MrMaguire

Both motherboards are Latitude D820 'boards, but the old one had the 945PM Intel chipset (because of the dedicated graphics), and the new one has the 945GM Intel chipset (because of the integrated graphics). Both 'boards essentially feature the same set of hardware, minus the graphics. For what it's worth, they are on different BIOS revisions. The nVidia 'board had the latest A10 BIOS, whereas the Intel 'board has the A09 BIOS. I just assumed that everything would work fine. I've cloned OEM XP installations to and from similar models where the same difference in graphics hardware exists (Latitude D810 > D610), and all has worked fine. I've even transferred a retail XP installation from an SiS based Acer motherboard to an Intel based Gigabyte one. With completely different hardware, aside from the hard drive, memory and processor ...and all worked fine there too. This one's a real head-scratcher. So I had an idea. What if the user profile is causing these issues? As crazy as it sounds, I've had Windows do some strange things because of a broken profile before. So I logged into another account on the system, which had an existing profile before the motherboard swap. I disconnected the ethernet, loaded up a YouTube channel, and let it play through the videos. After about 25-30 minutes, the Wi-Fi dropped and the audio started stuttering. Same problem. Then I tried using another account, but deleting its existing profile, and letting Windows create a fresh one. Same test, same failure, except this time it lasted a little longer before it failed. So it's not the profile Then I tried the suggested and uninstalled the drivers for the various system controllers in Device Manager. After a reboot, Windows basically just reinstalled the drivers. And over an hour of the same testing later, the wireless and audio seem completely fine! I'll report back if anything developes.

Alright. I rebooted. Windows hung on logging on to my account for like 20 minutes, which I find strange. Then it reinstalled some devices. Then another reboot ...and the same problems still exist. I've never encountered issues like these. I probably should just do a fresh install, but now I'm kinda curious, plus I'm lazy.

I should probably give a little more detail. This is a Dell Latitude D820 that was spec'd new with nVidia graphics. The graphics chip suffered from the inevitable BGA solder issue, so I swapped the motherboard for one with Intel graphics. I decided to keep on using the same installation of Windows XP after the motherboard swap, and that's when I first noticed this issue. Like previously mentioned, I later did some test installs of XP x64 and 7 x86, and the wireless was working reliably the whole time. The WLAN card is an Intel PRO Wireless 3945ABG. It does have its own utility (Intel PRO/Set), but I just installed the driver manually, and used XP's wireless zero configurator. I've also noticed an issue with audio playback. After the system has been up for a while, I get stuttering in the audio, as if the system can't cope with the playback, except it can. This affects everything sound related in Windows, even the logoff sound. Just like the wireless issue, rebooting makes it disappear, only for it to come back again. Plus this issue also did not appear in the aformentioned tests of XP x64 and 7 x86. I've uninstalled all of the hidden devices, and also the wireless and audio drivers. The computer is rebooting now. Then I'll check to see if the problems still exist.

Long story short, I just replaced the motherboard in a Dell Latitude D820 laptop, and I've needed to use the Wi-Fi for various reasons. The system boots up, connects to the Wi-Fi just fine, and then with any considerable usage, the system will drop the wireless connection, as if the radio has been turned off, but it hasn't. Rebooting resets the cycle, and so on... Why am I posting this in the XP forum? This seems to only happen under this particular install of Windows XP Pro x86. At first I was thinking that I didn't seat the Wi-Fi antenna connections properly. I needed to try some fresh Windows XP x64 and 7 x86 test installs anyway, and I noticed that the Wi-Fi was rock solid the whole time with those. No drop outs at all. So I'm thinking there's something not quite right about this XP install. I've tried reinstalling the driver to no avail.

Yes, that's true. However I believe that both UR2 and USP5.1 contain updates that are not offered by Windows Update, such as hotfixes by request.

This is the way I've been doing unofficial Windows 2000 installs, and so far I've had good luck. 1. Install Windows 2000 2. Install drivers 3. Install SP4 (if it's not already) 4. Install UR1 5. Install Unoffical Service Pack 5.1 6. Install all updates from Windows Update 7. Install UR2 8. Install UURollup 9. Install any add-ons, like the unofficial Windows Imaging Component, of the unofficial Group Policy Client Side Extension You can cut out steps 3 and 4 by using nLited install media.

I pasted the icon into Microsoft Word on my Windows 7 computer, and it showed the used font as MS Mincho. So I went into the fonts folder, and transferred a copy of MS Mincho onto my Windows XP virtual machine. Now the icon will show in Microsoft Word (on the virtual machine), but the icon still won't show in the title bar and taskbar for YouTube. I also tried Opera 12.15. No dice.

Compatibility-wise, Internet Explorer definitely has improved a lot. I just think that Microsoft could've come up with something much better for a UI. I don't like how tabs are on the same row as the address bar, and the bar with the yellow stripe that appears at the bottom. That's completely the wrong place for it. The older UI for downloading files was much better. Plus the whole thing looks totally goofy with the classic theme. I also dislike how Microsoft removed the Internet Explorer Maintenance set of group policy objects with Internet Explorer 10. The Google Chrome Frame is pretty fun to experiment with, but it makes Internet Explorer incredibly inefficient. IE7 looks really nice on XP with Luna, for anything with the classic theme, I prefer IE8.

In the name of being OCD, I'd like to point out another minor cosmetic defect on Windows XP. When watching a YouTube video (in Pale Moon in this case), a small play symbol shows next to the video title. That's pretty cool. It even shows in the browser title bar, and the browser taskbar tab(s). Except on Windows XP (and older), it doesn't. This is what you get on XP. So, I'm guessing that XP and older are missing a font or something that this is dependent on. Anybody know which one? I'm posting here because I can't find much about this on Google.

Answers: Yes. No. Yes. I really don't have a main computer, I have several, most of which are running XP x86 or x64 with the POSReady and Server 2003 updates respectively. No issues on this front, yet. I still use Internet Explorer 7 and 8. Call me crazy, but I really like them. Much more than I like Google Chrome at least. IE7 and 8 both can render this forum properly, IE7 does mess some stuff up. Internet Explorer 8 has a fantastic UI. Why has nobody else implemented colour-coded group tabs. That was a great idea! Unfortunately, getting IE9 and upwards installed and running on XP is something that probably won't happen, at least not until there's a lot interest in the idea, which there probably never will be. I don't see that as a bad thing though, the UI in the new versions of Internet Explorer is just asinine. I use Pale Moon as my main browser. I was holding onto Firefox 28.0 because it was the last version before the UI change. But Pale Moon's nice because it still has the old UI, plus I prefer the blue moon logo to the orange Firefox logo.

I'm experiencing a few annoyances in Windows 7 that I haven't noticed before. One is that Windows Update seems to be confused in thinking that Service Pack 1 is less than 10MB in size, and lists it as an available update even though it's already installed. Plus Windows Update seems to take a billion-kajillion years to find available updates, though it may have always been that way. Two is updating drivers through the device manager using Windows Update. A lot of late XP and Vista era hardware has drivers available on Windows Update. Since I've been using Windows 7 (about 5 years now), this has always worked, but now it just doesn't for some reason, and it hasn't worked on any machine that I've tried recently. You try to update a driver, and Windows just gives up. Like it knows that there is no driver at all for that device, even before it checks, although there is a driver, and it appears on Windows Update. Oh, and three. Updates have been failing to install, and reporting that they did install successfully. And by a stark contrast, other times I've had Windows report that updates have failed to install, yet they installed successfully. Oh, and four. Windows Update takes an eternity to search for available updates. Then what? It shows you available updates? No. Then it says that it could not search for updates. Sorry. Please hang up, and try again. Bring plenty of time with you, 'cause you'll need it. Has anyone else noticed these issues?

I really need a wireless client for Windows 2000. I'm using a Linksys 802.11g adapter that's 10 years old and its wireless client on the driver disc is asinine and old. I can't find a newer utility on Linksys' website, and Windows 2000's implementation of a wireless client is far too crude and outdated.

I've noticed it with drivers as new as February 2014 with a GeForce 8400GS.

The thinning of the font is very noticeable on the start button, which is why I chose to make an example of it. But it also affects the font used for the title bar too. Other system fonts seem to be unaffected, as far as I can tell. This is what the XP start button looks like with ClearType enabled. Quite different.

Well, Windows XP does rock. So no argument there.

I wonder why overclockers like that one would use Windows XP instead of something newer.

I've noticed this with at least GeForce and Quadro drivers. I'm guessing that it affects all nVidia drivers for XP. It must be some kind of font smoothing or antialiasing or something. I've noticed consistently that it gets disabled with more than one monitor connected. So the question is: What changes or is disabled when more than one monitor is connected? I'm hoping that it's not something that's built-in to the actual drivers, because that would probably be much more difficult to remove/disable. It's a pretty useless feature, if you can even call it that. Given that it only seems to thin some of the on-screen fonts, and only on Windows XP/2003, and only with a visual style similar to Luna. Not to mention that XP and up support real font antialiasing that can be enabled with any graphics drivers. Actually I might add that ClearType rendered fonts on XP with nVidia drivers, look exactly the same as they do with Intel/ATi drivers.

Nope. Still at 96.

I've noticed that there is something about the nVidia display drivers that slightly changes the interface font on Windows XP. It's only really noticeable if you use a theme with a visual style, and it only occurs if you're using an nVidia graphics chipset, Intel and ATI/AMD drivers seem to display Windows fonts exactly the way they are without the drivers installed. Notice the "Start" font is thinner. Top is the default, bottown is with nVidia drivers. I'd like to know what exactly has been implemented to cause this behavior, and if possible, reverse it. Is it antialiasing? This has bugged me for years. I've looked through the nVidia control panel and haven't found a setting that changes it yet. Here's something that's curious: Using more than one monitor with these drivers disables whatever causes this font thinning. This is definitely not something that has popped up recently, I've noticed this even on a Compaq EVO D500 computer from 2001, that had a period nVidia GPU in it.

What's all this I hear about not using Linux as the root user. Isn't it supposed to be secure because it's obscure? Funny you should mention the Dell Latitude D610. I just replaced the 10 year old CMOS battery in mine, and I'm using it to post this. I use Windows with a full administrator account, and I mostly always have. The only times I've used anything with less than full administrative privileges was at school, and also when I was first getting to know active directory and group policy. I wouldn't recommend using the actual Administrator account for your own personal use. User accounts are free, ya know.

I think this is great news. Obviously Windows XP still isn't dead, and it's good that Google is acknowledging that. I wonder when Firefox will leave Windows XP behind? For what it's worth, I'm still using Firefox 28.0 on multiple operating systems, which is now a whole 10 versions behind the current. Basically because it was the last version of Firefox before the Australis user interface was implemented. And also because it just sorta works with every website I visit still. On occasion I even still use Internet Explorers 7 and 8. I honestly don't think having the latest and greatest browser is all that important, as long as it supports the necessary technologies, is stable and has a good user interface.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand][HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand\{F20B21BE-5E3D-11d2-8789-68CB20524153}]@="r2brand.dll, -1003"[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand\{F20B21BF-5E3D-11d2-8789-68CB20524153}]@="r2brand.dll, -1004"[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand\{F20B21C0-5E3D-11d2-8789-68CB20524153}]@="r2brand.dll, -1012"[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand\{F20B21C1-5E3D-11d2-8789-68CB20524153}]@="r2brand.dll, -1013"Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand][HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand\{F20B21BE-5E3D-11d2-8789-68CB20524153}]@="r2brand.dll, -1005"[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand\{F20B21BF-5E3D-11d2-8789-68CB20524153}]@="r2brand.dll, -1006"[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand\{F20B21C0-5E3D-11d2-8789-68CB20524153}]@="r2brand.dll, -1014"[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CustomBrand\{F20B21C1-5E3D-11d2-8789-68CB20524153}]@="r2brand.dll, -1015"Enterprise first, Datacenter second. Here are the proper registry values for Enterprise and Datacenter versions. I've also included a compressed archive (rar) of all three .reg files and the modified r2brand.dll file. Which can be found here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/922gj7s3dg5ggcu/Windows+Server+2003+R2+Fixed+Logon+Bitmaps.rar

Now forgive me here, but I have a genuine question, about a sticker no less. This is from the XP x64 post-mortem updates website that I find to be absolutely excellent. Is that a real case badge? I'd like to obtain one somehow to put on my Core i5 laptop, just for novelty value, but I can't find any on eBay, and I can't even find any photos of one on Google. But I think that the search results may have been skewed. I got nothing but images of blank COAs...

I used nLite. I figured that I'd probably have to start over. Thanks for moving the topic to the correct forum.

I have Windows XP install media where updated components such as Internet Explorer 8, Media Player 11 and others have been integrated. Because of this, the integrated components cannot be uninstalled on a live system. So if I wanted to downgrade Internet Explorer 8, to 7 or 6. How would I do that? Is it possible to un-integrate components? If I try to remove Internet Explorer 8 via the Add/Remove Components wizard, Windows becomes unable to start explorer, among other things, and I have to do a repair install.