Andromeda43

When you select "Forward" a window will open, but the address book doesn't open up unless you click the little address book icon next to the word "To", beside the address box. Then, Please, Please, Please, never use TO if you're sending to more than one recipient. Always put the names of the recipients in the BCC box instead. This way, there will NOT be that big glob of eMail addresses on the top of the outgoing eMail. Doing that keeps the eMail clean and prevents spamming. Good Luck, Andromeda43 B)

All very good information. Getting Windows to shut down reluctant programs is indeed a piece of cake. Just a couple of registry tweaks gets the job done nicely. Here they are: ************************************************** Decrease Shutdown Time Cut the amount of time it takes your computer to shut down to only a few seconds. Click Start, click Run, and type regedit. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System \ CurrentControlSet \ Control. Click the Control folder. Right click "WaitToKillServiceTimeout" and click Modify. Set the value to 1000 (One Second) *************************************************** Automatically Ending Non-Responsive Tasks HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Desktop \ AutoEndTasks = Set the value to 1 HungAppTimeout = Set the value to 1000 WaitToKillAppTimeout = Set the value to 1000 (One Second) *************************************************** Then, to greatly increase system efficiency use this tweak: *************************************************** Memory Performance Tweak These Settings will fine tune your systems memory management -at least 256MB of ram recommended, 512 preferred for first tweak. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Session Manager \ Memory Management 1.DisablePagingExecutive -double click it and in the decimal put a 1 - this allows XP to keep data in memory now instead of paging sections of ram to harddrive. 2.LargeSystemCache- double click it and change the decimal to 1 -this allows XP Kernal to Run in memory improves system performance a lot. This tweak can actually slow down a system with less than 256 megs of ram. *************************************************** Works for me! (and my hundreds of customers) Andromeda43 B)

I'm not a Thermal Dynamics Engineer, but I am indeed an electronics/computer tech of over 40 years. It would take a decent sized truck to haul away all the devices I've seen die from heat over the years. Heat Kills....that's just a fact of life in the Electronics world. Several years ago I lost four IBM Deathstar drives in one (hot) summer to heat fatique. They were properly mounted in their little drive bays in an open case. The last one died while I was using it. I reached in to take it out and it literally BURNED my hand. You could have fried burgers on it! Anyone who says that heat doesn't kill hard drives just doesn't have a clue...... I couldn't care less whether anyone else uses my technique to cool a drive or not. I present it only as a help, for those who will be helped. I've had very favorable comments about it from other technicians that have seen it and tried it. It does "Work for me". A word to the wise, is sufficient. Cheers! Andromeda43

Yup, I'd have to agree with that! B)

A case is nothing more than a frame to hold the real computer. Only the most expensive cases come with a PSU that's really large enough for todays PC's. If a case is deep enough from front to back to accomodate a full sized Mobo and long CD drives without the drives banging into the mobo, then it's deep enough. If it's high enough to have at least five drive bays, then its tall enough. Bubble lights on the front and chrome and glitter don't make the computer run one bit better. All that glitz just sucks up money that could be better spent on a faster CPU or more ram, etc. I go by the KISS method (Keep It Simple Stupid). OH,,,,on air flow? Leave the side panels off and you'll have all the air flow you need. And, if you are going to use 7200 rpm hard drives,,,,put coolers on every one of them. Like This. My CPU and HD's (2) all stay at room temperature. Good Luck, B)

Remove the large internal battery. Plug in the AC to DC power supply. Try booting up again. Let us know what's happening. B)

At certain things, I'm a neat-freak. My C: drive for instance. (NO Clutter there) But, I'm in and out of my PC so often and changing things around that using cable looms and tape would be a total disaster to me. Garbage bag ties are about as fussy as I get. Just keep the cables out of the fans and everything will be OK! Thanks for an interesting thread. B) Ripken,,,, a very neat looking PC!

Over the years I've upgraded my systems from 95 to 98, from 98 to 98/SE, From 98/SE to ME, (hated ME and went back to 98/SE...restored a Ghost Image of 98/SE) then, from 98/SE to XP Pro. All without ever reformatting and doing a clean install. I've used nothing but bonafied MS Upgrade CD's w/legal keys. As long as you buy the proper version of the Windows UPGRADE CD, with Registration Key,,,,,all's well. Microsoft writes and markets its Upgrade CD's for this very purpose. 99.99% of the time, the upgrade is flawless. Cleaning up your HD and making a Ghost Image of it is recommended, before you ever put in the Upgrade CD. Going from XP-Home to XP-Pro won't gain you an awfull lot though, unless you want to run a network from your PC. In the everyday home computer world, the differences are negligable. Having an XP-Pro+SP2 Upgrade CD is a great repair tool if you have an install of XP-Home that's totally hozaxed. You can get a new OS, fix the problems with the old one and never loose the first piece of data in the process. It's all good! The only glitch is that you must run the Upgrade CD from within some previous version of Windows. Which means that windows must be able to run. Upgrade CD's (in all my own experience) DO NOT and WILL NOT boot up a PC. (with all the expertise running around in this room, I'm sure someone has an exception to that) I hope the original question has been properly answered without delving into hacks, cracks or Warez. Y'all have a great day now, Y'hear? B)

That's GREAT! But, for those who aren't that lucky..... Symantec did indeed write a program, SymNRT.exe that will remove all program files and folders for the Norton products. However that's only half the job. There are still those 1981 entries in the Registry that could be left untouched. I had one heck of a time finding that second file and getting it together with the .exe file in one easy to download package. I labeled it the Norton Killer and put it on a site where I rent space just for the purpose of having a place to put helpfull programs and Utilities. I repeat.....I didn't write the dang'd thing, I just zipped the two files together in an easy to download form and put it where everyone who needs it can easily download it. Go Here and download Norton Killer.exe. Unzip it and run both files....the .exe file and the .reg file. That should remove all traces of Norton programs from your PC. I hope this information will help someone else that's having trouble removing Norton from their computer. Blessings, Andromeda43

SATA is fairly new. All mobo's don't handle it the same. I too am using an ASRock mobo only because it has SATA support built in. (and I got it for just $69) I accessed my new SATA drive from a DOS disk first and partitioned and formatted my Hd before ever trying to install Windows XP on it. That way, I was sure that it was being properly addressed by the mobo and bios. If you have a DOS boot disk, you might want to give that a try. I used my own Custom Windows ME boot disk to do the trick. It easily partitioned and formatted my 160 gig drive. Let me know if you'd like a copy. Live long and prosper! B)

My understanding may be flawed, but it's always been my understanding that each registration key is locked in to a particular version of XP. So a key for the corporate version will only work on that version and NO other. Doing otherwise would be illegal under the strictest regulations governing the licensing of a Windows OS. Discussing how to do anything illegal would not be permitted under forum rules. Live long and Prosper, B)

Windows ME runs on a base DOS structure. There is NO file you can't delete or rename from the DOS prompt when you boot up with a DOS boot disk. That's the pure Beauty of a FAT-32 formatted HD. Every file on that HD is easily accessable, in DOS. Want a great ME boot disk? Download wnMEboot.exe Here. Run the file and it will create an ME boot disk for you. With it, you can set up a new hard drive or do repair on an existing drive. I created this disk as a technicians repair tool. Give it a look. Good Luck, Andromeda43

I can't believe that overclocking is really helping you that much. I could improve your system performance by 50-100% and never touch the CPU clock. (It's what I do for a living) But if you insist on doing it....remember that the faster you run that CPU, the more heat it's going to generate. What are you doing to remove that extra heat from your CPU chip and then from your case? (Don't tell me....just answer that question for yourself) I'm currently running an AMD 3000+ cpu and I can lay my finger on my CPU heatsink and it only feels slightly warm to the touch. NEVER hot!, even under the heaviest workloads. Good Luck, Andromeda43 B)

A good CRT should NOT flicker. If a CRT is flickering, then something is horribly wrong. I completely believe in the old saying that goes, "Different strokes for Different folks". Use what works best for you and Use it in Good Health! Cheers! Andromeda43

I install lots of PC's for people and I do a Computer Tuneup Procedure on older PC's. In almost every instance, changing any piece of hardware is just NOT possible. What I do to gain system performance has to be done from the keyboard. In the case of any new PC, I can get at least a 100% increase in performance, by implementing my tune-up procedure. It requires massive cleaning of the hard drive of every unneeded file. (then Defrag) Tweaking the registry to get the Kernal up off of the HD and loaded into RAM makes a huge difference. Eliminating useless TSR's and Services also greatly improves system performance. Everything going into our coming out of the hard drive has to be handled by the CPU.....if it's overloaded with services and TSR's running in the background and demanding attention, then the poor HD just has to wait its turn. Sort of like standing in line at the grocery store. I hate to post registry tweaks here, because I know that many readers are just NOT qualified to edit their registry and I don't want to get someone into trouble. If you're registry-tweaking qualified and want to take a look at the ones I use.....look Here. In a laptop, changing the hard drive isn't nearly as simple as doing it in a tower. And the one thing that will increase HD performance the most, changing to a SATA drive, can't even be done at all. But remember too....that going from a slow HD in a laptop to a 7200rpm drive, will generate at least twice as much heat, which the laptop may not be able to handle. Setting power management to shut down the HD in a laptop after a short time of inactivity, like five to ten minutes, will help keep down the heating problem. Even on a large tower, I never install a new HD without its own cooler. The newer drives just get TOO HOT! And, the faster they run, the hotter they get. I have two HD's. One is a 160gig SATA drive and the other is a 60 gig IDE drive. (Both Maxtor) Both have their own Cooler and stay at room temperature, even under the hardest work loads. I developed my current method of drive cooling after loosing four IBM Deathstar drives in one year....to HEAT. The last one, died while I was on the internet. When I reached in to remove it, it burned my hand. If you can't lay a finger on your drive, while it's running, without saying "Ouch!"....its too darn'd hot. Sorry, I didn't mean for this post to run so long. Good Luck, Andromeda43 B)

I've installed several Acer LCD monitors....and I have to say "I hate them". The ones I've seen are too bright and parts of the screen like the scroll bar on the right are washed out and very hard to see. And they will not dim down sufficiently to overcome this defect. You need to go to a store that sells LCD monitors and look at them for yourself. Don't just look at a pretty picture like a screensaver.....open up some programs and see what the scroll bar, etc., looks like. Overall, I much prefer a CRT to an LCD screen. They are much more versatile in operating at different screen resolutions. I hate it when I can see every pixel on the screen as I can with most LCD screens. Right now I'm using a Sony Trinitron 19" CRT monitor and I cannot see the pixels at all. Many Graphics experts, photography buffs, etc., will not have an LCD monitor at all. Good Luck, Andromeda43 B)

A AMD processor is a high-producer and does not require overclocking. They WILL fail to start if the clock is set too high. I have personal experience with that. If you have a 350w PSU, that's max peak power. NOT running power. Running power can be as low as 250. Get a much larger PSU. ASAP! Nothing smaller than a 450w. I'm personally using a 550w PSU right now and I've got a 680w unit sitting here waiting for me to get around to installing it. I wouldn't dream of installing a 350w PSU in any system running Windows XP. (maybe, in an old 98 system) STOP overclocking,,,,,(you've got a wonderful CPU there....overclocking is NOT required) get the larger PSU installed and your problems will go away. FootNote: Overclocking your CPU, makes it draw more power, generate more heat and you risk Roaching your CPU in the process. Cheers! Andromeda43 B)

I find the more I learn about Windows XP, the less I know. What is Sysprep,,,,where did you find it and what do you expect it to do for you? No hard questions, I hope. B)

Beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder.... And, a CLEAN machine is likewise in the eye of the user. Having the stuff (running)you either want or need usually isn't as much of the problem as those things that are running in the background that you know nothing about. I clean up peoples computers for a living, using a process that I've developed over the past ten years. Most folks have no clue what is running on their PC's, what it does or where it came from. I choke, gag and get a little bit sick when someone posts a HJT log and the RUN list won't even fit on my 19" screen, without scrolling. All too many programs that you install on your PC, like Adobe Reader, want to install a TSR in your task mangler. Every time you install something new, you need to run "MSCONFIG" and see if something new has been added to your Startup list. That list should indeed reflect the things you need, but not the things that you DON'T need. It's a well known fact with the technical community that many Symantec products, like Norton Suites, are huge system resource hogs, running upto a half dozen app's at one time. That's the first thing I de-install when doing a computer tune-up. I replace it with AVG free and gain ram and HD space, system performance and a much better AV program to boot. Then when you've got your Startup list pared down to its minimum, you need to take a look at the Services that are starting up with Windows. Using some very good ON-Line references I began eliminating services. My first list was 54 services long. Well, that also disabled my dial up services. So I had to revise it some. My current list of services to disable looks more like this: **************************************** Here's my short, short list of services to disable for a stand alone PC, not on a network: From the RUN box, type in Services.msc , then maximize the window to full screen size. Then scroll down the list of services to each item on the following list and right click on an item and then click Properties. In the properties box you can Stop a running service and then set the action box to "Disable". Then Apply the change and OK the window to close it. Move down the list to the next item and repeat the process. When done, close the entire window and reboot your PC. Clip book Computer Browser DNS Client Error Reporting Service Messenger Performance Logs and Alerts Portable Serial Number Remote Registry Remote Desktop Help Session Manager Routing and Remote Access Server (leave this on for a local network) Smart Card Helper System Event Notification Task Scheduler Universal Plug and Play Device Host Upload Manager Web Client Windows time Wireless Zero Configuration (disable if you will never use a wireless network) ************************************* Don't flame me! I already know that someone will look at that list and say "OH, I need that!" That's fine. This is MY list....you must develope your own, based on how you use your PC. But just for the record, my PC boots up in 20 sec's and shuts down in 8 sec's. Then there are several very good registry tweaks that can greatly improve system efficiency, speed up program loading and get a system shutdown DOWN to about 5 to 8 seconds. One simple registry tweak to get the Kernal up off the HD and into ram, greatly increases system performance. ********************************************************** Memory Performance Tweak These Settings will fine tune your systems memory management -at least 256MB of ram recommended, 512 preferred for first tweak. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Session Manager \ Memory Management 1.DisablePagingExecutive -double click it and in the decimal put a 1 - this allows XP to keep data in memory now instead of paging sections of ram to harddrive. 2.LargeSystemCache- double click it and change the decimal to 1 -this allows XP Kernal to Run in memory improves system performance a lot. This tweak can actually slow down a system with less than 256 megs of ram. *************************************************************** Those things I've listed here are just the tip of the iceburg. Even though all my tweaks and tuning are done with batch files and VBScripts, it still takes several hours to completely clean, tweak and tune the average PC. Then there's the installation of all the AV and AS software, downloading the latest updates and doing the scans. Depending on the speed of the PC and the speed of the internet connection, this can take quite a while. A total time of four to five hours is not uncommon. I recently installed a new HP laptop. It took a half hour to just get rid of Norton and all the Spyware that HP puts on their new PC's......like WildTangent. When you decide to become a computer tech,,,,,bring your gun! It's a jungle out there! Y'all have a great day now, Y'hear? Andromeda43 B)

Im my limited experience with RW disks, (I really hate them) you have to have the software running that wrote the disk when you want to read it. Does that ring any bells? Just a thought.... B)

Ok....what's an MMPC? When the monitor reports that it's seeing no signal that's usually a clue that the computer is: 1. Not turned on. 2. Not booting up. 3. Monitor cable is NOT properly connected to the video output jack on the PC. Are you hearing any beeps from the computer when you try to turn it ON? If the motherboard finishes its Post, there will usually be one single short BEEP. Is there a hard drive LED on the case? Do you see it flashing? From your brief description, I'd have go guess that your PC is NOT booting up. Recheck all connections. Make sure CPU and ram are properly installed and locked down. Good Luck, Andromeda43

Well I have My Webpage where the batch file is located. It's called XPCleanup. It also requires "Deltree.exe" , a DOS program not included with windows XP. It's also on the site for easy download. Since it's a DOS batch file, you can read it or edit it with Wordpad. You can delete any lines that remove stuff you want to keep, or add lines for additional things you want to delete. I recently found that my Call-Wave program was caching every message I receive. (for the past two years) They were .wav files and taking up a LOT of space.....so I added that cache folder to my batch file. Then I have this space that I rent from another guy where I put some Utilities, etc. that users can download. Maybe that's where you were looking. Take a look at my web site again. OK? I hope this helps. Andromeda43 B)

I use only the OEM cooler that came with my AMD CPU.....works just fine. OK....I didn't just land from Mars....I know other enthusiasts like to play with different coolers to knock off a degree or two here or there. I also have to assume (rightly, I hope) that anyone doing that has the good sence to properly apply an adequate amount of heat sink compound when installing a new cooler. In the pictures, it appears that the first cooler uses copper fins. This should be great, because copper is a great heat conductor......but I see a problem, just from the picture. The spacing between the copper fins is very narrow. This would allow the fins to pack up with dirt much faster than the second cooler where there is more space between the fins. It also limits air flow. I once worked in an 'air flow' lab and I know that what seems to work fine at first glance, doesn't always work in practice. Just a slight change somewhere can greatly impact air flow. An example: Hard drive coolers......I buy small, economical two-fan coolers for all my HD's. With two fans running, they should move a lot of air and keep the drive cool....right? Wrong! The fans sit too close to the bottom of the drive for the air to properly escape and the result is that the drive does NOT get the proper cooling. The effect of the fan being to close to the drive is called an "Air Dam". I solved the problem by spacing the cooler 1/4" off of the bottom of the drive with the little brass spacers used to mount motherboards. See it Here. Ok,,,,sorry for digressing a bit..... EMD, what didn't you like about the Thermaltake cooler. Many users absolutely swear by that brand. Curious minds want to know..... B)

That sounds like a good title for a new thread....or just continue the topic here. Whatever. SATA is so nice because you can only put one drive on a data line and there are NO jumpers to set on the drives. Now there's a "Better Idea" that actually works! cheers

I run Norton's Ghost 2003 from a floppy disk or Boot CD, and, it sees my SATA drive just fine and backs it up directly to a DVD, installing the boot disk as the boot sector on the DVD. It will also write the backup Image file to a second partition on the SATA drive or to another hard drive, for a 4 minute backup. NO problem. For all hard drive backups, Ghost is my program of choice. You don't even have to install the whole package onto your hard drive. Just run the Ghost.exe file from any boot disk. (FD or CD) As a side line.... I make a Ghost Image at least twice a week of my SATA (C:) drive. As soon as the Image creation is done, I do an Image Restore. This re-writes all the data on the C: drive in the same orderly way that Ghost made the Image file. After this process, my hard drive looks like this. With the high speed of the SATA drive, this entire process of Backup and Restore takes me less than 10 minutes with Ghost 2003. Good Luck, Andromeda43