maggotspawn

HFS Explorer, It works with XP, haven't tried it with Vista. Worth a shot, it's freeware. http://hem.bredband.net/catacombae/hfsx.html Edit: Just reread your post, this may not work for you. Sorry dude.

Just switch to IDE in the BIOS, Windows will then use Microsoft drivers for IDE mode.

Acer has drivers for download, I put XP on my Extensa 5620. Same problem here with the XP webcam drivers. Laptop wouldn't shut down. I just turn off the webcam in Hardware manager, and turn it on when I need it. Use nLite to burn a CD with the SATA driver included. http://forum.notebookreview.com/index.php The above is a very good forum for laptops.

I wouldn't install Vista with those specs.

X2, DVDFlick works great, and it's free.

I'd try out Puppy Linux. It's pretty easy to setup a dualboot with a "frugal install." A frugal install put's about 5 files on your harddrive. No need to partition. If you don't like it you can just remove the files. www.puppylinux.org/ Lin-Win Dualboot Guide

I use a freeware app called Drive Image XML It'll back up your system drive, or any drive for that matter. When you want to reinstall, you boot from a CD and reinstall your disk image. Full instructions at the link.

WMP 11 works on my XP partition with the same codecs, so I don't know about that.

I have a ton of codecs installed. This is a sample video that was included with Vista. I would think it would play anyway. I think I'm just going to have to wait until WMP gets updated.

No no subs or subtitles. It's just one of the sample videos that comes with Vista.

Vista Home Premium. Windows Media Player 11 won't play video, screen is black. It'll play audio alright. Enhancement window is black as well. I tried downloading WMP 11 and reinstalling, but the version on my laptop is later then the download. Video plays OK in Media Player Classic. These are the sample videos that come with Vista. I don't want to reinstall the OS because I have a triple boot set up. I didn't image the disk until after the video problem so I'm kind of stuck. Any ideas?

I have a Lite-On DVD drive in my SFF PC. It was recommended by some guys at a SFF forum. Edit: Doh, nevermind I misread your post.

Thanks Yzowl, I'm really enjoying the forums, great place.

Update: I don't know if it was the driver version I used or what, but I was transcoding some video today and got a BSOD. Driver IRQ less then equal, I think it was. I switched back to IDE mode and all is good.

I just started messing around with Puppy 4.00 and love it. Lean and stable, takes very little to setup a dualboot with it.

This is what brought me to this site. Great guide.

Puppy Linux.org There's a how to guide at this site. Be careful, if you install Grub to your MBR, it'll be trashed if you want to reinstall Windows. You'll have to repair it via Recovery Console, don't ask me how I know this.

X2 I'm testing Puppy Linux out now. Worth the 80MB download, and you can run it from CD to check it out.

I have a spare laptop I'm going to put it on. Had to remaster to run it off of CD on my main notebook. It's looking like I'm going to set up the office PC's with it after some more testing.

This thread got me interested in trying out Linux. I've been wanting to test it. Typing this off my laptop running the latest Puppy Linux, I think it's 4.0. I'm very impressed. About 90 MB total running off of a CD. I ended up having to download a driver for my wireless adapter and to remaster the CD. The whole process took about an hour. Very quick and stable. I'm tempted to run this on the office PC's if I can find all the drivers.

XP will see both CPUs. I think SP1 is required for that (hyper-threading support) but XP sees HT and dualies as the same thing. Either way RTM will only see 1 CPU (or 1 core) and still work anyways. It's my understanding that XP Home will work with Dualcores/1 CPU but not 2 physical CPU's. For 2 physical CPU's XP Pro is necessary.

I second the hardware upgrade, processing HD asks a lot out of a system. After that if you're thinking about going to a 64 bit OS, I would go with 64 bit Vista as XP Pro x64 isn't supported as well for drivers. x64 kind of got left out in the cold. I'd be running it now but there is lack of driver support for some of the hardware I use, something to keep in mind. Which version of Vegas are you using? I think Sony is releasing a 64 bit version next year, but I may be mistaken.

Won't he need XP Pro to see both CPU's?

Yeah, and good luck finding double-sided 256MB SDRAM nowadays, i know how hard i've looked till finding 4 of them for my dual-PIII... Oh, and 512MB is the maximum memory size for the i815 chipset, do your research before you post. My bad. Whatever.

Hello, found your site while Googling for a fix to enable AHCI under XP. Hopelessly addicted to PC's and tech. I started out on a Mac Performa running OS 7.5. Quickly got up to speed on the PC side with Windows 95. I work for a small film production company, taking care of the computers. Video editing workstations, DAW's and office PC's. Macs as well as PC's. Look forward to hanging out and learning things, you guys seem like a smart bunch.