pointertovoid

Microsoft will stop updating Xp in 2014 (be there still bugs or not) but you can continue using it. A laptop has only drawbacks except its size. Take a desktop as far as you can.

Fun answers... Samsung's disk manual stated "any position is good". Google's (they're the biggest user) report on observed drive reliability tells that heat is no drawback to disk life.

The first message tells: "video/audio processing/encoding, Photoshop, and in the near future CG as well" and I believe most of these applications make extensive use of a graphics card to run their heavy computations. These days, not only 3D games use a graphics card! So I suggest to check which applications benefit from it (video encoding is nearly sure, Photoshop probably as well) and take a good graphics card. These heavy applications are highly paralleled to take advantage of the multicore Cpu, so an i7 would be advantageous here.

What I've seen: - I make backups of my files between two computers, including XLS files, hence detect changes when synchronizing - The file properties displayed by Window's Explorer remain the same, including the date of modification and the size - But the synchronizing software tells that the files have changed - The user's contents is the same - When comparing both files with a text editor, hence in a big and not intelligible form, I see one tiny difference, like 2-4 bytes at one single location. So before considering some kind of malware, I'd like to check more banal explanations. One possibility would be that Excel stores a "last read date" within the file contents (and not at the containing folder as Windows does), updates it accordingly each time I read the file, but after writing the file with updated "last read date", restores the previous "date of modification" in the folder - something Window allows. One reason why NSA-like explanations are not my first ones is that I notice this with XLS files only.

Grazie Jaclaz! I haven't tried to convert the annex B modem to an annex A, finally. - It seems that this particular modem has different hardware for A and B (while other manufacturers could have more general hardware). - The suggested operation looks risky, has not been confirmed by other people, and the author only reports that the firmware has changed. - Even if I don't use my annex B modems, I can offer them to friends. So I have bought a pair of annex A from UK sellers. These variants had UK firmware but accepted the non-UK firmware version and propose France in the settings. Everything runs as expected with the firmware for annex A... I just wait for a feedback from my old mum, as I don't access this machine, and she balks at tinkering computers. No worry to read Italian, as I already speak three Romance languages. I tell you when I get trial feedback.

Hi nice people! If I have sections with several columns in a Word document, and want to increase the left or right paper margins, Word 97 and Word 2003 fail. Is there a patch to this bug? Or a special way to use Word? I've vaguely seen that saving as a Word 2003 file improves the situation, but that's not clear. Thank you!

Hello dear friends! I regularly notice that (with Office 2003 Pro) XLS files are modified on my Internet machine, despite their modification date has not changed according to Windows, and their size neither. Before I imagine some worm... Can it be that Office writes in the file each time I open an XLS to read it but don't save the changes if any? And that Office restores the old modification date despite having altered the file's contents? Thank you!

Needless to say that no application is allowed to load when my machine boots up. And guess what, Adobe is not present on my machines, for that sort of reasons. The start time I give for varied Office are without the loader at boot, and after a fresh boot, of course.

The third one is also a DG834B bought in Germany... and the "B" must be the cause, alas. Googling "Annexe B" site:netgear-forum.com returns 300 discussions that tell essentially the same. B is an incompatible hardware meant for the ADSL over ISDN, and these modems work only in countries that follow Annex B: Germany, maybe Austria and parts of Switzerland. Thundering typhoon! I must get one from a country with ADSL over POTS according to annex A, but as used eBay parts these are quite more expensive.

Tried more microcode updates... v5.01.14 "outside North America and Germany only" fails as the previous ones did. v5.01.14 "for users in Germany and Annex B countries only" is accepted and applied. Annex B countries are the ones, especially Germany, which have ISDN phone lines (~digital phone) instead of POTS (~analogue phone). ADSL and ADSL2 are similar but use different frequencies and incompatible hardware over ISDN and POTS lines. Also, my modem is of model DG834B (note the B: to suggest annex B?) while other Ethernet ones are DG834. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netgear_DG834_(series) doesn't tell directly about the DG834B, but the (wi-fi) DG834GB "has modifications to support Annex-B ADSL". Googling DG834B hits websites in German only. Especially... http://www.chip.de/preisvergleich/169794/Datenblatt-Netgear-DG834B.html "Dieser DG834 ADSL Firewall Router ist die Annex B Version." (this DG834 is the annex B version) Looks like I sit in the ink (as they say in German)...

The programme is perfect so it doesn't need updates If this were not software, the previous sentence would be perfectly normal. But software isn't normal, notably because one can sell it and make good money despite it doesn't work. Free Commander is programmed by one single person who gives it for free, so whether he makes updates depends solely on his will and time. The versions I use work fine; the only interrogation would be whether the latest ones run on your Seven, but this is easily checked.

Merci bien - Dank U wel ! Looks like your explanation is very close... First, I believe the line is sound, as well as the filter and the cable, because an other modem, which was not plugged when the stroke hit, works properly from the same connector. I don't even known if the phone line or the power line propagated the overvoltage, or both. The bolt hit the house next to my mother's, made some mechanical damage there, and many appliances are destroyed in the neighbourhood. The modem's separate power supply looks damaged as well - not too sure as I don't have my lab here, but I've replaced the supply as well. Meanwhile the attempted microcode update failed. From the same download address you suggest, I got microcodes 5.01.16 and 5.01.09 for the corresponding DG834B V4 ADSL2+, which I chose "for use outside North America and Germany only". The modem rejected the update because "the chosen software does not fit this version". Pity, I had hoped exactly to adapt the modem's operation through the software update. Maybe an explanation (the English version is less clear): http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annex_B, also http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADSL-over-ISDN#Annex_B Germany uses only ADSL over ISDN according to "annex B", which is physically incompatible with ADSL over analogue telephony according to "annex A". The transmission frequencies differ. A few modems can adapt to both through microcode update and performance loss... I suppose the DG834 can't adapt through microcode between Annex A and B, which would explain why there is microcode "for Germany" and "except Germany", and the update manager is smart enough to reject a microcode update file not matching the hardware. Though, I'd have wished a note in the manual, and even better, a marking on the box like "works only in annex B countries". Billions of blistering barnacles! It looks like my nice DG834B from Germany won't run in France. Other explanations and comments welcome!

I'd like such folder synchronizers to find files that have been renamed or moved but whose contents is identical. This would be quick if computing hash values of the files and comparing just the hash values to pair the files. A hash value good enough is quickly computed, description here or there: http://saposjoint.net/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=3155#p39678

I've been using FreeCommander for years and am very satisfied with. http://www.freecommander.com/ Though, I can't tell if it's the best! What I can tell: - It has never made a mistake - Its folder comparison and synchronization are subtle and fine-tunable - It details compressed archives natively and searches for files among many archives - It has many possibilities and needs accordingly a little learning. The keyboard shortcuts are not standard. - It's fast even on very old machines. Usable with a small screen as well. - Version 2005.09a runs on Win95b, 2007.05a not. Version 2007.10a runs on W2k, v1.3.2 officially not.

Hello you all! I bought three DG834 Adsl modems +Ethernet hubs. The first over eBay.fr worked fine but was destroyed by lightning. The second from eBay.de apparently fails, the third from eBay.de hasn't been tried yet. They are to work in France, at the computer of my old mother. She understands very little about computers, and I don't access her phone line. She brings the computer for few hours. Not easy... In the second modem, I introduced the contract's identity and password given by the access provider, as it had worked on the first modem. She has tried the line's autodetection by the modem. She gets the error message "the assistant could not detect the Internet connection" and "please check the DSL cable". Though, all Leds shine. The setup of the modem wants me to choose a country but proposes only "Germany / others". Could the firmware be specific to each country, needing me to flash it? Thank you!

You should check if Photoshop and the video edition software can make computations on the video card, which would be rather normal nowadays. Then Intel's integrated video is a very serious drawback. Same: Photoshop and the video edition software must be heavily multitasked, so a quad-core would improvea lot over a dual-core, even hyperthreaded.

Hyperthreading puts two sequencers, register sets and tasks on a core, so that one task uses the parts of a core that the other doesn't, at any time. That's how it gains ~20% measured performance on multi-task work, with little added hardware.

IDE mode slows down a machine a lot, for it lacks NCQ. Did you try BlackWingCat's Ahci drivers? They're perfect on my older P45, and I believe some editions are meant for the Z77. Just put on an F6 floppy the contents of the folder that has Oemsetup.txt. Some motherboards add a Sata host on a Pci-E, and for instance JMicron has W2k drivers for the J363 and others. Gigabyte renames the host, something like Gigaraid. Though, the JMicron host is by far not as good as Intel's, and adds its delay in the Bios before booting W2k. Silicon Image had an excellent SiI3124 (Sata/3000 with NCQ and W2k drivers) but it's for the Pci, and I have not tried their Pci-E chips; with the "base" microcode (=non-raid) the SiI3124 delays booting very little. InfInst is officially meant for W2k as well, even on recent chipsets, but it does not configure the disk host.

Happy new year to all of you! Ski Challenge 2013 officially demands Xp but runs perfectly on my plain W2k without extensions. Previous versions officially ran on W2k. Better: you can install Ski Challenge from the partial installer, let it update online to have all the tracks, copy (zip) the executable folder. For later use, just paste the executable folder where you want and run the exe file . Better if saved from a fresh installation, without tunings. This works for: - versions no more available on the Web - from a connected computer to an offline one - from Xp to W2k - from nVidia to Amd and reverse (the saved fresh installation had coarse display resolution) - but older versions are language-dependent. Truly nice game, which accepts moderate hardware.

I've tried a 55nm Gf9600gt as well, with 288GFlops (8600gt: 113GFlops, Hd6570: 624GFlops). While the two previous cards perform similarly, the Gf9600gt outperforms both ones on games. I understand its Ram throughput makes the difference. To put figures on that, I used 3DMark 2001se. It's a dX8 test, about as old as the games I play, and I put its resolution at 1920*1200*32 which is my target at games. I noted the smallest Fps (and the mean Fps) at the tests "Car Chase High", "Lobby High" and "Nature". These gave me the same ranking as the games. I also varied the Gddr3 frequency a lot at the Gf9600gt, because the initial 1000MHz were abnormally low. The result is convincing, with some test improving nearly as much as the Ram frequency. Please note that on the graph here (log in to see, click to magnify), the Fps of "Lobby high" are halved. From these measurements, we see clearly that the Ram determines the speed, more so the minimum Fps than the mean ones. - Measured at 1024*768*32 with the dX9.0 test 3DMark 2003, the Ram throughput is still very important. Anyway, recent cards have to address big screens. - All these cards are dX10 or dX11 with less efficient unified shaders, while my dX9 games and tests use vertex and pixel shaders. Maybe the translation by the drivers demands more bandwidth. - It could be (or not) that dX10 games take a better advantage of the on-Gpu caches. - Multi-Gpu cards and Sli improve the bandwidth, but they may also need more if each Gpu requests the full amount of data in the Ram. It depends on driver programming. Marc Schaefer, aka Pointertovoid

Intel's Panther Point (= 7 series) chipset, meant for Sandy and Ivy Bridge, brings Usb 3.0 and its InfInst 9.3.0.1019 seems to target W2k. Nothing for a small retrofit of course, but this gives hope at new motherboards. I didn't try it though, and there's no feedback up to now.

I've compared again the Gf 8600gt and the Hd 6570, this time on Xp, with Ski Challenge 2009 and Mountainbike Challenge 2010, at 1920*1200 pixels. The Hd 6570 is a bit worse than the Gf 8600gt despite claiming brutally better computing capability. My only explanation is that the video Ram throughput is the real limit of both cards: ddr3 128 bits. Well, maybe more recent games use on-chip cache better.

I've received an Hd 6570 to replace the Gf 8600gt and tried it with Colin McRae 2005. The Hd 6570 has more computing capacity than the Gf 8600gt but about the same Ram throughput. It also has a PciE 2.0 instead of 1.0, and 1GB instead of 256MB. While I can increase the resolution to 1440*900 - but not to the screen's 1920*1200 - I must keep the "medium" texture definition. This adjustment has much heavier consequences than the image definition. I believe to understand that the texture definition has no effect on the demand on vertex and pixel shading operations. It would demand more throughput from the disks and PciE, and possibly the Cpu in between, BUT this game is from 2005, so I suppose an E8600 and an X25-E are more than enough for it, and 1GB of video Ram can hold the complete textures anyway. It does also demand more throughput at the video Ram, so I suppose this is a real limit of this unbalanced card. Your opinion?

Meanwhile I've received and tried an Hd 6570 on W2k with the v12.4 of the driver adapted by Bwc. I used the hardware detection by Windows and showed it the folder where the cab file was expanded. The driver installs. The Inf file cites the Hd 6570. Results: One game runs well, it's Colin McRae 2005. Performance improves over the GeForce 8600gt. Three game: Ski Challenge, Maintainbike Challenge, Burning Gears, by the same editor (greentube) running the same engine, can't start as they complaint AddVectoredExceptionHandler is missing in Kernel32.dll Did I make something wrong? I have the original Kernel32.dll from W2k sp4. The pivot capability is not included in Bwc's adaptation, I believe. I tried to install an older Catalyst from Ati for W2k to complement the driver, but it refuses to install on the Hd 6570, and I have no older Ati card. Is there a better way? And: the Hd 7750 seems to use the same driver binary from Amd for Xp as the Hd 6570, so could Bwc's adaptation of v12.4 run on the Hd 7750 if just its Inf file is updated? Thanks!

Meanwhile I've tried on my vanilla W2k the official binaries available from www.lyx.org; beware I tried to install them but only started the programmes: I didn't run them for long. - v1.6.5-1-Bundle installs and runs - v1.6.6-1 installs and runs but its interface is English only, and it might have other imperfections against 1.6.5-1 - v1.6.7-4 installs but fails with no sensible message when it's started - v1.6.8-2 installs but refuses to run, with the obscure message resulting from a Visual Studio 2010 compilation option - v1.6.10-2, refuse to install and tell they need Xp (for the Visual Studio 2010 compilation option) - v2.0.3-2-Alt refuse to install; if copied from Xp and pasted to W2k, running it produces the Visual Studio error. The source for v1.6.5-1 is: ftp://ftp.lyx.org/pub/lyx/bin/1.6.5/ (change the address according to the version) where I took LyX-1.6.5-1-Installer-Bundle.exe (122MB...) Please note I had already MikTeX v2.8 installed. Beyond using v1.6.5-1, other options would be: - Take a recent source and compile it for W2k... I won't, sorry. Done it enough when I was young. - Use KernelEx.