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ScrewUpgrading

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Everything posted by ScrewUpgrading

  1. I remember doing "important" stuff with Widows 3.1 such as using Microsoft Word 6.0 or LView Pro, whereas with DOS I only used it for messing around with games and using QPV/386 to look at pictures. I really do like both systems though. Heck, I'm still using the exact same printer that I had on my Windows 3.1 computer. It's a Canon BJ-200e bubble jet printer. It is definitely the oldest working piece of computer equipment that I own, and it's still going strong! It's a survivor, man.
  2. Calmira looks pretty cool. I don't know if I'd use Windows 3.1 again though (not enough software for it), I might as well just use DOS if that was the case I used to use this "Access" menu program on my DOS machine: http://surf.to/AccessDosMenu I don't know if you have one, but where I live there's a "Re-Electronics" store where people can take their old, unwanted computers. They have volunteers who refurbish them, install a newer OS (usually Ubuntu or Windows XP) and they sell them for like 100$. Better than buying off ebay. Last time I was there they had dozens of Pentium IV machines with 1 Gig Ram and Ubuntu for 75$-100$. They also sell CRT monitors, LCD Monitors (I got mine for $40 bucks), keyboards, mice, Ram, Hard drives, VCR's, and other stuff. Alot of the stuff they have would be perfect for building a Win9x dream machine. They have all sorts of old junk there. I'm going there tomorrow. See if I can find some cheap junk. Maybe they have a location near you. http://relectronics.org/index.php/links
  3. Yeah, that thread was from 2001. I'm pretty sure it's been closed down by now. 384 is fine for Windows me. And in my mind now, it is maxed out. Speaking of oldish computers, I have fond memories of my first computer: IBM PS/2, 386sx, 4mb Ram, 80 Meg Hard drive, DOS 5.5 & Windows 3.1. Don't suppose you have any of those beauties laying around? The only upgrade I ever made was adding a Cirrus Logic graphic card. Boy, that did wonders. I went from VGA (320x200x256 colors) to SVGA (640x480x32k colors). I wish I still had that thing. I actually used it until the year 2000 because I remember in my senior year in high school I typed a paper on it using a freeware DOS text editor You can get an idea of how long I stick with computers. I'm only on my third computer since, oh, 1991 I think.
  4. *Problem Solved* It is the motherboard. After searching Google I found this page at the HP help forum: http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/Home-PCs-Pavilion-Presario/vmm32-dll-error-Memory-errors/td-p/46512 I wonder if my computer is still under warranty? LOL! So, technically, my computer IS maxed out as far as RAM. Woohoo! 384 Mb!
  5. Thanks you guys, lots of good info. I'm going to look for those possible jumpers that were mentioned. technoid, I followed your link on ebay and found this listing: http://www.ebay.com/itm/SDRAM-Lot-2-x-256MB-512MB-PC133-SDRAM-Desktop-Mem-RA-/110703492411?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19c6713d3b I was thinking of buying it. The motherboard is the "cognac" series. Phoenix BIOS: Core version 4.06 BIOS Revision 2.07 03/09/01 ============================================= *edit* I downloaded the newer BIOS revision (2.11) and studied the release notes. Nothing was mentioned about fixing RAM problems. Instead, it updates the toggle switch for Fan #3, includes some patches for the modem under WinXP, and some other non-essential stuff. I don't really see any point in upgrading the BIOS, in that case. So, I'll leave well-enough alone. I'm nearly %100 positive that this machine only takes Hewlett Packard proprietary RAM. Which at this late date would be near impossible to find, unless I found another computer of the exact same model and year with 512 already installed, and I could just steal them. Trust me, I've tried plenty of memory sticks on this machine. Everything worked fine, as long I had the original HP memory (128 MB PC100) in the first bank. I think most of the chips I bought worked fine, because I was able to get 384 MB with all of them. (128 Mb original proprietary + any 256 Mb stick I threw at it = working 384 Mb RAM). In that case, I don't think it's a problem with the motherboard, or the Bios, or any hardware defect. I think it's solely a matter of this computer only being able to be upgraded with crappy proprietary RAM from HP. I was mainly interested in finding out about the "missing or corrupted C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\VMM32.VXD" issue, because that's such an unusual error message. I thought maybe it could be fixed by tweaking something in Windows before installing new RAM. But, I don't know. I tried Googling it and found that someone else had a similar problem, and he also came to the conclusion that this computer is just REALLY PICKY about what RAM goes into the first bank. I'm not a tech person or anything like that, but I think he has it nailed. I've already wasted like 50 dollars on RAM sticks for this thing, and I don't think any more will make a difference, as tempting as it is to try and hold out hope. I looked for possible jumpers near the memory banks, didn't see anything. And I looked into the BIOS revision that technoid mentioned, but after reading through the release notes, nothing was mentioned about RAM upgrades or anything like that. So, I'd rather just leave well-enough alone concerning upgrading the RAM and BIOS. I guess if it ain't broke, then don't fix it.
  6. Thanks you guys. I'm going to try and find some better quality ram sticks, the ones I have were old and they cost a dollar :-).
  7. http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=bph06462&tmp_task=prodinfoCategory&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&product=61776 From the HP official website: HP Pavilion 7845 RAM (standard) 128 MB RAM PC100 Maximum 512 MB (2x256 MB DIMM) Speed 100 MHz synchronous Sockets 2 – 168 pins DIMMs Size 32, 64, 128 and 256 MB DIMMs Free DIMM Sockets 1 Pairs Required No Type Supported SDRAM, Intel PC SDRAM unbuffered DIMM specification, revision 1.0 compliant 866 MHz Windows ME *More info* HP Website couldn't find a manual for my specific model. Must be too old. One important thing I noticed is that the RAM that came with it, a 128 MB stick, only has chips on one side, the other side is flat. If I put a 256mb pc100 or pc133 stick in the first slot, the computer won't recognize any Ram at all. But if I have the HP 128 Mb stick (the one with a flat side) in the first slot, then the 256mb sticks will work in the second. It's weird.
  8. Whenever I try to install the maximum 512 MB Ram that my computer can handle I always get the error, when rebooting, "missing or corrupted C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\VMM32.VXD." I've gotten the BIOS to identify 512 MB, but then while booting to Windows it stops and hangs with that message on the screen. I did try adjusting the maximum memory size using "msconfig > advanced > limit memory size to 512". But still it didn't change anything. Is there something about "168 pin low density sdram" that I'm missing, because that's what it requires, and that's what I've been trying. I've probably tried about five or six different sticks of ram in different combinations. The weird thing is that I have to have my hewlitt packard RAM in the first slot of the two, otherwise nothing else will work. Should I just keep trying pairs of RAM on this thing until i get lucky and a pair actually works? Here's what I have: Slot 1 = 128 MB stock memory that came with computer from Hewlit Packard. <-- I'm thinking this is the only "brand" that will work on this piece of junk Slot 2 = some random 256 MB stick total = 384 Mb ram Well, I've pretty much given up on maxing out my RAM, I was just wondering if anyone could tell if I was doing something blatantly wrong. Otherwise I'll just chalk it up to HP being morons.
  9. Yahoo sucks. I switched to Gmail where the system requirements for basic HTML are the following: Browsers without full Gmail features (you can access Gmail, but you won't have some of the latest features): * IE 5.5+ * Netscape 7.1+ * Firefox 0.8+ * Safari 1.3+ http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6557 too bad about spybot. At least there's still ClamWin for Win9x, better than nothing. latest version is 0.97.2 http://www.clamwin.com/
  10. I've been fiddling around for the last week testing out my browsers and came to several conclusions: (1) Netscape and K-Meleon absolutely fly with javascript disabled. Nothing else even comes close to these two. Every humongous website that I threw at them, they quickly demolished it. Secondly, they don't need KernelEx, nor do they require any fancy plug-ins or extensions such as "noscript" in order to disable javascript. The less crap I have to install the better. The more crap I have to install, I can feel my computer getting slower. (The change is noticeable on dial-up) (2) After a week of messing around with "Noscript" I found that Seamonkey started to get bogged down. I think it's a lot faster to simply kill ALL javascript, then it is to have an outdated, obsolete patch (Noscript v1.10) on top that just filters the scripts. You can probably chalk it up to the fact that that version of Noscript, the last one to work on outdated Win9x browsers, is simply defunct crap. (3) As a dial-up user, I really have zero choice anymore for selecting a Win9x browser. Unless I want my web surfing experience to be nothing short of torture, I'm forced to use Netscape and K-Meleon with no javascript. Everything else, including Kernel-Ex compatible browsers, is too slow, too sluggish, too temperamental, or just plain crap. (4) I don't know what I'm going to do next for a computer. Linux, can't find any ISP's that offer cheap linux service, if at all (too much hassle to be worth it). Don't like Macs. Refuse to buy another proprietary Windows OS and pay for more unnecessary "upgrades." What's left? Anybody ever try that Arachne browser for DOS? The future of the internet doesn't look very appealing. It looks like everybody's going to have the same homogeneous computer connected to the cloud and nothing will be private and your computer is just like everyone else's. Don't forget that Microsoft will have full access to it, for you "benefit" of course. *They gotta keep peddling their upgrades* (Basically, your computer will be an intrusive, corporate advertisement.) *Upgrade, upgrade, upgrade*
  11. If you like Windows 3.1 and DOS games here's a cool website that is still updated. http://www.download-central.ws/ Slovak Antivirus Center "You can find here the latest shareware and freeware programs, which come from the collection of SAC FTP server maintained by Peter Hubinsky." http://www.sac.sk/ --MY FAVORITE DOS STUFF-- Below is the homepage for Dvpeg, probably the fastest *freeware* image viewer for DOS that I'm aware of. http://sca.uwaterloo.ca/~praetzel/dvpeg/ (I prefer the simplified version because it has fewer bugs, but it only supports jpeg format though.) You can customize it to your liking. It offers a nice amount of command line switches and other tweaks you can change in the setup. *Note* It doesn't handle progressive format jpegs. It will come up with an error for unsupported marker type. These are pretty rare files though, maybe like 1 in 100 jpegs, if that. On my desktop I actually made a shortcut to Dvpeg. It's a very quick, no frills way of browsing through your jpegs. I made a batch file to start it the way I want every time, and I locked the resolution at 640x480 and enabled shrinking so I don't have to scroll the pictures. Works just as fast as most windows progs, but without all the bloat. If you try out Dvpeg, remember that hitting "N" will go to the next picture, "P" the previous one. Hehe. If I had to rank the best Freeware picture viewers for DOS: (1) Dvpeg http://sca.uwaterloo.ca/~praetzel/dvpeg/ (2) PictView 1.95 http://www.pictview.com/pv195prev.zip (3) Lxpic http://hplx.pgdn.de/ (4) PixView http://www.cs.unibo.it/~rossi/pixview/ (5) Picem http://www.afn.org/~afn04143/picem32.zip ...I might also mention that DOS had some pretty cool *shareware* image viewers. They're all fully functioning despite being shareware. In terms of quality they blow the freeware programs right out of the water. Here's how I would rank them: (1) QPV http://ftp.sunet.se/pub/pc/windows/winsock-indstate/graphics/qpv17a.zip (2) Sea ftp://ftp.sac.sk/pub/sac/graph/sea13.zip (3) QuickView Pro (plays audio, video, and mp3s) http://www.multimediaware.com/ (4) PV http://www.multimediaware.com/ (5) Vpic (no jpeg support) ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/gifutil/vpic61e.zip ...Here's a few Antivirus programs for DOS http://www.come.to/rose_swe (RHBVS... Rose's Heuristic Based Virus Scanner) ftp://ftp.sac.sk/pub/sac/avir/scn-322e.zip (McAfee Virus Scan for DOS) Programming.... http://www.qbcafe.net/en/qbasic-downloads/compiler/qbasic-compiler.htm (QuickBasic 4.5) http://www.qbcafe.net/en/qbasic-downloads/compiler/windows-compiler.htm (Visual Basic 1.0 for Windows 3.1) http://www.qbcafe.net/en/qbasic-downloads/compiler/qbasic-compiler.htm (Visual Basic for DOS) Unzipping ftp://ftp.sac.sk/pub/sac/pack/pcdezip.zip (PCdzip) Freeware unzip utility, alternative to PKunzip Video, Avi, Mpegs http://www.programmersheaven.com/download/3270/download.aspx (Video For DOS) Command line motion video cross-compiler that creates and converts among FLI, FLC, AVI formats plus MPG input/decoding. Reads and extracts BMP, RLE, DIB, TGA, PCX & GIF. Resize, crop, dither, color reduction. Includes GeeWiz, the AVI player for DOS. ftp://ftp.povray.org/pub/povray/utilities/dta/ (Dave's Targa Animator) Dave's targa animator is a program, that can animate PCX GIF and TGA- files in varying colors and resolutions. Outputs FLIC files too. ...Menus, Shells, GUIs http://surf.to/AccessDosMenu (Access) Archiver http://ftp.sunet.se/pub/simtelnet/msdos/arcers/oop23.zip (Oop Archiver) Nice GUI, password protection, disk spanning, good compression ratio, versatile. From the official F-Prot forum: https://forum.f-prot.com/public/fprot_dos_316f.zip To sum it up, it detects over 672,500 viruses.
  12. Just one last bit of information. Firefox 3.6.22 (released on September 6, 2011) works great using the most recent version of "No Script," and of course Kernel Ex. I'm using them right now. Go here to download it: http://noscript.net/ Thanks for the suggestions everybody. I think for dial up this is the best setup you can get: KernelEx + Firefox 3.6.22 + NoScript + Flashblock 1.5.14 (On the few pages that I do allow javascript, I still have flashblock enabled just in case, if you're wondering why I had both)
  13. Thanks everybody. I'm now using my favorite browser again, SeaMonkey 1.1.19, with an extension called "No Script" that blocks all flash and javascript. Moreover, it allows you to whitelist, or pick and choose, whatever website you want to allow javascript for. For dial-up users I'd say it's practically mandatory, since it increases the speed of surfing the web by like 10x. The last version to work on Windows 98/Me is NoScript 1.10 which is available for download at their website. http://noscript.net/getit I also have K-Meleon 1.5.4 and Opera 10.63 with javascript disabled.
  14. Dylan, I already tried doing what you suggested, picking up a cheap older mahcine and throwing on Windows XP or 2000. In my case, I bought a Dell Optiplex GX-260 for $50 with Windows 2000 on it. In the end, I found myself in almost the same situation that I'm in now. An unsupported, proprietary operating system, which is only going to get worse with time, not better. Not to mention I found Windows 2000 to be a lot pickier when it comes to installing the correct drivers for everything from printers, fax/modems, to graphic cards. The built-in support in Windows 2000 just wasn't as good as Windows 98/Me. Granted, my assorted collection of computer parts is probably too old for NTFS versions of Windows, but they all worked with no problems on Windows Me, even though there's less than a year's difference between the two systems. It's just another case of Microsoft trying to kill off older technology and forcing you to pay for the new stuff in my opinion. Which is why I hope Widows XP holds out as long as possible, because once XP is gone, computers as I know them will be gone. Everything is headed towards being "in the cloud," and basically you won't be in control of your own computer. And that's why I'd prefer to use Linux. Even if my understanding of Linux is pretty bad, and it is, at least it's FREE ,and all you need to know to get started is how to burn a live cd. After that, you just got to tinker around with it. I don't think i'd use Ubuntu, instead I prefer Vector Linux Lite, Wary Puppy, or even Dang* Small Linux. All three of those live cd's worked on my ancient computer, and some have the option of installing to your hard drive along with Windows. Which seems quite practical, using both Linux and Win9x, I mean. So in that case, I'd have to disagree with CharlottetheHarlotte, as I see no point in buying yet another computer and soon-to-be-expired version of proprietary Windows. But I think I'm in agreement with most people here when I say I'd rather just keep using Windows 9x.
  15. As the author of this post, I'd like to retract my opinion that Win9x is dead. I just made the discovery that I could disable javascript and thus increase my browsing speed on dialup by like 10x. Win9x Lives!!! =============== HP Pavilion 7845 866 MHz 384 MB Ram Netscape 9.0.0.6 Opera 10
  16. I using Opera right now with no javascript, it's pretty sweet actually. For some reason, my computer seems to really get along with Netscape. It plows through every web page that I throw at it. No delays at all. I'm going to use mostly Netscape and Opera from now on though, since they work the fastest. I might be able to get another 5 years out of this computer now!!! (Which would make it 16 years old and still using all the original parts) I can't believe how slow the internet had gotten in the last 2 years on dialup. Now I can read all my blogs, fan fiction, cnn & fox news, and other stuff without it taking 3 minutes every single new page. Javascript = the spawn of evil.
  17. Holy freaking crap... i was just about to throw my computer out the window and kill it, I tried using Opera 11 with Kernel Ex, I tried K-Meleon, I tried Seamonkey, all of which are SLOWER THAN HELL!!! Then I installed Netscape Navigator 9.6, disabled Javascript, and BOOM! It's ten times quicker. It's unbelievable. I went to fanfiction.net, and it loaded like instantaneously (just a freaking text site.) It used to get bogged down with the ads that displayed on the top and to the right. Even this forum loaded faster than it has in, well, forever!!!!!! Can somebody explain to me why the hell this makes such a huge difference? I'm on dial-up, and this is freaking awesome. I'm never enabling javascript ever again. What am I missing out on because I disabled it? So far, I don't noticed anything not working. It said my "flashblock" doesn't work because javascript is disabled, but that's the only thing I noticed while looking around the options menu.
  18. Thanks you guys. I read every single reply. I was probably being too pessimistic when I started this topic. I agree with you guys, being on dial-up is probably the biggest detriment to enjoying Windows 9x on the web. And don't get me wrong, I do prefer using Windows ME. I wouldn't otherwise be using it in 2011. I don't like newer versions of Windows at all. Steve, my computer setup is this: HP Pavilion model 7845 866 MHz Pentium III 128 Mb RAM --> (I upgraded to 384 Mb) 40 GB Hard Disk Integrated graphics - Intel 82810e graphics controller w/ 3 MB shared memory AC'97 Sound Card Lucent Win modem Realtek networking card 2 USB ports (1 front, 1 back) CD-RW 3.5" Floppy Drive ....browsers that I use: SeaMonkey 1.1.19 (with Flashblock) Opera 10.63 (Turbo mode) To get the full benefit of Kernelex and Firefox 3.6, I'm going to fork out the cash for DSL, even if it's $40 per month. It's something that I'm going to have to do eventually anyway. But Windows 9x is certainly the last windows for me. All the newer ones seem like spyware. I'll stick with Windows Me as long as humanly possible, but I'm also going to start using Wary Puppy and Vector Linux more. Have a good day you guys. And who knows... maybe KernelEx will continue in some form or another.
  19. Whlie attempting to do some stalking of ex-girlfriends on Myspace and Facebook, and waiting forever to load the error-ridden pages, I suddenly had an epiphany: Windows 9x is dead! I've reached my limit of slowy, crappy internet. Time is a luxury that I don't feel like wasting anymore, not when the vast majority of people enjoy quick, reliable, fully-featured access to the internet. Being on dial-up is another huge factor, which I don't think high speed users entirely comprehend, but they will soon, as their remaining pool of browsers eventually breakdown and they have no alternatives. It really makes a big difference to have a GOOD browser on dial-up because an outdated browser magnifies the already slow speed of dial-up. I've also decided to uninstall KernelEx from my computer in a last ditch attempt at getting back some of the speed I sacrificed after installing newer (slower) browsers. Firefox 3.5 loads pages nicely, but it crawls on dialup. And speedwise Opera 11 isn't any different than 10.63. I have important things to do online sometimes (banking, email, shopping, keeping in touch with family) and I can't settle for such terrible quality internet anymore. Not in the year 2011, maybe if it was 2005 or something. My use of Windows 9x has mostly been a circumstance of my miniscule budget and a nostalgic hope of remaining rooted to DOS, but I think I'll spend the money for high speed internet and switch completely over to Linux. It would seem to be a more economical choice in the long run. I basically can't afford what Microsoft is peddling these days. Linux seems to be the only choice for somebody on the poverty line like myself. I've been getting accustomed to Wary Puppy recently and I plan on using that on this computer. Lastly, I'm wondering what you guys are planning to do with your computers in this post-KernelEx day and age. I, personally, see no future at all for windows 9x. (Except maybe to read plain pages of text using "Off By One"-- it's faster than anything else available, it'll probably last longer too). Well, I hope I didn't p*** anybody off.
  20. Since it's harder to find shareware these days than freeware on the net, I was curious if you guys could recommend some stuff. I tried Googling "shareware" but all it came up with was dead or abandonded webpages. Everything these days is free it's seems like. But ten years ago or more, all the good stuff wasn't free. What software have you guys actually paid for? I'm assuming that since you paid for it, it must be good then, right? Here's what I've bought: (1) CompuPic Pro 6.3 This is the fastest, most elegant, high quality image VIEWING program I've ever used. It not photoshop, it's more like a XnView but nicer. Pros: -The thumbnail previews are interpolated and the highest quality, and they are also lightning quick, even on my slow computer -decodes (loads) images super fast -Similar tools for editing, correcting photos as IrfanView, Xnview, etc. -Less buggy than Xnview -Resizes big pictures (interpolates) to fit the screen faster, better quality than even IrfanView 4.30 -Worth the $49 to register. When it first came out, it cost like $100 bucks to register. Cons: -none that I know of (2) Mihov Jpegar Well, this thing was only 10 bucks, so I decided what the heck. It's really fast. No B.S. image viewer. Would probably be lightning quick even on Windows 95 and Pentium 1 or 486. Pros: -cheap -fast -easy to use, good quality for it's small size Cons: -no editing pictures -very few options or features -overall very plain (3) Paul's Graphic Viewer It's very similar to IrfanView, and has almost been around as long, if not longer, because I remember this thing way back on Windows 3.1! Pros: -the author still supports it, and is continuing development for newer versions of Windows -intuitive interface, easy to learn -lots of neat effects, filters, tools and stuff (more than IrfanView) -loads pictures fast Cons: -none Well, that's all I've been able to discover that I considered worth buying. If anybody has any cool software to recommend that would be cool. I'm always on the lookout to discover new things.
  21. Wow, that "Off By One" browser is the craziest thing I've ever seen!!!!!!!!!!! I just tested it on the following websites: -Drudge Report.com (super fast, graphics disabled/enabled) -Fan Fiction.net (super fast, no graphics. I love this website.) -Information Clearing House.info (no graphics, fast) -various blogs at wordpress and blogger (works best with graphics disabled. Able to quickly browse through text.) Overall, not bad. I'm trying to think of a situation where it would be of use. Probably revive some ancient computer with it. Not only that, but it's small enough to fit on a floppy disk. (I still remember how to make multi-volume archives using ARJ and Pkzip, just in case any program won't fit.) Darn, I wish I still had my old Dell 486sx with 16MB Ram. I'm sure this browser would be PERFECT for surfing the net. Thanks, Jumper. I'm coming up with a new project to do now. And I'm already making a list of software that I'd use. I might be the only guy on the net using a 486 pretty soon :w00t: My Windows 95 Dream Machine setup, with buttloads of abandonware: -Off By One Browser -LView Pro 1.c -Pictview 1.95 for DOS (This link is for the rare unreleased final version that is faster, and has a couple more features than the well-known 1.94 version. Check it out!) -QPV/386 1.7e -PkZip for Windows -Microsoft Word 6.0
  22. rilef said: I wouldn't even know where to begin at MDGX.COM, not to mention what updates to use. It's such a user-unfriendly website that any advantage it offers is sure to be buried in a maze of incomprehensible jargon. You have to be cryptologist to decipher that webpage.
  23. I had some problems with Opera 11.5 as well, nothing major, but certain things that were annoying. For instance, the history bar wouldn't "drop down" and display a list of the websites that I'd typed in. Secondly, there was no toolbar button for going "home", in which case I had to retype Google.com every single time. I ended up just using the search bar that was right next to the address bar, but I didn't really like that, because I still couldn't get back to google's main page and check my email and stuff like that. It was weird. Overall however, considering that I'm on dialup, I'll definitely be keeping my copy of 11.51 for future use (it was certinaly fast). But for now, I'm actually quite pleased with plain old Opera 11.00. I think it works better than 10.63 and I haven't noticed any problems with it. I don't know if that would help you though.
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