RJM

Yup, I messed up. There are 16 bits per word ( which I mentioned ) but only 8 bits per byte. I should have multiplied by 8 bits per byte instead of 16 bits per word. The correct rate is 1Mb/sec

7.5MB / 60seconds = 125KB per second 125KB per second * 16 ( bits per word ) = 2Mb per second

Do you mean like enable Super-Fetch in windows XP-SP2? http://www.tbreak.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29826 Read the whole thread. Or just setting up prefetch in XP? http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/driver/kernel/XP_kernel.mspx ---- middle of page. Logical Prefetcher for Faster Boot and Application Launch When a Windows XP-based system is booted, data is saved about all logical disk read operations. On later boots, this information is used to pre-fetch these files in parallel with other boot operations. During boot and application launch, a Windows system demands and pages a sizable amount of data in small chunks (4K to 64K), seeking between files, directories, and metadata. The Logical Prefetcher, which is new for Windows XP, brings much of this data into the system cache with efficient asynchronous disk I/Os that minimize seeks. During boot, the logical prefetcher finishes most of the disk I/Os that need to be done for starting the system in parallel to device initialization delays, providing faster boot and logon performance. Logical prefetching is accomplished by tracing frequently accessed pages in supported scenarios and efficiently bringing them into memory when the scenario is launched again. When a supported scenario is started, the transition page faults from mapped files are traced, recording which page of a file is accessed. When the scenario has completed (either the machine has booted or the application started), the trace is picked up by a user-mode maintenance service, the Task Scheduler. The information in the trace is used to update or create a prefetch-instructions file that specifies which pages from which files should be prefetched at the next launch. The user-mode service determines which pages to prefetch by looking at how successful prefetching has been for that scenario in the past, and which pages were accessed in the last several launches of the scenario. When the scenario is run again, the kernel opens the prefetch instructions file and asynchronously queues paging I/O for all of the frequently accessed pages. The actual disk I/Os are sorted by the disk drivers to go up the disk once to load all pages that are not already in memory. This minimizes seeks, cuts down on disk time, and increases performance. The kernel also prefetches the file system metadata for the scenario, for example, MFT entries and directory files. Because prefetching is useful only when the required data is not in memory, the applications that are launched frequently are not traced and prefetched each time. Settings for Logical Prefetch Registry setting: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentCo ntrolSetControlSession ManagerMemory ManagementPrefetchParameters RootDirPath - Key Name Reg_SZ _ Data Type Prefetch - Value <default> Value Names: EnablePrefetcher (DWORD) 0x00000001= application launch prefetching 0x00000002= boot prefetching Parameters are ANDed, so if all were enabled, the setting would be 0x00000003. The setting takes effect immediately. In Windows Server 2003 editions and later versions, only the boot prefetch is enabled by default. Application prefetch can be enabled by the registry setting cited here. The system boot prefetch file is in the %systemroot%Prefetch directory. Although these prefetch-readable files can be opened using Notepad, they contain binary data that will not be recognized by Notepad. If you are going to view these file, make them read only or copy them to a different location before opening. To just add an application to your pre-fetch list---- 1) Right-click on the application's shortcut and chose Properties. 2) Add "/prefetch:1" at the end of the value in the Target field. This will add the application to windows prefetch so that the application will be loaded into memory when you boot. Available in XP Pro up. To make sure that you have prefetch enabled. 1. Start | run | regedit. 2. Navigate to the following key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory ManagementPrefetchParametersEnablePrefetcher There are four possible values for this key. 0 disables prefetch, which is HIGHLY discouraged. 1 tweaks the prefetcher for application launch. 2 tweaks the prefetcher for boot speeds. 3 tweaks it for both (which is what we want.). Once you have that value in place, restart your computer.

Monitors? Sort of. Here's one company. VDC vidio display corporation For about $50K you can get a CRT projector that will do 1600 X 1200 floor to ceiling. http://www.videodisplay.com/html/display_systems.html

I also, like PuntoMX have partitioned my first drive into two partitions for the reason of keeping my Acronis images small. In addition I have moved my program files folder to my D drive using COA2. Both partitions are FAT32. My second drive is partitioned into 3 parts, a 3GB swap file FAT32, a 100GB NTFS ( large files and image backups), and a 147GB FAT32 for data. Both drives are 250GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10's

I had the "IRQL not less than or equal too error" a little while ago it starrted out with VPU crashes in games and eventualy progressed to getting the IRQL not less than or equal too error every time my video drivers were loaded during boot-up. I don't know if this could be your problem but mine was my power supply.

Thanks SmaugyGrrr, I'll try that. I forgot about that, as a mater of fact after my last re-install last December when I had to reactivate windows I had saved wpa.dbl and wba.bak on my F drive. Maybe I'll try them and windows will only see the two changes that I've made since then and not all the swapping of boards.

I'm just trying to update my drivers, I shouldn't have to re-activate windows.

Sunday I had decided to update my ATI video drivers. First I made a drive image of my C drive with Acronis I then uninstalled my ATI drivers and ran Driver Cleaner. I then booted to safe mode ran Driver Cleaner again and deleted the ATI folders. Upon re-booting to Win XP to install the new drivers I am greeted with the WPA screen that says that my hardware has changed significantly and that I have three days to reactivate windows. Not wanting to spend half an hour on the phone with Microsoft I just restored my C drive from the image that I had just made ( it doesn’t want to call home). Does anyone know how I can upgrade my video drivers without having to reactivate Windows? I know that I on the edge of WPA because I’ve already replaced my motherboard and video card this year. Thanks

I know it’s a little late, but I had a similar problem a little while ago. I had to run msconfig in safe mode to disable all of my start up items and then enable them one at a time until I found the offending item.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said his company expects payment from computer users who run Red Hat Linux because the open source operating system violates Microsoft's intellectual property rights. http://www.eetimes.com/rss/showArticle.jht...eetimes_newsRSS

Another interesting item - After my PC came up with the new power supply on the disk image that I had made two months ago I tried to reinstall Oblivion with Daemon tools from an ISO (4.19 GB) that I had made from the DVD and stored on a NTFS partition. (All my other partitions are FAT32). Oblivion would not run from the virtual drive so I put in the disk and installed it. It ran fine. I then shut down my computer and the next time that I restarted it I got the same Not less than or equal stop 0x00000000 Error. WTF? I then ran msconfig to stop my ATI drivers from loading which was the only way that I could get my PC to boot before replacing the power supply, same error. WTF again! I then disabled all startup items and my PC booted fine. I went through each startup item disabling them one at a time until I solved the problem by disabling Daemon tools ( I was trying to load a 4.19GB file into a FAT 32 file system). Strange how two separate problems can give you the same error. and no I had never loaded the ISO before.

Same GPU, Installed the new power supply last night and all is right with the world and my computer! I'm glad it was the power supply, I was running out of ideas.

After you get another power supply, you may still be required to reformat and reinstall Windows, because of the driver data being corrupted or not for your hardware. Or I could just restore from a disk image that I had made two months ago. Much less painful.

Yes, the fan is working, as a matter of fact on the day that it went bad, I noticed that the power supply fan was speeding up for a few seconds while the computer was booting (it had never done this before!).

puntoMX, No, I'm just buying a new one. I can replace the HV caps on the input of the old supply for $7.00 and have a spare with better capacitors than what were there before for the same price as RMA shipping.

Try 3dMark? I can't even boot up with the drivers loaded. Anyway I borrowed another video card and I had the same problem. Sapphire forum suggests power supply (there answer for all problems) but it looks like that may be it, I noticed that when I went to change out the graphics card after I had unplugged the computer I pressed the power button to discharge the power supply but nothing happened this time, and when I booted up the first time with the other graphics card without the drivers being installed I got the same blue screen. I also noticed that starting the day before this happened during boot I would here my power supply fan come on high for a few seconds ( something that it had never done before). New bigger power supply should arrive on Wednesday. Review of new PS at link. (Removed April 2005 review link) Must be an old review the 12v rails don't match Newegg or Xclio http://www.xclio.com/product/PSU_GreatPower/x14-550w.htm

Temps in bios are 45 core-0 46 core-1. The problem goes away when I uninstall the ATI drivers and reapears only when I install the drivers for my card.

I've E-mailed Sapphire and ATI support, no results as yet. As to why mess around with fan speeds , from the factory these cards will not hit 100% fan speed untill the GPU reaches 95C, which I consider a little hot. I am not using CCC and I have the fan speed set to go to 100% when the GPU reaches 60C and with this setting the highest reading in the log files was 73C - considerably cooler than 95C. I've tried loading just the ATI drivers and not ATItool and have the same problem of not being able to boot into windows. I'm getting a temporary card today and if this fixes it I will RMA the X1950XT.

I was thinking of trying to flash the card but I can't seem to find the video bios download for the X1950XT anywhere. Does anyone know where I might find this? Google diddn't help much. Thanks.

It looks like I have lost another Sapphire x1950xt video card. Sunday while playing Oblivion ATI popped up with VPU recovery, your VPU was not responding and has been reset. This then required a hard shut down (power button) and four restarts before Windows would load again with Windows has shut down to protect your machine with a different error code every time that I would reboot the machine. It finally came back up and worked for several hours more before I got another VPU recovery error and this time I went through the multiple restarts with the different errors and when it finally booted to Windows after the desk top had loaded it stopped withthe IRQL NOT LESS THAN OR EQUAL error and would no longer boot into Windows. I tried to restore from a previous restore point (I had 6) because it looked to me like this was a driver problem because Windows would boot all the way to the desktop. Windows said that it could not restore from this point and to pick another. (All 6 times). I then restored from a disk image that I had made two months ago, booted up and it crashed in the same point and the same way. At this time I booted into safe mode and uninstalled my video drivers and rebooted. Still no good. Getting frustrated I formatted my C drive and reinstalled Win Xp. This went fine and I had it up as a basic system that I could go online with. I then loaded the new September issue of ATI’s drivers and I also installed ATI tool to adjust my fan speeds, rebooted and it failed again just after the desktop loaded. Getting tired of running scan disk in safe mode I reloaded my disk image from two months ago once more, started off in safe mode uninstalled ATItool and all my ATI drivers, ran driver cleaner, rebooted, and the system came up normally. Is my card bad or did I miss something? Yes, it is good to backup!

It's not the same bios version it was 1601 and is now 1901 and if it was the bios chechsum you would have to reactivate every time that you updated your bios.

Well, that went surprisingly well. I installed the replacement motherboard, put all the cards in the same slots, set everything in bios including my overclock, turned on the PC, no detecting hardware occurred, no reboots, everything works and I did not have to reactivate WinXP! I must have missed something; it’s not supposed to be that easy!

Last weekend I managed to crack my motherboard an ASUS P5W-DH-Delux. Today I have received a replacement board of the same model. The question that I have is that I have never replaced a motherboard where I have had Windows XP installed. I’m wondering if there is anything that I should look out for after turning on my machine with the new motherboard, going into BIOS to set the clock time, fan speed, memory timings, etc. I’ve googled for this and most of the results are for when you upgrade the motherboard And not replacing it with the exact model. Any pointers would be helpful. Thanks

I just ordered another P5W. I think it would be the quickest way to get my system back up. After 6 hours I finaly got the PII-400 WIN98 machine to see the modem 50% of the time and it now has USB support but I still can't get it to see my SATA PCI card. Grrr. Stuck in slow mode. I checked with Western Digital and they are getting ready to ship the replacement drive(JB series) for my backup computer. Maybe I'll get them both fixed next weekend. Current pre-backup computer (the only one that still works) Compaq P-II 400MHZ 384MB PC-133 RAM onboard audio/ video, 8GB Quantum Bigfoot hard drive( 794 MB free). Edited to add the specs of what I'm using untill I get my other two computers fixed.