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Tried it and it did nothing. Western Digital DataLifeguard reports, UDMA 5 Active (correct) Windows XP reports, UDMA 4 Puppy Linux reports, SCSI Oh well.

This is interesting because I have a computer with a Via chipset and even thought the motherboard, hard drive and cable support UDMA 5, in Windows XP it won’t go higher than UDMA 4. When I boot from the Western Digital CD it says UDMA 5 is active. I’ve tried different cables, different hard drives, different ram, keyboards, monitors, mice power supplies. I’ve even put the motherboard into a different case and still when I install windows XP on this motherboard it only uses UDMA 4 mode. The bios and chipset drivers are the last ones provided by the manufacturer. I’d given up long ago and just use it as it is but this thread made me wonder if this fix for Intel chipsets will work on a Via chipset. Does anyone know if using the fix on a Via chipset will damage anything?

Yeah, I suspect foul play. Anyway thanks everyone for the advice, as usual I learned a lot.

I’ve just hit a streak of 3 computers that have the same symptoms. No video, no beeps, but the fans powered by the motherboard and the fan on the video card powered only by the agp slot all spin. So there is power going through the boards. I know it's motherboard problems because I’ve swapped out every part including the case to no avail. I’ve seen ads on Ebay for bios replacement chips and I was wondering if this might work because the boards can’t be completely dead or the fans wouldn’t spin. If anyone has any experience in this area I’d appreciate hearing about it. Thanks in advance.

I’ve copied and pasted this from the Gigabyte site. “CPU support of motherboard is consist of BIOS and hardware design” No help at all there. And then there’s this site. http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-Gigabyte/GA-6WMM7.html Check the model numbers on your 1.1 Celeron and see if they match the one’s that will work.

The only info on the beta bios is that it updates CPUID microcode. My guess it’s to recognize Tualatin cpu’s that were new in 2002. Put a Celeron 1.4ghz on that little board with 512mb ram and Windows Me and it’ll be just fine. “To Do With More, What Can Be Done With Less Is Folly”

My brother likes to joke that I could build a computer with only a roll of duct tape and some haywire. I’m not that good but I do enjoy the challenge of building computers out of old parts. Around here there are free stuff ads for boxes of old computer stuff. If you know what to look for you can find some real gems in there. Happy hunting.

One of the best things you can do when upgrading old computers beyond what they were designed for is to keep them cool. Treat it like it’s a state of the art game machine. Open the case and put a put a fan on the floor next to it if necessary. And a 300 watt and above power supply can also help an old machine.

Finally! A monitor to go with my 30 inch subwoofer.

I just updated XP with windows update. I checked the hardware updates for video, sound and network adapter. After the update and install the video was stuck on the lowest possible setting. I went into safe mode, ran Driver Sweeper, Driver Cleaner and CCleaner. Then I reinstalled the old drivers and the video was fine. Next I couldn’t use the Internet until I rolled back the Intel network adapter driver. Then I noticed poor tone from the speakers and found the tone controls grayed out and had to go through the same process I did with the video to get the 2002 Creative drivers working again. I've learned my lesson and thought I'd pass it on.

My ME computer has a Radeon 9500 pro flashed with a modded bios. I paid $4.25 for it at a garage sale. To a tightwad like me that makes it extra sweet.

I’ve upgraded/refurbished about a dozen turn of the century computers in the last several years. It’s a hobby and I give most of them away. So my opinion is: “Will newer games work?” No. “Will it be worth it?” Not at those prices. “Will it all work good?” Maybe I don’t know why but about half of the old motherboards I’ve worked on would work after being upgraded. I’ve seen identical motherboards where one would accept a faster processor and video card and one wouldn’t. I get parts for little or nothing so it’s not a big deal if it doesn’t work. But spending the money you plan on would be too risky to me. If you decide to do it. Upgrade to the latest bios and hunt around on the web to see if someone has modded bios for your motherboard to bring it more up to date than the original manufacturers. There are Promise ATA 133 cards for larger and faster hard drives and Tualatin adapters that can use a 1.4ghz processor. But even with all that it won’t come close to what a newer computer can do. Good luck. It will be a learning experience, I can promise you that much.

You're lucky I was a beta tester Maybe that's why I don't think Windows ME is so bad.

Command and Conquer Gold Edition

Go Away.

Even though I voted for ATI a few weels ago, right now my trusty Vanta LT has been called into service while I await a new fan for an ATI card. During the last year I’ve had to do this on three different computers. While it is unscientific to switch brands because of bad luck it’s starting to make sense to me. My two indestructible backup cards are made by Matrox and nVidia so I’m going to try newer cards by these two manufacturers. If nothing else I’ll have more up to date backups so I can avoid down time.

Now that you mention it…. I have several sound systems and I don’t really think of them of part of the computers because they are also stand alone systems. But when I add up all the amplifiers, speakers, mixers and pro sound cards then I’ve spent a lot more on sound systems than anything else.

So where does my black one rank? But seriously: Right now I’m using ATI because I like the IQ. These eyes aren't what they used to be.

For me it's software. My home machines are re-animated from the dead (the Dr. Frankenstein method of computer building). My most expensive purchase was a complete Apple IIe setup I bought in 1984 for $5,000.00.

This is exactly what I did to fix the problem of Windows Update recognizing my OS as Vista instead of XP. Start Run regedit HKEY_CURRENT_USER SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Internet Settings 5.0 User Agent (default) = Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0 Change Windows NT 6.0 to NT 5.1

So here's the solution in case anyone else has this problem. The problem seems to be that Windows Update thinks I have Vista when I have XP. I found a page at the Microsoft Developer Network for changing user-agent strings in the registry. I changed NT6.0 to NT5.1 and Windows Update is working correctly.

Thanks for the tips. They didn’t work but I’m sure I’ll need them sometime. Here’s the page that constantly comes up http://www.update.microsoft.com/windowsupd...t.aspx?ln=en-us Like all Windows update pages it only works in IE. I can work around the problem by using automatic update or by downloading the updates on another computer on the network. Still I’d like to solve this.

I check my speakers with a decibel meter. I keep it at about 85db where I sit. Any more and it can cause ear fatigue. The speaker’s ability for higher output is for headroom. Most consumer speakers are painful to my ears. The thin plastic cases hum and buzz on low frequencies. Then there’s the matter of design. As a wise man once said “You can’t change the laws of physics Jim.” Subwoofers need to be a certain size in order to accurately produce low frequencies. If you want good bass then bigger is better. My speaker set ups are for mixing music but when I play a game I want to hear and feel the explosions and pro audio speakers do that very well. (I have Behringer MS16s and a custom sub on my home computer) But these are my ears I’m talking about. The best speakers for you are the ones that sound the best to your ears.

I searched for solution to this problem I’m having with Windows Update and haven’t found anything so I thought I’d ask here. When I go to Windows Update the Windows Vista update page comes up and I can’t get any farther. This only happens on one of the XP computers on my network. Anyone know how I can get to the Windows XP update page?