CoffeeFiend

Ideally you don't want that, but rather proper unicode support: that's where the 00's normally come from, it's not just padding (having 00's for no reason would be kind of dumb). This script doesn't return UTF-16 encoded strings, and if you try passing a unicode-encoded text file instead (probably not what you want in the first place), it only writes "0" instead of "00", plus, it writes the byte order mark and all that to the file too. It might be helpful to know what you're doing all this for. Then replace var outputline = "-";by var outputline = ""; Why on earth would be .js files disabled? or .vbs files for that matter? All this accomplishes is making the scripting host useless... I can't think of a single good reason to do that. One could "fix" the .js file for unicode encoded output, but seemingly you don't want a jscript file. If you want a .exe, then yes, you'll have to use something else. Any other techs you can't use? This could easily be done in a dozen lines of C# (would be a .exe, but you'd need the .NET framework installed)

That's normal. It tries to keep data in memory, because it's a LOT faster to return results from data in memory than having to read it from disk first. Well, maybe the query finished running, or maybe it did hang indeed. Ok, now my #1 priority question would be, what changed since then? Any new apps, or new versions of some app or such you're using (that could make bad queries), or changes you've made recently to anything? If it's only been doing that for a couple days, and that something was changed a couple days ago, it might be a good idea to investigate. Something else that is very much worth looking into is SQL Server query logging (there should be plenty of details about that in BOL, technet or MSDN). That will log the name of the database the query is ran against, the user who ran it, the query itself, its execution time and some more helpful data. It would help figuring out what's going on for sure.

Then you're saying it's just SQL Server freezing, not Windows (which is what I meant). If windows was frozen, you wouldn't be able to use his method to get dumps... If it's just SQL Server that stops responding, most likely it's just a query you're running that's too intensive, and it's just very busy trying to execute it. Some bad queries will tend to "freeze" a lot of different RDBMS'es (make them unresponsive for a while). Check your performance counters, and see what's happening (CPU pegged? I/O bottleneck? paging memory a lot? etc) I'm not sure who's writing the queries being ran on it, but some beginners will write pretty bad queries that will do this kind of stuff: table scans on large tables, lots of joins, selecting unnecessary columns, no/bad indexes, poor choices in terms of database schema and data types, etc resulting in poor execution plans, high resource usage and all that. This is why I was asking about that other stuff.

You're seeing these because the machine wasn't shutdown properly. It doesn't give any useful infos. Hard to say what happens with so little information. Does it freeze hard? (as in the whole server) -- if so, enable memory dumps so we can try to analyze them. Or is it just MS SQL that stops processing queries? (could be high load simply, you looked at CPU load/performance counters?) What's the actual query and table schema? How many rows in the table? (very useful to know, so we can guess just how resource intensive to process, and even try to duplicate it) What version of MS SQL? Is the box fully patched & using the latest drivers? We just can't solve the problem or guess what is it based on so little information unfortunately.

That, and if it will actually perform significantly better than the current heatpipe based coolers. As for the compound used, are we really sure it's not being manufactured by Cyberdyne Systems? I heard their T-1000 model is a real killer, and cool too. I'd be a little worried though. You might want to keep some liquid nitrogen around just in case

For the wacom? No, I'm using those you linked to in the first post.

Windows already installed. I guess I should have been more clear. I don't have to deploy wacom drivers on dozens or hundreds of Vista boxes, so I don't include things like this. It hasn't restarted or asked to for me, but you might be using it differently.

/s working fine on Vista x86 here.

If you had read my post (or the ones I linkted to), you'd see it was nuhi's own decision NOT to include them, as in, he willingly removed it. You might also have found some information about other ways to get it...

Lots of topics about this already, like this, this and this... It's nuhi's call, and he chose not to redistribute MS binaries without permission/possibly against the EULA.

Windows 95 often came on a stack of floppies (never seen Win98 like that though). But man, it took FOREVER to install. You were swapping floppies for over an hour. So I'd say Win 3.x was the last tolerable version, and there aren't too many practical uses for Win 3.x anymore. Besides, floppies are way too unreliable nowadays. I'm not really sure what the whole point of it is, as DVD writers can be had for $25 everyday, 2GB USB drives (that will fit way more than just XP) around $10, and you can still install from a network share (boot to dos with NDIS2 drivers, map network share, install from there), or straight from PXE, etc. You could even pull the hard drive out, and plug it in another computer to copy the installation files on it. So many possibilities... No one is stuck with "just floppies". Floppies are excruciatingly slow (mere kilobytes per second) to read and also to write, often had errors, have a ridiculously low capacity (just think about it, a simple 700MB ISO is over 450 floppies, and a DVD like Vista would be over 3000), and a lot of PCs don't even have floppy drives nowadays -- I've been floppy-free since 2001 (good riddance). There's plenty of better alternatives out there. All the other methods (from USB, across network, etc) will be faster, are more reliable, and as a bonus you won't have to waste an hour of your life changing floppies every couple minutes.

That's exactly what I was saying. Those were good. 16MB RAM and 4MB of flash. But they've been out of production and stock for several years. The only WRT54G you'll find in stores now are v8.x, which like I said have only 8MB of RAM and 2MB of flash, hence won't ever run Tomato, nor the standard versions of DD-WRT (only the micro builds) -- nor anything special (like kismet drone), are more complicated to flash (your average user won't really care for vxworks killer and tftp upload), and have fixed antennas too (forget about nice high-gain antennas). They're a waste of money. Hell, I got one right here on my desk doing nothing, not even sure if I'll ever do anything with it... The old GS version was even better (32MB RAM, 8MB flash, USB port), but same story, they're now crippled too -- all of 2MB of flash, so no Tomato and all that. People were complaining about how much they sucked (Linksys got rid of Linux on them, and used a vxworks-based firmware instead, just so they could get away with saving a few pennies by skimping on RAM and flash), and that they were ultimately useless for 3rd party firmwares, which is what made it so good in the first place. So they listened, and and brought back the good old WRT54G v4 (right before it started sucking) under a new name -- the WRT54GL (L for Linux, as in, enough RAM and flash to run what it used to run), and raised the price $10. It has 16MB of RAM and 4MB of flash like the old WRT54G models, replaceable antennas and all. I personally wouldn't go for any lower than 16MB RAM and 4MB of flash. More would be nicer, but routers with more memory tend to cost quite a bit more... And eventually you get into fancier stuff (routerboards, or expensive & complicated cisco gear, or linux/bsd servers, etc)

Not to be contradictory, but definitely NOT!!!!!!! G=crippled GS=nearly as bad The old G versions like you probably have were good (e.g. v4) but now they're crippled. The current versions (v8.x) are a pain to flash (using vxworks killer, and you must upload firmware via tftp), and have so little memory that Tomato won't even run on it, only the micro builds of DD-WRT will (they only got 2MB of flash), and even then... You can't replace the antennas on the G either. You most definitely want the GL version, which is exactly the same as the old G before it started sucking.

Yes, a LOT of them fail like this under warranty. And indeed, they'll take it back, and most of the time they'll hand you a equally defective unit as a replacement (they don't hand out new ones, but refurbs), which will do the same thing out of the box, or will start to act up within a couple of weeks. I've seen people throw away routers still under warranty like that (often after exchanging it once or twice), because it just wasn't worth the hassle. The overall quality of consumer routers these days is abysmal. They're made from cheap "barely sufficient" parts with a very low tolerance to anything, cutting corners everywhere, poorly cooled, and assembled very cheaply, supplied with poor quality power adapters and all that. I've long stopped being surprised when I see yet another one fail. High latency isn't due to line quality/condition.

Are they counting different colors of memory cards or something? Last I checked there were only like a half dozen (like CF and SD). Another couple years an they'll be up to 150! Anyways if I had internal USB devices doing this to me, that can't be disabled/unplugged or such, I'd probably disable the USB controllers or something (in the BIOS), and once the OS is installed re-enable them (and let them detect). Assuming your keyboard/mouse isn't USB in the first place of course... Never had the problem though, and I've used systems with mixed SATA, PATA, and USB card readers too. Maybe I've just been lucky.

I don't think I've ever seen a router that used to work fine and then started acting up like this (especially rebooting like that) ever be fixed by reflashing/resetting to factory defaults. 99% of the time it's the hardware itself. The problem will only get worse with time (more frequent crashes/reboots). Consumer routers going bad like that is very common... I'd be shopping around for a WRT54GL. It's the best router you can buy (unless you're willing to spend a LOT more than that). I just bought another one for a neighbor just last week (who was having the exact same issues as you) for about $50. Reflash it with DD-WRT or Tomato and you're set. It's totally hassle-free, it just works. Tons of features & options.

At the top right, just under the "add reply" and "new topic" buttons, it says "options", click that, and switch to standard.

First, your english is just fine As for your drivers, if they don't offer drivers for it, then there's no way to make it work... That scanner model is dating from year 2000 or before, so it's not really surprising they're not going to spend money to write x64 drivers for it. It's not particularly high resolution, and being USB 1 it's probably not very fast either. Might be a good time to look for a replacement (you're going to have to move to x64 sometime, and you'll be forced to replace it anyways). You can always keep it on another computer for now (that isn't running a 64 bit OS). The Lifeview 3000 card is dating from 2001 or before, so it's mostly the same thing. The latest drivers are a couple years old, just like for the scanner. So I wouldn't expect any updates for either anytime soon. Companies only support their hardware for so long. And I had never heard of either company before actually.

I thought about that too when I read "problem 1". But that wouldn't explain the router rebooting...

It definitely can, but again, it's not legal. Apple is a hardware company, so they don't want you to install their OS on their competitor's hardware... That's not going to change anytime soon.

Most such intermittent connection issues I've seen were due to faulty routers, but it could be a few other things. Faulty routers often do this (reboot) a lot too... That, combined with the first problem, makes me think it's most likely the router. Personally, I'd jut pickup a Linksys WRT54GL (not G or GS) and put a good 3rd party firmware on it like DD-WRT or Tomato.

I completely agree there. I never really understood why most people even bother in the first place. It's not like it's really protecting you any better (no unsolicited traffic will make it past NAT, the router wouldn't even know where to send the packets), it just slows down your system for nothing and sometimes causes various issues like this one. Unless one likes to micro-manage their outbound packets perhaps (app xyz wants to check for an update, cancel or allow?) Too much of a pain to configure them anyways. I've been running firewall-free for MANY years with zero problems.

I've had similar issues last time I tried some new drivers for my 8500GT. A couple downloads would say something like "no supported hardware" too. I had to use another version (latest one from guru3d.com iirc), which worked fine. Maybe it's something to do with their installer, haven't bothered looking into it more, I thought it was an isolated case. Those were x86 drivers though...

They say there's 2 new blogs created every second (that's a lot of depressed emo kids and people posting pictures of their cat). That's why I'm saying I don't really care. I just don't see how yet another blog would really change anything, and with all these blogs, it gets exponentially harder to find anything worthwhile, it's like finding a needle in a haystack. (not referring to yours, didn't look) And there's already so many interesting ones out there on every subject... Tons of developer's blogs (loads of nice ones even just on MSDN), some for admins, others for different subjects (electronics/embedded work, tech news, cooking, photography, etc). Enough that I already have a hard time keeping up with it all. I just fail to see what mine would add to the overall picture. A few years ago I could have used some online storage for sure, but nowadays, I just don't have a need for that anymore, between openvpn for access to my own stuff and the dozens of sites like rapidshare/megaupload/etc I got all my needs covered.

And that's precisely why I don't have one Too much work to write articles on a "standard" site (so it's worth visiting in the first place) and blogging ain't my thing much (99.9999999999% of blogs are a waste of time anyways). As for making yet another forum, it's much the same. Nearly nobody would visit, they'd have to register to yet another site, and all that to ultimately talk about the same things than we do here... And then you're left with the bills (name, hosting, etc), and all the admin too (backups, upgrading, moderate forums, get rid of spam, etc). No point.