Andromeda43

But, nobody really specified a "lab-test" machine, did they now? We're taling about the ol' home computer. With a Ghost in the machine, a format becomes as obsolete as a steering knob on a '61 Pontiac. If I had a computer that other people like to futz with,,,,I'd be doing a Ghost Restore every morning. I've shared this technique with many a school teacher that has to recover PC's that students muck up during the day. They have a restore DVD that can restore a PC in just a few minutes. FORMAT is one word never spoken in those venues. Cheers, Andromeda43

Sure, as long as he's cool about it.....and drinks American Beer. Welcome!

Intel CPU's are NOT better producers than AMD processors. That's just NOT right. I thought everyone in the world already knew that. Cheeech! Overclocking produces very little improvement in overall system performance. Although it does: Produce more drain on your power supply, Produces more heat for your heat sink and fan to try to get rid of. Stresses out your RAM, and shortens the life of both RAM and CPU. In general.......It just Ain't worth it. Leave the clock speed set the way it's supposed to be and everything will not only work better, but it will work longer. Cheers. Andromeda43

Want a certificate? For $5 I'll print you one and mail it to you.....anywhere in the world. Which one do you want? That's what they are worth. (about $5) You can have all the certificates that your wall can hold, and if you don't have the good common sence to fix a computer, all that paper ain't worth spit. I don't hold any certificates but my High School Diploma, (except a few from Epson Corp.) and I have taught computers for my community education dept and courses in "System Fault Analysis" for ITT Corp. It takes years of experience and lots of good common sence to fix computers and be good at it.....not a wall full of certificates. Cheers, Andromeda43

I'd just love to get my hands on Bill Gates's computer. I know darn'd well I could improve it by nearly 100%. That's what I do.......

When you can buy a ready-made system for $299 with multiple rebates, it's not so amazing that the average user will rush down to the retail store for a new PC. But for the Tech or at least the technically informed, building is the only way to go. Some time back, I took a young friend of mine to a Market Pro Computer Show here in Orlando Florida. He had $500 to spend and that was all. He came home with all the parts needed to put together a new computer. (and enough left over for a burger and coke) (I supplied a few small parts he didn't have,,,drive cables, screws, etc.) I spent about an hour with him, instructing him on assembly techniques and explaining all the pitfalls. We took it slow and easy, but after an hour, he had a running PC. The expression on his face was "Priceless"! I know well, the pride he felt at building his own PC. I did my first one in about 1983. It was an IBM XT-Clone, w/64K of ram and a 20 meg Seagate HD. If you've never done it,,,,,it's worth having a GO at it.!!!! There have been many books written on the subject and there's a lot of help available here on the internet. Cheers, Andromeda43

WOW, this has to rank as the most absurd thread I've read all day....and I've been at it for over six hours now. rofl Haven't any of you folks ever heard of Norton's Ghost? Cheeeech! Once you get your HD all set up the way you want it, you make a Ghost image of it and then burn it to a CD or DVD. Then when things seem to go awry, you just do a Ghost Restore and you're right back in business again with everything in place and running Great. I do my own Ghost backups at least two or three times a week. (takes only three minutes on my new SATA drive.) I keep a DVD archive of older Ghost Images. With Ghost Explorer I can extract any file from those old Images. To me, it's the only Sensible way to operate a Computer. I've set up dozens of business computers, using this same technique. A Ghost a day, keeps the service tech away! : Cheers, Andromeda43

Till more 64 bit software hits the market I'm going to save my money for more beer and pizza. First things first.....Right? My current 3000+ AMD CPU screems like a banchee and with my new 120 gig WD, SATA HD, by whole system "ROCKS". If it were any hotter I'd have to have a two ton AC unit jus to keep it cool. As it is, my nine cooling fans keep everything in the case at room temperature. Ha Ha Ha One day, just like Christmas, I'll have me a AMD 64 bit processor. But for right now, I'm perfectly satisfied with my ol' 32 bit system. Cheers, Andromeda43

SP2 ain't no big thing. It's jus a newer and better version of windows. Get it!, jus like you would'a any other upgrade for the past ten years. It's a no-brainer! MS fixed a bunch of problems and added much higher security, like a pretty dang'd good firewall. What it Will do though, is set anything that you may have "tweaked" back to default. So if you've shut down un-needed Services or tweaked your memory manager, You'll have to go back and do your tweaks again. Again, it ain't no big thing! It's jus a part of the ongoing process. As for slowing down your PC....if it does, then you've got a pretty sorry PC. lol Cheers, Andromeda43

I'm a tech with 40+ yrs of experience and one thing I've learned is to NOT play that numbers game. Yes, I've read all the claims and all the negatives, but when my own Guru said that SATA "Rocks", I took him at his word and went out and bought me one. My AOpen mobo wouldn't support it so I got me a Buslink Serial ATA driver card. I also had to buy me one of them funny little SATA drive cables. (40" max.) [iDE was 24" max] It didn't take long to get all my data Ghost'ed over to my new drive and get it booting my system. I did have to load the windows drivers for that SATA controller card. (no problem) I was totally blown away at the increase in speed! With my old Maxtor 60 gig IDE ATA-133 drive, a Ghost backup took me a good half an hour to complete. Doing exactly the same operation with my new SATA drive, takes only three minutes or less. A Ghost restore takes me only about four minutes. When Ghost starts, the transfer rate kicks in at about 1800mbm and then it usually settles in somewhere arount 1300 to 1400 mbm (megabytes per minute). I don't have to rely on someone elses numbers.(and I WON'T)...I read my own right off of my own screen. Ghost tells the whole story while it runs. (Ver. 2003, DOS) SATA Rocks, and it's jus gonna git better. Right now, we're jus see'in the tip of the iceburg. Stay tuned for late breaking news!!!!!!!! Tape at ten! God, ya gotta love it when technology takes a quantum leap forward. : Cheers, Andromeda43

Search first,,,,then search some more *.....then call my local guru friend on the phone! Then email a half dozen more guru friends scattered around the world. * Google first, MS Knowledge Base second, Lockergnome Forums third, The Elder Geek Forums fourth, MSFN Forum... Paltalk Technical Forums I never do post a question on any forum till I've exhausted all other methods available to me. I'm not the smartest guy around, but I'm not the Lazyest either. Cheers, Andromeda43

As a professional in the computer security business, let me say that there is NO one program on this planet that will totally keep you spyware safe. There are several very good programs on the FREE market. I've used most of them, at one time or another, but for efficiency and simplicity I've settled on these: 1. AdAware SE/Personal 2. Spybot Search & Destroy 3. Spyware Blaster 4. Trojan Hunter 5. MS Anti-Spy I use these because each program finds a different type of malware and it takes all five to completely CLEAN a Dirty PC and protect it from reinfection. Spyware Blaster, however, is NOT a spyware finder/remover. It is, however, a really great Spyware Blocker. It's currently blocking 3926 bad sites. Think what you will about MS, but they really didn't write the MS-Anti-Spy program. Giant Spyware did. Many people used it and loved it before MS ever bought it. Unlike most FREE Anti Spyware software, it runs an active blocker. I personally like it and hope that after December, they still make it FREE. If not, I'll buy it. Just like I did with Trojan Hunter. Cheers, Andromeda43

English, but my high school English teacher would probably argue that one with me. After two years of Spanish in H.School, I can order tacos and beer. As long as it's in an american restaurant. German,,,, enough to get around and eat well, after 2.5years in Germany. (Bier und Schnitzel, bitte) Been studying English all my life and still don't have it all figgered out yet. They say it has more words in it than any other language on the planet. Over 30,000 now. It's the most common language used in Business and Science. I understand that French is great for sweet-talking the ladies, though. Cheers, Andromeda43

Since software is such an etherial thing, piracy of it is almost like stealing AIR itself. Many times its nothing more than little ones and zeros floating around in Cyber Space somewhere. The subject of pirated software is as varied as the people who use or don't use it. Yes I think the 16 year old boy in a third world country should use it, while a Wall Street mogul should pay. And pay, and pay, and pay! I'll bet even Bill Gates has some non-registered software on his home computer. Anyone wanna bet Me? (I'm not sure how we'd ever proove it though) Cheers, Andromeda43

The really only good reason for installing a second browser (in my case, FF) is because MS just can't make I.E. safe. Using I.E. is like using a screen door to keep out a hurricane. Firefox is the first (maybe, of many) open source programs to hit the general populace. The day they released Ver 1.0, they downloaded over a million copies of the program. Since then, they have downloaded over 60 million. It's still under revision. We're up to ver 1.06 now. (I think) In every revision it becomes more secure and more compatible. It's a lot like me......a great work in progress. Cheers, Andromeda43

Suzuki,,,,,they make great motorcycles too.

YES, answering polls is stupid....... But then, so is drinking beer and eating Pizza! They are, however, an interesting way to open up a conversation about something. Like here we are, discussing Polls. Now ain't that neat? Cheers, Andromeda43

Q: What do you call a stack of Windows ME CD's and a loaded shotgun? A: A Skeet Shoot! The restore feature was NO plus! It would store them dang'd restore files till they overflowed the HD and ran out on the floor. Some really great programmer wrote a nice little program to totally disable that feature and delete those dang'd files. I've used that program many times with great success. In the few instances where that program would not load on a customer's PC, I did the job manually from a DOS boot disk. Also, ME wouldn't let you shell out to DOS. Jus too much NT in it I guess. Cheers, Andromeda43

With a screen name like ComputerMan, you shouldn't even have to ask that question! Microsoft spent literally millions ($'s) to develope SP2 because of major problems in XP (with no SP at all or with just SP1.) Many of the problems weren't even made public, but were there none the less. SP2 is as much a new version of XP as 98 was over 95. But please, and this is for everyone who's not done the upgrade to SP2 yet, do a little prep work before you start the upgrade and DO use the CD.....it's free from MS. Clean up your HD. Remove all temp files, temp-int-files, prefetch files, recent files, etc. then do Disk Cleanup and defrag. Next, shut down all running programs, TSR's and close all connections. Then and only then run the SP2 CD. With a little prep work, the install should go off without a hitch. Cheers, Andromeda43

My professional advise? GET PICKY! If you want max performance and don't want to just 'waste' your money, buy AMD-64. AMD has been outperforming Intel since the ol' 486 days. The upside of AMD? Greater performance, lower cost, lower power consumption and lower HEAT generation. I don't have a mobo that will support the new AMD-64 chip,,,,YET,,, but that will definitely be my next upgrade. Cheers, Andromeda43

As a computer builder of 25 years, I'd have to vote NO. The smaller the mobo the less expandability you'll have. Usually, the very small mobo's are of less quality too. P4's don't perform nearly as well as AMD's and are more expensive and draw more power and create more heat. There's really no Up-Side for a P4. Kingston RAM would be my very last choice (with a gun to my head). Most of it is refurbished ram. About 80% will fail testing on lab-standard equipment. It may work at first, but fail under heavy load later on. Get Micron or Samsung, major on major (Major brand chips on major brands wafers) On the plus side, the SATA HD is a good choice. It can do data transfer at about ten times that of an IDE drive. Fall back,,,,regroup,,,,and try again! Cheers, B)

Florida,,,,we should have our own category.

Ha Ha Ha! 62 by the calendar and 21 by the spirit. If I had the money I'd be out terrorizing the countryside on a big Harley about now. They say "you're only as old as you think you are". So's not to burn out too quickly, I'm going to take it nice and slow up till I die, and then just taper off gradually. : Cheers,

I quit......in 1965. Cold turkey too. (by the grace of God) It was a really great day in my life when the state banned smoking in restaurants. Now I can go out for a meal and really enjoy it.....and I don't have to go home and throw my clothes in the washer and me in the shower. You probably already guessed it....I voted NO in the Poll. I don't eat or drink foods with Aspartame in them either. That stuff is pure POISON! Cheers, B)

Will that be light or dark rum.....or maybe Spiced? I'll take mine with a wedge of lime.....please. Coke plays well with others .....Pepsi doesn't Has anyone tried the new Coke+lime? It REALLY plays well with rum! Cheers! I'm not as much under the alcafluence of incahol as some thinkle peep I am.