svasutin

I was unclear in my last post. My typical prints are 100 at at time, but at least twice a year, I need to print 4000 pages in 1-2 days

Well, since you already have an ATI, look for another ATI model. ATI offers HydraVision for a Unified multi-monitor environment (have 1 spread sheet cross all three monitors). You don't need anything from their 9x00 series; however, this will remove full DirectX 9.0 support. The 7x00 series (PCI) should work for you. It's 64 DDR MBs, so should use only a quarter your PCI bus bandwidth.

What? I thought whine was a bonus feature. I always look for products that read ~ really noisy

Check List: WOL PCI NIC WOL cable WOL cable connected to the motherboard and card WOL enabled in the BIOS WO pci device, sleep modes s1&s3, or s3, ACPI, power on after power off For on board NIC's, WOL enabled firmware WOL enabled for the card; between the BIOS POST and Windows Screen; on Intel Products, press CTRL+S Enable WOL for the adapter on the Win Device Manager Disable 'Allow device to be turned off'

Wow, Now that's a printer. While I can spend up to 6k, I feel no desire to spend all my money. I never buy the fastest processors and video cards, usually I'm a few steps behind. I've been looking at a new printer for a few months and am attempting to get a cost vs value on printers. I suppose I should mention, I have an 'old' pc (Athlon 1500+/512 MB/Win 2k) that I use for print sharing. A 30 second delay isn't too bad, as that is how long it takes me to get up and walk over to the printer. Also, most of software already has n-up page capabilites. Typically I don't print, but when I do, it is 100+ pages. I have gone several months w/o printing at times, and even damaged an ink jet from lack of use (dried out). The main things are full duplex, 11x17 (Tabloid), and color. Does anyone think it would be better to get a b/w (11x17 or 8.5x11) laser and a color 11x17 inkjet? Thank you,

My budget is what ever it takes to get the job done. I suppose less than 6k USD, but for that price I want it to last a minimum of 5 years and 2 OS's. Added Features are always a good thing, but 11x17 is a must.

that rocks!!! My friend fell out her chair

Hello folks, I'm in the market for a color laser printer, so I thought I'd ask the smartest group I know. Anyway, I'm looking for a color laser printer with 11x17 capabilities and full duplex printing. I would prefer to stay away from HP, but I am willing to take them under consideration. I suppose I'm also willing to look at ink jets, but some months I need to print 3000+ pages. Thank you.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;en-us;813810

Most Power Calibration Errors are caused by media. I have 4 DVD burners (+,-,+/-,+/-) and have found I need 4 different brands of DVDs. Strange that you should get these errors with CDs however.... Reminds me of the old days of CD-R technology. Anyway, try different discs.

Try Nero 6.6.0.8a and Nero Burn Rights I had a similar issue, but after updating everything worked well.

Hp typically locks their products unless you purchase HP's Print Server device for your particular unit. I came across a similar issue with an Office Jet G85 ... Of course you checked your file and print sharing, as well as your permissions?

Here are some thoughts: 1) If you are connecting directly to a USB port, ensure your jumpers are set to +5VSB, otherwise your system won't supply enough power to the usb stick drive. 2) If you're connecting through a hub, is the hub powered? If are using a powered hub, then your USB motherboard jumpers should be set to +5V. 3) Ensure your hubs are WHQL Logo'd, especially if the power connection is optional. Most hubs do not correctly report self vs bus power, and thus yield intermittent USB connections for unpowered devices (game pads, jump drives, etc, vs printers, optical, external enclosures, etc) 4) There are some reg tweaks that may help with the issues, but these should be attempted last.

Typically I try to let winamp play as much as possible. For formats not supported by winamp, I use wmp10. While I don't neccessarily like wmp10, I tend to use it as I feel I can prevent it from sending out and recording information, and believe it is patched often.

FFDShow, DScaler, and Zoom Player are all software applications. Using them can improve video quality. I've used all three intermittently. On some systems FFDShow causes problems. The issues are both hardware and software. FFDShow has several versions available, perhaps you can get one to work for you. It's free so you could try it out. If it works, don't foregt to donate. DScaler is also a great application, but a little clunky. Zoom Player is powerful, but takes some downloads and tweaking. The main problem is Video For Windows (vfw) vs WDM (Windows Driver Model) vs Windows Foundation Drivers (soon to appear). Resizing is an art, and some resize better than others. In any case, when you enlarge a video there are limits and many settings to tweak. This also gets into the wonderful world of aspect ratios: 1:1, 1:1.33, 2.35, 1.85, 1.77, 1.33 As for 1080i vs 720p, go with 720p. 720p = 1440i > 1080i. I'm partial to ATI when it comes to TV out. It you're not going to TiVo anything, then you skip the AIW (all in wonder), but still go with a Radeon. For HDTV output, get a video card with a minimum of 128 MBs. The ATI cards have vga, dvi, s-video, RGB, and supports BNC adapters. AGP vs PCI-Express is currently a money thing. Start with your system, then test. Just remeber the cables. Since your display is greater than 1024, ghosting will be an issue. Oh ya, check your set-up for 3:2 pulldown and deInterlace options. These settings make a differnce.

I'm assuming you're just going to be using the PC for Tivo, audio, and games. IF you're looking for ease of use, go with an ATI All In Wonder (minimum of 9600 xt). As for the connection, try all the different ones you can. On some tv's I've found the conversion is better through the video card in the PC. Most stores do not have return policies about cables so just buy them all. Don't be cheap on the video cables as it accounts for ghosting issues. Also, you can add the TV wonder Pro (an extra 60 USD) for picture in picture and the ability to watch something and record something else. If you split your coax cable connection, then from Radio Shack buy a spitter with a RETURN. If you have a dish, or digital cable, you will need two boxes for the extra channels. CPU 1.67 GHz (athlon xp 2000+) or faster. Min: 512 MB no games, or 768 MB with games Stay away from Win Xp Media Center Edition. It has highly specific hardware requirements, and trust me, you will want to change capture settings. Ensure your motherboard supports Wake-On-USB and supports S3 sleep state. Consider a wired GB lan with Wake-On-Lan Support. Also, check for the windows logo (whql) Any 6.1 sound should be fine. Creative Audigy 2 Zs. Buy an Audio Meter, also from Radio Shack to calibrate your speakers. Ensure your DVD-ROM/Writer has a digital IO connection. 4x or better. You should have at least 2 hard drives. 1 for the OS and common programs, the other for capture, video, and audio. The 2nd Hdd will be the one scanned for content. I really like the Logitech Media Mouse; it's a nice addition to the ATI Remote Wonder II. Fans. This includes the power supply, CPU, video card, and case fans. You want less than 30 dB at the high end. Forget about front fan contols, as you will be watching the TV from a distance. From testing, take the highest fan noise rating, and multiply by 1.15. In an ideal world, you want less than 34 dB. So 30= 10 * Log10( ( 10^(cpu_fan) )^.1 + ( 10^(agp_fan) )^.1 + ( 10^(powerSupply_fan) )^.1 + ( 10^(case_fan1) )^.1 + ( 10^(case_fan2) )^.1 + ( 10^(case_fan3) )^.1 + ( 10^(case_fan4) )^.1 ) 50 db is what you hear in your car with your windows rolled up and traffic going by. Your power supply should have a fan to draw air from the cpu. For capturing video, I would recommend you also purchase a video stabelizer. Hmmm, this whole DRM (digital writes management) thing is also causing issues for many people. Recently, some companies have started adding some sort of protection encoding to the audio streams. Hence you might run into recording issues not due to css or macrovision, but something in the audio.

Only 1 time, since 2k, did I ever need to recover, but it wasn't too bad, as the Win NTFS always stores a hidden copy around the center of the drive; just grab your favorite disk hex editor and your usually good to go. Msft has a kb on the issue. Aside from x-your-fingers approach, I've found runtime.org's software useful. A boot CD with a ntloader and boot.ini is also very helpful. My typical systems include 2 hdds. Lately I've been flirting with the idea of getting a few 5 GB USB 2.0 jump drive for my docs and audio. This would make the sync'ing of certain files much easier between my computers and notebooks. I would most likely feel much better leaving certain systems always on and always connected. One other trick, is to make an 4-8 GB partition after your first two partions, without formatting it, or assigning a drive letter; this allows you to install an OS at a later point if you really need to boot and don't want to lose too much. Typically I really only use OS, Programs, Temps, Profiles (docs, email, favs, desktop, audio ... profiles directory, e.g. documents and settings), video, drivers, and backups; C->I. Some people ask for more, others less.One time I was asked to perform some recovery work on a 200 GB (extensive search) drive (only 1 partition). The scan alone took over 5 hours. Some time after that, I started recommending more partitions per hdd. Also, i've learned with the exception of a nail through the hdd, some information can always be recovered. of course, the physical order of the partitions is a different post.

Over the course of several years, I've found partition and multiple hdds more and more useful. Generally I try to ensure there is at leat 15%, 512 MBs, or the size of the largest file in terms of free space. I've found these partitions and sizes useful when I need to defrag, run a scandisk, or use data recovery. Typical hard drives have 4 partitions. c: system drive = 5 GBs reformat at the drop of a hat; I can't remember the last time I actually activated windows. d: program files = 5-7 GB most well writting programs have ini, inf files saved to the hdd. This way, reInstallation does not lose information. Any reInstallation should detect the old settings. e: temps = 1.5->15 GBs; erased at log off cd buring, real, win temp, usr temp, nero, wmp transcode, logs, streaming, downloads, useless stuff in general f: pagefile = 4*(Max Mobo RAM); 4k cluster I don't use a page file any more g: email/favs/messenger = 1.25 GBs could be smaller, but might not be able to defrag with pst. h: drivers/updates/patches/cd images = 8 GB compresssed 512 cluster office cd copied, drivers, etc, etc; don't like getting prompted for CD i: cd80min = 1.5 gb used in the days before nero 4.x and dvd burning. defraging was quicker and easier j: audio/mp3/wavs = 10 GBs k: my docs = 5 gbs *.doc, *.xls, *.ppt, *.pub, *.mdb, *.txt l: archive/zip/file backups 6 GBs *.zip, *.cab, *.rar, and old programs I just want to keep. Typically transfered to DVD when i have time m: desktop 1 gbs all those **** shortcuts n: slip_drive 6 gbs xp home/pro/media, office 2k, 2k3 o: video = as large as possible games also go here p: shared 4 gbs for going between systems, but using remote control more and more.

ashmedai has it right. RAID 0 for an OS and programs is not the best idea. I have tested SCSI (u2w->u320), SATA, and ATA RAID and found there is little to no point in stripping the OS, program files, or most of My Documents/Pictures/Video. RAID is useful for the swap file as instructed by ashmedai. RAID is useful for video rendering and capture work. If you're dealing with 5.1 audio or jpeg photos above 4 MB's, then it can help there also. Placing MP3s and other audio on a RAID0 partition doesn't really help anything either; oh ahhh, I gained 0.1 seconds in opening up my first audio file. You might save 1-20 seconds for something that takes 10 minutes. If you're transfering 5 GB of audio to a portable usb 1.1 device, RAID isn't going to make any difference. RAID is useful when you are multi-tasking A LOT or dealing with lots and lots of hdd access. Finally, forget about data recovery. As for the original question of the cluster size. If you're dealing with audio, video, or picture as mentioned above, larger is better. If you're dealing with anything else, then just use 4k. Oh ya, enabling compression on a RAID 0 defeats the point.

Ok, I have no idea how windows determines the hdd total size. I think it uses Int(10*(hdd size))/10 Where the hdd size is a GB when details view is on. On some occasions Windows has displayed 1023 MB on my system when I partitioned 1 GB. So the GB reference, in this case, does not exactly mean 2^30 bytes, but the point when Windows determines GB should be used in place of the MB.

Apple is the worst company on the face of the planet. I remember back in the 80's when there used to be Apple clones. What happened to them? Apple sued to have complete control over their hardware. In the early days of the home PC ( the days of dos ) 70-80s Apple took things a step further by requiring licensinging (and I believe royalities). One couldn't really develop apps for Apple except by jumping through hoops. Then in the 90's Apple announced they couldn't write an OS for the systems, so they licensed (Copland ?) an os from a 3rd party vendor. Also in the 80-90's many people were introduced to "the bomb" error "-zyx" which no one ever really knew what the error meant, or how to correct the issue. Don't forget the AppleTalk stack. On the verge of being wipped off the face of the planet, Bill Gates stepped in and allowed Office, ie, and outlook express to be ported to the Mac, and bought several million dollars worth of shares to keep the company going. This past year, Apple returned the favor by prohibiting wm to play on their Ipod. How long did Apple resist allowing their products to be sold in places like Fry's, CompUSA, Microcenter, and many other places? Let's not forget that Apple's offical release of OS 10 was a beta, and not compatible with many software applications. But what about software? Well thanks again to Apple's restrictive policy you only have two choices really cheap or extremely high end. No room to grow as a user, no room for stages. Is their product more stable, well yes, but you can't do as much, you don't have the freedom to pick what you want ~ any color as long as it's black attitude. Apple is more of a monopoly than Msft ever will be. This is not to say I don't think Msft should have been kept together ~ I liked the idea of the OS, Office, and Internet solution. Here's what I get with Msft. A win95 machine that will burn DVD's, can Apple's 1995 software do this? Msft solicits hardware and s/w vendors about compatibility and standards. They want to have as open and flexible environment as possible. They provide free api's and software. They give error messages that can be looked up. I can choose between pegasus, sonic, expert, dazzle, adobe, mgi, roxio, and many other vendors when buying software, or I can write my own. As my abilities progress, so can the sofware I choose. On my Xp Sp2 system I have software from 1994 to the present, which costs anywhere from free to $3000 USD. It's like calucalators, some people use small credit card sized with only +-*/, others want square roots, some people need larger display, some need financial, statistics, graphicing, and then there are the HP 48 GX people. One buys calculators based upon needs. If Apple made calculators, there would only be small +-*/ and HP 48GX's. Apple has a 30+ year history of being a dictatorship. It's their way or no way. Of course by doing this they have increased stability. It's really easy to keep things stable when you only support 10 manufacturers. As for security, it's a myth. Nobody cares about macs, so people don't attack them; is Swaziland (yes it is a real country) more secure than the US? Does Apple have an easier environment? Of course they do, they can't do as much. Life is simple when you live in mud huts... don't need to worry about HVAC, plumbing, utilities and everything else. As for the iPod, it's just a portable hard drive that can play certain types of music. I buy media players to play media, not to play certain types of media. Sony, Dell, and Creative have far better solutions, for that matter, so do some cell phones. I could also go into job creation. If Silicon Valley depended upon Apple, the valley would never exist. Apple is slow to update and change, progress is shunned, and the freedom to innovate is abhorred.

thank you

Windows rounds/truncates the values when it displays the 'total size'. I used to use the base 2 numbers, but i would get partitions like 7.99 GB so I figured I would test to find the maximum MB value I could type to get 'nice ~ .00' values. This is just a purely aesthetic thing. Yes 9.00 GB = 9216 MB, and 9228 MB = 9.01171875 MB, which windows displays as 9.00 GB. It's just a matter of squeezing in a little extra space. Most of this came about due to partitioning my notebook hdd. [Edit] These values apply to NTFS As for the rounding up, the unformatted 8 MB, and the question of why windows moves in 7-8 MB steps, when typing in values I've approximated the step size as 8224768 bytes = 7.84375 MB = 251/32 MB

Do this at your own risk. I did this once on an old Abit motherboard with a Wake On Lan (WOL) connection. Using a WOL cable, connect your power supply to your wol. On your extra power supply, take the motherboard connection. Connect one wire of the WOL to the dark green cable, then connect the other cable(s) to the black cables on either side of the dark green cable. I can't quite remember the combination, but it worked to turn on the other power supply. Don't forget to enable WOL in your bios.

Concerning firewire see my reply concerning Reg Tweaks that negatively affect 1394 devices