dencorso

I'm satisfied, by now. The reason for the problem you have has been found. So I, for one, agree. It's time to repartition, reformat and put it to use. and yes, that problem will be resolved by repartitioning and reformatting. So here go some comments on RPM: 1) When you run it in a DOS Box, after you say OK to its dire red warning about being unsafe to be used in Windows, you'll see this kind of display: 2) Then (still with no pendrive attatched) circulate once through all the HDDs, using <F5>, to see how it presents your HDDs. Then hit <Esc> to quit and dismiss the DOS Box. 3) Attach the pendrive, wait for it to be displayed in Windows Explorer, copy a smal file to it (whatever file) just to cause it to be added to the device list, Close the Win Explorer, run again RPM, circle again through the HDDs and bingo, you'll see one new drive present. It's quite common that RPM barks at the current partitioning and complains that there is a partition in the pendrive that overlaps something. Don't worry, hit OK, and it'll then present you an HDD with no defined partitions, because it is ignoring what it considers wrong (but the current format and partitioning still are in the pendrive, because you did not write anything to it, just yet). Because of your previous tour without the pendrive, you'll now recognize everyone of your drives and be sure which is the new one (= your pendrive). 4) As soon as you're satisfied everything is making sense, start partitioning. 5) Use only version 240, while you're still getting used to RPM. Good luck!

Not everybody hates IE. I, for one, like it a lot! I use IE6 on 98SE and IE7 on XPSP3, and I'm quite satisfied. So, YMMV!

While LoneCruzader is right, and I'm also a satisfied customer of RLoew's, I did manage to have 98SE running with > 1 GiB before I turned to the RAM Limitation Patch, because I wanted to actually use all the RAM I had in the machine more fully. So I know for sure both ways work. As you have ME, if you intend to go to something just below 2 GiB you may make do without the patch. Look carefully at eidenk's machine in the Day-by-day user thread. He run just with plain ME. Now, to anwer your question, no, there is no "How to" yet, but that only means you can be the one to write it. And, of course, myself and many others from the list can and will help you do it. But we've got no working crystal ball, right now. So I suggest you post your machine configuration and detais as it is now, in your next post, together with two lines about what do you intend to do, that is, to haw much RAM would you go to, from you present RAM amount. And don't forget to download your board's manual and give it a good reading, because you can only go as far as the hardware supports, and different boards support different maximum amounts of RAM. Cheers!

For what it's worth, here's a pointer (link) to a freeware program capable of opening and closing the CD door in DOS, and to another freeware one that does precisely that in Win, too, just in case. I find them pretty useful, so I think maybe so will you, too.

If you're intending to do serious 9x/ME programing, caldo de cana, I'd say you'd save yourself a lot of grief by using MSVS6, instead of VS2008. Xeno86 is right, it probably can be done with VS2008 too, of course, but you'll have to walk an extra mile, every time. @Xeno86: Thanks for the new version! Glad to see you around! Have a great year in 2010!

Rest assured we're looking hard into it right now, Browncoat. Should be solved promptly. Sorry for the continued inconvenience...

Well. For sure I'd backup first. If you have separate system and data partitions, an image of the system partition should be enough. If not, go for a full, blind, sector-by-sector image of the full disk. Better safe than sorry. You can read most of what I, and others, have to say about disk imaging here. It's a worthy reading, do give it the time it deserves. Bear in mind that while we talk a lot about ghost there, that is a commercial program some of us have, so it was at the center of the conversation, but you don't need it at all. The freeware Partition Saving will serve you just as well.

I use the following values: [vcache] MinFileCache=4096 MaxFileCache=393216 ChunkSize=2048 NameCache=4096 DirectoryCache=96 And I do use Xeno86's fixed vcache.vxd, which respects these settings, but will limit the cache to 384 MiB, and not 800 MiB as the original MS file does, when these settings are absent from the system.ini or, more important, on entry to "Safe Mode", when all of msdos.sys, autoexec.bat, config.sys, system.ini and win.ini are ignored. The web-site you pointed to is one of the sources for 384 MiB, and Gape's usage of it throughout most of the versions of his uSP (although I think now he's dropped it, but I don't know why) is also a good reference that it actually works well and reliably in the real world. I've discussed this point in the past, rather extensively, as have also others, notably soporific. If you delve head-first in my > 1 GiB list thread, linked below, to the right side of my signature, you'll find all that has been discussed about it. The present thread, BTW, is also linked from there, of course.

Well, I've just tested the latest available set (270.14.149/2631) and they work OK for me. Then again, I've got a relatively fast machine, with lots of RAM, at least from 9x/ME POV (my present machine is tagged "dencorso (II)" and described in my "Day-to-day running..." thread linked below, to the left side of my signature file, in case you want to take a look), so maybe the AVG updates are using too much memory or taking too much CPU time to be processed, in your machine, for the only sure thing about them is that they grow in size at every update, and you did a rather abrupt update of more than 6 months ... Now, if things are solved, I'm glad. If not, I'd say you should: 1) Save away safely a copy of avgabout.dll v. 7.5.0.556. 2) Download AVG Free Edition 7.5 524 from OldApps (link), unless you have a saved copy of that version or of a later 7.5.xxx one. 3) Remove completely AVG from your machine. 4) Reinstall and update from the site up to the 560 naggy version (if you do that it'll stop offering to update and simply say "there are no new updates available" on trying to get them from the internet. 5) Change the default update path to update from a folder and disable automatic updates. 6) Substitute avgabout.dll v. 7.5.560 by a copy of your saved v 7.5.0.556. And there you are, back to the point from where your problems started, but free of them. Sorry the updates didn't go well with your machine! Cheers!

Rollback the update, using the saved set in C:\WINDOWS\All Users\Application Data\Grisoft\Avg7Data\upd7bin\, to see whether it truly is related to the latest update. I'll test the one available right now and report shortly.

Welcome zorba anton! It's great to have another 9xer around!

I don't actually think it's related. Do reboot again. I bet everthing will get back to normal.

Refresh you browser more often or wait for me to finish... If you just click or hover your mouse over the underlined Wayback Machine in your own post, you'll see it. It's quite useful to know all the variations MS used for their URLs from way back when to find those pearls, but this particular form uses to work most of the time, unless the KB in question is too new. And, BTW, be warned that the Wayback Machine is slower than a stoned turtle today.

Please do forgive me friends for having edited your posts, but I do think two instances of a longish German-machine-translated English text are two much, especially when we do have access to the original English text (and even so, a single copy of it should suffice). That said, Rloew is right, as usual, wsxedcrfv. That's one update that is considered by many, myself included, only useful for the issue it's intended to, and otherwise not recommendable. If you want to know all about it, delve head-first into my > 137 Gb thread, which is linked to the right part of my signature, below, and you'll find all the old relevant threads RLoew just mentioned. Good reading!

Great! Good to know you too are keeping the fire burning! Sure. If you just rolling back avgabout.dll to v. 7.5.0.556, or that and the few other files sleffing mentioned (although now we know just avgabout.dll v. 7.5.0.556 is enough), all the other files from the last update remain, so it really *is* the "no-nag" 560. And yes, set it to update from a folder where you downloaded the newest update avi/iavi and it'll work all right. No one knows for how long, but at least up to now. If in doubt, use an hexeditor and look at the 1st 18 bytes of your just downloaded files to check both have the signature I posted above, before telling AVG to update.

Well, it seems scandisk is finding the error, all right. I'd say let it correct it, repeat the scandisk to be sure it doesn't find anything wrong after the corrective pass (it ought not to), test in both OSes and tell us how it went. Good luck! That's been my most firm position about it, from the time I bought my 1st pendrive... I have nine of them nowadays, and didn't change opinion in the least. You cannot trust what the manufacturer puts in key places, period. And I like to have mine single partitioned, with the single FAT-32 LBA partition entry in the 4th sloth (Zip de-facto standard) and using the RPM standard IPL, and with the single partiion starting in 0/1/1, *not* 0/0/2, and, yes, I do check whether the resulting partition is CHS/LBA balanced. The partition, I format to FAT-32 in DOS and SYS it for a good boot sector. Then I remove the DOS system files to render it not bootable, and free the space. So it remais potencially bootable to DOS, if I so wish, and has a very definite structure without anything unusual. For all purposes it's an Iomega ZipDisk. This method never gave me grief, and, by now, I do it quite fast, in 98SE, with RPM, format and sys. In case I do want to use an unusual sector per cluster count, I do the formatting in XP with Fat32format, instead, but take it back to DOS for the finishing sys. This is my procedure for general use. Special uses demand special procedures, of course.

RogerOver, the situation is different here: LoneCrusader has just recently made a full sector-by-sector pendrive image, just before we started. So, there is negligible risk at it, because if the pendrive gets fubar it's just a a matter of redeploying the saved image, and this can be done all over again, as many times as we decide it's wise. When you have a true up-to-date backup, it's safe enough. Moreover, you disappeared from the topic, so I presumed you either had solved your problem but forgotten to report it, or, more probably, had given up... Well, I, for one, think alongside the same lines as jaclaz: to give up is not an option, unless you're quite sure the hardware you're working with is truly fried, or by whatever other irreversible reason, beyond recovery, that is, quite dead. I'm sure that's not the case with your pendrive. So, welcome back to the thread. Maybe this time we'll get yours (if my crystal ball is working today, I predict we'll have to reprogram its controller) to work, too!

No, sorry! It was a good idea but didn't work quite right. I think you can do it easily with MBRFix.

Never seen that happen, either on XP SP3 or on my 98SE. Must be some peculiarity of 2k, for sure. BTW, despite the fact that AVG is already at v. 9.0.xxx, the update files work because they still use the original format, nonetheless, in which files always start with the following 18 characters (counting spaces, including one after "Bin") :

Yes, please do it and attach it as a compressed archive. And since 7840 is almost 4 MiB, while you're at it, grab instead 8192 sectors, so that we can look a little beyond, just in case.

Since this thread attracted few replies while being in the Software Hangout, I'm moving it back just to see whether it fares better here in the 9x/ME forum.

If the video card is socketed, it would be worth it to remove it, rub hard all contacts with a soft white common pencil eraser, remove the rubber debris with a soft brush, and then reseat it. Since it only started after the laptop was serviced, the video card may have become badly seated during the procedure. And, by all means, do also download the manual from the Clevo site jaclaz pointed to. It has lots of good servicing intructions and great photos, as used to be the rule, whay back when.

Up to now, all my efforts at debugging this issue led nowhere. The bug remains there. From time to time it pops up again. In any case, I just wonder whether just a handful of people worldwide has noticed this bug, or if it requires very special machine conditions (an perhaps old hardware) to rear its head. Since the workaround also works reliably, I'm living with it, but I still refrain from fully abandoning the interest in debugging it. So, in case any of you ever saw it happen, please do post a report. Maybe that will help. Thanks!

So far, so good!

Wow! I think RLoew may just have hit jackpot! It might very well be that! Great catch, RLoew!