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I've just come back from a local supermarket and saw the latest PCFormat mag. In it there is an article about the AMD Phenom II 3 core. It seems that on a certain batch the dormant forth core can be activated. Yes I know, I should have bought it

Dont be in too big a hurry to discount the network. My user ID is my Amateur Radio Callsign so I'll chuck in something from my experience of RF. If damp/muck has got into the network system you will get corrosion which will attenuate the signal causing repeat sends of data packets. The faster the network the higher the frequency (Into the UHF spectrum) the greater the losses for a given amount of corrosion. Try plugging/unplugging the cables to clean up the contacts as a starter. Of course the above tips can only help. Just my ten penn'orth Tony

When was this published? April 1st??

The RAM-ability of Win95, no probs, I stand corrected

Eidenk Where is this debate?? I've been hunting and found nothing to back up your claim that ME is not a Windows on top of DOS. HOWEVER in MDGX's tipsme.txt I saw this (I've seen this same thing before XP came out and before I saw MDGX's site) 3. "Normal" AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files still canNOT be used [WinME overwrites/deletes them upon EVERY (re)boot ], unless one applies the DOS Patch: http://www.mdgx.com/dos.htm#ME which modifies COMMAND.COM + IO.SYS (from C:\Windows\Command\EBD) and REGENV32.EXE (from C:\Windows\System) to allow Windows ME to boot to native/real/true/pure MS-DOS and use DOS mode startup files (AUTOEXEC.BAT + CONFIG.SYS), Windows 95/98 style, to be able to use your (old) MS-DOS based apps/games that do NOT work from within a Windows DOS session/box, and tweak your CUSTOM AUTOEXEC.BAT + CONFIG.SYS files to free MAXimum conventional DOS Besides Windows ME is DOS 8.0 You said that "Windows ME can boot and operate normally without any DOS file being present at all" Which DOS files are you talking about? Command.com msdos.sys io.sys? OK I only had ME on for a short while before reverting back to 98SE (and later SE2ME) Ive just looked in the root of my WinXP disk and guess what? no "command.com", "IO.sys" or "MSDOS.sys"

I might be wrong in saying this but I thought Win95 could only handle 64 Mb of RAM? Eidenk said "95 and 98 have in fact two different operating systems, DOS ans Windows. ME has just one, Windows. I would not think that the absence of real DOS in ME affects its stabilty negatively. You seem to have the belief that Windows of the 9x series run on top of DOS which is erroneous" No it isnt . The Win 9x family are ALL Windows on top of DOS. By changing 3 files in WinME you can get the native DOS back All Microsoft have done is stop you tweaking the DOS but underneath (This is the same for 95 and 98 without Config.sys and Autoexec.bat) Dos loads with Himem.sys (Needed for extended memory management) Look in "tipsme.txt" in W95-11D.exe from MDGX.COM Ive since had another play with the 98SE and now have 1024*768 at 32bit colour . The newer version of VBEMP works. Thanks lads

My own thoughts about WinME is that hiding the DOS was a major mistake because I firmly believe (Contrary to what MS say) get the DOS right and the Windows will behave. Hiding DOS takes control away from me which is why I prefer Win98 to XP (Alright on THIS machine I have to use XP) and I will NEVER use NTFS. I still have Win98 but 640*480 in 16 colours is painful but at least if XP throws a wobbly at least I can use DOS/Win98 to sort things out besides XP's defragger is SSSLLLOOOOWWWW

That is just bone idleness . Somebody get a JCB!

I hope Im not teaching Granny to suck eggs, but is the hard drive on the way out??

Couple of things, my apologies if I'm teaching granny to suck eggs. (1) Does the disk work in other drives on other machines (2) Try removing the drive and refitting (If there is dirt on the contacts)

Been on Firefox from very early days ( ver 1.06, July 2005 on win98 as I know to) Am currently on ver 3.07 on XP pro with IE7 for updates and the odd site that doesnt work right on Firefox

Felipe said And yes, like someone else said : an external drive is generally slower. Especially if it's on USB you'll feel that the drive is working. If you're working a lot with big files on an external drive, I'd recommend firewire. It's not going to be faster, but it'll keep your pc free to do other things. In the main, correct but wrong on firewire being no faster than USB. In Radcom (The mag of the Radio Society of Great Britain cant find the edition) there was a series on "Software Defined Radio" basically a transmitter/receiver where the signal processing is done in a PC. Firewire IS faster than USB because USB makes more demands on the CPU than firewire does . But for external HDD's eSATA tops both Ill try and dig the article out Tony

Ive noticed a couple of faults with your config.sys file Firstly the "EMM386.EXE" line should come straight after the "HIMEM.SYS" line Secondly the "EMM386.EXE" line should finish with "RAM" or "NOEMS" DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS DEVICE=EMM386.EXE RAM DOS=HIGH,UMB FILES=40 DEVICEHIGH=VIDE-CDD.SYS /D:MSCD001 LASTDRIVE=Z Then you should have the UMBs loading giving about 620k of conventional memory available. One thing I've learned about win98 is to get the DOS right first. Another line you could add (REM it out if a STACKS error comes up, I have'nt had one yet) STACKS=0,0 This will give another 3k of conventional memory (ish)

ORRRRR... Edit msdos.sys BootGUI=0 Which is how I set it, alright, to go into windows I have to type "WIN" (Until I had the mobo replaced with one that doesnt have a Win9x vid driver)

There is a reason for using the 386 processor as opposed to anything "better". Because of the lower density on the chip cosmic rays are less likely to cause "jump-overs" between transistors. Wouldnt do to have the computers having epileptic fits

The Biostar P4M900 doesnt have video drivers for 98. I tried the 9x drivers for other boards that was on the CD but none would work. Sniff, sniff, please excuse me Im having a Kleenex moment

I voted ME purely because DOS was taken away from the user. My personal favourite is 98SE and contrary to what has been said about startup files, I found that if you get the DOS right 98SE was VERY reliable. My wife has had XP Pro almost from when it was released and it has crashed spectacually several times. I very nearly scrubbed it off several times off my machine (Only Lucy stopped me). My machine went down and I had a fresh MoBo fitted so now I have to use that piece of crap (98SE in 16 colours @ 640*480 is just too painful) The new MoBo is a Biostar P4M900 which doesnt come with vid drivers for 98