored in binary .DAT format.

I'd like to have my own display settings back (I mean the colour schemes), because they were quite a lot nd I had put a bit effort in them.

So now I'm wonderin whether there is any way to "transform" the binary files like USER.DAT into readable format like USER.REG .

Just to illustrate how such a colour scheme looks like, I'm posting the one I've found long ago with the program "BEOSWINBAR" ( I guess it's still downloadable somewhere and represents the taskbar known from the operating system BeOS) . This colour scheme represents the main (defauklt) colour scheme pf BeOS pretty good, I know that, because I've run BeOS for a little bit time myself.

You can copy this text and save it as "be4.REG" , that's the name the file has on my own HD (and obviously it came with the above mentioned program).

so... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/stupid.gif" alt="" /> what does it say???

@Jurak, it says :
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Appearance\Schemes]
"Be #4"=hex:01,00,01,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,0c,00,00,00,0c,00,00,00,12,00,00,00,\
12,00,00,00,f5,ff,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,bc,02,00,00,00,\
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,41,72,69,61,6c,00,64,13,47,01,d0,13,00,00,e8,0f,01,00,\
7c,7c,00,00,64,7c,63,00,00,00,00,00,01,00,0f,00,00,00,0f,00,00,00,fb,ff,ff,\
ff,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,90,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
4d,53,20,53,61,6e,73,20,53,65,72,69,66,00,e8,0f,01,00,7c,7c,00,00,64,7c,63,\
00,00,00,00,00,01,00,12,00,00,00,12,00,00,00,f7,ff,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
00,00,00,00,00,00,bc,02,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,41,72,69,61,6c,00,73,\
20,53,65,72,69,66,00,e8,0f,01,00,7c,7c,00,00,64,7c,63,00,00,00,00,00,01,00,\
f5,ff,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,90,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
00,00,00,4d,53,20,53,61,6e,73,20,53,65,72,69,66,00,e8,0f,01,00,7c,7c,00,00,\
64,7c,63,00,00,00,00,00,01,00,f5,ff,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
00,90,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,41,72,69,61,6c,00,73,20,53,65,72,69,\
66,00,e8,0f,01,00,7c,7c,00,00,64,7c,63,00,00,00,00,00,01,00,f7,ff,00,00,00,\
00,00,00,90,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,47,65,6e,65,76,61,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,e8,e8,e8,00,31,\
63,9c,00,ff,d0,00,00,f0,f0,f0,00,d0,d0,d0,00,ff,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,ce,ce,ce,00,ce,ce,ce,00,89,89,89,00,98,98,98,\
00,00,00,00,00,d0,d0,d0,00,b8,b8,b8,00,88,88,88,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
e8,e8,e8,00,d0,d0,d0,00,d0,d0,d0,00,00,00,00,00,ff,ff,e1,00
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ROFL.gif" alt="" />

@ Alrik, thats not binary... its Hex

The only thing that you can try, is to go to start, programs, accessorties, system tools, files and settings transfer wizzard.

See if you can find what you are looking for on your old HDD with that... i think that will be your best bet.... but do yourself a favour....

PLEASE set a system restore point before you try this... just incase it comes up with some funky stuff you dont want.

lol, Win98SE doesn't have "System Resore" function. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

And by the way, yes, that's hex, not binary ... because it comes from an .REG file. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

ok, I'm going to install a multiple operating system boot on my hard disk.(maxtor 200GB)
(newly bought, not paritioned/formated yet)

i've found some information how to do this.
and i'm going to use the masterbooter program to help me with it. (www.masterbooter.com)

i have just a few question before i'm going to test this.

i want to creatate 3 main partitions for my operating systems

1 DOS partition (about 3 gig)(???)
1 win98SE partition (about 15 gig)(fat32)
1 winXP partition (the rest of the hard disk) (ntfs)

question, do i have to make a separed partition for installing the DOs operating system?
and if so, witch kind of formating do i have to give it? FAt16, Fat32???

i remember i could start in pure DOs in win98, by rebooting my computer and pressinfg F8 at the beginning..
so is this extra partition nesasery?

second question, if you have to make a seperated partition for DOs, where can i find the DOS program? is it freeware?

I think the DOS partition will need to be FAT16, and also cannot be more than 2Gb due to limitations in the operating and file system. I think...

Windows '98 has no pure-DOS. That is a Windows '98 command prompt with the GUI not loaded. Windows '95 still ran on pure-DOS. I'd recommend DOS 6.2 personally.

here i found a fix for the 2 Gb limit usig dos:
http://www.masterbooter.com/support/faq_en.html#2/5

why use the 6.2 version, instead of the latest one?
7.10 I believe <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />
link: http://newdos.yginfo.net/msdos71/

Because I didn't know it existed...

I've once used XOSL, and also GRUB.

By the way, if you need a DOS : There's a free Demo (well, Demos are normally free, aren't they ? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> ) of PTS-DOS out there, it loads within 2 Minutes, but is written entirely in Assembler and supports at least two or three languages (as far as I know) : English, German, Russian.

As it is written in Assembler, it's said to be extremely fast.

Download of the Demo 1 : http://www.paragon-gmbh.com/demo.htm It's quite at the bottom of that list.

Download of the Demo 2 : http://www.phystechsoft.com/ptsdos/index.php?page=20

About PTS-DOS 32 : http://www.phystechsoft.com/ptsdos/news.php?page=2

About PTS-DOS itself : http://www.phystechsoft.com/ptsdos/index.php?page=16

What I don't fully understand is the connection between Paragon Software and PhysTechSoft. I think that Paragon is the German daughter of PhysTechSoft.

wow <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />
i'm beginning to see more trees in the woods then i wanted to see!

how many Dos operating systems are there??

i found another one
freeDOS

i just want a DOS software that can play my old dos games, like the bardstale, ultima 1,2 etc

but a new question arise <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
does an old dos system support the latest hardware?
i can hardly believe a radion 9500 pro and 512 Mb of memory is supported. it will burn up <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />
and what about the speed of the games? some of them could be too fast?

Well, for windows (and linux) systems there's the DOS-Emulator called DOSBOX. It's quite good, as I've heard in the german part of this forum.

If you use it, you might probably need no DOS at all ... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

But anyway, remember that only a DOS that is still developed - the more recent, the better - can use current hardware .

Is it possible to convert old dbase databases into SQL ? Do there exist tolols for that ? Or do I need to export them ?

Background : I have a few small dbase files which contain small databases I keep updating for several years now (one of them contains a part of my star wars collection), and I'd like to try to convert it into SQL. I have Firebird (the freeware database server) and XAMPP (incl. mysql) and I vaguely remember how to extract the data out of an SQL server (did this in my training a few years ago).

The other question is how it might be possible to convert *very* old Lotus Notes8the old Private Edition) mails into another format (specifially Pgasus Mail). I'm not using it since several years now but I want to keep the mails for archive purposes. I don't want to snd them, because my connection settings have chanced since then.

Well, I think these are quite difficult question, so I'm not surprised if I won't get an answer. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Alrik, did you have OpenOffice ? Maybe the following solution is also possible with M$ Office :

- start OpenOffice
- open your Dbase file (*.dbf)
- choose a charset, you must maybe try severals
- you can now save this new calc document as a cvs-file
- import it in you favorite sql-server

Contact me, if you have problems or questions or i should wrote it in german <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

For your other question i haven't no easy solution <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />

I think you best use the dump command (I know mysql has one, not sure about firebird) It's dumps your DB in SQL statments.

This might also help

As for your Mail clients.

2 ways:

1st: Mail them to yourself and recieve them with pegagus and archive them in a seperate folder.

2nd: Conversion program Conversion
I'll try te see if there is no open source variant or freeware but now I have to go to school.

Okay, thanks, I'll keep that in mind.

I have OpenOffice and StarOffice, but no MS Office. I use WordPerfect and Textmaker instead. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

I'll see what I can do. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Edit : Can someone recommend me a good Newsreader ?

DOS games don't recognize my joystic.

Why is this ?

When I start DOS-based games under pure DOS (still have my Win98SE), thn they don't "see" it. I have it connected on my soundcard (a Soundplasterer <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/delight.gif" alt="" /> Live 1024 , and the stick itself is a thing from Saitek.

Alrik, it's possible you have to update your drivers for your sound card (dos drivers)

Don't think so ... I fear that it might have somthing to do with my USB connection (turned on) ?

mm something with occupied IRQ channels then?

I couldn't find any solution. Unfortunately Crative wouldn't help, too, because they have only 30 days after registration help; an entry in the forum there remained unanswered.

I decided to buy a gamecard, but I cannot get any, since nowadays everything's turned on by USB.


I'm quite frustrated now.


A different thing : I've read that there once was a "Baldur's Gate Comic". However, with Interplay being no more, their FTP Server as a source diosn't exist anymore. "Fileplanet" seems to have it but why the heck have I to register there ???

I'm a little bit further now. It seems that it doesn't generally work.

I think I'll build into my PC my old SB16 card, luckily I even have 2 ISA slots in here. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

By the way : A pace about DOS : http://devedia.com/dosghost

ok i have another problem
when i defragmented my c: partition (10 gig)
i got a list of files that couldn't be defragmented

Fragmenten Bestandsgrootte Bestanden die niet kunnen worden gedefragmenteerd
712 1 kB \WINDOWS\system32\config\system.LOG
264 8 MB \WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download\2536a548b4a83b6c7a416e0d99691bf7\shell32.dll
325 10 MB \Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\WINWORD.EXE
381 13 MB \Program Files\Ahead\Nero\nero.exe
470 15 MB \WINDOWS\Installer\819530.msp
231 15 MB \Documents and Settings\Cris\Bureaublad\SageTV_V2_1_10Setup.exe

389 25 MB \RECYCLER\S-1-5-21-1614895754-602609370-682003330-1003\Dc85.wmv
274 25 MB \System Volume Information\_restore{3760509D-3865-4FE6-AC04-21BD0ABABF5A}\RP759\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
267 25 MB \System Volume Information\_restore{3760509D-3865-4FE6-AC04-21BD0ABABF5A}\RP756\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
276 25 MB \System Volume Information\_restore{3760509D-3865-4FE6-AC04-21BD0ABABF5A}\RP757\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
263 25 MB \System Volume Information\_restore{3760509D-3865-4FE6-AC04-21BD0ABABF5A}\RP765\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
273 25 MB \System Volume Information\_restore{3760509D-3865-4FE6-AC04-21BD0ABABF5A}\RP758\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
334 25 MB \System Volume Information\_restore{3760509D-3865-4FE6-AC04-21BD0ABABF5A}\RP769\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
298 25 MB \System Volume Information\_restore{3760509D-3865-4FE6-AC04-21BD0ABABF5A}\RP768\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
335 25 MB \System Volume Information\_restore{3760509D-3865-4FE6-AC04-21BD0ABABF5A}\RP752\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
324 25 MB \System Volume Information\_restore{3760509D-3865-4FE6-AC04-21BD0ABABF5A}\RP760\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
285 25 MB \System Volume Information\_restore{3760509D-3865-4FE6-AC04-21BD0ABABF5A}\RP766\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
274 25 MB \System Volume Information\_restore{3760509D-3865-4FE6-AC04-21BD0ABABF5A}\RP761\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
255 25 MB \System Volume Information\_restore{3760509D-3865-4FE6-AC04-21BD0ABABF5A}\RP762\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
271 25 MB \System Volume Information\_restore{3760509D-3865-4FE6-AC04-21BD0ABABF5A}\RP763\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
291 25 MB \System Volume Information\_restore{3760509D-3865-4FE6-AC04-21BD0ABABF5A}\RP764\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
260 25 MB \System Volume Information\_restore{3760509D-3865-4FE6-AC04-21BD0ABABF5A}\RP754\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
242 25 MB \System Volume Information\_restore{3760509D-3865-4FE6-AC04-21BD0ABABF5A}\RP755\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
840 45 MB \Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Dr Watson\drwtsn32.log

987 62 MB \System Volume Information\catalog.wci\00010002.ci
348 109 MB \System Volume Information\_restore{3760509D-3865-4FE6-AC04-21BD0ABABF5A}\RP768\A0152139.msi
1,615 122 MB \Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Symantec\Norton Internet Security Professional\URLLists
3,042 262 MB \Documents and Settings\Cris\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook.pst


[color:"orange"]i know that i made some backups from my registery, but apperently there are a bit to mutch of these, and i can't lokate them on my pc.
another strange thing is this norton url list wich is 122 mb large file!
and whats this dockter watson log file?

does anyone have an explanation why these files aren't deframentated , and were i can lokate all of these files? [/color]

Well, from my point of view you've already posted the paths of the files !

They should be on C: and under the windows folder.

Example \WINDOWS\system32\config\system.LOG becomes C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\system.LOG

That they are not defragged could mean they are in use or protected by attributes (system, hidden, etc).

Alrik.

[color:"orange"] i know that i made some backups from my registery, but apperently there are a bit to mutch of these, and i can't lokate them on my pc.
another strange thing is this norton url list wich is 122 mb large file!
and whats this dockter watson log file? [/color]

Doctor Watson, IIRC is a Windows/Microsoft program that can be used to analyze problems by qualified tech's, The Norton URL file is Big (me thinks) due to the fact that it stores all the BAD url's.

Hmm and if you go into explorer click Tools>select View you will find a list of boxes there , 1 of which consist of:"Show Hidden Files and Folders" click this, also there is a box called "Hide Extensions for knwn files" UN tick this, then reboot and you should be able to find your restore files, Prolly a whole heap of them <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

the only folder i couldn't find is the
\System Volume Information
and yes i already had the show hidden folders option set to "on" <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Bean it should be here, look at pic <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />


Ok <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

hehe,
got it, (after some tweaking)
but now i can't acces the folder.
i do have administrator rights...

Hmm I think that would be correct, I believe (IIRC) that "System Volume Information" is a protected Windows system folder. iow "hands off" else the whole (windowless)cardhouse falls to pieces <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Aah where's Lady_Rain when you need her <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/kissyou.gif" alt="" />

Isn't that the folder where win stores all the backup files ?

^^ Yup! ^_^

Big Brother's Sneaky Browser Tricks

Tsel <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Interesting <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/think.gif" alt="" />...

Thanks for the link, Tsel <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />.

Übereil

Anytime Ube

Tsel <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

@ Beany <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Ok, there are some files on the computer, which windows allows crosslinking in. Most of the time, with normal files, crosslinking means a corruption in the file... but with some files, like an email-folder file (PST), crosslinking is handy for keeping track of emails replied to, forwarded, and it makes compression easier in these files...

Windows will automatically "fix" crosslinked files. So to protect these files, windows marks them as UNMOVABLE... in otherwords, it cant / wont defrag them....

you MAY be able to access the locked folders you were looking at by clicking start, run and typing in LOCK C:

(lock works backwards... lock will unlock a protected drive, and unlock will lock it again... - Only microsoft will know why)

If i were you, i would avoid using programs such as DR watson <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> It was a good program in the Win98 era.. .but its very harmful to winXP

Some? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />
Can I lent your hands? I seem to run out of fingers quickly to count them on.
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Pretty sure that if every member checked their puter for crosslinks they would be amazed. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

*Mea starts to check* after 1099 counting backward or drawkcab if you prefer *she gives up on it thinking heck it worked so far why disturb it* <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

aside from that it always amazes me how so very few ppl empty there IE cache and tempfiles not too mention the new fangled pre-fetch, did a lil clean up at work to day just methodically went thru the folders 1 by 1 and deleted 9512 files that where either tmp's or just plain useless <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

unfortinaly winxp couldn't lokate the lock program when i typed in the commando.
windows, ia pain in the a-ss since 1995 <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin1.gif" alt="" />

Agreed Bean, but where would you be without a-ss <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Bean >

This link is a bit eye glazing,
but here is Microsofts link on crosslinks.
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=83140

Also speaking of what Lady_Rain said on email-folder file (PST).
I had an issue with the PST file being cross-linked when I upgraded
from Norton Corporate Anti-Virus 7.6 to 9.0
The only way I was able to fix the problem was to delete the PST files,
but like in your case the PST files were protected, but I also had
a piece of software called East-Tec Eraser 2004.
It will erase anything protected or not.
After I used East-Tec on the PST file windows recreated the file
the next time I opened my e-mail;
which in turn eliminated my cross-link issue.

Oh, and I know what I just said was
just as eye glazing as the link I gave.

Tsel <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

If you have Spybot and you haven't been keeping up on it,
just an FYI from me to you, there's a "Detection Rules" update.

Go grab it.
Tsel <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

Thanks Tsel, I just did it <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />.

Übereil

Will it work ?

A few days ago I fulfilled a long lasting dream for me : I bought a Voodoo 3 graphics card for 3 € because I always wanted to play some of the very earliest 3D games - those which were designed ONLY for 3dfx cards. I thought that 3 Euro would be cheap <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> , so I bought it. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

So, now my question : In theory, I supposed, it should work, having two graphics cards in one PC. But that's the theory. How does it actually work ?

I mean - what happens with the signal - will it be delivered only to the main graphics card ? How and where can I set up my Win98 system to my primary and secondary graphics cards ?

I often found games the option - sometimes a drop-down menu - that allows playing the game with a "primary display" and a "secondary display". So I thought, it could be possible to play a game with the one option or the other, respectively.

Is this true ? And how do I switch that ?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Besides : If this really works, then ... if someone has an old Voodoo 5 card ( I think this was their last generation) to give away, you can contact me. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Alrik.

Yea you can have 2 graphics cards in a machine....

The old games that you refer to though, wont have the capabilities to switch to a second graphics card...

The primary and secondary display that you refer to, is having 2 monitors (or monitor and TV ) on 1 graphics card... (mostly NVIDIA that gives you the menu options for that)

I know WinXP has capabilities of having 2 display cards and having certain programs run on each one....

I have no experience with ME doing that though.... there should be 3rd party software available to run 2 graphics cards on ME and set programs to run on specific ones.

I am sure that once you install 2 cards, your display control panel will adapt and give you the extra options you want...

Yea it can be done.... as to how... hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I see I've bought an AGP version of it. so I can only use this card OR the other one ... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/delight.gif" alt="" />

(I've got only one AGP port.)

Unless you buy the PCI version of the other card.....

Yeah, I had already thought that, too ... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

I'm a bit worried, since I entered this website (containing Fields of the Nethilim lyrics, of all things) and got a PC-Cillin pop-up saying it has detected a virus. I closed it and scanned my computer, but got no viruses found. I allso keep getting small popups (from the program itself) saying "Your computer might be infected with viruses". Do I have viruses PC-cillin can't detect, or am I clean?

Oh, and thanks in advance <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />.

Übereil

ubereil, if it are windows popups i dont know, but if it are just ie popups its just bs trying to get a bad expensive virus scan.
Dunno for sure but this is waht i think

I have a prob too.
Im currently using my old harddisk (18gb) becouse my old 1 crashed.
If i normally start up my comp now it says "knltr ontbreekt, press ctr-alt-del to reboot" (ontbreekt== is not there)
I tried reinstalling windows and fragmenting my harddist but half-way the way installing windows (copying files) it crashed every time i tried.


help!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/puppyeyes.gif" alt="" />

But popups from my anti-virus program saying my anti-virus program has discovered a virus, and saying my computer might me infected?

Übereil

Ubs... please note that your antivirus is saying....

"Pc cillin has detected a virus...

First action clean - failed
Second action delete - Successful

which means the moment pc cillin found the virus, it deleted it ALREADY!!!!

this is common when: there is some spyware loaded that is actually continiously downloading a virus / trojan

if you have spybot on, do a full scan with it... and also check in spybot's Advanced tools in the system startup manager for anything weird and out of the ordinary (weird filenames in the windows or system or system32 directory... disable them. (also make sure that your "teatimer" is running, so that you can check and prevent it from just loading itself again.

hope this helps

hmm you are not telling us which windows you have installed??
if it is XP try running the repair mode
if it is 98 go run and type "sfc" minus the quote marks

If that dont work you have to try your luck with Lady_Rain

I have PC-cillin.
There is a real time scan.
When a virus is detected a pop up is opened for advertising.
PC-cillin blocks the virus and send it in quaranteen.
If it is not possible, it says exactely where is the file containing the virus and then you can delete it by ourself.
You can also make a complete scan of your PC.

I hope PC cillin is a good program and my PC is safe.

Barta

So, basiclly, I don't really have to worry about viruses? Cos as soon as it's detected, I can get rid of it? Sweet <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />! Don't think I have any spyware, scanning right now... Stupid error mesage. That patch you gave me to get rid of DSO might have been nice enought, but those errors I keep getting now sure it irritateing... No immediate threats <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />. And I can't seem to find the advanced settings in Spybot... I have search and destroy, recovery, immunize, update and donate. Update doesn't work, it keeps getting bad checksum. Is this bad? Maybe I should reinstall spybot (uninstall, download and install). That was a question by the way.

Übereil

@ The divine

Common things that will cause windows installation to crash...

Memory
If you have 2 modules in, try either swopping them around with each other, or removing 1 and install windows. very often small memory differences can cause HUGE errors, when windows is loaded, it has its own parity checking built in, but not during the installation

IDE cable.
Try pluggin in a different IDE cable, or plugging the IDE calbe onto another port. an IDE cable can have a break on it, too small to cause a detection error, but intermittent enough to cause corruption on an installation.

Hard drive
It may also be that the hard drive is faulty / overheating. While copying the files, feel on the smooth side (not the pc board side) if its getting very hot.

CPU overheating
as soon as it crashes, reboot and check the CPU temp in the bios... anything over 70 Celcius can cause errors.

hope this helps.

There is a new version of spybot available... one with the DSO fix AND no erors <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

spybot 1.4

IT has a couple of nice new features too <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

If you click on the MODE menu, you can chose Advanced.

then the tools menu will be bottom left

Thanks, I'll download it soon.

Downloaded and done, but now I'm worried. I can't update it (Spybot), I get bad checksum whatever I try.

I can't see any wird files. But then again, I'm not the most perceptive guy. Ad how do I turn the teatimer on? Weird things I can see is a HK_LM:run (whatdoes that mean by the way?) called PtiuPbmd. No idea what it is, but how am i supposed to know all programs in a computer that is supposed to start when windows starts (with you it's a totally different matter <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />), and a UserFaultCheck (sounds less likelly to be problems than the first one).

Übereil

Anyone got a solution to this irriation...

When Shutdown is selected the PC takes 5 minutes to actually close everything and start to shutdown.

Then, it doesn't shutdown, it restarts itself instead!

The only way I found to shutdown is to not login on the restart, and then select shutdown from the login box.

It's a pain in the butt! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/memad.gif" alt="" />

There's some stuff in the task manager processes section that I don't recall ever seeing before:

cbrhr57.exe
cnrht45.exe

They CAN'T be closed - tells me they are being used, so can't close them.

Now, they AREN'T the right names of the processes, will have to go home to find them out, but they are very similar to those names, so that might spark recognition for someone.

My own suspicion is they are CD burner drivers - but I never installed any new burner software in over 2 years.

Die evil processes DIE!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin1.gif" alt="" />

No spyware or anti-virus gunk has detected anything naughty!

Where you found those startup entries , on the right of them, there is a bar (similar to a scroll bar), if you click on it, it will give you a description of what that entry does....

HM_Run is just where in the registry its loading... dont worry bout that....

as for the PtiuPbmd "Used by Promise Controllers to tell the drivers that the connected Drives should use the \"Write Back\" Caching. You can disable this if you don\'t want to use \"Write Back\" Caching or if you have ot connected any driver to your Promise Controller." so its fairly normal....

it might also be that you just go to the "wrong" places all the time <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> or if you have java installed, that you dont have any security control over java (IE is like that), for firefox you can get a extension that blocks java scripts unless you tell it to allow it.

If you are not sure what a startup item is, go to http://startup.iamnotageek.com/ and type in the file name there... it has a fairly HUGE database.

@plow

Here is a proggy that can FORCE those processes to die

End it all 2

I didnt find any info on either of those names, but then you mentioned they not the right names...

if you run endit all before you shut down, it should make a difference... you can slowly work your way closer to the culprit process... when you find it, you can then take it out of your startup list (you can do this either through spybot's startup manager, or by typing MSCONFIG in the run menu.)

SPybot's startup mangager is just more userfriendly than the MSconfig... but they both do the same thing.

Still, there's gotta be something I can do about it, even though I go to the wrong places once in a while (as said, I got viruses when checking for lyrics...), but in between I still have problems.



Sounds interesting, how to do it?

And I still can't update Spybot... I can't even check for problems now, I NEED those updates! Can I doit manually somehow?

Übereil

Edit: allredy downloaded manually. And by that prove that I'm not ENTIRELLY dependent on you guys <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />... The other updateswould e nice though...

Second edit: Problem solved! At least the update. After downloading the new detectionrules, I checked and found some spyware, which I removed, and now I can update again <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />. Exept immunization data...

And how DO I turn TeaTimer on? Can't seem to find it <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/puppyeyes.gif" alt="" />...

sorry i forgot to post an answer to the checksums

When you check for updates, next to the download updates button (to the left) you can select where to download them from... just select another one.... it should work fine.

The extension is called Noscript 1.1.3



Download it here

With that installed, you can chose which sites to allow (safe) and which ones to block. (it has a S icon at the bottom in the satus bar)

That's not the fastest of sites... Thanks for the link anyway. If you can just fix my immunization update I'll be really satisfied (for now. I think...) <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />.

Übereil

Edit: Just reinstalled Firefox (had to use IE to download the files, because they were removed when I uninstalled Firefox <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/suspicion.gif" alt="" />. Noticed that it was much faster downloadspeed. Hmm...). At least now I have firefox in Swedish. By the way, no matter where I download from, immunize gets bad checksum.

Second edit: Weird, now I managed to download the immunization scheme... Oh well. Didn't seem to find something out of the ordinary (and I think I've downloaded that java protection patch, any way to check if I really have?). So, I'm going to bed now. Right after the song is over...

lowking, re your shutdown problem, read this thread.
one click shutdown

i have almost the same problem except no shutdown/startup mixup. takes almost 5 minutes to shutdown & this happened after my system did one of those windows auto-update. can't recall which one that did this but till now that is just the case.

cleg, i happen to use 1 button shutdown. maybe i need to edit the registry so it will kill all processes without waiting for responses when shutting down. warning: this move will also mean processes that are automatically killed off have no chance of saving their contents.

Thanks Lady Rain -

I tried a program that forced the 2 processes to shut down, but when I did, I couldn't access windows explorer.

What I'll do tonight is try and end one of them to see if I can have normal operation while one is down.

I found the file on that startup database. And it coincides with a folder I found on my harddrive that wasn't there a couple of weeks ago - when this problem started!

It's time to take out the trash...

@ plow

You can also kill the explorer process (even in task manager you can kill explorer) and then restart the process, that should restart it into a working state.

To start a new process from within taskmanager, you first have to make sure that explorer is killed in BOTH the application section and the process section. Then go to the application section and click on new task.... you can browse to c:\windows\explorer.exe

you can also check that they dont startup next time, by either disabling them in MS config / spybot and see if explorer still gives hassles without them loading in the first place....

you can also check what those files are for by searching their filenames on either http://startup.iamnotageek.com or at http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/

These 2 places should be able to give you a full description of what those files are there for (if anything useful) and if they cause more damage than their worth.... based on that you can either keep them or kill them permanently.

By the way, I also got no more correct checksums for Spybiot 1.3 . I'll try 1.4 instead.

I recently heard of a bug that causes thze "firewall of the NForce4-Chipset" to corrupt downloads. The file size remains the same, but the files are actually corrupted, as the checksum shows. This seems to be only with FTP and the firewall-driver of NVidia. Source : The german mag "c't". It's a serious, well recognized magazine here in Germany, so I consider this serious.


@Plowking : Have you already installed the "Process Explorer" from www.sysinternals.com ? With it you could see what programs are running in the foreground or in the background ...

That piece of random code should be shot and put out of it's memory. NEVER have I encountered such a bad piece of code. It is buggy and completely not stable. I disabled it after 5 minutes in the bios and used the 2nd ethernet port (marvell) on my MB.

hmm in regards to the update process with spybot, I had the same problems ... but I switched servers and the 1 located in Germany works without a glitch everytime <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Funny that, though, most of the US servers and the Australian server give me checksum problems .... maybe they have that firewal installed (read Morb's Post)

Mea:
The bad checksums can also be related to the amount of "jumps" the download does from the origin to the destination... (just to clarify, i refer to a jump as a change in transportation technology... either from cable to satelite or to optical fibre etc.... ) In most cases up to 9 jumps are normal... after that, you start increasing the integrity risk of the download.

"Giggles" 9 jumps from Oz, you have to be kidding most places take anywhere from 15 to 21 <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ouch.gif" alt="" />

but aside from that yes thou art right M'lady ... as always and as Nero so pointedly pointed out I had forgotten that bit, thus maybe that alzwhatisname is kickin' in <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Can someone help me here. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cry.gif" alt="" />
I downloaded a program on my husband's pc that is called "contentwatch 2.0" and now there is a huge virus on my hubbies pc.
I could remove some of the parts, but not all of them.
System repair isn't helping, neither removing it manually. No need to tell you guys that he is really pissed off at me right now. So, if anyone of you could help me with that? And please please, don't tell me that I need to "formatt" his pc!!
btw, he is running Kaspersky as antivirus.

Gal, please tell us what's the name of the virus. how do u know it is one? or maybe it's spyware? give us some symptoms first before we can let u know how best to tackle the beast.

anyway, if u happen to know the name of the virus, u can try finding the fix in Symantec's website. try searching.

other than that, i don't know how else to help unless i have more info.

Have you run Ad-Aware and Spybot ? You can also download a DOS-based version of F-Prot which is free, too, but not an "on demand scanner".

Also, there is the German-based AntiVir which is also a good scanner.

By the way, if System Repair doesn't help, this could mean it was in before System Repair made an earlier "Snapshot" ...

By the way, I hope you still have a Firewall ?

As you write it, it almost sounds as of this "contentwatch" was the virus in itself ... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/think.gif" alt="" />

Don't forget to update your definitions before scanning your whole pc, also a good thing to disconnect you from the internet while scanning.(Some virusses/trojans/spyware download themselfs again after removing).

Gal first off, have you got Windows XP? if you do try system restore to before you installed that program.

If you have win98 or ME try this online scanner and remover Trend Micro ifthat dont work and you dont want to format at least it should tell you what the name of the virus is then go to Jangg's Symantec link and find the correct Virus removal tool.

and if that don't work yell out real loudly on all forums "Raze!!!!!!" the man is an outstanding helping hand when it comes to pc's and someone from this forum you can trust ....too <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

and if that don't work try getting a hold of the very busy Lady_Rain, who answered so helpfully below, it is not that I recommended Raze, without thinking of LR, but more like she sooo busy that I could hardly impose on her.

Meantime thanks LR for the heads-up on Sys Rest <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Yip, the online scanner from TRend micro Will remove the virus..... also try this...

Trend Micro's New spyware scanner

Hmmm i did some searching on contentwatch 2.0.....

That is not what caused the virus at all... (its just bad timing that you got it NOW, and hubby thinks its you)

Contentwatch is similar to net nanny.....

What i do suggest is that you install either avast (i remember sending that to you at some stage) or pc cillin on hubby's pc... Kapersky has a MAJOR flaw with allowing viruses through.... if you do a search on the name kapersky, you will find hundreds of documents and complaints about that....

System restore is VERY dangerous to use to get rid of a virus... most viruses now exploit system restore (they manage to write them into earlier restore points) to make sure you cant get rid of it... every time you restart the computer, it will "restore" itself automatically from your system restore files.... (they have a call in the registry that checks if they are deleted, and then restores it, BEFORE the system finishes booting and loads the anti-virus.

If you manage to remove the virus and it keeps on coming back when you re-boot, disable the system restore (just for 2 reboot's) until the when you reboot, the virus stays away (most of the time 2 reboots), after that you can re-enable the system restore, it will create new restore files without the virus in it.

I am trying to download the program now, so i can see how to uninstall it <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

That's what I meant.

I fear that Gal isn't writing anymore, because the PC isn't able to go online anymore ... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

I need a "codec MP3 acm". Help !

Barta

Hi guys!
I'm soo sorry, but I've missed all the other posts you wrote about that virus I got. Hubby had Kaspersky, but now we use Antivir, appearently a very good antivirus program. The Avast and Pc-cillin Lady Rain talked about, were both a pain to use. Pc cillin is still on my pc, and from time to time, I get troubles because of that and Avast takes like forever to scan my pc (I'm sorry 'bout that too, Lady Rain) <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hug.gif" alt="" />
You guys did all you could to help me here, but hubby was soo impatient, that he cleared his hard disc instantly. I'm sorry that I missed all your posts, don't know how that happened. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />
I will keep your posts in mind next time, there was a lot of good advice in it.
Thanks again and hope I never end up in this thread again <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

http://www.free-codecs.com/

u can download the media player classic which has the MP3 codec built into it (by the way, it's using LAME MP3 codec).

on the other hand, Barta, i think i'll e-mail it to u. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

@ Gal -> glad to know u got it all sorted out though hubby had to use the last resort first. anyways, prevention is better than cure so please choose wisely what to install this time round. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

edit: Barta, here's a specific link to the codec u need.

use the best mp3 codex ever made, L.A.M.E

i found something here

Avast is THE suckiest anitivir program i've ever used. It slows down the entire system because it scan EVERY file that is being accessed. I had to disconnect from the internet and shut down Avast just to play a game on a normal level. otherwise the framerate would've been even LOWER than it is now.

using AVG now and it is goood.

Yep, that is what I ment. Avast took the whole night to scan my pc, if that isn't long enough? And not to mention it didn't found one virus, while Antivir found several trojans later! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />

Hmmm strange that about Avast!! I mean, I have it running on 1 of my PC's, the one I use for online playing, and IIRC there's a setting somewhere that lets Avast!! know that you are playing fullscreen and it wont interrupt it just sits in the Back ground, and I only have a 2.8 CPU ? Heh and 1 gig of ram that would prolly help <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

A very great thank you to Janggut and the bean for your help.
It is exactely what i am looking for and it works.

Barta

Just curious, I have this MSOchatche hidden on my D:disc (you can't see it in 'my computer' but you can if you try to unrar something to the D:disc). Anyone know what it is/if it's dangerous?

Übereil

MSO = MicroSoft Office

MSOcache folder

Couldn't they just have added the folder to the MS Office folder? Oh, right, we're talking Microsoft <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ouch.gif" alt="" />!

Anyway, thanks for the info Raze <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />.

Übereil

The MSOcache is just where is autosaves your documents... so if it crashes (and since its MICROSNOT, it probbably will) this is where it will recover your files from...

I've acually never experienced a crash (so far...) on my new computer <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />. And I still wonder why they couldn't just put it in the acuall office-map.

Übereil

There is a Patch out there for the vulnerability (right spelled ?) with the display of WMF images (can be mis-used to get code executedd and do harm or even gain control over a system). http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms06-001.mspx

OK, for the first time in ages, I got a bluescreen. Or, to be correct, six bluescreens in a row. And it wasn't in school. It was on this computer <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/suspicion.gif" alt="" />.

I get bluescreens when I try to start Football Manager 2006. Which have worked like a charm before. By before I mean three hours ago. The computer has been turned off in between.

I tried starting the computer in "Faultsafe position" (no idea what it might be called in English, anyway, the screen turns to resolution 'as small as possible', and you CAN'T do anything wrong. You've probablly heard of it (probablly used it too <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />)), and the computer suddenlly said it had found a new hardware, which it called unknown. I have no clue whatsoever what file I've accidentlly deleted, but I bet it's something. It's a major pain, since it said something about compromiseing my BIOS/replace my graphic card I have a feeling it might have something to do with my graphic card... No clue what it could be though.

Übereil

Edit: The problem is related to the not installed routine, not FM2006. The tecnical information in the bluescreen is following:

*** Stop 0X0000008E (0XC0000005, 0X8062C2B6, 0XF46819B0, 0X00000000)

But on the other hand, if that tells somebody anything, I'm impressed...

You might allso note that one of the last things I did before turning the computer off last time it worked, was trying to set up an account on partypoker.com for a friend. You get $50 to play for if you do, but you only get it once. My friend allready has an account, I don't play poker, so it's no sacrifize from my side. The problem might be that you had to install a client to be able to register. That client might screw things out, but I doubt it. I got that bluescreen yesterday while playing FIFA (no signs of it since then though), might allso be worth noteing.

Ubs:
here is a few things you can try....

Click Start>programs>accessories>system>system restore.

If there is a day highlighted that is no more than a week ago, but while your pc was still working fine, (the most recent one that still worked is best), select it and click restore....

If there was anything that go deleted/ changed, this will fix it....

You mentioned partypoker... i went there, and though my system automatically refused javascripts... it did warn me a few times of the scripts trying to run.

I think that it MAY have installed some spy-ware / tracking software on your pc, which in return can cause hassles...

If you run spybot it should be able to find and remove any of those things... (you may want to try this before the system restore)


That will only make sence if you have a memory logger / process logging program running on your computer, that you can use to check which program / device last used those memory addresses / process i.d's. Homeusers as a rule dont have it... its purpose is to do 1st / 2nd level language debugging.... so only microsoft can really use that... (they wrote the 1st language OS)

Didn't Übereil tell at one point about installing Emulators or so ?

do you have a Creative Technology Audigy sound card?

I've run both Spybot and PC Cillin Anti-virus without any luck (if you can call bein clean of virus/spyware bad luck <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />). About my sound card, it's a 6-channel soundcard build into my MoBo (Asus K8V deluxe). I think I'll try the systemrestore approach...

BTW The emulators is long since gone, Alrik. Well, not the DOS-emulator, but I doubt it will start this months after I installed it (unless it's REALLY sneaky).

Übereil

Edit: Checking the System restore points I found a "Software Distribution Service 2.0". Nobody who happens to recognize this/knows what it is?

...

what is the exact information below it. Is there a file ****.sys or something like "KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED".



From what I can tell, Software Distribution Service 2.0 is related to Microsoft Windows Update program

Oh well, everything SEEMS to be back to normal... System restored, let's hope it works. Worked so far (two minutes)...

Übereil

Edit: Back to reality: there's something wrong with my computer (still). I still have get unstable checks on hard drive D before windiws can start, and when I tried to Defrag it I got the message "The defrag discovered that CHKDSK has been schemed to be run on following volume: Extra (D). Run CHKDSK /f". No way I'm doing that untill I know what it is <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/suspicion.gif" alt="" />...

Second edit: CHKDSK is some kind of controllprogram, which starts before windows starts. IE that's the reason the comp keeps checking if D is unstable. It's scheduled. Now I only have to find where to remove this, and everything should be working (I hope...).

CHKDSK is the dos (runs before windows) name for scandisk...

Something went corrupt on your hard drive.... either because of a power dip/surge or because of the harddrive starting to become faulty.

Its safe to run... the reason it wants to run before windows starts, is then it has TOTAL control... and no background programs will try to interupt it...

hmmm if I am not wrong a windows update has made you computer check your disk at start up (chkdsk) and IIRC there's acommand line parameter to stop doing that, but I have to admit I forgot what that is .... however since we have the honorable L_R available @1 KG less no less <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> ) maybe she can recal what the command line was to turn of chkdsk at start up ? other wise try yelling Raze!!! real loud !! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

hmmmmm been searching for stuff on Software distribution service 2.0 and OH boy......

Its part of a windows update (hotfix).... but according to everything that i found, it causes HAVOC... from scandisks not being able to complete (and defrags), to hotmail accounts becoming unaccessable... to unable to view pics online... even causing graphic programs to stop working (and maybe games?).

As far as i can find, there is so far no way to uninstall it, and system-restore wont restore to a point BEFORE it....

some people even reported network speed dropping along with browsing speed...

what is it and why is it causing havoc?

Ah, yes, I think I've heard rumors about it, but nothing I could help with.
I could check myself.

I've just read through a thread at a anti-trojan board ... could it be that this is a sevice in modern windows used by trojan-distributors as well ?

And when it is normally allowed in modern windows, does it accept software distributed by this service ?

I'm not sure whether I understood this correctly, I'm still figuring it out ...

Erm... What you're saying is that Mircosoft screwed up? I wonder how long until they realize and fix this <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/suspicion.gif" alt="" />, haveing to check your D-disc as a new part of the boot-stage will really get on my nerves if it continues...

Übereil

Micorsoft Screwed up big time....

(Turned off her updates completely until i am SURE that they fixed the issue)

I dont like the fact that you cant restore to before the installation of it... and since windows installs the critical updates without your knowledge... you wake up one morning and your computer is acting all )#@$(@)#%&$#*(&'ed

I am trying to find a page where microsoft comments on this.... still searching....

They screwed up, you think they're gonna comment on it? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

BTW: Do you think this update can lead to unstable internet? My connection to battle.net the last two days has been unstable, to say the least. It works as normal until it stops working at all, which is even more irritateing than the unstablecheck on D.

Übereil

A lot of people reported slow connection speeds, and also being unable to log onto online mail accounts, and view pictures online.... (IE and Firefox)... so i am sure it will have an effect on battle.net

grrrrrrrrrrrrr @ microsnot

Now that you mention it yesterday my connection was a bit slugish and i did doawnload the updates.

but can't you remove the updates in the software screen?

Connection seems okay now

all the computers here in my job are configured to download all those updates automatically.

what's the name of this update do you know?

no one here reported any problems

Yeah the connection is back to normal here. Was a bit funcky yesterday but that doesn't mean it is M$ it fault.

But it sure is fun to blame them <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />!

Übereil

connection back sluggish

hmm try running this line;
Start > Run > chkntfs /x <drive> [drive] [drive]


For example, if you want to disable Chkdsk from running on drive C: chkntfs /x c:

Chkntfs works by modifying the BootExcecute value in the Registry.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\
CONTROL\Session Manager
The default value is BootExecute:REG_MULTI_SZ:autocheck autochk *

Chkdsk /f /r is unaffected by chkntfs and can be run to check volumes manually on the next system reboot.

http://www.dependencywalker.com/

Nyxem.e is currently invading Germany : There are *lots* of headlines about it, whereas there is almost none in English language. I can only guess it hasn't spread that much outside Germany yet.
More detailed info here : http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/w32nyxemd.html

Also info here (plus removal tool) : http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.blackmal@mm.removal.tool.html

Thanks Al, heard it on the TV here today erm yesterday (wednesday) so appreciate the link thanks again!
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />

Yip.... nexum is also here in SA.... causing havoc with clients' computers <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> - about that i am not complaining... i am profiting from it <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin1.gif" alt="" />

there is something else that got into a few of the computers i maintain...... not a virus... but as LETHAL to a computer as any bad virus....

People get a message from a Yahoo address, stating that the email they are about to receive is a safety encrypted email, and supplying them with a username and password to retrieve the email. When you click on "read message" a small java applet runs, that launches an exe (without you knowing that it downloaded it) the program asks for the username and password.... when you click READ.... it executes whatever code it is that kills your computer....

the symptoms are that your taskbar freezes, you cant run new programs (only from task manager - for those who knows how).... most people will restart their compters at this point..... (which will result in irrepairably damaging your programs and windows) if you havnt restarted yet, you can remove the virus by killing all services and tasks, then kill it out of your startup list, then delete a list of newly created files on your computer (all in the C:\windows\system32 directory) if you dont do this before you restart... you can kiss your installation bye bye..... even my computer died with this virus..... Hubby managed to save his (he hadnt restarted at that point)....

and btw.... no virus program that i tested, picked it up..... not norton, mccaffee, trend mico, avast, avg, f-secure.... none of them.... so i sent the virus-email link to all those companies to check out.... we will see what happens....

Interesting. I'll send your report to a website I know.

P.S. I just read on a web site about computrer security, that the WMF exploit was developed by russian hackers and sold to a more sophisticated hacker for 4000 $ . He used it for specific attacks. The exploit had been around this way quite a time before it became public.

OK, it just turn itself off. For no apparent reason. The problem is that my brother is supposed to write an exam for his university on it, so we kind of have to fix it. Just that we have no clue whatsoever what's wrong. My brother suspects it might have something to do with the harddrive being overheated, but that's just a guess (what is a "good" temperature for a hard drive by the way? Or rather, when does it start to malfuncture due to too much heat?).

Übereil

Edit: Seems like the problem shows up every time my brother restarts the computer... Oops <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shame.gif" alt="" />. As I was TRYING to say, it restarts when he checks for spyware in Search and Destroy. So we probablly have some kind of spyware. Any clue of what kind?

In spybot's settings, you can schedule a scan for the next time you boot up (before it logs into windows)... this should bypass anything (since its not loaded yet) that tries to kill spybot and results in a restart.

sorry for the short answer. bed time

I can't update PC-Cillin, keeps getting "ActiveUpdate internal error 28". And apparentlly the PC-cillin site sucks, since I can't search for it and find something... If anyone can help me get some sence out of the site, I'd appreshiate it.

Übereil

Lady Rain is the dogs b#llocks on PC-Cillin, PM her all the details . <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

Sounds to me as if the virus - if it is onne - had tried to kill everything that could detect it ... yes, modern viruses with that behaviour exist ...

There should be web-based virus-scanning out there, you could try that, too. Or visit the web site oc PC Cillin. That at least. And download yourself other scanners, if possivle, like AVG, for example.

Alrik, MY computer doesn't have problems. It's the one downstairs that do. My only problem is that I can't update PC-cillin. And that their homepage sux so I can't figure out why either.

Übereil

I see.

Holes in Internet Explorer & Windows xp.

Some more security-related things (Sorry, everything in German, but there are a few key-words which might inform you a bit):

Severe risk in Firefox 1.5 - Update to 1.5.1 necessary !

Unpatched risk in Firefox - currently there doesn't exist a patch for it.

New hole in Internet Explorer - it is affected while Flash tries to call a VBA script, if I've understood it correctly.

Spyware uses leak in Winamp - specially prepared playlists can force Winamp to execute code. No antivirus program knows this, so far.
More about it, has English-language links, too.

@ Ubs
THe easy way to update pc cillin manually, is to download the new virus pattern file from....

Here
then unzip it into the c:\program files\trend micro\pccilling\ directory (you will see similarly named files there

After you have done that, you should be able to update normally again.

Maybe am I completely lost in the field, but don't we head for some troubles when we want to run more than one antivirus?

Trying to run the real time portion of more than one anti-virus program at the same time is asking for trouble, but there should not be any problems having more than one installed. To avoid conflicts, you would probably have to disable the real time scanner (if you use one) before running an on demand scan from a different program.

Having multiple anti-virus programs offers better protection, since for any particular virus, different programs may be updated faster or handle cleanup better. Also, since some viruses try to disable anti-virus programs, having multiple programs gives you a better chance of at least one remaining operational (either because it was updated to counter the virus, or because the virus only targeted the most popular anti-virus programs).

Well, it seems like the problem solved itself. I just downloaded the latest update to PC-cillin <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />. Computers are great since the problems you get with them sometimes solve themselves. Think it was Raze who said that...

Übereil

Aaah, thanks Raze. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

*grins knowingly*

heheheh Fanks RAze!!!!

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/kissyou.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/kissyou.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/kissyou.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/kissyou.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/kissyou.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/kissyou.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/kissyou.gif" alt="" />

I call this "four eyes see more than two". <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Got a notification by Windows Update today : There is a patch for fixing a hole in the windows media player.

Phishers have managed to get SSL certificates : http://isc.sans.org/diary.php?storyid=1118

Damn. Not good.

That reminds me: Daylight savings has been extended and is making a mess of automated systems.

LOL glad we dont have that in WA <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Weird : http://blogs.smh.com.au/mashup/archives/your_say/003611.html

I've tried to use WALIGN.EXE today for aligning firefox.exe . I think it worked, because I have the feeling as if it starts a bit (considerably) faster now.

I wonder whether this program is actually still alive in modern windows installations ?

hmmm have you got many extensions installed ??
cause they can really slow down FF!
aside from that on winXP (sp2) you can right click an icon and select fast launch <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

I've got Win98SE, sttill <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> and yes, I have several extensions loaded. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

I think I should de-install some more. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Could be perhaps useful : <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/index.html

I need to check or my motherboards supports SLI (for a new GPU). Does anyone knows how/where i can see the stats of my motherboard?

do u still have your motherboard manual with u? u can check there. else u can also find out by using your motherboard brand & model number then go to the manufacturer's site to find out more.

hope that helps. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I still got the manual thanks for your helps.

Does anyone knows or the G80 of NVidia will be released in 2006? cause i'm saving for the GeForce 7950 GX2, but just read that there soon will be a Geforce 8800GTX(G80).

Yeah LOL and by the time it has an affordable price, there will be a Nvidia 9000 on the market <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />
Aside from that you should be able to see an SLI chip on the M/B situated in between the pci slots for the GPU's, please make sure when you install those sli's that you turn that chip in the correct direction (instruction should be in the manual)as north to south is for a single card and south to north is for the SLI setup <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

It's a funny bussiness this PC stuff the other day I bought what I thought was a pretty good 2 Gb flashdrive and believe it or not they are now making 64 Gb flash drives (YES 64 GIGABYTES) *sighs*

All the Computer-stuff is growing so fast, and they are eating more and more power. I think i'll just buy a Geforce 7950GX2 (I saw it somewhere for €510, that seems a good deal) cause like when i saved enough for the G80, i will want a PS3 and so on.

We Evolve To Fast!

LOL someone Named Moore figured that out in 1965, and it has been proofed true even though it appears we nearly have reached the limit in nano tech with the current "technology" that we have available <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/think.gif" alt="" />

btw Iso please make sure that you have a PSU (Power Supply Unit)that's strong enough to cope with that lot and that you can fir those 2 in SLI on "your" board, meaning that you have enough space between the cards for them to fit without getting overheating problems, particularly if those 7950's have large fans mounted, double check every thing before you lay out all that dough ok <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/question.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

Currently, processors 'n stuff eat away so much current it becomes dangerours - imagine *thousands* of people having current leaks on their PCs ! The energy producing companies cannot cope !

I guess it's time we focus more & more on current-saving computers - via money. It's the only language companies can understand.

Cr*p my Nforce 3 Ultra doesn't even supports Sli so i guess i can forget about my new Graphics Card. Well, then i'll just save for a PS3 and keep playing Oblivion on medium quality. If you download a new driver it doesn't changes anything to the sli-support, does it?

How close would we be to creating fully humaniodish robots?(think i've watched I, Robot too much <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/stupid.gif" alt="" />)

Honestly, I rather fear too human-like robots. Even more, when they don't comply to Isaac Asimov's laws.

Does the world needs robots? exept for dangerous things like disfusing (or whatever it is called) a bomb, and maybe for helping old people, i don't think we really need robots.

hmm nope updating the driver for either the M/B or the Graph Card, doesn't help much you really need to buy a new M/B like;

• Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro-SLI Socket 939
• AMD Athlon64 4200+ X2 Dual Core CPU & Fan S939
• Adata 1024 MB PC4200 DDR2 X2
• Geforce 7600GT VGA X2 (or whatever you prefer, but this at the moment is the "sweet" spot item
• JSP 550 Watt Aluminium PSU ATX
  

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

im tring to prep one of my friends for buying a computer
price range $1000-$1500

he gets on average 5 frame rates per second when he is on world of warcraft
and he wants close to what i have or better so he can play Darkfall Online without any problems. I already looked up what i have on newegg.com i couldn't find my exact asus graphics card though on that site so i found one similar

heres what i found compare and discuss please

ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
$136.99

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA3800BVBOX -
$150.00

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 333 (PC 2700) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model VS1GBKIT333 - Retail
$98.99

BFG Tech BFGR78256GTOC Geforce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
$299.99

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
$82.99

ASUS 16X DVD±R DVD Burner W/ 5X DVD-RAM Write Black E-IDE/ATAPI Model DRW1608P2SBLACK RTL - Retail
$42.99

XION XION II XON-103 Black SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450W Power Supply - Retail
$64.99

Wise Wing W702B Black 17" 8ms LCD Monitor - Retail
$143.99

LITE-ON SK-1788/BS 2-Tone PS/2 Wired Standard Keyboard - Retail
$4.95

Rosewill RM800U Black 3 Buttons 1x Wheel USB Optical Mouse - OEM
$4.99

inland 88017 Silver 3.5mm Connector TableTop Microphone - Retail
$2.99

Creative SBS240 3 Watts RMS 2.0 Speaker - OEM
$11.00


TOTAL 1044.86


darkfall
minus printer and extra disc drive, memory heat sinks, fans and kick [nocando] lights don't forget colored ide cables with lights and colored wire mesh

also what is your opinion on "phase change cooling", vapor compression
this is important to me

About the lights and stuff: My pc (not the one i'm gaming on) has the same tower for over 8 years know, just i kept putting new stuff in it, so it has been totaly renewed after 8 years (but it's still a cr*p pc)

What is 'phase change cooling'? is it with water or...?

I'm still using a normal ventilation system (or whatever it's called)


Also: where can i see the temprature of my cpu? i can see it at startup, but after that i can't find anything that indicates the temprature.

Either in the BIOS with realtime display or get a tool like SiSoft Sandra.

Link -> SiSoft Sandra Lite

The Lite-Version is for free. Besides some nice benchmark modules Sandra provides also detailed informations about your system. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

nice configuration,
but i would spent abit more on the following things:
instead of a 17" , go for atleast the 19" ,
because you can never spend enough money on the pc screen, because that's wat you look at all the time.
second, sound is also a nice thing, ok if the budget realy is large enough i could only recomment the logitech Z5500 digital, for 280€. and also an creative audigy1 (26€)or the audigy2 soundcard.(59€)
these are prices with belgian tax (21%)included

talk about cooling, if it's using a fan, then u call that air displacement cooling. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> if it's phase change, then u can call it refrigerator. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> if it's watercooling, then u just call it radiator unit. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> if it's something i made up, then u just call it bull$hite. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/delight.gif" alt="" />

@ Bean -> also to make sure that the Audigy is not the external unit types as those aren't good. takes up your USB connection. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/down.gif" alt="" />

@ Mea & Lady Rain -> what NVidia card is one or two steps up from Radeon 9000 Pro? i've been out of touch. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shame.gif" alt="" />

Sorry if i am not really here at the moment.... Work is long hours again.... difficult stuff at the moment... and a lot of extra training....

I never thought i'd be working on weird server OS's and i never thought that it can be so involved.... people can say what they want about microsoft... but we are spoilt by them!!! Try doing the same stuff on something like ELSA.... (a sco-based server that was modified to suite the motor industry)....

so while i will pop in and check... i think for the next 3 months (until i can cope with all my new work-duties)... i will be a rarity in here....

At least i can say that when i master this... i will be one of 5 ELSA engineers in the country <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/badsmile2.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/badsmile2.gif" alt="" />

Well my first thought was .... NO! not L_R too <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/puppyeyes.gif" alt="" /> then I read and went yeah good for you ... way to go <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bday_jump.gif" alt="" />

u go girl! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/XmasJump.gif" alt="" />

u may be needed sooner than u know as your knowledge of ELSA will help run the motors for the engine in DD2. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

Dang! I missed that
[color:"pink"] Mea & Lady Rain -> what NVidia card is one or two steps up from Radeon 9000 Pro? i've been out of touch. [/color]

Sheesh Jangg, sorry hey, I actually had to look that up, came up with the following link
hope it helps some <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

My brother is trying to uninstall some games. The problem is that he can't uninstall them, because they can't find the file shell.dll, which is supposed to be in system. The file shell.dll IS in that very map. Any thoughts on what might be wrong/how to solve it. Reinstalling the games doesn't work.

Übereil

Edit:Problem solved. It was a hijackprogram that had removed the file and then replaced it so it looked like it was still there. He downloaded a program that solved it.

Had you let Ad-Aware and Spybot run through it ? It helps sometimes.


@all : what's ELSA ? I only know a now gone German company called Elsa which also produced video cards based on NVidia Chipset, like my "Elsa Gladiac" I have still built in my PC. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

@ Mea -> looks like mine is not even on the list so that implies all of them are better in oh so many ways! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> thanks for the info though. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

So there came that time, when i reformated my hard drive oh 3 days ago. Everything looked hopefull. I had a master plan, it was going to be easy. All the files i needed were on a dvd.

then the unthinkable happens
why oh god why the potatoe does my firewall not work anymore?

the only thing i did different this time was i made a partition on my hard drive, one for windows and one for programs.

Today which is the end of day 3, i just finished pouring over goggle tring to figure out why the potatoe my cool nvidia firewall doesn't work anymore. I get this potatO response from the interface when i try accessing it

"Error in NMI : Application is disabled. This application is not allowed to run on this system. This has been disabled by the Administrator."

not only did being locked out of my firewall ruin my week but! on top of that my new version of corporate symantec antivirus isn't working either....it keeps downloading the same files over and over and over again !AHH

i can't take it anymore
why wtf did i format

LIFE ISN'T FAIR <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ouch.gif" alt="" />

Is the Windows firewall activated?

Übereil

NVIdia Firewall ? I remember someone saying he (or she ?) believed this was one of the worst crap he (or she, but rather he) had ever seen, and claimed to have been able to take a glimpse at the code itself.

I don't remember anymore where this was, but I think it was here at Larian Forums somewhere.

Yeah Alrik is not far wrong, it (the Nvidia Firewall) resides thru an Apache server, which is simultaneously installed when you install the firewall, the best thing to do since Both the Nvidia FW and Nortaon's have a huge problem working "together" depending on which was installed first *groans* Question are you on a LAN?
if so you must install the Nvidia FW but disable it.
if not then leave it but disable Windows FW
presuming you "must" use these together <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Best suggestion ... get rid of both of them, they are serious "power hoggs"

Get a copy of Zone Alarm security Suite, once you downloaded that PM me for some permanent help with that.

second download Avast! antivirus (free for home use)

and you will most definitely be a happy chappy <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

so after a long fought out battle i gave up and decided to play a game on my jacked up computer.... then i wanted to patch the game and it keeps freezing...so i said wtf and I went to sleep a day & 3 bottles of beer later i take another stab into the dark and reformat yet AgAiN.

How i fixed the firewall issue i don't know 100% for sure but i have theories......the antivirus wasn't installing the updates because i moved my temp and temp internet files over to my other drive.....which in the end caused chaos with symantec.....i guess symantec doesn't expect people to go into evironment variables and start messing around with stuff...

potaTO rigid programs wtf i can't orgainize my files and how they are kept without having issues with my software

lol total bs...so oh well

yeah i heard (mostly from google) the firewall im using sucks but i got the damn thing to work

crisis averted <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" /> everythings back up and running <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />

Sounds logical to me. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Congratulations that it is running again, Virgo. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

well done, better then me, cause I was fuggered if I was gonna go thru another format and winXP install and validation <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />

All of a sudden I have to choose a user account when windows start , which is kind of annoying, since I only have one (which of these one accounts do you want to log in with?). It used to be that I logged in there automaticlly, but that is no more, for some strange reason. Any idea how I can get it back to "normal"?

Übereil

You didn't work all of the time in admin mode, did you ?
If so, you should rather stop it. Working all of the time in admin mode is the worst security issue I can imagine.

Because every program automatically (normally) inherites the access rights of the user. And the admin is allowed to do everything.

OK, you lost me.

Übereil

Well you can chose to automatic login by changing the registry with regedit

@AlrikFassbauer: I agree with you but I also work constantly in admin mode. the user functionally isn't that good in XP. On my linux server I do (like all) use users. But for my xp machine :s. Too much hassle and since I know what I am doing (most of the time) I haven't found the need to create users. my parents and there pc I have place restrictive user account (they need it). but for my own pc I don't bother. That is one of the reasons vista looks good at (only point vista looks good in?) that they have really redone the user account. but I dought it will ever be linux like




That NVIdia Firewall IS the worst crap ever made. Get a magnet and put it out of it digital missery.

And by the way, yes I am back <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

What I never understood is why Microsoft does home users expose to such security risks by virtually crippling the home edition with its user accound management ?

What I hate is the security gap between security products for companies and for home users. "No, home users don't need that." It should rather sound : "No, we can't pull enough money out of home users, so we don't develop for them at all." <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/memad.gif" alt="" />

Okay Ube, I am presuming you have windows XP, go to start >Setting>Control Panel>User Accounts, Pick the account you usually use (and if you Have as Alrik suggested been using a Admin account, create a new one, and call it erm Ubereil Personal)Make sure you have fast user switching turned on, which you will find in User accounts Left Panel on the first Page <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> and that should fix it <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

What's the problem with constantlly useing an adminaccount (which I have done on this computer since I got it basiclly)?

And I've got XP professional (I think, since that's what I bought).

Übereil

Okay if you are operating on an Admin account constantly, this means you can do what ever you like on the PC right?? right! so can someone who "hacks" into your PC than do whatever "they" like as your PC is wide open for him to install any little program key logger whatever, so the best way is to have a Admin account that IS pass word protected and a Limited Account (Preferably PW protected <Different PW>) for every day use, ESPECIALLY if you use your PC online, and only use the admin account for Maintenance and new installations, also make sure you do a system restore point at least once a week and before installing any programs LOL have fun <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I got the internet in at home last month, and since then it's been a downhill spiral into chaos!

First of all, the internet ran fine for about 2 weeks, then I noticed a sudden drop in the speed. Servers that I play Call of Duty 2 on for those 2 weeks began giving me bad ping rates.

Then while playing Call of Duty on line, I would get an alarm buzz whenever the game started. I didn't know what it was so I ignored it. Hmmm...note to self, stop ignoring alarms!!

Then the computer shut off, the dvd writer tray jumped out of the case, and I could smell burning. Not good!!

After a check that everything was 'ok' (if you can all it that) I tried it again. Computer seemed to be ok, but dvd writer was fried.

3 weeks into having the internet, it slowed down more. To the point where it was stopping every couple of seconds, downloading a bit of a web page, then stopping again.

The provider told me that everything was fine on their end, and it was probably my firewall. I removed the firewall and it made no difference.

I have 2 network cards in the PC so I tried the other one. I got down to swap the cable. After getting back up off the floor, the monitor stopped working. It was on, but no picture or signal.

After unsuccessfully disconnecting and reconnecting I had to open the case and see what was going on. Looked like the graphics card had an unwelcome lodger...a spider had made its home between it and the motherboard. I couldn't get the monitor to work again, and when turning on the pc, it would keep resetting constantly while trying to boot windows...over heating again I thought.

Had to remove the heatsink from the processer and check it. I put some artic silver coolent on it, replaced all...and nothing...a dead pc.

The End.

Now all I have is my crappy laptop until I blow a crap load of money on a new one...

I had to share my miserable tale...

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

A SPIDER ??? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />

If this had happened several decades earlier, we would now speak of "spiders" instead of "bugs" ... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

Ah, by the way, please be sure to check the other tiny components, especially this one : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolytic_capacitor

I know of several faulty mainboards because of these tiny parts were actually broken down.

Cheers...I'll have to get someone who knows a bit about this to look at it.

Or failing that, this could be the excuse I need to finally get a PC that can run todays games.

The only thing I'm really sore about is some data on my harddrive that I can't get at now.

If my stupid laptop hadn't broken down last month my back up on it wouldn't have been erased...

I just realised, I hate computers!!! (wipes the dust off Xbox)

Plowy, in regards to your hard drive, there's is a cable available that will connect to your hard drive and which you can plu in to your laptop (hmm after you take out the H/D)and thus you should be able to access data from the H/D on your laptop, presuming the H/D isn't fried too !

Have a google and see if you can find what I mean, if I had more time I would do it for you but I am stuck with too much work and not enough time <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />

That would be a great solution. I did a search but its hard to pin down exactly what it is, so with so many cables out there for hard drives I couldn't find one with that description.

Plowie, about that cable Mea mentioned, u can describe it as it is to the people in the computer shop (make sure the one u talk to is at least computer-literate) as i feel that they should know what u are talking about (device with USB cable to connect an IDE PATA or SATA hard disk to any computer with its own independent power source).

as for overheating problem & all that, Plowie, i thought your PC still has some kind of warranty that u can claim? do check & if u still do, go get a replacement. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

to prevent such problem from recurring, do check your computer chassis for any small holes that bugs can crawl through. tape them up (masking tape works very well) but don't plug up the ventilating holes (u'll know them when u seem them).

hope that helps.

man, what a crapy week. So i tried that SiSoft stuff, while running a test system crashes. Now, if it would have been my pc there would not have been any problem, but ofcours i was busy working on my mothers (the company-pc) pc. it didn't want to start anymore so we brought it to a computershop, they said they had no choice but to format, so my mother lost like half of all the data on the computer (she had some back-ups),
and she was so mad that i'm not allowed to install any game on the computer anymore. (this is actually the first time in a week i touch the computer again!!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />(this comes very close to personal record))
I can't play Oblivion (most played game) or any of my other good games anymore, so only solution is to save for my own pc, wich i will have (if evrything goes right) when the vacation is at an end! (so now i'm pissed)
I'm playing Age of Empires 2 on my old pc and well, i'm enjoying it as much as i enjoyed playing oblivion.

Just to let you people know.



P.S.: i wish this all happend at the start of the vacation, but ofcours if it would have been so, this would not be my life.

Iso my man I am sorry to hear about the Company pc being off limits, but hey AOE is a great game never the less, and once you buy your new PC, you will ba as happy as a hotdog in a bun <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

no worries, isorun, it's just a minor setback in life. u'll have a better computer once u've saved up enough. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

AOE2 rules. been playing it online with some fiends 2 hours of fun .

indeed, AOE2 is fun, but after an hour of gameplay needing to restart the computer isn't. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

yeah, AOE2, is the game I install every year again to play it with some friends again. One of my favorite games ever <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

There is a change of plans (again), my parents will not loan my half the money for the computer (as they had promised) instead i can again play on the my mothers pc because she now will use my computer for the company. meaning i will need to save another year before i will be able to buy a (up-to-date) PC.
well, i will be able to play oblivion again, so i better stop complaining.

Yay <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bday_jump.gif" alt="" /> Oblivion is (one of ) the best, have the game and ran the first hour orso, was very impressed but hey even Arena (The Elder Scrolls 1) in its time was far ahead of most other RPG's, so I figure you are on a winner <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

i just read somewhere that if you have a core duo2 processorn you can't run windows 98 anymore??? is that true?

hey Bean,

that should be right. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> any Microsoft operating system older than Windows 2000 cannot run on dual processors as they were written way before we have affordable dual processors in the market.

only Win 2K, Win XP & so on support dual processor, therefore able to make use of both.

hope that helps. for more details, u can always check out How Stuff Works. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Wait a moment : Does this mean Win98 (still use it) won't run at all, or siimply that it doesn't use both processors ?

It should doesn't used the second cpu.

But I think, you need also drivers for this old OS (motherboard espacially) and I don't think, you will found one of them.

Well said Xan <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />

win 98 only has pseudo win32 capabilities... at best it cant utilise the full average CPU.... even if you do get it to work on a dual cpu (or even Dual core CPU).. you will be wasting about 70% processing capacity.

I have one HD, parted into two discs (so I have one 160 gig HD, but it's parted into one disc C and one disc D). Disc C is getting full (down at 18%), will that affect the overall preformance of the disc, or does BOTH discs totally have to go down below 20%?

Übereil

I guess it would, depending if you have your swap file ( think they call it page file in XP) on the same partition as windows.

as windows needs a certain amount of space to run these files, to boost your actual memory some.

Personally I have my drive partitioned in 3, C drive for windows only, D drive for utilities, and E drive for games this way I don't interfere with win's use of the pagefile system.

But I am sure if our local experts are nearby (Raze L_R) they might be able to help you a bit better.

The usual setting for Virtual memory (Pagefile) is 1.5 times your actual memory, i.o.w. if you have 1 Gig of ram the best allocation would be 1536Mb of virtual memory, thus it becomes important to have enough space available on the same partition as windows for the virtual memory, as windows will slow down when VM runs out of space and needs to clear it to make more room <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

@ Mea -> great advice! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />



Ube, one hard disk is still one hard disk, no matter how many partitions u want to make. there is only one set of read/write heads on the HD so u can't read both partitions at the same time.

therefore, if low memory slows down read/write processes of C partition, your D partition will suffer as well.

my variation of HD partitioning is slightly different from Mea's. let's say for a 160GB, i'll have about 40-50GB for C, which i will put windows & non-game softwares in while the rest of the HD space will be for D, where i install my games, keep my files, & all that. this way, u keep the frequency of your C partition from getting fragmented to a certain minimum.

if u are a constant downloader, never forget to always back up your stuff on cd or dvd periodically as even the best system will break down at one time.

I'm NOT a constant downloader. But I stopped installing my games on D a (long) while ago, so that's (in big <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />) what's filling C. Acually, the Program-folder is 20,4 gig, and the Games-folder is 16,7 gig <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />. But I havn't noticed any slow running (exept when restarting Football Manager, but that's it).

One thing I've noticed, is that the total filesize on disc C (after checking some maps, and adding them together) doesn't seem to totally fill up. There seems to be 4 or 5 gig missing. You think there could be hidden maps anywhere (or are you questioning my mathskills?). Acually, I seem to have used 26 GB, and there are 7 free. And the whole HD is 39 GB. 26+7 /= 39.

Übereil

Two things :

- Clustering. One cluster of bytes takes up a certain space. If you have a file that doesn't fill up the *whole* cluster, then you have some bytes unused. And you can't use them otherwise, because they are still bound in that cluster.

- Different sizes in calculating disk size by MD manufacturer and others. I don't remember that thing much, but it shows a certain discrepancy.

Yep as always Al has it <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

If you check the properties of one file, you can see two sizes listed for it: Size and Size on disk. Each file needs a bit of packaging.

I felt like replaying Fallout 2, and installed the game today. At first it run just fine, went through some of the Temple of Trials (first area). Then I rememberred I could patch the game!

So I patched the game, and suddenlly it couldn't find the CD. So I thought I'd find a crack. But since I don't know any good pages, I downloaded it from Piratebay instead (took some three hours). Didn't solve it, so I reinstalled the game. Then I remembered I wasn't sure what verision I had (english? US?), so I was to go into game and check what verision it was. It ran the loading screen then... it went back to windows, then nothing... Then I came up with the brilliant idea to check the folder and see if it was anything there. Found this file Uninstallation.log which I thought was still there since the uninstallation. But apparentlly it was neccesary to uninstall the game, so now I can't uninstall it (weeeeee <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/delight.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/delight.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/delight.gif" alt="" />). So I removed the rest of the files too, then I did systemrestore (or acually three systemrestores, which all changed nothing at all), which didn't work. No removed files, Fallout still there (not the files, but the game is there allright!). I found out I can still acces the installguide through "add programs" in the add/remove programs program. So at least I can install the files. But if I uninstall them the game is still there <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/puppyeyes.gif" alt="" />. But anyway:

1: How can I get my game to work (again...)?
2: How can I fully uninstall the game?
3: (This one is just bitter, so you can ignore it if you want to.) Why can't Windows realize that if the files aren't there, the game is no longer on that HD?

Übereil

1a: insert fallout2 disc, open the folders on the disc, find the setup.exe, double click and reinstall/repair via by setup.exe

1b:reformat your screwed muahahahhahaaaahh ha <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

1c: try installing fallout 2 in another folder if it even lets you

1d:right click on your short cut on your desktop, click on the windows compatability for win98...it might help

2:should 1a work, you should be able to uninstall

2b:open the windows registry and try to delete fallout2 reg files causing chaos muahahahahahaha .... .... .. . HA <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

3:potatoe or potato

1a worked for reinstalling it, but not for playing it... 1c didn't help. 1d didn't neither.

After 1a I COULD uninstall it once, but after uninstalling it it was still there...

What's a PF file?

Übereil

did you not try option 3 <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

well there are others i thought about in my spare time
from being stuck in traffic "by JOVE" lol

im forced to suffer modern literature in my college class
and had to read Heart of Darkness which "by jove" is from
i found the story annoying and boring and to get back at the world for my pain
i shall now use by jove whenever possible along with potato

try copying and pasting from your cd the missing files?

any game made around the year 1998 or earlier is burnable
i call this law, the freedom potatoe law

if 1a does work
restart the computer asap after potato you complete 1a

uninstall

restart again

then see if its still there

if it is god help you
by JOVE

I chose a larger installation (than that huge 2.5 MB one <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />) and... IT WORKS <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/delight.gif" alt="" />. And now it's patched too <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />. And as long as it is like this I don't care that it's installed twice...

Oh and thanks for the help. Even thought it DIDN'T help <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />.

Übereil

Heart of Darkness is a book ? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />

I only know the jumpp & run game ...

it is a book, Al. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> i can't recall the name of the author though ..... & it's not Jove. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Drat!! you are a funny guy Jangg <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> >>>> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ROFL.gif" alt="" />

My computer froze last night, and then Windows wouldn't boot up. I got this error message:

Disc boot failure, insert system disk and press enter


I went into the BIOS and checked the "boot priority." There are 2 hard drives on my computer. One has all the system and program files and the other is only for storage. The storage drive was designated in the BIOS as the #1 in the boot process. I switched them around and my machine booted up with no trouble. This leads me to a question. Why or how did the BIOS boot priority get switched around, or if it was always like that, how come it always worked before? And why did the computer freeze?

hey Cleg, right now it can be anything.

symptom: the computer freezes.
symptom: BIOS error message -> Disc boot failure, insert system disk and press enter

that does sound like your BIOS setting went a bit wacky. but is that default setting? if your motherboard is a new one, even at default setting, your hard drives should be detected properly.

may i know if your storage HD is set as master or slave? which IDE channel? primary or secondary? what about your system HD?

another thing; how is the time or date on your BIOS? does your PC keep the time right? if let's say u switch off your PC at 10pm & u switch it back on the next day at say 8am, does the time lag? if it does, then u can just change your BIOS battery.

right now with only 1 symptom, it's hard to tell what caused the error. wish i can help more, Cleg. sorry.

The computer is 15 months old including the motherboard.
The storage HD is set as master. That sounds wrong to me; I am wondering if I should switch that around. primary IDE channel. The system HD is not on an IDE channel as it is a raptor--SATA HD.
The time does not lag.
Thanks.

This error message reminds me of a small, tiny file win needs to boot up. If that's missing or corrupt, then it won't.

I don't remember the name, though.

When bootsequence detects a error in it's cmos, it resets to standard settings. This could happen due a critical HD writing error, something made the HD do crazy things. Or a virus designed to attack the cmos.

Scan for virusses, did the pc at that time suffer any physical disturbances? A fluke in the powersupply, shaking? I've experienced similar problems where my laptop refused to boot when been transported on rough surfaces, in the back of the car. Due to the vibrations.

My first thought was that you've a 3,5 floppy disc inserted by mistake. But you've allready checked that, right?

Übereil

I was playing Morrowind when it froze. Hmm.

I don't have a floppy drive.

open up your pc and check all wires to your harddisks ;-)

Note that you should keep a hand or a shoulder against a metalpart of your case to kill of static electricity <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />. Otherwise you might "kill" parts of your computer.

Übereil

Hmm correct your system disk should be on the primary IDE and set as master, you storage disk should be Primary>Slave and your DVD Secondary>Master if you have another optical drive that should be Secondary>Slave ... unless you do a lot of recording in which case it is better to have the DVD recorder set on Primary>Slave <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

But hey I am just an old guy pottering around with PC's although I must admit that out of the 5 comps that I am surrounded with only 3 work <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" /> but we shall persevere <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

hmm...... i don't think SATA would cause any complication but then again, i have no experience working with SATA HD as i don't own one. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />

@ Cleg -> is there any weird sound coming from your SATA HD? can the motherboard BIOS detect that SATA HD?

yeah as what Draggy said, it might be a viral attack which may have broken windows enough that it won't boot. when it comes to XP, there are a few files which are totally crucial for windows to load.

if u have a spare PC, u can always port that SATA HD to that PC & do virus scan on it. let's hope it's just some software problem & not hardware.

Thanks for the replies. It appears to be that Morrowind is the culprit. I have had 2 more freezes which occur only when MW is running. One of the freezes gave me a blue screen STOP error which seems to be a typical issue according to the Elderscrolls forum. So I will update my drivers, etc. Personally I think it is really dumb that a computer which far exceeds the recommended specs would have issues that lock up my computer. I had no trouble with Oblivion. And although the freezes are new, I have been getting error messages often with MW when I exit the game. I just ignored them since they didn't affect gameplay. When I think on it -- MW is the only game old or new that has had this kind of effect on my computer. Stupid game!

Please do a defrag, if possible. I've had strange errors myself that went away when I had the defragger runnung - especially concerning heavily fragmented (big) files.

There should still be a free version of "O&O Defrag" be in the depths of the internet; O&O is a German company which made a fairly well impression to me.
Alternatively, you could use the defrag program of the German magazine c't , which you can find here : http://www.heise.de/ct/ftp/ and to be exact here : ftp://ftp.heise.de/pub/ct/ctsi/hdtool11.zip
These two defrag programs are seeminly for NTFS only. Sorry, for FAT users (like myself).

A defrag never hurts. I'll do it.
But I have to say that I went and played Oblivion after my last post, and it ran smoothly with no problems. Oblivion is a superior game. Morrowind had potential, but it is just too poorly designed.

what is te exact error message or where in the POST doe it hang.

write down the code on the blue screen, then search it on the net or find it here with what it has to do

(Slightly modified. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> )

No virus.
I didn't write down the error on the blue screen.
I have given up on Morrowind so hopefully my problem is gone. If it resurfaces I'll post.
Morrowind was a love/hate thing and I'm not really sorry to stop.

Well since this morning i'm having troubles booting up the pc, from the moment after the screen where the memory gets checked (which in my case is a huge HP screen), and you can choose to enter the BIOS using F1 etc.
And then I get just a screen with an L followed by lots of 99's. Then it just stops.

I tried to recover the pc using an image made with Ghost that I got with the pc. But it didn't help.

I fear my hard disk is broken (Western Digital), tough i'm not sure, anyone can help finding the problem?

LOL Remove the Linux system disk from floppy <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> sorry couldn't resist that Merendrious, unfortunately that's way past my knowledge base <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />

Maybe if you yell RAZE, Morbo or Lady Rain real hard they might help ?

@ Merendrious -> do u have any spare computer around? take that HD out & port it in the other computer (make sure it's virus free). check if the BIOS can detect the HD. if it does, then go into windows & have scandisk check the HD. please do a complete scandisk with surface check.

other than that, i am not sure how else to help u. sorry.

Also check whether all cables are still properly plugged in.

I've seen once an win nt machine with a bluescreen which disappeared after plugging the PS/2 mouse right back into it again.
Since then I'm careful regarding cables and plugs.

I figured out that my Master Boot Record got corrupted. I'm able to get into windows making a boot disk. Bought a second hard disk where I just backupped everything. Now trying to fix the master boot record, by using a dos boot disk, and using fdisk /mbr (don't know if that still works), and found an other command called fixmbr, otherwise it's gonna be a full format

Formated my C: drive and reinstalled windows XP and now everything works fine <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />.
Pfew, can't see an other installer for days (probably even weeks) had to do a whole bunch of windows/linux reinstalls the last 2 days... But anyway it works now, everyone is happy, so now party on <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/party.gif" alt="" />

Glad you got it fixed. I hope you had a backup of important files.

hmm..... can anyone here verify if fdisk /mbr still work? any other way to format the MBR reliably?

Depends on the OS.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/Windows2000Pro/reskit/part7/proch32.mspx?mfr=true

This article says that the "recovery console" has a command called "fixmbr".

(You must scroll down nearly to the end to see this.)

thanks, Al. will look it up. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

A guy told me today Intel has passed AMD, and my whole world fell apart <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />. Anyway, does anyone happen to have any nice links to this, the only article I could find on AMD vs Intel was allmost two years old...

Übereil

I only have hard copy articles about this....

but give AMD a chance... they working on some secret stuff too....

Sadly (for me) the new intel is twice the speed of the fastest AMD.... and the price isnt that crippling either...

AMD is prolly reworking their CPU-design for the moment <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />. And maybe working on getting GPU's and CPU's on the same core...

Still would be nice with some articles on it. Feels better than some bloke on Battle.net telling me Intel is better than AMD...

Übereil

Don't worry Ube, it is all relative .... I mean after 6 months it wont be that fast anymore <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Ube, do check Tom's Hardware Guide for more details & review on the dual core versus 64-bit.

Thanks Jang (now bookmarked <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />)... Isn't 64 bits a good thing? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/suspicion.gif" alt="" />

Übereil

[color:"orange"] Isn't 64 bits a good thing? [/color]
LOL it will be ...once they actually make programs that work on 64 bit and don't even mention the Windoze 64 cause that aint even working as it is <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> and when it work you can hardly find the drivers for it .... so, I guess we all shall have to wait a "bit" <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

you will be surprised to see how many new devices are coming out with 64 bit drivers.... i will be moving over in 2 months's time.... (as soon as i pass my msce and become a MS-partner) then i get it for freeeeeeeee <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> but so far so good.... been testing it on and off... and i am impressed with a lot of features...

(i am not however impressed with office 2007... if you dont know the shortcut keys... dont bother trying to find save-as)

Lady Rain, when it comes to surviving the ordeals of using Microsoft Office, it's imperative to save-a$$. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

a question to those who are Linux users: is it advisable to install Fedora on a very old PC? AMD K5 133MHz with 40MB RAM? probably use it as a server as that old system has low power consumption.

No, not Fedora Core x (x as a number). Use a small linux distribution instead: Damn Small Linux or an other older distribution, which require a not so powerful system. The problem is less system memory <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />

thanks, Xan! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

so u mean the problem with using the older distro is that they don't support huge memory? or u are pointing to the fact that the computer i mentioned has very low memory?

The problem is: newer versions use more memory or don't install a graphic interface like KDE, GNOME (this both need a lot memory to display a huge number of graphic gimmick) and use only the console, but this is geekish <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

If you have the chance to put memory into this system, then do it - 64 MB or 128 MB are better. I used a short time a similar system (Intel Pentium 133, 64 MB System Memory) with a Debian installed (only console).

Vundo is doing the rounds again.... and its more nasty than ever....
it hides as a super hidden file... so even though your spyware removers can detect it in the startup lists... they cant remove it.... If you attempt to remove it and only do half a job (which is almost guaranteed) it kills your winsoc connection layers.... which means you now have NO internet connections.... and very little chance of fixing it without haveing internet....

before you even look if you have the vundo malware... download these 2 files (which you will need to remove and fix the damage...

Vundo Fix Utility

Run this utility... do a check and if you find any vundo - related files... remove them. After that, restart and run the utility again....

If you are sure they are all gone... make sure your internet (and email and download programs) work... If not... follow the steps below... and then run this utility to restore the original settings...

Winsock Repair Utility

Step 1. Delete the corrupted registry keys

1. Click Start, and then click Run.

2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.

3. In Registry Editor, locate the following keys, right-click each key, and then click Delete:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock2

4. When you are prompted to confirm the deletion, click Yes.

NOTE: Restart the computer after you delete the Winsock keys. Doing so causes the Windows XP operating system to create new shell entries for those two keys. If you do not restart the computer after you delete the Winsock keys, the next step does not work correctly.

Hope no one has this little bugget... but beware... its a nasty one....

Symantec has one, too : http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/FixVundo.exe

Symantec's article about it : http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2004-112210-3747-99

thanks again, Xan. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> anyway, about Gnome or KDE, u cannot tone down the graphics to a minimum so at least u have some kind of GUI? so just console, huh? too bad, i guess.

is it possible if let's say i install linux with console only in that system then i access it by remote then control it from there? also with GUI to control it by remote? is that possible?

sorry for the silly questions.

@ Lady Rain & Al -> thanks for the heads-up. this thing looks very serious. i remember the first few minutes i got my system online (broadband) for the first time & without protection as i was about to download AVG Free Edition & Spybot S&D, i got this annoying little IEPeers sitting in the memory & choking the line. good thing i managed to download & update AVG & Spybot then obliterate that little bugger.

Sorry, there is no way to do this <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />



Yes and no.
If you run a server system (like a file-, mail- or printserver, router, firewall, ...) than is the answer yes. For many server programs you can find control programs with a remote graphic system - most a web interface.
If you run a desktop system, where you use programs for playing, writing, web surfing, than is the answer more no than yes. I don't know exactly but so far as I know the remote system must produce all the graphic output which a transfered to the local computer and will only shown on the local computer. The local computer is more or less than only a monitor.

I would give DSL (Damn Small Linux) a chance - it is small and need only few system memory. There could be the problem, that your system doesn't start from a cd drive but then you can use a floppy disc to boot (insert first the floppy disc which start booting and accessed later the cd drive).



There are no silly questions, normal ones for a mimigration way.

You can go for more light weight window managers instead of Gnome or KDE, like blackbox(which I use).

There are no such thing as a silly question.... only silly mistakes <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

(cant remember which big-shot said that)

I am looking for a new virusscan/firewall combo for my xp machiene. Only virusscanner/firewall no spyware, parental , ... control.

As low a footprint as possible.

Mcaffee and Norton are out of the running because of footprint.

I'v been thinking about NOD and Kaspersky

Mr Garrison in South Park said that there are no such thing as stupid question, only stupid people. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ROFL.gif" alt="" />

now i know better. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

@ Morbo -> not sure but i hear good things about NOD32 more than Kaspersky.

@ Xan -> thanks! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I use Zonelabs firewall and AVG free antivirus.

Don't know if they drain resources too much or not, I dont pay attention to such things.

Zone Alarm is pretty good IMHO so is Avast! for anti virus as the zonealarm anti virus aint too good <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Had a weird experience today... When I woke up, I made my bed, pulled up the curtains, and then I turned my PC on and went downstairs to get dressed. When I came up my screen was... blinking. It displayed one screen for 0,1 seconds, then went black for about 1 second. And then it blinked again. I thought it had something to with me not starting correctlly, so I restarted (tried to do it by clicking my way on the screen, then gave up and did it manually). When I started my computer again, it did the same display (0,1 screen, 0,9 blackness). When I came to that cursed sceduled scandisc (which I still havn't fixed...) I pressed space in order to abort it... and screen went back to normal. In the lower right corner it said something about "analog display" (which I'd imagine an analog screen was permanently on...). Any ideas on what just happened?

Übereil

Cable connection to the monitor loose ?

I've checked them all, and the problem still is there. It seems to be related to the monitor though, and has nothing to do with the computer itself.

Same problem now, allthough this time it won't solve itself (how could it work last time...).

Übereil

suspicioushly sounds like a vertical hold (in the monitor) that went bye bye....

Do you have another computer / laptop to plug into it to just check????

The reason why you should check, is that it may very well be the graphics card aswell.... if the monitor works on another computer, then check that the graphics card is seated properly / not overheating. (it only takes 5 seconds for a card to overheat, so it CAN happen on boot-up)

Since the screen didn't work on my brother's computer, and since the power wire worked on my mother's computer, I guess there is some kind of glitch in the power socket on the monitor. I even have a nice theory why this happened, but the sollution is to check with the store where I bought it and bring my three-year-guarantee <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />.

Übereil

Ube, i may be reading your posts wrongly but if u can see the BIOS with no problem but when it comes to windows, the display problem starts, then that's very much software problem. remotely it can also be graphic card problem (very rare but might be some RAM chip problem).

if the problem starts even when u're in the BIOS screen, then it's a very good bet that the monitor has problem.

if it's still under warranty, better claim it fast. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

It doesn't work properlly even when the computer is turned off <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />. You can note the lamp on the screen blinking when it's turned on too, so it IS the screen <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />. And I have more than a year to collect on that warranty (unless they lied about the three years). <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Übereil

OK, borrowed an old screen from my sisters boyfriend (acually it's the screen from our first PC, from 98. It flickers so much I doubt I'll spend much time on this PC <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />).

Übereil

Hello everyone, I'm thinking about buying a new computer and I'd like some advice. The system I want to buy is based on a two monthly best buy guide on a Dutch website called Tweakers.net, which you can find here. (It's in Dutch of course, but the names of the various parts are in English, so I guess you get the idea.)

Now what I'd like to know is not whether this is a good system or not, I daresay it is, but whether it's a good idea to buy a new computer right now. Do you think it would be silly to purchase a brand new PC just weeks before Windows Vista/DirectX 10 is due to hit the shelves, or is this not something you'd really consider? I don't know much about hardware or the impact Windows Vista will have, so I'd value the opinion of anyone who does.

Many thanks in advance! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

I am not up to date on this stuff, and I do not speak Dutch (except for a few words). However, I highly recommend Ars Technica System Guide.They give 3 builds in different price ranges with thoughtful discussion. I built my system last year based on their recommendations. The only downside to the article is that it is a couple of months old.

anandtech has more up to date guides which are also of good quality.

hmm Mac dunno about the prices in euro's but like 2 grand seems like a lot for a system that size, that said the parts are okay although I aint no lover of Intel (rather run AMD anyday) and I daresay that Dell brings out a better Monitor for less money (looks thru records for a link .....) Dell 19" these are in aus dollars but hey I am sure you can find something in Euro's when you trawl around the Dell site <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

And after all that .... yes I would wait until vista etc etc is released AND the nextr service pack for Vista comes out .... then again there's nothing wrong with XP Pro SP2, which at least I shall continue running until Vista is at least at SP2 <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

1 more hint try sending a private message to Lady_Rain, last time I looked she still had a website that sold pc's and it should include a Money comverter <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

if it's an old monitor, chances are that it won't support more than 60Hz on 1024 by 768 resolution. what u can do about this is to reduce the resolution down to 800 by 600 then increase the refresh rate to 70Hz. that should solve your flicker problem a bit.

hope that helps.

@ Macbeth -> sorry, man. wish i know how to help u there. i don't know if that is worthwhile or not as i cannot relate to your currency. specs-wise, the system looks beefy though.

Thanks for your thoughts! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

I got the Syncmaster 920n from Samsung, and I am very happy about it ;-).
The dell screen is a widescreen, so it seems on what you like best, a 'normal' one, or a widescreen. (Tough i never seem to get the advantage of widescreens)

Also ram is on one of it's highpoints of price, so maybe better to wait till it's cheaper again, like a few months ago, or buy enough to come satisfy yourself, and then add some more later, when it's cheaper ;-).

OK, Trend have stopped updateing PC Cillin 2004 and later, and since I used 2002 it won't be updated again. Therefore I've switched to Avast! anti-virus. The problem is Avast! doesn't contain a firewall, and since I don't exactlly trust the Windowsfirewall my sollution will be that I get a good freeware firewall. The problem is, I don't KNOW any freeware firewalls! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

So, any tips?

Übereil

I have not used any of these freeware firewall programs, but last I heard ZoneAlarm is quite user friendly, while Kerio is easier on system resources (don't recall anything specific about Sygate).

firewall: Sygate is available for download from cnet.com--easy to use, but no longer updated.

some new free security stuff:
SiteAdvisor-- tells you whether any given site is safe with regard to links, downloads, spam, etc. It runs as an addon to the browser.

DropMyRights--allows you to drop the admin rights (you need XP) to any program, such as your browser, even if you are running as the admin. This walls off the browser from doing any harm to your system if it does pick up a virus. I like the concept, but do find the instructions a bit too hard to follow.

VMWare Player andBrowser appliance--installs a separate browser into a virtual system which makes your browsing extremely safe. It is highly demanding of system resources--consumes tons of memory--so you need a high level system.

Shazou--firefox extension that provides a bit of extra antiphishing safety.
WOT does the same.

I use Zonealarm for a few years no, with no problems so far.
Only the log files need to be deleted once in a while, they consume quite a lot of space over the time.

Yup everyone is correct here I use aVast! with Zonealarm suite, quite nicely <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

For a few days I have bee getting intermittent freezes; the machine needs to be manually shut down. Now it won't boot up at all. The lights come on, and the optical drives go through their little light show, but then everything stops. I never even get to any of the bootup screens. No BIOS, no RAM check, no Windows startup--nothing. The monitor is blank--the monitor is not the problem--the machine just stops. I should probably add that it has done this intermittently ever since I had it, but would always then go boot up normally when it hung if I pressed the cute little reboot button.

A week or 2 previously the system hung up when shutting down and lost the internet connection. I ascribed that to updating my AVG software. After removing AVG and running AVAST instead that problem seemed to disappear--I don't know if that is related.

What could be the culprit and how and where do I start?

Thanks.

PS That machine has my chaos casc. password on it, which I forgot, so I won't be logging in there for a bit. Tell Glance--it is not French Guiana, but a place that has been in the news.

That's what mine did just before the Motherboard died... I now get lights and nothing else - no fan hum, no chip hum, nothing. If yours is like that too, Cleg, it's possible your Motherboard is gone, too...

I can change your Cascade password if you want, BTW. PM me here at Larian if you'd like me to do that, please. The system will send out a new confirmation e-mail and once you have that you'll have access again - and obviously can change the password again <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

You can always check if its not something as simple as a component having come loose...

Open the machine, check if all the cards are in propperly... (you should not be able to see the golden rows of "teeth" where the card clips into the slot... so press on all the cards with MODERATE force, (please dont go snap anything)...

Check if the memory is propperly in by using the same method... and while you at it, check that the ribbon cables are in firmly aswell...

even though it doesnt boot, leave the machine on for 3- 5 minutes, and feel if any part of the computer gets excesively hot, check if all the fans are spinning. The Heatsink on your CPU should NEVER be hotter than lukewarm. for that matter no component should be much hotter than lukewarm.

If all these things are fine...

try the following:
While the machine is off
unplug the power from the unnecesary devices like CD rom, stiffy drive, 2nd hard drive (if any).
See if it will boot now...
If this help, there may be a problem with one of those devices, OR your powersupply is faulty and is no longer supplying enough stable power (and this is where my gut tells me the problem may be, if its not a faulty motherboard and/or CPU as suggested earlier).

Remember, while checking inside of your computer, be sure to have an elbow (bare skinned) or hand on a non-painted metallic surface of the computer, since those surfaces are grounded. The components inside the computer is made to handle 12 volts and static electricity can build up to 10000 volts on your hands. If one of the circuits in your computer comes in contact with 10000 volts, that circuit will die, which is not very good. So stay grounded! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Übereil

Lady Rain has great advice there. i would like to add, well after u unplug the system of course & that u are free of static electricity, to unplug the RAM, and/or graphic card then plug 'em back in again. as what the lady said, it might be loose connection. u can also try cleaning the electrical connection (those rows of golden teeth, to borrow Lady Rain's expression) by using a soft pencil eraser.

let's hope it's not the motherboard. & i also hope it's not the power supply unit too.

sorry can't help u more there, Cleg.

Thanks for the suggestions. The computer will go on my kitchen table for work probably Friday. The motherboard should still be under warranty, but will be a colossal pain to switch out--if that is the problem. I will be pleased if it is just a loose connection.

@Elliot
I won't be surfing much without my computer so hold off on the password change for now. Thanks, and I will PM you if I do decide to change it at CC.

OK, Cleg <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Hope it turns out to be something minor after all with your computer <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Sorry you live so far away. I would look after the PC, if I could. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Giant rubber wellies and a rubber glove on your head in the rough approximation of a chicken's head, does not guarentee no static either. I think...yet to try it!

That small fan atop the motherboard's onboard chip does not spin. I manually twirled it around (with the power off) and unplugged it and replugged it back into its power source, but it does not spin. I guess that is the problem. So now I need to practically rebuild my computer by removing and replacing the motherboard. Oh well...

Commiserations Cleg, I know what it feels like, but hey look at the bright side, at least you are gonna have an interesting time <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Why not use complete rubber chickens instead of this ?

[color:"orange"]That small fan atop the motherboard's onboard chip does not spin.[/color]

Do other lights and fans come on? A bad power supply can light LEDs and turn fans, but not allow the system to POST.

Did you try a different power connector for the fan? For that your motherboard would have to have another fan connector close enough, or you would need an adapter to plug it into a 4 pin connector from the power supply.


[color:"orange"]So now I need to practically rebuild my computer by removing and replacing the motherboard.[/color]

The recent symptoms are consistent with something overheating and possibly becoming permanently damaged (not sure if current chipsets get that hot). The occasional boot problems you had from the start could be due to a bad power supply (though I suppose a loose connection somewhere could behave that way, as well).

Before replacing the MB, try plugging in a different power supply, if possible. You would only need to connect the MB, main fans (if they don't connect through the MB) and the video card (if required) to check if it will POST, not hard drives, etc.

All the other lights and fans come on. The fan which does not spin is a fan which comes with the motherboard already attached. It sits atop a VIA chip I believe. I actually had trouble with it early on -- it made awful noises. After a time the noise stopped and I assumed that it was running ok, but it might have simply stopped functioning and caused some overheating damage. I should have another power supply I can scavenge from an old computer that I can try. I'll see what I can do. Thanks for the suggestions.

The chipset fan may already be attached, but it should be replaceable (it would be a very poor design to hardwire it in, anyway).

With the previous fan problems that puts heat as the most likely problem. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cry.gif" alt="" /> However, if you can scavenge another power supply, that would be much easier and cheaper to check first than a new motherboard.

This is proving to be more complicated than just a fan not spinning on the MB.

It turns out I don't have a suitable substitute power supply to try; my power supply does meet the specs however. Anyway, I emailed ASUS, the MB manufacturer. I received a reply which I am posting at the bottom of this post. Following their directions, I still got no post when I removed the MB from the case. But after I removed the CPU, I was able to force a post/vocal post error to the effect there was no CPU. The MB fan still does not spin. A couple of times during my multiple starts it tried to spin, but did not succeed in spinning. So -- I could have an issue with the CPU as well as the MB fan? How do I test the CPU? Remove the old thermal paste, apply new paste and retry it?

I can be (and i have seen this a few times before) that the motherboard blew the CPU... due to the (i presume) North bridge overheating, the CPU get forced into an erronious loop... eventually blowing it... (typical symptoms is the PC getting SLOW stages, then comming out of it, which gets progressively worse).

It may also be that at some stage you had a power surge, which blew the CPU....

But have both the MB and CPU tested (and swopped out if possible)

Re-installing the CPU in your MB probably wouldn't help, unless there was a loose connection or corrosion on some of the pins, or something, which reseating the CPU might fix (unlikely). Replacing the CPU might be safer than leaving it out on the table, though.
You would have to either install your CPU in a different working computer or install a known working CPU in your MB (preferably both) to isolate whether the problem is with the MB, CPU or both.

If you can not get your hands on another compatible computer (that you can take apart), any decent repair shop will have test systems they can swap components in and out of. You mentioned the MB was still under warrantee, but how about the power supply and (more importantly) CPU? If a shop replaces something under warrantee there shouldn't be a cost (though you should check first in case they add shipping charges or something) but there would probably be some kind of diagnostic fee for out of warrantee components (ie an OEM CPU may only have 90 days coverage).

In the press there have recently been *many* articles about brokwn-down electrolyt capacitors. They just go broken over the time.

I think you should better check them, too. Their acid (once they're broiken) can do damage to the main board.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolytic_capacitor

Look especially here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

My current plan is to replace the motherboard under warranty (I have an RMA# now.), and upgrade the cpu from an Athlon 64 3500 to a dual core athlon x2 3800 if I can find one in socket 939. They are not too expensive. I know that intel has superior dual core processors, but then I have to buy a new motherboard and memory as well. God, RAM gets expensive these days!

I am also getting increasingly suspicious of the power supply, which I can run a few tests on with a multimeter--I plan on doing that this weekend. So, if all goes well I'll have my box up and running with an upgraded cpu in a couple of weeks.

It is tempting to upgrade everything, but that costs money. And I might be doing a travel position in a month which will necessitate a laptop. Ah well.

Thanks to everyone for all of the helpful advice.

I bought a new PC a few days ago(finally) and it got a dual core 1.86GHz processor(s). Now I wonder: is this equal to a 3.72GHz processor or is it just faster then a 1.86GHz processor?
Other information about the PC:
Graphical card: Geforce 7650GS
1GB RAM
DVD-writer 16x
DVD-reader 16x
I wasn't able to see which motherboard it got

I'm pretty happy about it and for the one's intrested it costed €799.

What brand of processor?

Übereil

Intel Core
(I think)

hmm if you type into the start>run> DXDIAG then hit enter the dx program will run a diagnostic (hence the name) and at the end it will give you the opportunity to print a report, once you done this, say saved to desktop then open that text file copy and paste it on the forum and voila all your details will be laid bare <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

[color:"orange"]dual core 1.86GHz processor(s). Now I wonder: is this equal to a 3.72GHz processor or is it just faster then a 1.86GHz processor?[/color]

It depends on the program. Most current programs are not multi-threaded, so would only be able to use one core. However, Windows can manage which applications are run on which core, so if you have multiple programs running, task switching would be smoother (ie a CPU intensive program running in the background would not interfere with whatever is running in the foreground, and vise versa).

Some programs are multi-threaded, particularly CPU intensive ones such as video editors, etc, as are a couple games, so would be able to utilize both cores at the same time. It depends on the program on how much of a difference that would make; there is a little overhead managing the 2 cores, so at a maximum you would get a bit less than 3.72GHz performance out of any program.

Multi-core processors are the way Intel and AMD are going, so eventually multi-threaded applications should become more common (for non-trivial applications, anyway).

and so sayeth the "Sage" of larian <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

isn't it a bit long to paste it on the forum? unless ofcours I start a new thread just for pasting the log. If I could upload it somewhere, I would have no problem with it.(unless there are hackers who can actually hack my system by reading my systeminfo)

Is there a way you can choose if the program uses the same cpu as all other programs, or can you click a button somewhere, forcing the program to use the second CPU?

OK, I have a friend who bought Warcraft 3 (with expansion) a while back. The problem is he keeps getting fatal errors (ie game quits) that sais:

Fatal Error, c0000005 Memory could not be read

This might be liveable if he plays single player, but if he plays multiplayer, and then especially DotA (which I'm teaching him <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />) getting one of those errors means destroying for the other nine persons in his game. He has tried several things (like updateing his graphic card), but none have worked. Have any suggestions?

Übereil

Edit: I wrote "Worldcraft"! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shame.gif" alt="" />

Hmm try This !! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Worldcraft 3? Talking about mixing World of Warcraft and Warcraft 3. But if it is Warcraft 3, what does DotA stands for?

DotA=Defend of the Aichents. Usuallu means DotA allstars, since it's the most famous verision of the map.

Oh, and he tried them all Mea. Didn't work <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />.

Übereil

Maybe he should first copy the files from the CD to the Hard Drive and then install the game. I had this problem once with oblivion, which not even wanted to initialise, reinstalling didn't work, but copying the files and then installing did the trick, very strange.

Because he plays multiplayer he automaticly has the newest patch, so that wouldn't be a solution. Does this problem occur in both the Reign of Chaos and in the Frozen Throne, or only in one of them?

I'm the person Ubereil is helping, he posted this for me because i had no time when he suggested to post it here in the PC help thread, so he did it for me <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I'm quite sure copying the files to the hard drive and then install the game would make no difference, the crashes are random it seems, i can like play the game for 45 minutes at one time and at another just 5 minutes when the crashes

Yes i have the latest patch and the crash occurs with both the games. (Reign of chaos and the frozen throne)

Is it a new disc, or were you able to play it before? maybe there's a little scratch on the disc which the installation setup doesn't notice while installing.

I played it on my 'very' old PC, and the only problem i had then, was that it would crash after about 1-2 hours of playing, but this was on an old machine and happend with a lot of games of mine.

Did you check the warcraft/blizzard forum? maybe someone else had the same problem.

Loads of pepole had the same problem, and no one knows how to fix it if those listed ones doesn't work <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/suspicion.gif" alt="" />.

How do you find out what chipset you have? We thought maybe updateing his chipset might work...

Übereil

and the warcraft 3 reg file didn't work ???

None of those nine sollutions worked (apparentlly).

Übereil

Okay last idea, some games don't work well with certain DirectX versions if you are running 9c try another version of DirectX

How new is your system? which games are you able to run without problems? Is it a illegal version?(probably not, because you're playing multiplayer) If it is, maybe downloading an other version might work.

But if no one on the forum was able to fix the problem, you're probably need to wait till Blizzard releases a new patch(altough i would doubt this, as it as getting a rather 'old' game) or wait for an upgrade for your computer.

What video card do you got?

It's a new legal CD, my graphic card is radeon 9600 series.

Although it seems i rarely get the crash anymore, i have no idea how i "fixed" this, the crash could return though, i heard some people "fixed" it and a few days later it came back, so ill just wait and see, will let you know how it turns out.

Hurrah! Hooray! Yippee! Huzzah Huzzah!
My computer works again! Thank you everyone for your suggestions. A special thanks to Raze who correctly pointed out that it could be the power supply.
1st of all I sent the Motherboard back to ASUS. They replaced the faulty onboard chip fan with a heatsink; apparently that particular ASUS mb has a known problem with the fan. They also changed out some unspellable component n-mosfet-etc. However, the computer still would not boot nor would the fans spin; I fiddled with the wires from the power supply and the fans spun, but it still wouldn't boot. I bought a new power supply and Voila: MY COMPUTER BOOTED UP! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Gratz Cleglaw I am glad to hear you are up and running again, also glad to see that the Master has done it again "Bravo Raze" <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bday_jump.gif" alt="" />

Can anyone help me please?
I have this "Gal's guestbook" at my website, it's a free guestbook from 123freeguestbook. Some kids have posted a lot of crap in the guestbook, now I want to have that deleted. Thing is that I lost my password to get in the guestbook. Even asking to send me a new one doesn't help. I used all three email adresses I have had over the last years, none is working. The site claims that they have send me a new password, right after I send the request, they say, "a new password is been send to you" or something like that. But none of it all, I still have no password. Do I really have to get rid of the guestbook en install a new one or is anyone able to help me out here?
Thanks in advance. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

Have you turned JavaScript off while doing that request for a new password ?

You should write your passwords actually down.

It's a shame, there were already a lot of positive comments in the guest book, but those last few replies, I wonder, if they don't like elves, why do they even visit your site? Weird, but once i read the messages, I almost instantly tought about those teens who think they're cool because they 'destroyed' a beautifull site which (probably) took a lot of work. If you would be able to delete the most recent page, the problem would be fixed. Maybe you could try to copy all the other comments into a new guestbook?
Why don't they get a life? the only thing they're doing right now is insulting people, meaning that they don't have any friends or just want to act cool.

hmm Gal have you done a search on your PC for anything containing the word "123freeguestbook"

You might come across that email that they sent you way back when you first installed the GB?

Thx Alrik <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hug.gif" alt="" /> ,Isorun <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hug.gif" alt="" /> and Mea <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hug.gif" alt="" />

@ Isorun
The kids that posted those comments are teens from a class from a twin that is a member of our Fantasy Forest. The forum kinda failed and these twins kinda talk bad stuff about both me and Forestbabe, one of the boys even made a small video where you could actually see Forestbabe been killed by some character.
I can't copy the guestbook, the messages would be lost if I get me a new guestbook. And you are right, soo many nice people posted such nice comments in that guestbook, it would be sad to loose them. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cry.gif" alt="" />

@ Mea
My pc has been formatted twice since I have that website, so I was lucky to even have a website as some kind of back up, or all my elven piccies would be lost in the process. So I checked my pc for passwords about 123freeguestbook, but nothing found.

Anyway, thx for your help so far, I hope I will find my password soon <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />

My advice : Let someone write into your guestbook how childish and uneducated these remarks are.

I have a question about Google,

When type a keyword to search for something, the next time you come back it will be displayed in a list, with other things you once searched for, so you don't have to type it again.

Does anyone know how i can remove this feature?

Yes, if you use Firefox,
you need to open your "extra's", then go to "options", you will see a menu, open the second page, after "history", there you can save or unsave the words you typed in Google.
In that whole menu, you're able to keep your passwords, history and cookies and more of the things you can change to make your pc more discrete.

If you use Internet Explorer, you also need to look into the internet options. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

I'm using internet explorer and i really can't find what i'm looking for, need more help <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />

You go to firefox.com and download their client. And then you forget about IE <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />.

Übereil

@ Freaker
Good advice from Ubereill, take it if I were you <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

I'm not really fond of changes

Sometimes, changes are good. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Especially when we're talking the change from IE to FF <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />. Download it and try it out <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />. You can still use IE if you don't like it. Apart from that I can add that FF is kind of like IE with tabs (and without the securityleeks <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />), so it's no big differenc.

Übereil

Security leaks? What do you mean? I never really encountered problems with Ie..

Well, leaks is exaggregateing it. But most viruses are made for IE, since it's the most common browser <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />.

Übereil

Hmm ok, i'll try Firefox, but it better be good! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

LOL another 1 hooked <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

You're not by chance Peter Pan's Arch-Enemy ? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

hmm what, are saying I am a Tinkerbell ??? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin1.gif" alt="" />

MSN isn't working properlly for either me or my brother (same errormessage and all). I've tried all the sollutions but one, which is to decrease the MTU for our router to 1400 (seems like a reasonable sollution since both me and my brother got the exact same problem at the exact same time). The problem is that I go to the site for our 3com router and look around, and nowhere I can see the MTU-rateing, and changeing it is for that case quite difficult. Any suggestions on what I can do? Not being able to access MSN is kind of a drag (especially for my brother whose main mailadress (for school too) is his hotmail, which he can't access either).

Errorcode varies. Currently it's 80072efd.

Übereil

hmm if I am not wrong (and god knows I am a lot) I seem to remember that you change the MTU's from inside windows, maybe you and your brother have installed an intenet tweak program that speeds up connections ?

In any case, before you try anything like the following make a RESTORE POINT And go into Regedit Make a BACK_UP of your reg file, and search regedit for MTU ?

Possible if L_R wasn't so busy with her wedding she would be a way better help, if all else fails tell very loudly for Raze he would know <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

The thing is we havn't changed anything. It suddenlly stopped working for no real reason <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/suspicion.gif" alt="" />. And me and my brother handles our computers separately, with no interference at all, so it seems pretty likelly the router have somehow collided with it. Though I'd probablly try anything...

Übereil

*hunts for a solution* moment.... will edit soon <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Edit: Soon after <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

i am taking the easy route now.... pasting the best links i found...

MSN service corrupt
just a note on this one....

check that your router IP appear in your DNS list (in tcp/ip properties) if you are not running DHCP. even if you are running dhcp, this can help overcome a lot of problems.

If you have done any recent windows updates.
Check your internet explorer security settings... and set it to medium (see if that helps - sometimes the updates makes things more secure, without regards to the sign-in pages that gets affected... - and YEA i know its a microsoft site.... this has happened before where microsoft updates sets the security too high for its OWN sites.

Another thing you can try... is to restart the MSN service (in administrator tools > services)....

let me know if any of this helps...

It seems to have been a server who was down unusually long, that's all <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />. It works fine now.

And thanks for the help anyway <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />.

Übereil

LOL ROFLMAO <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

For some time now (a week or two) I've had trouble with my computer. It started with Warcraft 3 simplly freezeing, so I had to reboot manually. Nothing like this has ever happened on my computer before. WC3 has worked unreliablly after that (sometimes it works, sometimes it freezes after just a few minutes into a game), so I've stopped playing that (since I play online, and if you play online you don't just destroy for yourself if your WC3 stops working). I've recentlly bought and installed Jade Empire (after the trouble started), which worked fine at first, but now it seems to have some trouble too. Neverwinter Nights 2 have allso had some trouble. Last time something happened was a few minutes ago when I got a bluescreen from entering a Javabased chat...

First LadyRain suggested that it was my graphic card fan, but the card doesn't seem warm after these things happen. I made a virus scan with avast! with some weird results. I printscreened the log (since you couldn't save it...) and you can find it here. It's in Swedish but most of it is fully understandable in English (uppackad bomb: unpacked bomb <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />. Doesn't sound very good). Lösenordsskyddad means the file is protected by password. The file right after that is too big to scan. The infections are taken care off.

I'm just curious what might be wrong, I don't want to live on Footballmanager (only game that works reliablly <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/suspicion.gif" alt="" />) until Christmass (when I plan to buy a new one, prehaps). And I allso would take tips on sollutions, naturally <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />.

Übereil

You didn't use other scanners, did you ?

Some trojans spread indeed in password-protected archives.

Edit : You didn't see the trojan infection at the end of that list, did you ?

Read this : http://research.sunbelt-software.co...r.Win32.Agent.awb&threatid=50152

And more importantly : This one : http://www.pestpatrol.com/spywarecenter/pest.aspx?id=453101366

Why don't you just do a google search with the keywords ?

Okay first and foremost:
1) an up to date firewall
2) an up to date AV
3) an up to date Malware program (I use Win Defender, spybot Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware.
4) Run a total system check, Let it run all night if you have to
and if still nothing works good ....
5) Re-install windows (preferably from a formatted drive)
6) Repeat 1 - 4
7) Make sure (now that you have a clean PC) you get the latest drivers for at least the Graph Card, if you did a format, you should have checked the net for all updated drivers available, this includes chipset drivers etc etc
8) I know that you already know all these things Ube, but take it from a paranoid pc user, that reformatting the system drive is the ONLY sure way of getting rid of any infections .... yes it takes time! but you will be surprised at the speed that windows will run at, after you get rid of all the bad stuff AND all the left over bits and pieces from programs you have uninstalled over the year.

And you know what? it works a 100 % of the time <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I thought those last two was the addaware Avast! alerted me about <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/suspicion.gif" alt="" />. Oh well...

Übereil

If you can - get yourself a second scanner, please.

It's better that way.

Four eyes see more than just two.

Do your scans in windows safe mode and disconnect from the internet so plug out your ethernet cable.
And if you get the blue screen again enter it's stop message here, or look it up at the internet. If you don't come up with something, post the stop message and your full hardware list.
I while back I used to get stop messages about something with the memory, seems the problem was with an intern modem that caused the random crashes, and I even didn't use the modem. Took me a while to figure that out.

The problem with the bluescreens is that they remain for five seconds top, then the computer reboots. Checking things with those conditions is pretty difficult...

I'll try and get a second scanner. And for once, I'll scout for it myself! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Übereil

I am no expert when it comes of this stuff, but I had a similar problem on my old work PC where for no logical reason certain processes, or doing certain things like running a particular set of apps, or browsing to a particualr website that used java, and so and so on, I would get a blue screen and instant restart of the computer.

Problem - bad ram module.

Ram had to be replaced - fixed the problem. You could also try this program to test your ram modules http://www.memtest.org/

How To Disable the Automatic Restart on System Failure in Windows XP

Thanks for the link Raze!



Sounds reasonable. Just one question, how do you boot from a CD? And does it work to mount the .iso file with Daemontools? Edit: OK, I found out how to do this. Only problem is that I could only select my HD, my original DVD and my floppy drive. Sollution? I'll go find myself some old floppy. We ought to have one laying around somewhere...

Übereil

hmm you could burn the iso to a disc ?
then set the bios to boot from cd first but hey if you can get the floppy to work great .... and do follow Raze's link cause it will help maybe not this time but the next <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Yes, burn that .iso to a disc. The burner (after-burner ? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> ) should have an option for that ("burn ISOs").

Turns out it was the SATA-unit on the MoBo that was slowlly starting to break down. That's fixed now, but I've got a new disc with a new windowsinstallation, and of course this disc/windowsinstallation has no clue there's an old one on the other disc. Because of this I have to start over again, and on that I have some questions:

1) Where can I find my old bookmarks? I had some pretty nice sites among those bookmarks...

2) Firefox keeps asking me if I want to save passwords. I want to turn that function off, since it's damn annoying (I accidentlly clicked "never for this site" on Gmail, since I thought I'd use the built in function for Gmail instead. The problem is the question overrules the "remember me" command, so I can't save my name/pass on gmail no matter what... A sollution for this would be nice too <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />).

3) I suspect the guys at the store installed the Home edition of Windows. I payed 50% extra just to get proffesional, so I before doing too much I want to validate that I'm acually running professional. Is there a way to do this (ie check what kind of windows XP I'm running)?

4) It allso appears I have the function that comes with helpfull complements (things I've searched for before etc) active. How do I turn that off?

Well, that's all for now, I think. I'll be back if I can think of more though, be sure of that <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />.

Übereil

1. C:\Documents and Settings\USER\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<string of numbers\bookmarkbackups

2. tools>options>security Uncheck remember passwords for sites

3. start>run type: winver

4. I have no idea what you are talking about. What program?

Clarification on nr 4: When I (for instant) go to google and search for something google remembers things I've searched for before. Now in the start it's not that much, but I imagine that will escalate in a month or two, so I better turn it off before it even starts so to say.

Übereil

tools>options>privacy Then uncheck what you don't want. Or leave it alone and periodically clear it which is what I do with tools>options>clear private data and check or uncheck what you want.

OK, thanks for the help <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />. They all worked like a charm btw.

Übereil

i`m searching for a program, that can start another program on a certain time,
and ends that program on a later time>

a kind of program manager if u like
does anyone knows such a program?

Have you tried the built-in Windows Task Scheduler? At least in Win 9x the Task Scheduler can start programs at specific times (etc) and there is an option in the advanced properties to stop a task if it continues for more than a certain time.

There are other task schedulers, which may or may not have more options, such as Freebyte Task Scheduler or those listed here (both links found in a quick Google search, so you'll have to check if specific programs can schedule the start and end time the way you wish).

If you need more flexibility, try a macro or automation program (though they would have a steeper learning curve), such as AutoHotkey, AutoIt or those listed here (search for 'Macros' to get the relevant section of the list).

Thanks for the info @Raze!
the build in windows schedulers has a bug, because one of the latest fixes of Microsoft, changed the windows scheduler, for security reasons
now i have to ask a other hot fix at Microsoft to fix this new code into something usefull

I have the computer on which I'm writing this message for six months now, and it has 2 DVD-drive's: A normal DVD-reader, and a DVD-burner. But a while ago, I noticed that my Burner didn't recognized DVD's anymore, I didn't pay much attention at that time, and I inserted the DVD's in my other drive. But today I wanted to write something on DVD, and noticed again that the drive doesn't recognizes DVD's. It states that the drive is empty. I get this error with Movie DVD's, Game DVD's and even with blank ones. It still recognizes normal CD's though, so I googled it, but wasn't able to find a solution. So I hope someone on the forum here can help me.
I have uninstalled the DVD-drive and let Windows detect it and reinstall it without succes, and that is what I have tried so far, I don't wanna mess things up like I used to do with my old PC. There seems to be a hotfix from Windows avaible, but you need to contact customer support and for that, they charge a fee, while on their pages it clearly states that it is a bug caused by Windows.
I also read that it can be caused by a bad reading lense of the DVD-drive, does anyone knows if that is the case, that it falls under warranty(not sure if this is the correct word)?

Thanks in advance
Isorun

I don't know, but if the computer is only 6 months old you should be entitled to some tech support and warranty.

It sounds like a hardware problem with the drive itself, which should still be under warranty (unless you bought a refurbished or discontinued/clearance system, which could have a shorter warranty). Normally I'd test a suspect optical drive in another system (if possible), but since the drive still reads CDs it probably isn't a problem with a cable or MB. If you still have your old system and are comfortable swapping an optical drive around, that would be the best way to prove or disprove a hardware problem with the drive itself.

Failing that, to confirm it is not a software problem, you could try booting to a live Linux distribution (or even a Win 98/ME floppy), and see if you have the same problem reading DVDs. If you know anyone who bought Vista, you could borrow the DVD to see if you can boot from it in the DVD and DVD-RW drives (and cancel if and when it brings up the installation menu options).

CD-based Linux Distributions and Live Linux CDs (I've heard Puppy Linux mentioned favorably, but have not tried it)

Boot Disks


The MS hotfix only applies to DVD-RW disks formatted in a certain way, not DVD+R/-R or commercial DVDs.


Even without trying the drive in another system or under Linux/DOS, you should contact the place you bought the computer about this problem. Small computer stores could probably check the drive fairly quickly; larger stores may have longer turn-around times, but might try to get to stuff that looks like in-warranty hardware problems sooner, to minimize the wait for replacement parts.

I could try to put the drive in my mother's computer, but we don't know much about computers(in fact we even had a problem to let my old pc recognize a new cd-drive) so I think I'll keep that option untill I have no other choice.

I bought the PC in a supermarket, but it's from MEDION and appearently, they have good customer support, so I'll contact them and hope that it gets fixed.

Thanks for your help(I think I still got a Windows98-CD somewhere, gonna try to find it)

You can also check with the supermarket; they may not have any technical staff there, but should have some kind of deal with someone else for support (perhaps directly with Medion).

Will a Windows 98 CD help any? Windows XP's install disk has a recovery console option that I assume could let you access the DVD-RW drive, but I don't remember 98's install very well. Actually, after a quick Google search, a few guides I checked (including one on MS's site) on installing Win98 all start off with booting to a floppy disk, so the install CD may not even be bootable. I mentioned Vista because it is on a bootable DVD.

For the people interested:

The problem still isn't solved. I contacted Medion, their first advice was to buy a Lenscleaner, which I did but I was almost 100% sure that it wouldn't fix the problem and guess what: I was rigth. Next they said that I had to set the computer back to it's uhmm 'Manufacturing status'(the way it was when i bought the computer: OS installed, All required programs installed, nothing else) So I copied some of my files to an external hard disk(more on that later) and did as they said, yet the problem still wasn't fixed, so now they're coming to pick it up Monday.

About the external hard drive: I had some programs on my pc of which I didn't had the CD/DVD, so I copied the INSTALLED version of the software(most of the programs where games)to the hard drive, after the 'format', I copied the software back, but it stated that some of the files required to play/work were missing(I had this on 2 of the 3 programs I tried so far). I assume this is because the installation also creates files in other locations then the install directory, right?

Isorun

Hm, could it be a driver thing ?

I hgave one or two very old CD-ROM drives which don't recognize CD-ROMs anymore as well. I don't know why.

Please make sure the drive if fixed and doesn't have any vibrations, especially if you keep the high speed of these drives in mind.

But on the other hand I once heard that one shouldn't drive the screws too deep into the "slots", because if they are too long, they might damage some small parts, at least that's what I've heard a long time ago. Maybe nowadays drives are flatter ?

Other than that I have no idea. I only remember problems with Nero Burning Rom while using the special driver provided from the homepage of Ahead, which resulted in the program no more burning Rom(s).

Removing this particular driver resulted in an error message saying that the driver couldn't be found anymore, and that the program will try the "system API" instead. Since then, it works again.

Also, you could try installing a new "Adaptec Layer" driver or how it is called.

They also add some registries, which are gone after a format.

OK, once again my computer has crashed.

This time I noticed it because I got a "bad CMOS check value" screenie, followed by a "Reboot and select proper boot device, or insert boot media into proper boot device and press a key" where my computer usually goes into windows. A little earlier in the booscreen (when scanning for IDE-drivers) I get a message that sais "No driver attatched to fast task controller, the BIOS is not installed".

Worth mentioning is that a few months ago my SATA driver crashed, and had to be replaced.

Übereil

Try if the cables are all properly attached (but pull the energy plug of the PC first !), if things aren't working, it might be - how old is the PC ? - the CMOS battery running low or a new energy thing is needed (what's the word for that in English language ? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> ).

Everything I could check was attatched (I'm NOT opening the power supply <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />).

Is the CMOS and BIOS chips related, because the BIOS problems happens first.

Übereil

The CMOS is a kind of "chip" which "contains" the BIOS and is being kept alife by its battery. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I'm having an odd PC problem that's just cropped up in the last couple of days, and I don't know the cause (obviously) or the cure.

Ever encounter a problem with your PC where when playing a game, every 30 seconds or so you'd get a major drop in framerates like the computer is locking up, drops to like 5 frames a second, this lasts about 5 seconds then back to normal?

Has nothing to do with intensive screen action either as it'll happen in anything.

Happens in any game at any random moment, but around every 20-30 secs intervals.

Checked the temp levels and they all seem fine.

I'm terribly vexed! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/think.gif" alt="" />

I see.

Anyway, the problem seems to have been the CMOS battery, which I've switched. The problem in the computer is that the BIOS somehow got resetted, setting the wrong HD (my old HD, which I use as a second "storage" drive) as main HD. I'm hopeing this is fixed now. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Übereil

Have you the MS Office index service turned on ?
It begins to work when you expect it at least.

I think may have already found the culprit...

Ram Idle - one of fav programs has stabbed me in the back. When disabled the freezing doesn't seem to happen anymore!

I've found out that my PC needs a new power engine, which I can't afford this month anymore.

But I'm allowed to use my sister's new iMac when she doesn't need it. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

I'm on the verge of buying a new PC - today even.

And I was wondering if there's anything here in my specs which I customised that should probably change.


PSU - Fortron/Source Epsilon 700W
MB - Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe, nForce 590 SLI,
CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ 3.0GHz Socket AM2
Ram - Corsair TWIN2X 6400C4DHX DDR2, 4gigs ram
GC - XFX GeForce 8800GTX 570M 768MB GDDR3,
HD - Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA2
SC - Creative SB X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty
OP - Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate English (hmmm...might as well)
Monitor - LG 19" LCD L194WT TCO-03, Silver

Sounds good.

I'm not sure what is better, 1 8800 GTX or 2 8800 GTs.

There is alot of debate over it, but I think both are excellent, and go for whatever you want, or is cheaper or w/e.

Personally, I'd recommend an EE ( = "Energy Efficient" CPU), because it saves current -> money.

Plus a board that can be put into a "saving mode" or so.

Because these modern CPUs and Boards suck up quite a lot of current nowadays.

Well I went ahead and bought it.

I don't know anything about EE cpus - not sure if any of the cpu choices given to me were EE.

Lews - the extra cost and current problems with support/drivers for cards in SLI, plus the massive power required - around 800+ PSU, convinced me to stay with a single card.

Oh don't get me wrong, I wish I had an 8800 <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> Your computer is very, very nice. I was just making sure you looked at everything. I have no idea about it, so just wanted to make sure you did <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Maybe this helps ?

Press Release

Or this ? Article about this

Official FAQ

I see - well I don't think my pc is on the EE list so.

I've been looking into it and the processor I got has a max power load of 125w -which is really high, compared to the EE processors of around 65w - and also the faster equivilent processor from Intel, the core duo, is also only around 65w on full load.

That makes the processor I got a total hog regarding power comsumption. I'm glad so I went for 700W power.

Hi,

Is there anyone here who can help in removing a problem?

This popup comes up when I start Windows XP.
Window cannot find ‘C:\Windows\system32\printer.exe’. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again. To search a file, click the Start button, and then click Search.

This popup comes up even when I'm offline and about five minutes after I'm on Windows XP
Warning! Potential Spyware Operation!
Your computer is making unauthorized copies of your system and Internet files. Run full scan now to pervent any unathorized access to your files! Click YES to download spyware remover…

This popup comes up when I try to add/remove programs, set date/time, view system info, etc...
This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator.

I've used Norton and it identified a Trojan.KILLAV. I also used Spybot Search and Destroy and have a Hijackthis log if anyone can help.

Rocky

The prompt to download spyware remover is actually spyware itself.

Download 'AVG free anti-spy ware'

Install, update, then scan and delete anything it finds.

Not sure what if that will correct the printer.exe error, but it seems you have spyware and removing it is the first priority.

Download & install ad-aware as well.

And Spybot+Spywareblaster... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Übereil

Best advice on this page........... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />

printer exe........get rid of it! Pronto........

I'd call it "dummy.exe". <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

"This spyware file is dedicated to all the dummies out there <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> "