Dave-H
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Posts posted by Dave-H
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Thank you!
I had completely forgotten about that!
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That could well be it, I have always had my XP system set to 'large fonts' which is 125% (120dpi).
Otherwise the text on everything is tiny at 1920x1080 resolution.This has affected a few programs in the past, usually elements not appearing in boxes correctly, but I have never had any problem with the large number of different browsers I've used on XP over the years.
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Thanks, but this is actually installing on a FAT32 drive, where there are no permissions involved!
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On 3/11/2024 at 6:43 AM, bob_smith said:
Try enabling the #custom-tab-shapes and #compact-ui flags, they should reduce the tab's size dramatically.
I did try that, and the first one just changes the shape of the tabs, doesn't change the size of anything.
The second one did change the size a bit, but seemed to just squash things up a bit vertically.
The overall problem didn't change.
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Back again!
Still not really getting anywhere with this I'm afraid.
It seems that the warning about drivers is happening on all drivers, not just the ones for disks.
That explains why it's still there with the original disk driver files reinstalled.
I have no idea why it's putting up a prompt for all drivers, even ones which are said to be digitally signed.
I'm thinking that the problem is probably in the bit of the message which says "not signed in the appropriate manner", but I've no idea what the problem could be.
Anyway, I'm now trying with the Paragon GPT driver again, and I've run into another problem!
The Paragon HFS+ program appears to install OK, as it did before, but when I reboot I'm now just getting a 7B BSOD (inaccessible boot drive).
It won't boot into Safe Mode either, and the 'last good configuration' gets as far as almost loading the desktop, and then just reboots!
Anyone any ideas?
This did not happen the first time I installed the paragon software.
The only clue I have is that when I tried a second time I didn't reboot straight away when I was told to by the installer, and in the event log there was an entry which said -"The HFS+ File System Driver service failed to start due to the following error: Access is denied. "
I didn't think that "Access is denied" was something you often got in XP!
Anyone any ideas as to what's wrong?
As I said, it didn't do this the first time I installed it.
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8 hours ago, bob_smith said:
Try enabling the #custom-tab-shapes and #compact-ui flags, they should reduce the tab's size dramatically.
So far I'm enjoying Supermium. It's definetly a lot more trustworthy than 360Chrome, however I wish the installer had an option to pre-enable all ungoogled-chromium flags and remove the Google default search engine, as I am personally not a fan of the company.Thanks very much, I will give that a try.
5 hours ago, ED_Sln said:There is a request for this function, but no response from the developer yet: https://github.com/win32ss/supermium/issues/328
To open links and bookmarks in a new tab, you need to click them with the middle mouse button. There is an extension that opens all links (not bookmarks) in a new tab: TabLink.
Glad to hear that someone has asked for that!
It's something that every browser should have as an option without having to install an extension to do it.
Yes. I'm aware of the middle click option, that's pretty standard.
I really shouldn't have to remember to do it all the time though!
I will look into the available extensions to help tab functionality.
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That was my experience too, but be aware that some extensions may not work correctly if just moved from 360Chrome to Supermium.
You might have to uninstall and reinstall them.Just a quick recap on my experience with Supermium 121 so far, compared with 360Chrome.
It works fine, albeit rather slowly on my system.
The main issues I have with it are that it closes the browser when you close the last tab, something that drives me absolutely mad!
I have fixed that with an extension, but why it can't have a setting to prevent that, like 360Chrome does, is quite beyond me.
Also, I don't like the fact that there's no way to get bookmarks and external links to always open in a new tab, as there is on 360Chrome.
I guess there's probably an extension for that too, but why it isn't built in as a setting is again a mystery.
It really annoys me when things keep always opening in the same tab.I would love to make it all a bit 'smaller'.
It's all a bit too large on the screen.
Yes, I can zoom websites to a smaller size, but the GUI remains the same of course.
Changing the font size settings doesn't seem to do anything.It's certainly deeply linked to Google, as I guess Google Chrome is too.
I'm not too worried about that personally, but I'm sure a lot of people are!
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If this starts up again, this thread will be locked too.
Back off please.2 -
You can post them here for interest of course, but they really need to go directly to the developers on github.
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Thanks, that's good to hear, although I will stick with 121 for the moment!
I still can hardly believe that a browser with the latest Chromium version will actually work on XP.
It's far from perfect, but the fact that it works at all amazes me!
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20 minutes ago, user57 said:
well x64 needs more ram then 32 bit
but there more things involved that play a role - i dont know all either
maybe it is time for a little discussion ...
Not here please, as it's off-topic.
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2 hours ago, mina7601 said:
@Dave-H Any results yet? Are you able to find that sneaky file?
Sorry, I haven't had a chance to look.
I suspect that it isn't actually an individual file, it's probably hidden inside another file.
I did look for disk.sys and scsidisk.sys with no luck.
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8 hours ago, jaclaz said:
Well, you are missing a large number of settings then (not only the Administrative templates/System).
Check that you have all the .adm files in the right directories, this experiment to add gpedit to Home edition - as a side effect - provides all the needed info:
https://www.oocities.org/kilian0072002/GPEditHome.htm
This is more or less how it should look
That was really quite worrying, to see so much missing there on my system!
It turned out that three of the four files which should have been in the \system32\GroupPolicy\Adm folder were not there!
Only wmplayer.adm was there, conf.adm, inetres,adm, and system.adm were not.
I have no idea why that would have been!
I've restored them, and it now looks much better.
I found the setting specified, and set it to 'enabled' and 'ignore', but again no difference, the wretched prompt still pops up when I mount a drive.
One thing I have done as a test is restoring the three files I changed back to their originals, so things should now be standard.
I was amazed (and annoyed) to find that the 'unsigned driver' prompt is still popping up!
It can't be because of the files now, as they are the originals, so why is it still querying the driver?
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'User Configuration' and 'Administrative Templates' are expanded on the screen grab I sent.
The only options under 'Administrative Templates' are 'Windows Components' and 'Google'
The 'System' option isn't under 'Windows Components' either.
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As you can see, that option is not there on my system.
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Off-topic, but I've still got my original PC, from 1993, so not quite as old as yours!
I run dual boot Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.1 on it.
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Thanks both. Yes, that System Properties option is actually mentioned in the article that @jaclaz linked to.
I tried using it, made absolutely no difference.
I couldn't find the GPEDIT option mentioned in the article, it doesn't seem to exist on my system.
The nearest I found was this -
It also made absolutely no difference, the wretched warning message still pops up!
I guess it's because there are actually 'alien' files on the system transplanted from a different OS.
When prompted whether I want to overwrite the 'alien' disk.sys file or not, the file it's offering to replace it with is a temporary file in the system32/drivers folder.
This has a temporary name, and presumably it's renamed to disk.sys when it's copied.
Where is the system getting this file from?
Presumably there's some hidden system files database somewhere.
If I can change the file there to the Server 2003 one, would that stop the replacement offer?
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Thanks, but does the Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider work on XP?
All the documentation says Vista minimum.
Is it actually a signature problem anyway?
XP is just saying that the Server 2003 disk.sys file can't be verified to work with XP.
Drivers which are just unsigned are not normally a problem, you can override that, and it's remembered, this isn't being remembered.
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Back again!
I'm still getting this annoying pop-up whenever I mount one of the eSATA connected disks.
I thought I had managed to get rid of it, but sadly not.
I assume it's coming up because the disk.sys file was changed to the Server 2003 version, which the system thinks isn't compatible with XP.
If I go ahead and install the driver it asks if I want to overwrite the newer disk.sys file, and I thought that if I said 'no' that would be it, but it's obviously not being remembered as I'm having to do it every time I mount the disk, and this is happening with both the disk connected to the Asmedia card and the one connected to the Silicon Image card.If the disks are already powered up and connected at boot time, it's fine, I don't see the pop-up, it only happens if I 'add' them while XP is running.
Is there any way of stopping this happening?
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OK, I think I'm happy with the configuration that I've now got.
Sadly it doesn't include the Syba board, which has turned out to be rather a waste of money, but I will stick it in the loft for possible future use!
If it can't coexist with the Asmedia board, then it's no use. I did try it along with the original PCI-E Silicon Image board, and that worked fine, but that's no good of course.
What the problem is I can only guess at, it looks like some sort of resource conflict in the BIOS, but as the cards are on different buses, and moving the Syba card around to different slots made no difference, it's a bit puzzling. I can't move the Asmedia card, as it's in the only slot it can use.
Anyway!
I now have the original Silicon Image card back in, the Blu-ray drive is now connected directly to the motherboard, which is better for recovery operations anyway, and the eSATA card has the fixed archive drive and the removable internal caddy drive connected to it.
The Asmedia card now only has the backup drive external enclosure connected to it.I will carry on using it in that configuration and see how it goes.
Obsessively running chkdsk all the time might be not the thing to do.
I will carry on using it as it is, and not worry unless and until I find I'm getting errors reported when backing up, or chkdsk starts running automatically because there are errors.Sorry this has been so long-winded, and drifted off-topic, and thanks everyone, especially @Andalu and @jaclaz for all the help, much appreciated!
I will come back if (when) I start getting problems!
Cheers, Dave.
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4 hours ago, D.Draker said:
Enter the BIOS, Switch off "Attempt to fix sporadic PCI errors" , or whatever they call it in your BIOS. It helped me when my sound card was conflicting with my LAN card. It too hanged up on the BIOS title screen.
Thanks, but there's nothing even resembling that setting in my BIOS.
I have a server motherboard, so maybe they don't have such options there as they are more critical of correct configuration and resource usage and sharing.
4 hours ago, TSNH said:I believe LegacyUpdate has an option to activate XP with a legit product key
18 minutes ago, mina7601 said:You can still activate Windows XP by phone. I heard that it still works.
Thanks both, but I've now put the machine pretty much back as it was before, and restored a copy of the registry from before this happened.
It still said it was unactivated, but when I tried a manual online activation again, this time it worked!
Having had to go through the tedious business of reactivating Office on the phone when I changed my motherboard, I was very grateful not to have to go through that again!
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Thanks again @Andalu and @jaclaz !
I'll say straight away that the following is now off-topic, as it's nothing directly to do with using a GPT disk in Windows XP.
It has come about because of trying to do this, though.
As a moderator I should set an example of good forum discipline of course, but I hope you will indulge me.
Should it lead to a lengthy off-topic discussion, I will break it off into a new thread.As I said, the Syba card arrived today.
I put it in the machine in place of the Silicon Image eSATA card I've been using for many years, and connected the internal archive drive and the Blu-ray drive to it.
My first disappointment was that although both devices were apparently detected correctly, there was still no sign of the Blu-ray drive being available as a boot device in the BIOS.
That I can live with, but there were two far more serious problems.The first, and most serious, was that the machine would no longer boot!
It showed the BIOS screens of the two cards, first the Syba one, then the Asmedia one, and then just hung and won't go any further.
If I removed the Asmedia card, it booted fine!
If I put the Silicon Image PCI-E card in place of the Asmedia card, it boots fine.
It won't boot with the Asmedia card and the Syba card in place, though.
I've tried moving the Syba card to different PCI slots, and it makes no difference, the motherboard just hangs if both it and the Asmedia card are present.I then did boot up without the Asmedia card in place, and installed the Syba drivers for XP, which worked fine.
I then went into Windows 10 and that found a driver and it worked fine.
I then tried to go into Windows 98, and it wouldn't boot.
It goes past the splash screen, but then instead of going to the desktop, it just sits there on a flashing cursor and then reboots.
It will go into Safe Mode, and I used that to remove the old Silicon Image card from Device Manager, as I thought that might be causing the problem.
No difference, it still reboots instead of loading the desktop.So, all in all, a bit of a disaster today!
I've wasted quite a bit of money if I can't use that Syba card, but I didn't anticipate any of this of course.Just to add insult to injury, my Windows XP is now unactivated because I changed the hardware!
I've put everything back as it was before, and it's still unactivated.Activation over the internet no longer works of course!
Oh dear.0 -
5 minutes ago, jaclaz said:
Not that much of a problem with around 11 (eleven!
) fivers:
https://www.startech.com/en-gb/cards-adapters/pci1pex1
jaclaz
Wow, that is an amazing thing!
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2 hours ago, Andalu said:
It's really strange what happened for your two drives. I don't have an answer for it.
To narrow down the number of items to examine, I can only repeat the previously suggested test (hoping this time to explain it better) that does not involve the asmedia card:- clone the system disk with XP (or install XP from scratch) to a spare disk;
- boot XP from that disk (eventually you can insert the drive in the caddy);
- in Device Manager, after properly editing the asahci32.inf file (I can send it to you if necessary), install the asahci32.sys v2.0.3.1 driver for the intel sata controller to replace the existing one (its hardware ID begins with PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_XXXX&CC_0106);
- restart the system and, if it boots correctly, connect one of the disks to the internal sata port on the motherboard;
- start copying the files to the disk via explorer.exe and then run the test with chkdsk.
I think that version of the asmedia driver may work successfully on your intel system as well.
Thanks @Andalu !
Sorry, I did understand your suggestion before, it just seemed a bit of a long-winded thing to have to do.
You're saying that I should use the Asmedia driver on the on-board Intel SATA ports?
As the drives all work fine connected to them as they are, I guess this is just to determine whether the problem is with the Asmedia card itself or with its drivers?
As I said, I've now installed a different Asmedia driver for the card, both on XP and 10, and it made no difference on either.
That would seem to indicate that it must be the card, it just 'doesn't like' those disks for some reason.
I made the 500GB disk as much like the 3TB disk as possible, making it a GPT disk, putting a single primary NTFS partition on it, and it's even a disk from the same Seagate Barracuda series as the 3TB disk. The two disks couldn't have been any more similar, apart from the capacity.
The 500GB disk produces constant controller errors on writing (not on reading it seems) the 3TB disk doesn't.
Apart from the 500GB disk being faulty, which I'm pretty confident that it isn't, I can think of no explanation for that at all.
Anyway, I don't want to actually use the 500GB disk, so it's not really a problem.
The important thing is that the 3TB disk works properly, but I just don't like 'unexplained' problems like that!
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Read GPT hard disk on Windows XP
in Windows XP
Posted
@jaclaz @Andalu
Back again.
I was thrown for a while by hardware malfunctions, which were causing a lot of problems it turns out unrelated to this one.
My Silicon Image eSATA card chose now to develop a fault, which was causing intermittent disk access errors on some of my drives, which was no help whatsoever when I was trying to find the best hardware configuration!
What's actually wrong with it I have no idea, but fortunately I had an identical new spare, which I've now put in and everything seems to be stable again, touch wood.
The original issue still remains however.
I only have the 3TB disk connected to the Asmedia card now, nothing else.
I'm still getting the annoying unsigned driver prompt whenever I mount the disk in XP (it doesn't happen in 10) which I have had no luck at all in suppressing.
The option in the system hardware properties works in that if I set it to block unsigned drivers, it does exactly that, prevents the driver from being installed.
The 'warn' setting also works of course, but the 'ignore' setting seems to be being completely ignored, the warning still pops up.
I'm now using the Paragon GPT driver again, which seems to be functioning fine.
The disk seems to mount as a removable drive when first connected, which looks fine, but it then always wants to install a driver for the disk, which isn't really necessary. If I say to ignore it, it still work fine. If I say go ahead the disk spins down and there's then a pause while the driver installs, and then it's there again.
I don't understand why it isn't happy to just stay as a removable drive. OK, I can always just say no to the prompt, but that's not ideal.
The main issue is still the file system corruption which is occurring when I change operating systems.
I've been trying for a while not using the disk on Windows 10 at all, but using it at will on XP (living with the annoying prompt, which makes it take ages to mount).
That seemed to be fine, I was running chkdsk on the drive before and after every use, and it seemed to be OK.
However, mounting the disk in Windows 10 and doing a check, without even knowingly doing anything to the drive, not even opening it explorer, on running chkdsk, a huge number of errors, mainly corrupt attribute records.
This is obviously not usable, so I'm getting close to just giving up.
It seems to happen both ways, using the disk in XP produces a corrupt file system on Windows 10, and using it in Windows 10 produces a corrupt file system on XP.
Yes, it could be a faulty disk, but I still think that's not the problem.
I will try again with another (500GB) disk in the enclosure, but I seem to remember that I couldn't even get that to work the last time I tried it!
I'll report back.........