[Building my first computer]

This will be the first rig that I am building. This isn't going to be used for gaming or any OC needed and I'd like to keep it as inexpensive as possible. If it wasn't for the inability to play high resolution vid files the Intel P3 that I'm using now is enough for my needs.

I haven't had a need to flash the bios since upgrading to XP. Is a floppy drive still necessary for this?

So far this is my choice of the components I've selected, if there are any incompatibilities would you point them out please. TIA

ASUS A8N5X Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16813131569

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 2.2GHz 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16819103533

3D Fuzion 3DFR66256X Geforce 6600 256MB 128-bit DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16814143068

Kingston ValueRAM 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16820141437

Western Digital Caviar SE WD1200JS 120GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16822144414

Antec LifeStyle SONATA II Piano Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450Watt SmartPower 2.0 ATX 12V V2.0 for AMD & Intel systems Power Supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16811129155

LITE-ON Black 16X DVD recorder

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16827106015

[[ok] ink cartridges]

"Another thing about HP printer cartridges is that they have a number given to them that the printer can read and it won't let you refill a cartridge and use it. "

DL I refill hp cartridges all the time. My experience is that they can be refilled for about 14 months before you need to replce or cycle the serial out of the memory. There is a way of taping up the copper leds in the back to get low empty cartridge message from appearing by my experience that stops after a while.

pcandpc, if the cartidge is dry you can place the printing head into some warm water. That should reconstitute the dry ink that's blocking the holes. The gradiant that exists form the ink to the water will wick some of ink out. Ultimately, you can open the filling holes and blow the ink through if it water won't wick it out. Reseal the fill holes.

[Nlite and a Ryan's integrated XP cd]

On Ryan's site on his integrator instructions there is this warning: Do not do a manual integration over a previously-nLited installation source! I checked his forum and couldn't find anything if the reverse is true. Can I use do a nlite integration over a previously-Ryan's Integrated installation source with the windows media player 10 addon pack? tia

[How Old is Your Working Hard Drive?]

20 gig Western Digital will be five years old this september!

[STORY: Weird memory behaviour after hardware upgrades!]

"DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" "WHAT?! IRQ conflicts in Windows XP?! I've never experienced that before! "

Agnitum Outpost firewall is notorious for this kind of stuff on certain xp boxes.

[The memory could not be "read".]

Err...are you having the problem with IE7 or with Firefox?

It seemed to be anything that used java, it was both. Uninstalling IE7 didn't help. After the reinstall of java it has gone away. I stumbled upon something in MSDN and it seems this is not isolated event with IE7.

Thanks for all the input.

[The memory could not be "read".]

For firefox.exe : The instruction at "0x304895db" referenced memory at "0x0329c000". The memory could not be "read"

for the others it was 0x all zeros afterwards.

Then ok to debug, close to cancel.

Since I reinstalled java it has occured yet.

[The memory could not be "read".]

The original beta I had network connection problems and I reinstalled the os since. I remember that there was a issue identical to this with an IE hotfix patch for xpsp1.

There is nothing to reset in the bios in regards to memory. This is on a p3 1.1gig.

[Emergency Disk Sanitation]

Usually when they speak of dod or Gutmann the difference between say wiping with seven passes as opposed to thirty-five, the lesser amount dod there is an assumption that the hd is encrypted. The DOS type disks are really slow. If you don't mind something other then a one button and leave solution, if I'm getting rid of HD I would DL something like a trial of BC Crypt and encrypt the disk. DL East-tec eraser do a navy or dod wipe on the free space, then go in the c: folder select all the files and in the right click context menu Use the East command "erase beyond recovery". Everything but locked files will be erased and you will never be able to boot into it again. Anything left behind is inconsequential. If you have an old Dell utility disk you can use clean2k to remove the partition but it's not necessary or fdisking for that matter. This method is a lot faster. 80 gigs about 6 hours. Even if you encrypt and do one pass the cost of recovering any data is enourmous.

[The memory could not be "read".]

The instruction at "0xwhatevernumber" referenced memory at "0xwhatevernumber". The memory could not be "read".

After installing the ie7 refresh update I started getting a prompt to debug or cancel the program with the above message. This never happened prior to the installation. I've done searches and usually the advice was to run memtest software. This is not a hardware problem memory leaks have usually yielded bsod's at least when I tried Agnitum Outpost which has been known for this. This has been occuring with firefox tbird and open office. I reinstalled sun java and it hasn't reoccured. There was a suggestion of this in the search. But most I am suspecting that this is a registry corruption. Has anyone experience anything like this from the Registry_Tweaks_10_10_05.txt in the tweaking forum or knows how to correct this without a format reinstall? tia

[upgrade BIOS]

They're on the Dell site, it's a self extracting file that makes the floppy. Just stick it in the floppy reboot and it runs like a DOS disk. It takes about a minute. Pull out the floppy and reboot. Dell doesn't offer a lot of updates for their bios. They make them on a need be basis. If your starting up normally with the floppy in the set in the slot try this. On Dell systems if your running the 4100 when the machine is starting to boot tap the delete key and you will ener the BIOS. Tap the left arrow key til you get to the second to the last tab, tap the down arrow key to 1st boot device and set it to floppy. Got to last tab and went it asks save changes press enter and reboot. Then try again with the floppy in tha A: drive slot.

[Best Registry Cleaner? [Poll]]

My only complaint with CCleaner is that temp files don't have the option to be sent to the trash bin for people that want overwrite Internet Temp files. But if you want a commercial product take a look at: ChemTable Software - Reg Organizer. The Reg Organizer registry searcher is better than Registry Crawler. And the whole suite is about ten bucks less then Reg Crawler. It's a like a super customizable CCleaner.

[When Longhorn comes you take it or]

If anyone hasn't heard the last "this WEEK in TECH" podcast their spin is more towards that Vista is the next Windows Millenium edition.

If you want to hear it I believe it is episode 14.

_http://thisweekintech.com/

[Longhorn has been named]

With this name they're just asking to get beat up. I am surprized that by now names such as Vista del Crappo and so on haven't turned up. If the bugs are even remotely close to the problems I personally had with XP when it was released I will be in no hurry to get it.

[Mozilla Vs. Internet Explorer]

I like firefox. Someone mention tweaking it, how and what are the benifits?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The tweaks add greater fuctionality, security, etc. Probablly one of the largest sources for extensions is this site:

_http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/

Also there are all so sorts of modifed versions that are optimized for your type of processor:

_http://www.moox.ws/tech/mozilla/

_http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=215104

_http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewforum.php?f=42&sid=adcb0e49011ceaaba61d4c9feb7698f5

A version that will fit on a usb drive:

_http://johnhaller.com/jh/mozilla/portable_firefox/

[Firefox Tweaks]

This can be done using a FF extension called "tweak network settings". You can find it at _http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/

[C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386]

This was in my notes, they are cut and pastes from two sources so the language isn't so smooth but these are pretty much everthing that can or need s o be removed.

Hope it helps:

remove all the folders that start with $NtUninstallQ and $NtUninstallKB, and remove the servicepackuninstall folder from c:\windows and remove the same Q's and KB's from the registry under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Updates\Windows XP\SP2

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\HotFix

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Management\ARPCache

and also under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

A very big restore point will have been made. Once a new regular size one has been made in the ordinary way, clean up by going to Start - All Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Disk Cleanup and in 'More Options' click the bottom button to remove all but the most recent restore point

Delete the hidden folder of files that would be restored by an Uninstall:

C:\Windows\$NTServicePackUninstall Once done, if you try to use the 'Remove' for Service pack 2 in Add/remove programs, that will fail and offer to remove itself

There may also be a large folder C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download depending on how you did the installation. That can also be deleted

Check that the installations temporary folder did get properly removed - it will be on the drive where you downloaded the setup files, so probably C: and have a long name of random letters. If it is still around, delete it. And burn the downloaded file to a CD so as to have it if you ever need to reinstall.

There will also be a large folder C:\Windows\ServicePackFiles. Do not delete this - it will be used in future by Windows File Protection - but on an NTFS disk you can compress it to save about 200MB of disk space. R-click on it, Properties, click the Advanced button, and select 'Compress'.

[Proxy setup for IE6 xpsp2 Tor/Privoxy]

I was reading an article on how to secure xp and was directed here:

Running the Tor client on Win32

I set up IE6 (settings were saved) and went to check the setting in Avant and they were blank. The settings should have been there. Anyway IE will not run through privoxy. I don't know if this is related to the last IE patch and there wasn't any relevant kb articles that I could find at MS. Is there some registry setting where this can be done from or that needs to be purged? All other programs Firefox, Cuteftp work just fine so it isn't a Tor / Privoxy issue. There was a win95 article where the solution was to setup in safe mode but that didn't work either. Any insights will be appreciated. TIA

added: There is a second setting in a Avant that needs to be set so that works fine now.

It seems in my experience that every time time there is an IE patch at least on my box that there is some issue that pops up that usually doesn't get resolved without a clean install of the os. Last time there were issues with the browser accepting java applets from certain sites that worked fine prior to the patch but afterwards caused IE to crash.

[chkdsk errors]

If you're running a program, that is doing something as oposed to having it open and just siting there or changing or moving a file while chkdsk is running you'll get an error then or usually you'll get a chkdsk message that it can't proceed any further. Something has to change while it's running. There is a utility "Disk Checker 3.0 BETA 10" RS Software Lab, I don't know if it uses it's own chkdsk or ms's. But it has a trial period so dl it and try it. Try running chkdsk from the recovery console. You'll have to set up your bios so the xp disk can boot. If you have xp home you'll have to set up an administrator password to be able to access it. The chkdsk /f switch is chkdsk /r it is independent of the os and when I was having the problems pre sp1 the check always came up fine.

Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console

CHKDSK

chkdsk drive /p /r

The chkdsk command checks the specified drive and repairs or recovers the drive if the drive requires it.The command also marks any bad sectors and it recovers readable information.

You can use the following options:

/p : Does an exhaustive check of the drive and corrects any errors.

/r : Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information.

The more I think about it I remember Dell telling me to use a maxtor utility that came on their utility disk and the disk was coming up clean (I believe the new version is called PowerMax). If it's ok from the recovery console it's probably a bug.

[chkdsk errors]

Pre sp1 the ontrack and norton equivelants and running from the recovery console showed no errors on my dell. Running chkdsk normally always showed errors similar to the ones you had noted. This stopped with sp1. There might not be anything wrong with your disk and this might be a bug peculiar to your system. If you can get or dl a trial of the norton utilities and run their version of chkdsk and if it show no errors It might just be a bug.

[MFT]

Every so often I overwrite the free space on my HD and the MFT allocation also gets erased. On the reboot the MFT is recreated but it is about a quarter of the original size and this change has never affected the performance of xp. But to the last comment on boot defrag, the registry can get screwed up if the is a run once pending. It happened to me once too.

[Upgrade To Xp Or Stay Me?]

When I bought my pc it came with WinMe on a Dell p3 4100 and because it was bought was within the half year period of xp coming out Dell gave a 20 buck deal to upgrade to xp. Xp is the better choice especially at this point since so much of the problems have been ironed out. If you want to improve the startup time check out www - blackviper - com. He shows al sorts of configurations for shutting off services with the rationals for doing so like for gaming etc. Only one thing that I did that he doesn't recommmend is that, firstly I have a single pc that just connects to the internet, I shut of the workstation service which seems to be what really slowed down the startup. Only one piece of soft that I tried really needed the service was a veritas backup with network capabilities. Also if you decide to get xp do a clean install and not an upgrade installation. Installing xp over me will cause xp to run horribly especially if you change the file system to ntfs. You'll have to change the cluster sizes using one of the partition / formating tools (patitionmagic etc.) to improve the preformance.

[Add Firefox To "opens With" List.]

I don't know if this will be of help but there is some freeware from Babbex called "openexpert 1.40" that puts a customizable right click context menu choice that if say you wanted to open an html file with something other than the default and you can add other browsers, text editors etc. and they would all be available to be availbe for your choice like the send to menu but only for that one file type. If you wanted to open a doc file with something other than word the html choices wouldn't appear unless you set them up to. I've used this proggie for about four years and it's just great.

http://www.baxbex.com/openexpert.html

[I Got A Virus]

If you can't see a virus usually you have to have the "show system files" or use a progie like total commander, which is a better way, with the same show settings and the file will be easily found with the search feature. Personally I use an eraser to overwrite the virus once you know where it is. Then in case you forget to reset the system restore and you do go back to an earlier point, it basically will restore a 0 kb file that will do no harm.

[How Come When Explorer Crashes This Happens?]

If you're refering to the icons that are in the tray, if explorer crashes those programs are still running. I don't know of any other solution but press the ctrl+alt+delete keys and in the processes tab, end the process for the program and then restart the program. The icon will then reappear. I hope this will help you.