Gee

I doubt that the board will support both DDR and DDR2. The pin configuration is different. But it sounds to me that you have incompatible RAM, plain and simple. Return the RAM and get some cheap generic RAM. Should work fine in the ECS board.

Get the RAID controller. You will be hard pressed to find an older board that will be reliable. Check eBay, you should be able to get a Promise RAID controller for about $30

If you can afford it, get a larger LCD. If you are like me, you want resolution. Both 17" and 19" have a native resolution of 1280x1024. So you are not getting any benefits from buying a 19" over a 17". All you will be getting is larger fonts.

Is there an onboard or AGP graphics card in the machine? If so, try removing the AGP card first or disable the onboard card. Another thing. Try starting Windows in Safe mode or VGA mode to see if the same problem occurs.

Get the cheapest card that fits your needs. If you are planning on getting an new computer down the road, chances are you would be going to PCI-E. So there is no point in spending big bucks for an 8x AGP card that you can't use later on.

That is true. But what is more important is to make sure that you have the proper motherboard too. Check to see if you motherboard supports 8x AGP. As for processor, your current one should do fine. I think anything over 1.4 GHz will handle that card. I am not a gamer, so I don't know for sure.

As far as I know, there is no true SATA Optical Drive. The Plextor drive is just a PATA drive with a SATA bridge. So you should see no performance benefit from it over IDE.

I agree with Ssmokee, don't upgrade unless you have to. But to answer your original question, it is both. The BIOS is an EPROM on your motherboard. So it is a chip that has non volitile memory on it. It stores software that controls the Basic Input Output System (BIOS) for the computer. The other thing is, if you are using Phoenix BIOS, you don't have a choice, you must use the same BIOS. You cannot switch to Award or AMI.

I am planning on building a storage server for a Kiosk Manufacturer that wants to use it to update their kiosks. They are planning on using an Intel Desktop board (I know, I tried to get them to use a Server Board). So here is the configuration Intel 865PERL Motherboard 512 Meg RAM Pentiun IV 2.8 GHz Prescott Here is the storage they provided me IBM 9 Gig SCSI 4 - Western Digital 250 Gig PATA, 7200 RPM, 8 Meg Cache 2 - Seagate 400 Gig SATA, 7200 RPM, NCQ Drives The question is, how should I configure it? The SCSI drive has to be the D: Drive, as it is used for mission critical applications. So that cannot be the boot drive. My thoughs are as follows C: - Boot Drive Primary Master D: - SCSI E: - Secondary Master F: - Primary Slave G: - Secondary Slave H: - SATA-0 I: - SATA-1 I don't think I can get the SATA drives to boot in this configuration, so I am going to go with PATA as the boot drives. Anyone with experience using this motherboard and SATA drives? I am just concerned that the SATA will conflict with the SCSI if I set it to boot.

If you are building your computer, chances are your new motherboard will have SATA. Actually, your new motherboard will DEFINITELY have SATA. Get a SATA drive.

Is Dell using a volume license key? They shouldn't be. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I would've thought they do it because they can't make every cd have a different winnt.sif can they? They provide you with your own product key anyway, it's on the side of your case isn't it? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> They can use a volume key to setup the machine, and then just run SysPrep and initiate OOBE (Out Of Box Experience) so the end user still has to enter a valid license key. I don't have a Dell, but my ThinkPad does not require a key, even if I use the recovery partition and blow away the hard drive. What would be neat is if I can figure out how to create a hidden service partition like IBM and Dell. Anyone know where to start? The boot sectors are not standard.

Keep the structure the way you currently have it. So the $OEM$ folder should contain all the sub folders. Just make sure that it is next to the i386 folder. The files in $OEM$\$1 are copied to the root of the install drive. If you just copied the $OEM$ folder and it is missing the $1, then XP will not find the files.

The reason you are having problems is cmdlines.txt is stored in the $OEM$ folder and it is executed after XP is installed. Since you have the $OEM$ folder within the i386 folder, it will not find it as XP is looking for it on the root folder with i386. The $OEM$ folders should not reside in your i386 folder. It should reside next to the i386 folder. You should have a shared folder mapped on the network For example On your server, you can store your files in D: d:\XPCD\i386 d:\XPCD\$OEM$ etc. then map x: to d:\XPCD Once you move the $OEM$ folder, it should solve your problem

Why do you want to go back to the stone age? XP for sure. Get use to the speed. It is not that bad. Not to mention, a lot of the newer applications are written specifically for XP.

If you want to Partition Manually [Data] AutoPartition=0 MsDosInitiated="0" UnattendedInstall="Yes" AutomaticUpdates=yes [Unattended] UnattendMode=FullUnattended OemSkipEula=Yes OemPreinstall=Yes TargetPath=\WINDOWS Repartition=No If you want it to delete all partitions and reformat [Data] AutoPartition=1 MsDosInitiated="0" UnattendedInstall="Yes" AutomaticUpdates=yes [Unattended] UnattendMode=FullUnattended OemSkipEula=Yes OemPreinstall=Yes TargetPath=\WINDOWS Repartition=Yes

Here is a .vbs script that I wrote to allow users to change their User Name, Company, and Computer Name. Usefull if you want to change it without going into the Registry or something that you can run at the end of your XP installation during Cleanup.cmd Option Explicit Set ws = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell") Dim ws, t, p1, p2, n, g, cn, cg, o, co p1 = "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\" p2 = "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ComputerName\ComputerName\" n = ws.RegRead(p1 & "RegisteredOwner") g = ws.RegRead(p1 & "RegisteredOrganization") o = ws.RegRead(p2 & "ComputerName") t = "Change Personal Info & Computer Name" cn = InputBox("Enter Your Full Name", t, n) If cn <> "" Then ws.RegWrite p1 & "RegisteredOwner", cn End If cg = InputBox("Enter Your Company Name", t, g) If cg <> "" Then ws.RegWrite p1 & "RegisteredOrganization", cg End If co = InputBox("Enter Computer Name", t, o) If co <> "" Then ws.RegWrite p2 & "ComputerName", co End If

You can also use Winternals' Locksmith Program

My error. Apparently all versions of XP have this file. Including the corporate versions.

The problem with it, is that it involves cracks. And cracks are not allowed for discussion, since it'd be not exactly legal... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Okay, fair enough.

You can also use a service like You Send It. It allows files up to 1 Gig http://www.yousendit.com/ Or try a different Instant Messenger, ICQ perhaps. Just remember to open the appropriate ports on your router

As far as I am concerned. Norton is a virus. Who would use such a crappy program? It bogs down your machine and uses a lot of resources. Now you have to download a utility from the Symantec site just to get rid of it.

Why is SpyBot Search & Destroy not part of the poll?

A better solution maybe to leave it out of SVCPack because that is where you are installing KB893803.exe (Windows Installer) and install this at RunOnceEx.cmd using Reg Add This will ensure that when the Microsoft Pack is installed, Windows Installer will already be present.

Great Idea. Looks like most of the problems people are having are User Error. So, I think I can simplify things. I have changed one of Websee's files (hope you don't mind) in order to simplify things. Currently he runs the slide show from the CD or DVD. It is better to copy the files onto the hard drive and just run it from the install directory. First, open your winnt.sif file and add [GuiUnattended] DetachedProgram="%systemdrive%\install\slide\slideshow.cmd" Create a folder called Slide in your Install folder. Now download the attached file, unZIP it and copy all the files into $OEM$\$\Install\Slide\ After that is done. Select all your slideshow images and copy them into the same folder. $OEM$\$\Install\Slide\ Name them image01.jpg, image02.jpg, image03.jpg etc. Be sure to edit filelist.js to reflect all your images. Burn the CD. Post your results. Slide.zip

Yes ModifyPE works perfectly. All it does is correct the Checksums. If you are planning on recompressing the file via makecab and adding it to your Unattended Install, this is a necessary step. Otherwise, during the install, XP will not copy the file over and report a error copying winntbbu.dl_