Andromeda43

alsiladka, Suck it up, go back and read. That is if you want to learn something. That's why we spend our time trying to educate those who can be educated.

I'm somewhat of a collector of registry hacks and tweaks. That was a good one. Thank you exrcizn. Andromeda43

Meanwhile, back at the Ranch....... Leaving a PC off for a long time is very hard on the electronics and also the CMOS battery. Being an electronics tech of many long years, one of the first things I'd do on your system is install a new CMOS battery. It's most likely a CR2032, available in almost any drug store or electronics shop like Radio Shack. Next I'd probably take out all the plug-in cards and clean the edge connectors thoroughly with a cloth and alcohol. Next, I'd take out the ram sticks and clean them thoroughly with alcohol and an old toothbrush, giving special attention to those little pins coming off the sides of the ram chips themselves. Don't forget the edge connector. Dry the ram for several hours and reinstall. Pull all the power connectors and reseat them. A little dirt here and a little oxidation there can seriously cripple a system. I've saved many a plug-in card or ram stick with the above mentioned cleaning routine. And, stabilized many a funky Mobo by just installing a new CMOS battery. Good Luck to you, Andromeda43

If you're a control freak, and I am, you'll love FAT-32. With a 40 gig hard drive, you can easily FDISK and Format that drive into two partitions. Main and Storage. I use a Windows ME boot floppy for that little chore. I now have 100% access to any file on that HD, and all from a simple DOS boot disk. Now, there's no such thing as a virus or trojan file that cannot be deleted. If you can keep the size of your C: partition just under 8 gigs, your cluster size will be just 4K and space wasted by all those thousands of little 1k files will be at a minimum. I heard the term "Defragment" used a couple of times in the previous posts. Regardless of what file system U use, U should defrag at least once a week anyway. That's just good common sence, and good Maintenance too. Now, for the Ultimate use of FAT-32, I do a Ghost 2003 backup of my HD at least once a week. With my new SATA drive, that little chore takes only about three (3) minutes. On the floppy that I boot up with to run Ghost, I have several cleanup batch files that I use to delete my windows XP pagefile, the Restore Points folder and several other folders containing temp files, cookies, histories, my AV Quarantine folder and a few other assorted folders of just plain ol' crap. I'm able to decrease the size of the Backup Image file by over a gigabyte with this cleanup routine. This would not be possible if my C: drive was in NTFS mode. I could still run the backup but not do the cleanup. I let Ghost burn my Backup Image File directly to a DVD and it all fits on just one disk. Doing a Restore immediately after doing a backup results in a HD that looks like This. It's better than any defrag. I laugh at those who say, out of their own ignorance I suppose, that NTFS is more secure and more stable. NO system could be more stable than mine and as for security, well, I'm in charge of my system security and I guarantee that there is no system anywhere any more secure than mine. Computer security is my business, and I'm dang'd good at it. NTFS will do nothing to keep you safe from Viruses, Worms, Trojans, Adware, Spyware, hackers or Rootkits. You still have to do that yourself. So where's the SAFETY? In a business environment, where NTFS belongs, I suppose it has its place, but for a home computer with NO IT specialist nearby, NTFS can be a total nightmare for the unschooled user. K.I.S.S.= Keep It Simple Stupid!, and use FAT-32. If you don't intend to go to school and become an IT specialist and you want total access to your HD, then go FAT-32 with your HD. And create two partitions, one for your OS and data and one for dead storage. That second part. is a great place to store pictures, music and of course Backup Images of C:. My Gawd! It's March 1 already and it's ASH Wednesday. Y'all have a great day now, Y'hear? Andromeda43

The CPU can't run by itself ,,,,, some program is running, what is it? Look at the list of services running.......under Processes in Task Manager. Look at the CPU column to see which program is using all the CPU time. Did you use the Dell Cd to restore it? Their version of windows is specially written to work with their proprietary hardware. Any other version may or may not work correctly. Did you say its one of them thar thin-line cases? Horrors! They regularly die from overheating. Very poor cooling. Good Luck, Andromeda43

If you need to keep the disks separated, put each one in its own folder on the hard drive. Put them under a master folder, don't nest them one under the other. CD's don't like to see folders nested over five layers deep. Once you have them all copied to the HD, fire up the old burner and burn your CD. Job done. Good Luck, Andromeda43

STOP! Let's just take a good look at this process. You're going to go from a 40 gig drive to a new 80 gig drive. Leaving that new drive in just one huge partition is the most inefficient and wastefull way to run a drive. When you get it, partition it into two partitions. The first one for your OS and programs and the second one for "Storage". I'd probably go with 20-60. Once that's done, you can run Ghost 2003 (last ver. not corrupted by Symantec) and make a Partition to Image file and store the Image on the second partition of the new drive. Then remove your 40 gig drive and make the new one the Master. Boot up with your Ghost boot disk and do an Image to Partition Restore, to the C: partition. Now you've got a bootable C: drive and a perfect image of it on D: as a compressed Ghost Image File. NOW for the ultimate Restore disk, make another Image file with Ghost and burn it directly to a CD or DVD. When it asks you if you want to use the boot disk for the boot sector of the CD, say yes. You've now got the perfect Restore CD. I do this stuff every week for my customers and it just works so very good. The entire Ghost 2003 package is available over the internet for about $7usd. d-shade, do you have a floppy drive on that PC? if YES, I may have some more help for you. Let me know, please. Andromeda43

I've got a novel suggestion... Why not use the hardware the way it was originally designed instead of always looking for some way to overclock, overburn, overeat, overdrink, etc. Any time you exceed the spec's of anything you risk compatibility issues. For instance, burn a CD at 52x (very foolish) and you'll seldom if ever read it on a 4x reader. Again, burn to a Black CD and you'll never read it on an older reader. If you want inter-drive compatibility, stay simple and as generic as possible with all you do. Need more space? Do what the rest of us have already done and get one of the new DVD-DL drives. Nine gigs of data on just one DVD should take care of your storage needs. Or wait a few months for the new Blue Ray drives, (currently approaching production) for Fifty Gigs of storage on a single disk. Anyone want to buy a couple hundred coasters? I learned my lessons the hard way, cheers Andromeda43

Once SP2 came out it made SP1 totally redundant. Everything you need is incorporated into SP2. Put that SP1 CD away and 'forgetaboutit! You'll never need it again. If you want to slipstream something..... do it with your XP CD and your SP2 CD. cheers, Andromeda43

NO, they are not integrated. (just good friends) Make sure on the first page of OE's Options menu, that the box to start Messenger is NOT checked. Then make sure it's not listed in MSCONFIG as starting up on boot. If it is, uncheck it. Then if you really hate it as much as I do, go to it's folder and delete it. In 'services.msc' you can scroll down to messenger and set it to "Disable". That pretty well covers all the bases. Where there's a will, there's a way. Good Luck, Andromeda43

Welcome, BMS, Try another CD that's supposed to be self booting, just to make sure your problem is not just with the XP CD. Then take a good look at your CD,,,,make sure it's clean and not scratched. Good Luck, Andromeda43

Amenx, Just like with windows 98, there are many tweaks that work very well for Windows XP. I have my own list which I scarfed up from many, many articles on the internet. I had a customer last week that was experiencing a very slow shutdown, with some piece of HP (crappy) software that didn't want to shut down at all. I encorporated my Quick Shutdown tweaks and now his computer shuts down in less than 8 seconds. Getting the Kernal up off of the HD and into ram is another tweak that will greatly improve system performance. There was a similar tweak for Windows 98 that really worked great. Here's my favorite tweaks for improving system performance. ******************************************************************************* 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) ********************************************************** 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. *************************************************************** Give'em a try, Andromeda43

Setting color bits too high slows down screen refresh and makes for a sluggish screen. I always uee 16 bit only. What your options are, is directly related to your video card and monitor. Just set it for 16 bit and forget it. cheers

DeInstall Norton completely and replace it with AVG 7.1 FREE. That will solve your problems. Honest! I do it all the time for my customers. They just love AVG. Cheers

Well, firstly, the time doesn't come from Windows, It comes from the real time clock on the motherboard. If that clock isn't working, you may want to change the CMOS battery on the mobo. DO shut your PC down once in a while, because there are things that windows needs to do that it can only do during shutdown. Unless your PC was specificly built to be a server, it was never meant to be on 24x7. :cheers:

I did it here with my little ol' 98/SE laptop and my XP tower. I used a wireless dongle plugged into the USB port on the laptop and a wireless router attached to the tower. It was somewhat slow but did work admirably. If you just want to exchange files from one PC to another, a data transfer cable would probably work best for you. There have been numerous programs to actually do the transferring. Laplink is probably the best known one. If you have a limited number of files to copy over, a USB Flash Drive like the one from SanDisk would be my first choice. It works without drivers on the XP tower, but you'll need the drivers from the manufacturer for the 98/SE machine. Just copy the files from the laptop to the flash drive, take the FD to the XP tower and copy them into a folder on the HD. You can make several trips to copy a large number of files. I've used this technique several times for my customers. Good Luck, Andromeda43

8 bit OS? Heck, I'll take the "Commodore 64". Best little 8 bit machine that ever came down the pike. I still have mine, with my exclusive, custom Kernal.

Since MS isn't providing any new updates for 98/SE, just for I.E. 6 and O.E 6, the best update or upGRADE I've found is the Unofficial SP2 for windows 98/SE. It adds a lot of fixes and increased functionallity to 98/SE. Heck, lets just call it Windows 99. Add the Defrag program from Windows ME, which runs about ten times (10X) faster than the old\ '98 Defrag, and you've got a sweet running OS for older and slower PC's. Cheers Andromeda43

The internet is changing every hour. New malicious sites are appearing every minute. How much work do you want to do to stay safe? The Custom Hosts file is the way to go. It's updated for download every two weeks. You can even get an email telling you when it's ready for download. You can also get a program, called "Hosts Secure" (.net framework, required) that will download the latest file for you and install it. All told, its the very best way to get safe and stay safe, now from over 10,500 bad sites. New ones are being added daily. I share this file with all my customers, especially those with small children who use the computer. Spybot S&D and "Spyware Blaster" are also good blockers. here's my last eMail from MVPS. ********************************* The MVPS HOSTS file was updated [01-20-06] http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm Download: hosts.zip (101 kb) http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.zip How To: Download and Extract the HOSTS file http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts2.htm HOSTS File - Frequently Asked Questions http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hostsfaq.htm Note: the "text" version also makes a great resource for determining culprit URLs ... (404 kb) http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.txt Sign up for HOSTS file update notices http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm#contribute Mike Burgess Microsoft MVP "There's no place like 127.0.0.1" ***************************************** Give it a try, Andromeda43

Probably NOT. It is after all , an Add-On device. Cheers.

If you add a ram stick and the mobo doesn't see it....then it's probably the WRONG ram for that system. Get it out of there before it damages something. RAM must always be matched as to type and speed. Cheers.

Windows Installer is a service just like many other services that XP uses. You can find it by running Services.msc from your RUN box. Make the resulting window a full screen and then scroll down to "Windows Installer". To the right of the name is a column that tells you the status of the program. It should say Automatic or Manual. It it says Disabled, that's your problem. You would have to right click the name, then click Properties and change the word disabled to manual or automatic. Then apply your change and reboot your PC. Installer should then work. Good Luck

ngtowl, It ain't no big deal if you have a legal 98/SE OEM CD with the 25 digit key. Yes? (a windows 98/se upgrade CD would be nice, but not required for this job) I do that all the time. It's just that the OEM CD wants to load to a blank hard drive. It doesn't like seeing an OS already loaded. To trick it into loading, you must first make yourself a 98 Boot floppy, if you don't already have one. Then, on your hard drive make a new folder and call it WIN98SE. Then, put in the 98/SE CD and don't let it run. Open it up in Windows Explorer and copy all the files from the \Win98\ folder to the new folder you made on your hard drive. NOW,,,, reboot your system with your boot floppy. You must rename win.com to something else. you can do that by typing this line at the DOS prompt. ren C:\windows\win.com C:\windows\win.old Be sure to leave the space after 'ren' and before the second C: At the DOS prompt, type C:\win98SE\setup /ie /is (leave a space before each /. and press Enter Windows 98SE setup will run and begin your install. It will accept your old registry, drivers and all data on the drive will remain intact. You'll need the 25 digit registration Key. YOU need NOT register with MS. This process takes about an hour on the average system. The less RAM you have, the longer it will take. Good Luck, Andromeda43 Print this out and keep at hand while you do the process, so you don't miss a step.

Colored lines, colored blocks running all over the place = Video Ram problem. If you have a separate video card, remove it and thoroughly clean the ram chips and the edge connector and then replace the card and boot up and try again. I do this all the time and it works. You can try to Dry-Clean the chips with an old (dry) toothbrush, failing that use soap and warm water. Rinse with Alcohol and let dry in a warm, dry place. NOT the oven. If your video card is built into your motherboard then it's in the main ram chips. Clean them as I've indicated above, and when thoroughly dry, put them back in and try again. I've saved many failing ram chips just by washing them in the sink with Liquid Dish Washing detergent and an old toothbrush. Rinse well, rinse again with alcohol to displace the water then let dry overnight in a warm place. Be sure to concentrate your efforts on the little silver pins on the sides of the ram chips. That's were the contamination takes place, that shorts the pins together. I developed this process while a Sr. Tech for ITT Servcom, Corp. and saved them millions of dollars to date. Good Luck, Andromeda43

fif4evr, I regret to inform you that your first problem was buying a P4 processor. It's a well known fact by tech's worldwide, that the P4 is probably the most overrated chip that intel ever built. It miserably fails to come up to advertised performance levels, draws way too much power and puts out way too much heat. And oh yes....costs way too much too. So what's it's advantage? I haven't the foggiest! None that I've ever found. Most techs that I know that are building computers will only use the AMD processors unless the customer absolutely demands an Intel. AMD processors cost less, run cooler and outperform the P4 for like clock speeds. My own AMD 3000+ cpu runs equivalent to a P4 at 3000 mhz or better , but does that at a clock speed of 2100 mhz., drawing less power and generating less heat. Even under the heaviest load, I can lay my finger up along side the heat sink on my CPU and it only feels slightly warm to the touch, and that's with the stock fan and heatsink that came with the Retail Boxed CPU. So, next time, buy AMD. Cheers, Andromeda43