zanet

Thanks a million Tomasz!

Hi Tomasz, Thanks for the update. I'm sorry to be a pain in the butt here but you said you were going to provide a list of the remaining updates I needed, which is what I was waiting on. Just to recap, I manually installed MS SP4, MS RollUp 1, updates from MS updater and your UURollUp. I could be wrong here but you said I needed a few remaining hot fixes from a site and your new RollUp 2. However, when I checked out your new site and saw SP5 it includes everything and I'm not sure about the rest because I don't know what I already have, in terms of individual updates.

Thanks for the update Tomasz! I have a question (or three) about your UURollUp. Before I installed the RollUp, I'd get the BIOS screen, then a black screen with a load bar at the bottom (with the "press F8" option underneath), then finally the "full color" Windows 2000 image and load bar, then settings pop ups and the desktop.. After I installed your update I got all of that but no "F8" option in the black loading screen. Now, it's changed yet again and goes straight from the BIOS screen to Windows 2000 image / loading part (with a 1 second "flash" of a black screen in between). Is it meant to be like that or is something wrong? I ran chkdisk and it repaired / replaced a number of files when booting up. I don't remember the name or reason it gave me for doing so, but do you think that has something to do with it? I'm not even sure if what it replaced had anything to do with your updates. Also, Java says I have an outdated OS and won't install the latest version and Firefox 12 is having a fit now saying it's out of date but can't update due to the OS. This happened before chkdsk repaired / replaced any files though. Is says in your stats that you run 2000 as well, so I thought you'd had additional insight beyond your knowledge of the updates. You said you have the latest versions of everything on your machine and that they work fine, is that because you have the extra updates I'm waiting on? Does 2000 boot up like that for you?

So, you're saying the virtual memory is the cause of the restart / shutdown problem as well? I had a look but there was no final "advanced" option, just Control Panel . System > Advanced > Performance. I took a screenshot of the windows. Let me know if the settings look okay or not. Virtual Memory Screenshot

I've tried doing that but nothing changed. The only settings I haven't touched are Antialiasing settings and Anisotropic filtering because I don't know what they do. Any ideas? I'd like to try another card but in order to do that I'd need something compatible with this old machine (preferably an ATI card). I was hoping someone would know of a good alternative to the card I have now (Geforce FX 5700). On a side note, would DX be an issue? The post SP4 updates installed DirectX 9c but after that the games installed an older version (5 or 6 I think). The system says it's currently running 9c but do I need to uninstall that and run an older version of DX for the games to work properly? Or, do I need to install 7 and 8 as well to fill in the gaps?

Why did you mention chipset names? I'm aware I can use a magnifying glass. However, they're clearly rusty or leaking I don't see much difference between the two capcitors in the first pic bphlpt posted, aside from color and a slightly domed top. Is that what I'd be looking out for?

It seems at least two of my replies never got posted. Weird. Anyway, I thought I'd try another brand and see how it performed (provided it was a simple enough procedure and cheap enough) because the one I have now is playing up with the old games. Basically, I want to use this machine for old games and the ones I've tried so far have all had problems when I scroll. Instead of a smooth scrolling / panning action, it's very choppy and staggers across the screen. These are old games like Command and Conquer, Starcraft and Unreal. I've been messing around with the Nvidia settings but nothing seems to make a difference. These are the some of the settings (I've marked the current settings in red). I haven't tried changing the Antialiasing settings or Anisotropic filtering because I have no idea what they do. Screen refresh rate 65hertz, 70, 72, 85 Performance and quality settings / Image settings high performance, performance, quality, high quality Performance and quality settings / Antialiasing settings application controlled, off, 2x, 2xQ, 4x, 8x Performance and quality settings / Anisotropic filtering application controlled, off, 2x, 4x, 8x The rest just seem to be for color (32bit) and resolution (1024 x 768).

Thanks for the pics bphlpt! Why the "LOL" though? I'm a novice when it comes to these things, so I have to ask what might seem like silly questions. I had another look at the motherboard and I don't see anything that's leaking or rusty looking. As for what's "bulging", I couldn't really say. Those capacitors are too small for the untrained eye to distinguish.

I'm just bumping the thread because I didn't get an answer about the older / newer drivers for the Nvidia card and alternate graphics card. Can someone advise me on what to do here?

I'm not quite sure what you mean by capacitors. Are you referring to the large white slots the cards plug into? I have actually had the case open and looked around on several occasions to clean the fans etc. Having looked at it the other day I didn't see anything that (to my mind) was "leaking" or "swollen". I assume by leaking you mean actual liquid of some kind coming from the parts? My connection speed is around 12mb. I did try pausing the videos like you suggested but it didn't make a difference. It only improved after I downgraded to flash 10.1. I have tried with this on another PC and You Tube is fine. Mind you, everything is fine with the other one because it's fairly new and about 3 times as powerful. I wanted to get this one set up properly so I use it for my older games and general browsing.

In the short time I've been running 2000 on this machine I've noticed a few problems popping up. One of them is that after an hour or so of browsing and / or if I have 5-6 tabs open I'll get a prompt saying the system needs to free up extra virtual memory. I'm running the same spec I had with my former OS (98se, P4 1.6, 512ram) and never had any such problems then. This seems to have gotten worse since I installed certain updates (UURollup, Firefox 12 etc). Is 2000 more resource intensive or is it caused by something else? It seems like the longer it's on the slower it gets. Also, whenever I try to restart the screen will lock up (if the pc has been on for hours). If I try to shut down, it will restart instead. I tried alternating the power settings but I don't know what the optimal settings are for 2000. I've ran defrag and chkdisk but that didn't help either. Are there any other windows or third party tools I can use to help diagnose and fix these problems?

Brilliant! Thank you tomasz!!

Hi there! No, I haven't tried that. I can guess what the format command does but what does "chkdsk" do? Is that part of the format process or a command for checking / fixing errors in windows?

I just checked the drivers I installed and they're the same as what Arminius found in his search. Should I try an older driver like Browncoat suggested or perhaps a newer version (one update up from what I have now) for XP+? The latter might seem like a silly option but I assume a lot of XP compatible software is now 2K compatible with the updates I currently have. Thoughts / suggestions? @tomasz: Yes, I have your UURollup. I know this sounds silly but after the problems I had with the newer versions of Flash and Avast I wasn't sure if I should try the new Java, so I left it. I wanted to get all the unofficial 2K updates before I tried getting the latest third party software. @Arminius: Thanks for the suggestion. I'll make some calls and see what some of my local repair shops have available. Having read up a little on the different cards and compatible slots (PCI, PCIe?) I'm not sure what to go for if I try another card though. It seems like a lot changed after 2004. I'd like to try an ATI card to see what it's like. Do you know of any good ones?

I tried a different version of flash (10.1) and it appears to have fixed the problem. Some videos are still a bit choppy (visuals not in sync with the sound) but most of the ones I tried (testing the same videos from before) work fine now. I don't know why flash 11.1.202.55 would cause lag (I'd have thought the opposite, the newer the better) but despite having most of the post SP4 updates, it wasn't right. Pretty weird. I don't know if I can call this "solved" since I'd prefer to have the latest versions without all these teething problems but I'll take what I can get.