technoid

Subject matter: Icon creation for RP HI all, haven't been here in awhile. I love RP, however, some of the icons don't look or work well when switched to 8 bpp icons (256-color), especially the ones for Vista. It's all scratchy and pixelly because of the color translation. I would like to know how to create 8-bpp optimized icons and then put them into a DLL, such as one required for RP. The first part I pretty much know how to do, the latter (DLLs), I don't know how. Well unless someone here has already developed 8 bpp icons that look better than the ones packed stock in RP? Or maybe there's something I'm overlooking? I require this because a couple of my old videocard and monitor combinations can only run in 256-color at the higher resolutions, such as 1280x1024 (and the lcd monitors' native resolution is the same). Thanks.

Exactly what are the annoyances? No problems here accessing mail.yahoo.com in k-meleon browser 1.5.4, with noscript enabled, on dialup, 98se, amd k6-iii 400 mhz box. If I try to use the "block javascript (F7)" in k-meleon instead of noscript then the page keeps refreshing itself. That could be one of the annoyances you're referring to. I have not tried Google mail or whatever.

You do have to pay to keep using Powerstrip, otherwise the trial time expires, as far as I remember, unless it's already been paid for. Not sure if the expiration affects the new added resolution(s). Edit: I know the trial expiration disabled any new geometries I added (vertical-horizontal screen widths, pincushions, etc).

Because audio is part of the stream and also goes through the CPU process, what happens if you disable audio from the movie, will the video able to keep up a little better? Sorry, I only quickly scanned through this thread, don't know if you've already done that. I realize audio is important when watching, but this is for testing purposes. On a side note (somewhat off topic), I know FFDShow was very helpful for me, I needed something to sharpen the video quality. VLC had a sharpening tool, but it loaded my CPU (Pentium III 1.0 GHz) down to the point that the movies (DVD) started to slideshow a little bit. It was noticeable, framerate was less smooth, may be watchable for some ppl, but not for me. However, I switched to GOMPlayer attached to FFDShow and used the sharpener in FFDS and it played on the CPU like it was nothing. Smooth as ever. I discussed it in the VLC forum, but nothing became of it, the developers said there's nothing in their sharpening code that was any different, which I think is incorrect, without further research. This is on Win 2k, not 98se or other.

And there are also many freeware pc system analyzers out there, so you can check what hardware you have through software. Two of them that I like to use are PC Wizard and Sisoft Sandra. You'll just have to find the ones that work with ME. I know that HP usually also have their own analyzers that come with their systems, even on the recovery/restore disks. I know I have that on my HP Vectra VL400 from around 2001. I don't have it installed though. If you say you've used the restore discs, chances are it's there somewhere in the Program Files, or in Control Panel, or under Help and Support (HP Total Care I think). Looking under driver diagnostics, hard ID and driver details in device manager can also help. But yeah, it's best to get the modem out and look at the labels, that's usually what I do myself. http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/pc-wizard.html (Latest should be ME-compatible) http://sisoft-sandra.en.softonic.com (This should be ME-compatible, as the latest version does not support ME afaik. The Lite version is free, not sure about this one) And you're welcome. We tried our (other people here) best, but without that machine in my/our hands, I guess there's nothing else we can try further ourselves.

Well, it's your money, heh. Of course I'd spend that money on a newer board, like some multi-core (although that means more money buying everything else for it... cpu, memory, heatsinks, psu, etc). I just looked at the auction and there's like 3 hours left at the time of this writing. If he's going to reduce price, it might only be like -$5-$10 every time. Not sure if you've seen any of the following:: http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/Home-PCs-Pavilion-Presario/BIOS-for-Pavilion-7845-with-Cognac-Motherboard/td-p/721757 No resolution, just people asking for the bios file at the end: http://forums.cnet.com/7723-7591_102-125938.html Archived "7845" HP forum threads: http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/forums/searchpage/tab/message/page/2?allow_punctuation=true&filter=location&location=Community:hpeb&q=7845&search_type=thread I think this is the one you told us about: http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/Home-PCs-Pavilion-Presario/vmm32-dll-error-Memory-errors/m-p/46512/highlight/true#M4033 There is also the possibility of trying 512mb, but using 2 x 256mb pc100, not pc133, but I have no idea exactly what the motherboard bug is. Anyway, just another thing to think about, even if we're done here (as far as the RAM is concerned). If you want, you can try asking HP how much it would cost to repair the motherboard bug.

But notice though that the eBay seller (Joe) is selling it bundled with other items, i.e. "Keyboard, Modem, Monitor, Mouse", as indicated in the Item Specifics section. You would have to ask him if the bundle is true. A used monitor in good working condition could easily be half or a third of that $120. Obviously it's the seller's discretion to come up with the price(s). I assume it's a CRT. At Goodwill, I have bought good working condition CRT monitors for around $15, around 14-17 inch diagonals. LCD's can cost a few bucks more, around $20-$50 and sometimes higher. On eBay, used fulling working LCD's can easily sell at a minimum of $50 (without S&H), maybe averaging around $75. Sometimes even $100. As you can see, Goodwill is a better bargain, imho and experience. And just like eBay, you have to go to Goodwill frequently (maybe twice a week?) just to see if an item you're looking for has popped up (all from donations, of course). And again, just like eBay, you have to be careful what you're getting. The only difference between eBay and Goodwill is that at Goodwill it's only a short drive and I can inspect (and even test) the item as much as I'd like. You can even return the item, without return shipping, heh. Anyway, also notice that his 7845 only has the original memory capacity of 128MB. Now either he's tried to upgrade the memory and hit the obstacle that you've hit or he really is just trying to sell this thing because he's already acquired a more modern PC. Even if you bought this one, it is likely it probably has the same motherboard bug that yours has. There's no indication he's gotten it fixed, or even if he has, it's information he hasn't divulged. Contact him about that too only if curious.

Well without any further research, that does look alright and low density. Is that all it says on the chips, "16x8/133 2007"? There must me some sort of model number and manufacturer on them too. As far as getting an HP branded memory, there's this one: http://h30094.www3.hp.com/product/sku/3118399/mfg_partno/AO16C3264-PC133 Then there's always Kingston and Crucial. But again, it's still risky, I don't want you to sink any more time and money into this. Not sure if you have to pay return shipping (and restock fee) if you don't want it. The only thing right now that might be a more feasible upgrade would be getting that 1.0 GHz Pentium III. But again, well. Of course there's always that motherboard bug that you found at the HP forums. It would be nice to know exactly what this bug entails. Not much. The primary application on it will be this multi-user (network) medical accounting program from the mid 1990's. We are going to use it as another client PC at the office. It was before, it will be again. This was a biatch to install 98SE. Lots of driver conflicts I had to get through, but I've gotten it 99% stable now. Specs are 80486DX at 50MHz (Overdrive add-on, originally 486SX 25MHz), 32MB SIMM's, two 428MB hard drives, external CD-ROM, slimline case (i.e. ISA cards are in horizontal slots). I could add a better ISA IDE controller (that fixes the old 528MB drive limit), but without going into details, it won't be convenient, so I won't. Presently I am looking around for cache IC's (256k external motherboard cache), to make it faster. It came without cache chips, the cache instruction and data chip slots on the board are empty. Bought in 1992. Of course it won't win any awards for speed these days and it will chug through video files (does "slide show" mean anything, heh?), but for that accounting program and Office 97, it works fine. I could max out memory to 48MB (or up to 64MB with an addon ISA memory card), but not at this time, I don't have any more SIMM's. Yeah sure if you could lend me the $120, heh. Seriously though, if I could, I would, but time would also be a constraint, I've got a few more systems I'm trying to upgrade, lmao. Wow, that's a lot of stuff to take in. I'll bookmark it for future reference, thanks. I've seen that before too.

If you're connected online to the internet while starting up a .wmv or .asf file thru WMP, it will normally start looking on the internet for the codec that the wmv file requires if any are missing and then download them. You will need to checkmark this feature(s) in Options. Another way is to see what codec the wmv file needs using a a codec checker. I've used G-Spot, although it's kinda dated now (last version 2007, I think). If successful, it will tell you what video and audio codecs are used in the file. Then you find that codec yourself online. Or you could find one of those codec packs, like at http://www.free-codecs.com/ or http://www.moviecodec.com . I have not really needed to check a/v codecs in the past couple of years, but G-Spot really helped when I used to put together video files. http://www.headbands.com/gspot/ Another app that I use and might help you is SUPER ©: http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html A good place to ask about A/V is at the Afterdawn.com forums. Or maybe at the Doom9 forum (though they're mostly about DVD's). I've been to both, though not a regular poster. Many billions of other places to ask at, of course.

Sorry to hear that. Could you show me the eBay page you purchased it from? I'm inclined to see if it is low density in the first place. which I would initially presume it is. Ya know, I think we should've started looking for 256MB PC133 instead of the just 128MB. Now of course if I were you, I'd keep going, but since I am not, I won't push you any further, unless you want to, heh. Just for the sake of it, I will keep researching and may give you more data/links for your own perusal. I am an upgrader and overclocker by nature, so that's why I'd want to keep going. For example, I am putting a 486SX PC back into commission (with an Evergreen 486-to-Pentium type of overdrive upgrade). It was in storage for a few years and decided to resurrect it. It had Windows 3.1 originally and I successfully got 98SE on it. Slow, but it works. Hmm, not sure if I already mentioned this. Anyway, I guess you can float back to Square 1 for awhile, or forever.

I'm not familiar with Cacheman so I have no opinion on it. OT: Do you mean Cacheman by Outertech? I am familiar with it, but isn't 4.1 an old version? I use 5.50 which is the last version available for Win 9x/Me. (altho Cacheman is up to version 7.x now for XP/Vista/7).

Good to hear, keeping your PC's clean helps keep it alive longer. I had 2 similar incidences where what I found stuck in the heatsink blew me away. First, I went to a coworker's house, he wanted me to check the harddrive on his computer. He's not really a computer nerd like I am, so when I open the box, I found that his CPU heatsink had dog hair and lint packed and covered in every niche of the fins, filling it all out. Good thing the fan was still blowing. I vacuumed it out as well as the rest of the inside of the case. I told him to maintain that and try to keep the case off the floor and maybe onto a table top. Second, years later, my sister gave away her two laptops to me around 7 years ago. They were in disrepair, requiring some BIOS updates, harddrive upgrades and other lovin'. In one of them, it was the same thing, there was cat hair and lint stuck in one of the fan housings (underneath), filling everything. To my dismay this prevented the fan from spinning. Because of that, the fan died. Eventually took apart the laptop, replaced the fan(s) and it's my primary laptop nowadays. The other laptop still in the works (need to buy parts). It's possible the hum is like you said, one of the fans might be off kilter. A way to find out is to turn on power but hold the fan in your hand (as its spinning), not on the heatsink, but only for a few seconds. Anway, a good fix is to oil it (some people use graphite powder). I've done this many times with case fans, it quiets them down, but you do have to then maintain that every few months. The way to do this is to find the entry hole to the fan axle. Most of the time this is under a circular label stickied in the middle. I try to keep that label, so rather than just wildly pulling it off and potentially tearing it, I use a tweezer to pull it off, maybe starting with a sharp blade to lift off a corner of label first. From there you should be able to see the hole opening in the middle, where one end of the axle is. You just pour a drop of light machine oil in there. Usually I turn on power and so while the fan is spinning at top speed, I drop the oil in. Listen to the noise it makes and see if it quiets down after the oil drop. If you can, take the CPU off its socket first before applying power. The power should still turn on (depends on motherboard etc). There is also the possibility the power supply fan is making the noise. Applying oil down its axle shaft can also work, but unless you know what you're doing, don't open the power supply case. You could potentially loosen something in there. Sometimes there are mylar shields inside that prevent short circuits and other things and you might forget to put that back in correctly. Anyway once I oil the fan, I try to put the label back on (wipe surface off of any remaining oil or your label won't stick back on. You can also use some sort of tape to replace the label. And keep the label as reference for the fan since they usually have the electrical specs printed on the label. Haha, I have too much info here talking about the label. I hope you know what you're saying, heh. Coppermine core is one design process/architecture of Pentium III's. Another is Katmai, and Tualatin. Coppermine at 1.0 GHz is one model you should be able to use on the 7845. Seems both of those have the same part number, RB80526PZ001256, which would be the Pentium III 1.0GHz EB ('B' stands for 133 FSB). If you like, ask the sellers what S-spec they are, which again is printed on top of the chip. But if these are boxed and plastic sealed, since they are in new condition, then they probably can't to keep it "new". Keep in mind you're paying $25, new condition, compared to 5 bucks for used 1.0 GHz Pentium III's at eBay. Of course you lessen the risk getting a CPU in new condition, to that which is used and may be slightly damaged. Yes, those should work, but again if not, be ready to return it. That leads me to another question. We don't know yet if HP has nerfed the motherboard not to take a CPU faster than 866. You could ask first, or take the word from those forum threads about the 7845 I linked to in my last reply, saying a CPU upgrade should/will work. Intel: http://ark.intel.com/products/27529/Intel-Pentium-III-Processor-1_00-GHz-256K-Cache-133-MHz-FSB Let's hope so. Be careful not to bend any of the pins underneath the CPU. And also be aware (if you aren't already), that the CPU is keyed so that it will go into the socket only one way. By the way, also practice Anti-ESD. This prevents you from zapping (static electricity) the electronic components inside your PC, CPU included. One way to do this is to touch the inside chassis frame (where ever there's bare metal) as long as the PC power cable is still connected to a wall outlet. This will help ground you. While this is the most convenient/easy way, it may not always be reliable. There are grounding straps and grounding mats you could buy. But let's hope you can ground yourself touching the chassis so you don't have to buy any of that, for now. Yup, we are a dying breed. There are places only you can also get new 5.25" floppies, double (DD) or high (HD) density. I still have plenty of blank DD's for my Commodores and plenty of blank HD's for my PC's. Yes I still use the 5.25 floppy drive, still have tons of software on them. Ok, I read back your old posts and you have BIOS 2.07. Also, I don't know what graphics/video you use, but just like in that article, if you get a PCI graphics card, you could then increase speed of the 7845 further (at least in the video department). As usual, be careful with everything inside the 7845. You could kill something in there and all this talk would've been in vain, hehe. Again though, let's hope the new PC133 128MB that's on its way to you will work. Put that in by itself first, no second DIMM's yet. I'm sure I missed something else, but this is getting longer by the second.

A few more things... -- BIOS: I just recently (a few days ago) updated the BIOS on a client's (friend's) ultraportable Toshiba notebook. Like you and everyone else, I had my worries. The instructions gave me several ways of updating, i.e. floppy, or CD, or in Windows, or another way in DOS (other than with floppy). The notebook does not have a floppy drive as understandably the floppy has gone the way of the dinosaur, especially since this notebook was built in 2006 and is also the more compact type of notebook (ultraportable). Luckily I had an external USB floppy drive. Still, I wasn't sure if this was going to work. I didn't really know how this notebook was going to handle an external floppy. I wanted to go the Windows route of updating the BIOS. This was the most convenient. However the instructions did say this was also the most unstable. After some testing, I found the USB floppy performed as normal as a floppy that was built internally. It booted first (change boot device priority in BIOS first) and I ran the BIOS update that way. It went smooth. I have done many BIOS updates in the past, thru floppy, and they've all pretty much been reliable that way. The one time it did not go well was because I updated a machine with the wrong BIOS. The update process went well, it just happened to be with the wrong file, lmao. I did that about 3 years ago and I still have that machine. I have started the process of its resurrection, doing research and stuff. Due to the wrong BIOS, it is currently braindead, i.e. it won't boot, but it still powers on. Someone has told me about bootblocks, so I have to check that once I look at the PC again (it's at another site). I can understand your worries. You probably have nil experience updating BIOSes. As long as you've done your research and have the correct file(s), it should work without a hitch. One of those hitches though is to make sure the power doesn't go out. You could potentially decrease that risk by having a surge protector and a UPS (and maybe a line conditioner too, but now that's perhaps overkill). Most BIOS updates for consumer PC's should only take under 30 seconds, if not 15. I know, after 20 years of consumers being able to update their own BIOSes, the process can still be tricky. There are some PC's that do have redundant protection, like a backup/secondary BIOS chip onboard, etc. In the end it's up to you, but if it were me, I would do it. Your mileage will vary. -- CPU: I just checked the specs again on the 7845 and again that 866 Pentium III is built for 133 FSB. I assume it's a Coppermine core. One of the ways to check this is to find the S spec which is printed on top of the chip. Look for text that starts with "SL". Examples would be like SL49H, SL4MD. What I am getting at is that the 7845 has the potential to be upgraded to a 1.0 GHz Pentium III. That's an extra 134 MHz of speed right there (L2 cache size stays the same though). Of course this would mean taking off the heatsink and wiping the thermal silicon grease compound off (unless it uses the heat shim). There are plenty of PIII 1.0 GHz's on eBay, in used condition, in the range $5 to $25. Seeing that the cost of this CPU is now cheap these days, you have to decide if upgrading the CPU speed might be worth it. Again, in my line of computer hobbying as well as a "tech" at work, I would personally would pursue this. I have in the past upgraded old socket 7 motherboards that would only take 233 MHz Pentiums to 400 MHz AMD K6-III's, even if the motherboard was too old to recognize the the K6-III. You thus infuse old technology and give it a little more life, and speed. Here is an old article, the author updated his Celeron 667 MHz to Pentium III 1.0 GHz on his Compaq i810e motherboard: http://home.comcast.net/~felispardalis/presupgd.html One other thing though, unfortunately, is that HP 7845 motherboard (ASUS make perhaps) probably does not have the ability to overclock. That is the norm with OEM. They don't really want you to overclock. But I could also be wrong. Not sure how it is now, I don't have processors like Sandybridges/Nehalems or whatnot, but I know it was then with HP and Pentium III's (and IV's). Found this too: http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/Home-PCs-Pavilion-Presario/Pavilion-7845-processor-upgrade/td-p/361238 And this: http://www.motherboardpoint.com/hp-pavillion-model-7845-cpu-upgrade-t156796.html Anyway, just giving you more things to think about. Don't do any of the above if you're uncomfortable. Hopefully that PC133 128MB will work for you, no doubt we need to get that out of the way FIRST.

How far back is your BIOS version again? And what is/was the last version they have (too lazy to check atm)? That's correct, they don't give a crap, heh. Normally HP (and most other companies) will support driver updates for a few years (in general, about 5 more years after product release). I have a few HP machines myself. Part of this stems from the gradual (over the years) of the power of graphics cards. The more modern it is, the more it needs power/energy from your PC power supply. I can't recall what card you need. If PCI, then power requirements shouldn't that be a big deal. Again though, as a disclaimer, whatever ram you get may not work. So be ready to return it. Or keep it for future use. The question here is if that motherboard bug will prevent that PC133 128mb from working. Or, that particular stick of ram won't work, but maybe another one (from eBay etc) will. You just don't know which. I recall the specs said "low density ram". Good luck again and we'll be waiting what happens.

This is a shout out for GOM Lab (Korean company). Their GOM Player is my primary DVD movie player on my HTPC, with FFDS attached to GOM for additional fast video/audio settings and effects. But I am doing this in Win 2kPro, not 98SE. I require 2k for compatibility with Videolan, Winamp, DVDFab and other stuff. It is sufficient and fast. My HTPC is a Pentium III 1.0 GHz box from HP. This is connected to a DLP projector (for a ~100-200 inch screen) via DVI, as DVI is preferred than VGA or Component, for best video quality (due to digital data, not analog). Sorry I don't know any of the other stuff you mentioned, my projector is not HD, but it's tweaked enough that I get maybe 10%, maybe 20%, better quality than DVD. Surround sound is only 4.1, but it works perfectly. All this for about 400 bucks.

Imho, yes it is worth upgrading. Now, i.e. sooner than later. Why now? Several things, let me ramble, lmao... First, your 7845 PC is getting older and "obsoleter" by the minute, so I think it is best to -- again -- eek out as much performance out of that thang as possible. Second, memory prices for desktop 128MB PC133 sticks, even in new condition, is a few dollars cheap. Stroll through memory lane (pun?) and you might remember the same memory stick could've cost a hundred dollars 10 years ago. Progression/competition in memory performance decreases costs on old memory standards, such as Sdram PC133. Third, PC133 is, logically, faster than PC100 rating, again, around 33% faster, if my math is correct. Lastly, your PC is able to take PC133, due to CPU, FSB and chipset design. Overclockers love to eek out speed and power incrementally. In essence you are trying to do the same, the difference is that you're not overclocking, just changing out memory speed ratings to what your PC already has the normal ability to do. When you mix PC100 and PC133 in the machine, it will probably run at the lower speed of 100. If you had PC66 in there and PC133, I am thinking it would run at 66. Slow. The 133 and 100 Mhz are just factory-tested speeds the silicon on those ram chips are able to perform. A chip that couldn't be stable at 133, but stable at 100 would then be sold as 100. Your BIOS (and CPU, etc) is able to determine what speed your memory should be at. BIOSes on standalone purchasable motherboards (like from MSI or ASUS) usually have many memory settings you can tweak. Most major brandname systems, such as from HP, usually don't have that kind of very tweakable BIOSes. You could "overclock" (or force) a PC100 to PC133 if you had that ability in the BIOS (CL3, CL2, those kinds of settings). I am assuming your HP 7845 does not have those abilities. I would know, I have HP Pentium III boxes as well, though I have later models and it's pretty much the same, no memory tweakability in BIOS. My guess is that your 7845 SHOULD run at PC133 if all the memory sticks in there are rated 133. The CPU, FSB, chipset are designed to run at that speed as far as we can tell. The problem is we don't know until you try (may or may not work). There could be other unknown/unforseen design limitations, but I have no clue since I don't have a 7845. If your 7845 started off with a PC66 128mb and you are able to replace that with a PC133 128mb stick (and is able to boot and run windows), that would be a ~2x performance boost right there. Anyway, you will have to check performance by eyeballing it (see if things feel a little bit zippier) or use a benchmark program. Again, speed boost won't be 200%, but maybe hopefully 5%-30%, if again it's able to run at all. I think that should be better than nothing, you're not buying 128MB of memory at tens or hundreds of dollars like a decade ago. Hopefully you'll find a DIMM that is compatible on the 7845. Cross yer fingers. I'm sure I missed something else to say, but I'll stop here, heh.

Ok , so it's PC133. So have you tried a PC133 128MB in place of that HP PC100 128MB in the 7845? Will it boot and run Windows? I mean if it works you could theoretically get about a 30% speed boost from a memory standpoint. Then the rest of the PC system will drop that percentage down, but it should at least be faster than when it has that HP PC100 128MB running in it. At least you get a bit faster system at 384MB.

Ah, the good ol' bubble jet, I remember those. My brother still has one, but he never uses it (it's boxed). Yup, if you take care of a piece of equipment well, then it will last. Yeah, done lots of stuff on 3.x. It was the MS O/S used at some places at Intel when I first started there in 1994-ish. Don't get me wrong, I like(d) MSDOS. I did roughly the same thing, I had lots of shareware games on it. For me I suppose my oldest piece of computer devices are my C64's (and peripherals). Before that are my 2 gaming consoles from the mid-late 70's, the Atari 2600(VCS) and Coleco Telstar. I do have this huge hard drive type thing from the late 70's, but it doesn't really work (powers up though). Weighs like 100 pounds, the size of a small desk, 12 inch diameter platters. Got it free to take the logic chips out for my own use. I need to get rid of it eventually. You still haven't told me if that 256mb dimm you have is pc100 or pc133, or even pc66, heh. I'm curious.

Well I wouldn't say that Win 3.x did not have enough software. In fact they had a huge quantity. It was the first version of MS Windows to have lots of 3rd party software support, whether commercial, shareware or freeware. The problem nowadays is that a lot of the file repositories on the Internet has since killed off their 3.x file downloads. I have many PC magazines I've kept (collected) over the decades. Step into the mags of the early to mid 1990's and you'll find many reviews of 3.x stuff. In the late 90's, Simtel.com and Walnut Creek CDRom.com (they are affiliated) had tons of file downloads for 3.x, and I used to get files off those places. I think they are still around, but have purged their 3.x stuff, which is kinda sad. See www.simtel.net. Or step into the Wayback Machine so you can actually peruse what 3.x files they had: http://wayback.archive.org/web/19960615000000*/http://www.simtel.com . You can also ask around at Win3x.org (although it's mostly in French). I haven't looked for 3.x files that much since, so I don't really know where they are nowadays. Google can always help. Here's another: http://home.comcast.net/~zerosky/freaked/win3x.html . It's just tough trying to stay in the past though, when we're all busy trying to get by today. Never heard of Re-electronics. Nice service. That is exactly what I do to my PC's, heh. I'd probably make a good employee there, lol. Funny how they are using the Joomla CMS (content management system) for building their website. I am pretty versed in that and have a few of my websites running it. I noticed the Joomla icon at the URL address bar. They would need to change to their own icon just to keep things "unique" as Joomla is a prevalent and popular CMS on the web. I have gotten a lot of my stuff from Goodwill also. They sell used electronics as well and I've found goodies there at almost one tenth the price I would find anywhere else, even at eBay... monitors (bought for $15-20, some I've had to repair), wireless cards and routers, cables, software, lots of keyboards/mice, drives, PC's, printers, home electronics, and pretty much any further electronics/computer-related stuff that people get rid of (donate). And at some times it's more convenient than eBay or Frys Electronics, since the local Goodwill is under 5 minutes drive. Frys is 15 minutes away in another town. Not sure if I've used Access before. Looks good. I've used various DOS menu's over the decades as well.

Yes I still have many old "beauties" around, not exactly what you have, but plenty of them. PC/XT's (8088/8086), 80286's, 486's, earlier Pentiums, AMD K6's, NexGen, three C-64 systems, etc. No PS/2's though. I do have a 386 board, but it is experimental and unbugged (many wirewraps on it) and has never fully worked (has proprietary keyboard connection and BIOS), I never bothered to look into it further. Half of these PC mobo's are in ESD bags, buried in cardboard boxes, I just hate to throw them out. Plenty of old PC cases too (half are desktop, half are towers). Yes, many harddrives, some going back to half-height MFM 40MB. Many sticks of RAM, going back to 30pin SIMMs and also individual SRAM DIP IC's you have to plug into IC sockets on mobo. I actually do have a couple of CL videocards as well, which can handle 1024x768 43Hz interlaced. I just recently had one of my old monitors (which could only do 1024x768 interlaced) die a horrible death a few days ago. Something smoked inside, I haven't opened it up yet, it did smell up the room badly of burnt silicon. I've been using it since like 1992. I've since replaced it with another monitor of the same era, lmao. Many old printers too (dot matrix, lasers, from the past 3 decades). I like trying to restore and maximize these puppies to their fullest, and maybe beyond. MSFN.org helps us very well in obtaining those goals as much as possible, and for as long as possible, until these operating systems and hardware become finally useless, less so than a handheld calculator, heh. For example, I've used 98SE2Me before, which uses the best of both worlds of 98SE and Me. Soporific's Autopatcher gets my 98SE up to date, as well as KernelEX, RP, et al. You mentioned typing up papers. I used my Commodore64 to type up papers in college 2 decades ago. The operating system GEOS64 and a dotmatrix printer. And before that I was typing on a typewriter for highschool papers. Still have my 1901 Royal typewriter, heh. Heavy as heck. And yeah I still have my original Windows 3.x installation floppies. If you wish to try Win 3.x again, there is a graphical shell that can make it function like the Win 95 (thru Win 7) desktop, which you can get at http://calmira.de .

Oh that is sad. An "oldish" PC that has great potential when max'd out. Of course it's not old by my standards, I still have PC/XT's and Commodore 64's in working condition. Well, you can always contact HP and see what they would offer for repair. Or go back into the HP forums and try to pry out more tech info as to what's going on on the motherboard. Your last resort would be to buy, yet again, that $8-$9 set of DIMMs, just to eliminate further doubts. It's a good machine, but at 384MB, it won't help run XP as efficiently as it would on ME/9x, if you decide to update the O/S. I've got that eMachines on XP, and at 384MB it's frakking slow. Actually, in addition to that, it's also a 1.0 GHz Celeron and 4200rpm drive, which multiplies that slowness even more. I am eventually upgrading those parts to max it out, i.e. replace Celery with Pentium III 1.0 GHz, replace 4200rpm to 7200rpm drive, and max out ram to 512MB (at PC100 to PC133, since Celeron uses only PC100). You never did say what speed rating that 256MB stick was at. If it's PC133, then I would probably use that instead if it can boot. If you can only max out at 384MB, have you already tried a 128MB stick in one slot and a 256MB stick in the other, but both at PC133? Sometimes I tend to go for that speed boost first, with capacity as secondary, you just have to judge the balance you require. That Win2k HTPC of mine is still at 384MB (512MB max, PC133) and it plays movies fine. But, make sure to be sure, that your mobo really needs that mobo fix. Don't settle yet on what you've discovered. You could potentially have a mobo that already has that fix and this issue can still be something else. Find any labeling on the mobo about any fixes or revision numbers. You can also reply to in that HP thread (as opposed to making a new one there), if it's not closed yet. Good luck again and hopefully you'll also burn to the latest BIOS (be careful) just to eek out more upgrades. Or you can just sit back, relax and say "F*** IT".

I found manuals at the HP site, but they did not really give me any more info than what the official listed specs already stated. The 7845 page is at: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product?cc=us&dlc=en&product=61776&lc=en&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN You have to search by using the actual part # of this PC, which is "P3928A" as listed in the product spec page. Can you also check what BIOS is presently on your machine? BIOS and other firmware are available at this page, but be cautioned that this can be a dangerous procedure if you don't know what you're doing. Look in the Software/Downloads section for Windows Me stuff to find the BIOSes. And drivers you think you may need. Anyway, BIOS revisions could also help your PC become better, but at this point, I'd worry with your ram situation first. I was just giving you heads up. The 7845 utilizes the i810e chipset. This chipset can handle PC133 memory, since we are talking about the Pentium III. I realize the 7845 came with a 128MB PC100 stick. This is really due in part to economics. HP and other manufacturers will give you minimum specs to keep overall system costs down. You did not really state what speed was your 256MB stick you were using. And also, while PC133 in theory and design can be downward compatible with PC100 memory, especially when you mix them together, in practice this may not be always true. It really does depend what your model PC (any model PC) was designed to operate with. And also as aforementioned, it can be due to glitches, whether by a broken discrete part, or dust, or a connector problem, etc etc. A memory stick, even if you thought should work, can also give you POST errors. A list of Intel chipsets: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_chipsets In this case you really ought to buy the maximum amount of memory to get as much out of that PC before its usefulness becomes less viable over time. An 866Mhz system is still very functional these days. You will get a nice little speed boost from PC100 to PC133, and better system handling at 512MB (max). That's if all your memory is at PC133. You will have to judge the speed boost by yourself (e.g. eyeballing) and/or with a benchmark program. Since your system is able to run with the PC100 128MB stick, then that is the overall memory speed your PC is running at, regardless if that 256MB is at PC133. You can find 512MB PC133 anywhere (at 2 x 256MB sticks). I've had lots of success over at eBay. It's up to you to try it. Here is one list (sorted as Buy It Now only, Lowest prices first, and in New condition): http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?LH_BIN=1&rt=nc&LH_ItemCondition=11&_nkw=pc133%20512%20256&_clu=2&_fcid=1&_fln=1&_localstpos=97071&_sc=1&_sop=15&_ssov=1&_stpos=97071&_trksid=p3286.c0.m1539&gbr=1 As you can see there, you could potentially buy two 256MB sticks at total of $8.00, new. If they don't work on your 7845, you can always return them (always check seller return policies first before buying). I have similar PC, but a little more modern, i.e. the HP Vectra VL400 desktop tower (815 chipset, Pentium III 1.0 GHz). Got this whole system (PC, monitor, printer, software, etc) for free back in 2001 when I used to work at Intel. Actually I got two of them (a co-worker gave hers away to me several years later). I formatted one for Win 98SE. And the other is on Win 2k... this is my HTPC, home theater PC, running a DLP projector via DVI. And with surround sound, of course. . Oh and back to your original issue, I don't really know what's going on. I've had VMM32 issues before, just don't remember how they got fixed. This might help: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/194679 , in addition to obtaining proper ram sticks. And/or keep Googling, heh. Good luck.

What is the model # of this HP machine? What is the CPU? I assume it is Windows 98SE (since you're posting in this subforum). Yes, it is possible it will need a specific make of ram. I have an eMachines that is also as stubborn. Sometimes it can be how many chips there are on the memory stick. Are these PC100 or PC133... or DDR? Don't know until you give us more info and specs. Since you are getting this error when you start Windows, then this means that at least you can get the machine to boot properly first. What about Windows Safe mode, can you get into that? You can also go to the HP store online and find what memory specs are required for this machine. Of course their prices will be through the roof, but at least you can see what memory description is at least required. Yes, get the manual as Rilef mentioned.

I am not sure what version of Noscript you guys are using in K-Meleon 1.5.4, but I am using version 1.7.8.0. Be aware that blocking Javascipt in Noscript (when enabled) is functionally the same as toggling JS on or off with the F7 key in KM. The difference is that Noscript has more settings (Java applets, whitelists and other options). I haven't fiddled around with it much, I can get by with most of the defaults. Anyway you can get Noscript 1.7.8.0 at: http://extensions.geckozone.org/KMES-NoScriptEn There are more extensions at Geckozone for K-Meleon, but they're mostly for visual display. And there's extensions for other browsers of course.

Haven't had much time on this, but I did copy Win95's Backup version (with accompanying files, not just the .exe) to 98SE's and ran it. It was partially successful, I was able to read some tapes, but it was hit and miss. Sometimes it was able to find the directory and files on the tape, and the next time (or after a tape redetect) it would not. But at least it was better than 98SE's Backup. In the 98SE version, it can't even find the tape drive. I was also able to run the DOS Tape program (Colorado Jumbo v3.03), but this can also be random, because somehow it requires a version of DOS in the era the Tape.exe was written in (in the era of Windows 3.x). I was able to make it work by exiting 98SE and going into DOS afterward, but not the DOS before Windows boots (i.e. F8 command line only). Weird. But once I run Tape in DOS, I am able to view files and directories already written on the tapes, which in my case were recorded in the early 90's. And Submix8c is correct, using the tape drive auto-configure, it will use IRQ=6/DMA=2. At the I/O of 370. Anyway, more testing to go through before I decide to move this drive to my 95 box. I still don't have a hold of the original manuals and floppies, they're at another house at the moment. Side note: There is one particular tape cartridge I may never be able to read again, not because of corrupt magnetics, but because the tape won't wind properly anymore. Because these are high speed streaming tapes, just a little bit of kink at some places or maybe a little bit of static electricity, the tape will stick to the rubber runner band that makes the tapes spin. This will cause the tape to stick to it and at that high a speed, the tape will go out of whack and get pulled around. It's similar to when the old audiocassettes start streaming tape all over the place, heh. I tried rewindind the tape, careful to have it at the right tension, but because it has so many kinks in the tape, it won't stay straight anymore as it goes from one wheel to the other. The only way it may probably work is if it the drives spins it at 10 times slower, which would be impossible unless you know how to modify the hardware (and software) to do that.