mikep56

Hi Kelsenellenelvian, Okay, I will retry nLite again without IE8 and WMP11. Then I will report back to this forum. Regards, Mike EDIT: It may be a few days because Little League is starting up, but I will get to it.

Hi Ponch, As I stated in my previous post, all hotfixes and updates that were downloaded using Windows Update Downloader were installed through nLite. WPI was not used. This is an nLite DVD with the programs added using a mix of 7 zip switchless installers and nLite addon maker installers. This PC is used as my "virtual PC", meaning it is not my primary machine, it is a spare that I cobbled together to try out new stuff. There is a total of 320M RAM (a 256M and a 64M stick of DDR 133). The HDD is 40GB. This system loads Windows XP from nLite with no software just fine. I am starting with a Windows XP Pro SP1A CD and slipstreaming SP3 into it with nLite. The last session.ini file is attached. I hope I am clearer this time! Regards, Mike LAST SESSION.INI

Hi GrofLuigi, Thanks for that. I will try it out. Regards, Mike

Hi submix8c, I used Windows Updates Downloader to gather all hotfixes and updates, and used a mix of 7 zip switchless installers and nLite addon maker installers to do the job. All of the installers were checked out individually on a test PC running XP Pro SP3. Is it possible that the PC that failed to install is just not up to it, although nLite installed XP SP3 with no other software? Mike

Hi All, Let me start off by saying that I have been using nLite for a long time with great success, so I am quite proficient with it. I have several older PCs (AMD Athlon64 and Celerons, all have less than 512M of RAM) that I can successfully install Windows on with nLite. I would then use WPI, another great product, to install all of my software without problems. Well I came up with the idea to install all of those programs as addons in nLite. The installation would go smoothly through the first black screen, then the PC would reboot again with the message that the system was restarting, and continue in this loop endlessly. The Windows screen that shows the install process steps and time remaining on the left side of the screen never shows up. Could these PCs just not have the horsepower to do the software install until after the Windows install is complete? Regards, Mike

Hi All, I am running Windows XP Pro with SP3. I have hibernate selected in power options; however I need to press 'Shift' for the hibernate option to appear in the 'Turn Off Computer' popup box. Is there a tweak to have 'Hibernate' appear instead of 'Standby'? Thanks, Mike

Hi Tripredacus, Yes I ran memtest86, I think it was. Once I determined that I had questionable RAM, I just bought 4 sticks of the good stuff. It is just funny that the system ran with the 2 good sticks but wouldn't hibernate with them. Mike

Hi bizzybody, I have XP Pro SP3 with an AMD X64 and 4 Gig RAM. I followed the link to ehow by submix8c and can run those games with no problems. Mike

Hi All, Just a little tale about hibernation and memory for your amusement. My trusty "workhorse" is an AMD Athlon 64 2.4 GHz in a Biostar Group N68PA-M2T 5.0 motherboard. I am running XP Pro with SP3 and all hotfixes installed. I am not overclocked at all. This is a basic self built system that I put together in 2008. It originally had only 1 Gig of generic DDR2-667 RAM, but it ran without lockups, blue screens, etc. I would shut down using Hibernate and all was good; about every 2 weeks or so I would shutdown just to get a clean reboot. Shortly after I added another 1 Gig of generic RAM, and immediately when trying to hibernate the PC would lock up. I would have to power down and power up to reboot. So I gained 1 Gig of RAM to 2 Gig, but I lost the ability to hibernate. My system stayed this way until just recently when I bought 4 sticks of Kingston DDR2 memory. I tried to add just 2 sticks of Kingston to bring my PC up to it's max of 4 Gig, but the PC would not even boot; it was spitting out BIOS beep codes. I tried reseating to no avail. I finally thought " The hell with this bs! " So I pulled the 2 generic sticks out and added the other 2 sticks of Kingston, bringing me up to 4 Gig of Kingston in my PC. Like magic, not only do I have 4 Gig of DDR2 in my PC, but it now hibernates again. So much for memory compatibility, eh? Regards, Mike

Hi jaclaz, The laptop is a dv6915nr. The hard drive cable and contacts are clean and OK. I have booted live CDs from the optical drive, and they run normally. I will run memtest+ within the next week. "Normal" access to the BIOS is not working correctly. Most times I need to boot several times before the F10 key will get me to the BIOS. The other times the bootup messages just stay on the screen. I hope this helps. Regards, Mike

Hi All, I bought this laptop, an HP Pavilion dv6700, at a flea market. The owner told me that it has a boot problem. He had brought it to The Geek Squad and they diagnosed a bad BIOS. The previous owner decided to pursue this no further. Upon powering up, after the boot messages, the laptop displays a flashing cursor in the upper left hand corner for a few minutes and then displays a message stating that the OS is not present. The F11 key is for restoring the factory image, the F10 key is for entering the BIOS, and the F9 key is the boot menu. These 3 F keys are not very responsive; sometimes they respond and sometimes they do not. They physically feel fine; they do not stick and they are not mushy. The original BIOS was version F.30, and I flashed it to F.34 with no change in symptoms. This laptop has a recovery partition on it and the previous owner made a restore disk set. I did an F11 restore and the problem persists. Eventually pressing the F9 key will bring up the boot menu; I can boot off of the hard drive this way and Vista loads and performs normally. From doing some research and reading, I feel that this may be a FAT or MBR problem. Is there a way to fix a corrupt MBR or FAT if this is the problem? Does anyone have any other ideas? Regards, Mike

Hi Kel, After some googling, I found out that it is called in-text advertising. The way to disable it is to roll over with the mouse so the ad pops up. There will be 2 boxes in it's title bar, an X to close it and a ?. Click on the ? and follow the instructions to disable these annoying little MF'ers. Mike PS Kel I hope that you are feeling better!

Hi All, In Firefox, when browsing and you mouse over a word with a double line underneath it, an advertisement window pops up that is associated with that word. I find this really annoying...is there any way to disable it? Thanks in advance. mikep56

Hello Kel, I am just a casual browser to this forum, and a WPI user. I am so sorry for your loss. My God grant you peace. Regards, mikep56

Hi all, I am a network newbie, but a reasonably savvy computer user otherwise. I am trying to set up a FreeNAS box for the first time. I downloaded the image and booted from the CD, and all is good. To configure the system I need to connect another PC to the FreeNAS box via ethernet, and connect with the IP address. It doesn't state how to do this, so I connect each PC to an ethernet hub, connections 1 and 2, and power up the hub. I assume that I should now be able to connect to the FreeNAS box from my other PC by entering the IP address. However I get no connection. The green lights are lit on the hub, and I can ping each PC to itself. But I cannot ping one from the other; I get 0% connection. The "other PC" is the PC that I am connected to the internet with; and device manager shows no problems. My internet connection is via wireless dongle, and in Network Connections for the Local Area Connection it shows Limited or no connectivity. The activity screen shows packets sent but 0 packets received, and there is a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark in it. Any help and ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for a great resource! Mike EDIT The problem was a bad router. Ouch! Mike

Hi All, First, let me say that this forum rocks! Okay, I have a total of 5 PC in my wireless home network; all run Windows XP Pro SP3. 4 of the PCs are for individual users, the 5th has 3 printers connected to it. It is used as a printer server by the 4 users. This 5th PC is a laptop with a dead screen; which is OK because it just connects the printers to the network. It is a little slow getting online; it can take up to a few minutes to be ready to print. The question is...is there a tweak or setting, either on each user's PC or on the printer server itself, so that when it is ready to print it will play a sound? I looked at the system sounds but there was nothing like 'Log on' or 'Printer ready'. Thanks for any tips! Regards, Mike

Hi pointertovoid, I have loaded the Best Of Microsoft Entertainment Pack on Windows XP Pro systems and all the games run with no problem. Regards, Mike

Hi Parrafin, Thanks. That is exactly what I was looking for! Regards, Mike

Hi All, I have a simple home network; a wireless access point, cable modem, and router in the basement; and 5 PCs running WXP Pro SP3 scattered about the house. All 5 PCs have access to the internet through the wireless access point. I have 3 printers set up on one of the PCs. How would I go about setting up so that the other 4 PCs can print to the 3 printers wirelessly? Please bear in mind that I am a network newbie, so step by step directions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for any responses. Regards, Mike

Hi All, First off, let me say Season's Greetings to all of the forum members and their families. I have been away from these forums for a while; moving and job relocation. I have been a user of nLite for about 2 years now, and I feel very comfortable with it. The learning curve was minimal, and all the steps are pretty self explanatory. I have been exploring different ways of installing drivers along with Window XP Pro, which is my OS. I have read of all the different methods and freeware apps that are available; and I think that using nLite and then DPBase is about as simple as can be. The online tutorial for DPBase at driverpacks.net is very clear and easy to understand. IMHO, for any newbies, and even for experienced users, this combination can't be beat. Sure the final size of the .ISO can be over 700 MB, but who doesn't have a DVD burner these days? Again, just one guy's opinion, but I thought that I would put it out there. That is what open forums are all about. Have a Happy and Healthy Holiday Season to all! Regards, Mike

@Bonestonne, Yeah, I bought it at Radio Shack and didn't have the packaging or the receipt anymore. It seems to be only the WG111v2 that has the problems. I have 3 WG111v3s and never had a problem with any of them. @Doggie, You know I have no problems talking to anyone about tech issues, but when someone is reading from a book, their brain goes right into the crapper. It would be nice to talk to someone who really knows tech. I remember the old days when you called a customer support number, you spoke to someone at the company, not someone who is outsourced and has no clue. Regards to both of you, and thanks for listening to my rant! Mike

Hi CoffeeFiend, One thing that I forgot to mention, when I spoke to tech support after receiving the adapter back, was the fact that they knew about incompatibilities of the WG111v2 and Windows XP Pro SP3. They fixed the adapter so it would see the router, but knew about the compatibility problem because in my problem report I said that I was using SP3. So they sent the adapter back to me knowing that it would not work. I said to them, "why send me back something that you know will not work? Keep it and send me a credit or send me a refurb v3 that has no issues with SP3". Utter silence from the other side of the phone. They should just fix the problem. That's what really sent me on this rant. Regards, Mike

Hi All, I hope you are all ready for a vent post! I bought a wireless router (Linksys WRT54GS) and 3 NutGear WG111 wireless adapters from Radio Shack to create my home wireless network. At the time I didn't notice that 2 of the WG111s were v3 and 1 was v2. I installed the linksys and 1 WG111 without any problems. Had internet connectivity and full speed of 54 Mbps. I went to add a second PC to the network using the next adapter, which turned out to be the v2. This adapter would not see the router, or obviously, the internet. I re-installed the software many times to no avail. I figured that I had a defective adapter, and tried the third one. It installed and ran without any problems. So I put the defective adapter aside, figuring that I would troubleshoot it later. Eventually I got around to calling NetGear tech support. What a disaster!! My PCs all run with XP Pro SP3. The tech asked me to uninstall the packaged software and install software from their website. When that didn't work, they wanted me to reinstall Windows XP with SP2 only. After several more phone calls I finally got an RMA number to send the defective adapter back. The adapter came back about 2 weeks later. Now it will occasionally see the router and connect to the internet, but within about 10-15 minutes, it will drop the connection, and won't get it back, even after a hard reboot. More phone calls, more lack of customer support!! In one day I called three separate times, and after speaking to an "excellent customer service" representative, was put on hold, after which the call was dropped. I really dislike this company, and I would not recommend their crap to anyone. As an aside, when I posted this on the NetGear forum, the moderators initially pulled it, saying that they didn't see any point to it. Yeah, they don't see any point in letting the user community know about crappy hardware and crappy service. SCREW NetGear! Sorry for the long rant, and thanks for listening! Mike PS I didn't know which forum to post this in, so I posted it here and in the Hardware Forum. Sorry if this qualifies as a crosspost. Mike

Hi All, I hope you are all ready for a vent post! I bought a wireless router (Linksys WRT54GS) and 3 NutGear WG111 wireless adapters from Radio Shack to create my home wireless network. At the time I didn't notice that 2 of the WG111s were v3 and 1 was v2. I installed the linksys and 1 WG111 without any problems. Had internet connectivity and full speed of 54 Mbps. I went to add a second PC to the network using the next adapter, which turned out to be the v2. This adapter would not see the router, or obviously, the internet. I re-installed the software many times to no avail. I figured that I had a defective adapter, and tried the third one. It installed and ran without any problems. So I put the defective adapter aside, figuring that I would troubleshoot it later. Eventually I got around to calling NetGear tech support. What a disaster!! My PCs all run with XP Pro SP3. The tech asked me to uninstall the packaged software and install software from their website. When that didn't work, they wanted me to reinstall Windows XP with SP2 only. After several more phone calls I finally got an RMA number to send the defective adapter back. The adapter came back about 2 weeks later. Now it will occasionally see the router and connect to the internet, but within about 10-15 minutes, it will drop the connection, and won't get it back, even after a hard reboot. More phone calls, more lack of customer support!! In one day I called three separate times, and after speaking to an "excellent customer service" representative, was put on hold, after which the call was dropped. I really dislike this company, and I would not recommend their crap to anyone. As an aside, when I posted this on the NetGear forum, the moderators initially pulled it, saying that they didn't see any point to it. Yeah, they don't see any point in letting the user community know about crappy hardware and crappy service. SCREW NetGear! Sorry for the long rant, and thanks for listening! Mike

Hi MagicAndre1981, Thanks for the response. I had found it after posting, at about 1:00 AM, and just forgot to post back. Regards, mike