Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: Mr Skrunts on 02 August 2008, 23:54:54
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I havent really been into the computer scene for the last 2 or 3 years.
I used to have a lovly little collection of test and check utils for the PC.
My Favourites back in the Dos days were PCTools and XTGold.
With all the problems I have been having recently I am after a new collection of software.
The main stuff I am after is moitoring software. My hard drive seems start working in the back ground for no reason at all, I want some sort of logging utility that willl help me find out why.
Plus something to monitor the ports on my network to see if I am being accessed. allthough there is a firewall in my modem and in windows, I am allways of the understanding if someone can write the program, someone else will hack it.
Any speed test, monitor, checkup utils would be welcome, just PM me or post me a link.
Many thanks in Advance for any possible help. :y :y
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If the HDD is constantly in use, have you got enough Ram? Maybe it's using the swap file instead?
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Have checked as soon as there are issues. Windows task manger showing only 40/55% in use. Was the 1st think I thought about.
But 2 GB of ram has allways been enough, very rare for much of it being put to a lot of use.
My problems all seem to the maxing the CPU use, which is a 3.0GHz single core 64bit.
Thhe machine is well and trully redy to be formatted though. But I found out last ight my key has run out on my Windows disk am hanging on before I do anything with my main PC.
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Are there any applications / processes (listed or otherwise) that are using up the resources?
I was asked to look at this problem with a corporate web server once, it turned out it was being used to distribute a load of German porn ;D ;D
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The 2 main things that are listed in the resourses list are Ieplore and system idel. Same as normal.
All I ever seem to do these days is have IE7 open with about 6 tabs for various web pages.
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I know when I have had a couple of hours plating C&C Kane Edition my PC allways seems to have slowitus. Allthough it shows normal memory useage afterwards it seems a bit glitchy. As I would have said from the win95 days, A TSR program. But a reboot solves that.
it's just the last couple of weeks, flipping thing has just been a complete pain.
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The 2 main things that are listed in the resourses list are Ieplore and system idel. Same as normal.
All I ever seem to do these days is have IE7 open with about 6 tabs for various web pages.
Funny you say that - once I upgraded to IE7 on my works laptop and started doing that, it goes to a standstill!
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Hi
R U on xp pro ? if so 2Gb is fine but latter OS require more
firstly - scandisk and defrag - thats your first port of call - if you have recurring/increasing bad sectors from the scandisk - u need to think about new hdd, then how many processes have you got running ? - if its more than 30 you need to cull some
secondly - James is right - hard-set swap drive to another hdd on a different bus - eg if your system disk is on primary - set it to secondary hdd somewhere eg swap = 320mb - 760 mb (set it to 760 as both max and min) it saves the expanding and contracing allocation of hdd space if they are both the same
thirdly - start run msconfig startup tab and turn everything orff (except the vitals) google anything you are not sure of
fourthly - SiSoft Sandra will help at optimising your PC
fifthly- ensure your fans are running ok inside the PC, and consider a liquid cooling system (they can lower noise too - which is nice)
sickly - mozilla firefox is the browser of choice and if you look at its footprint compared to ieX you will understand.
sevenly - are u on router or adslmodem - cos if u are using an adsl modem then chuck it in the bin and get a router/switch arrangement such as the netgear DG834PN and turn off the wireless and run fixed cables and turn on NAT
eightly - which pc based firewall are you using cos you could ininstall it, install the latest high ranking product eg ESET security suite and do a complete hardware scan . . .
....................well thats what i would do for a start anyways 8-)
gl and hf :y
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Hi
R U on xp pro ? if so 2Gb is fine but latter OS require more
XP Pro
firstly - scandisk and defrag - thats your first port of call - if you have recurring/increasing bad sectors from the scandisk - u need to think about new hdd, then how many processes have you got running ? - if its more than 30 you need to cull some
Boot drive is a 200GB on IDE, Allthough I understand your point on Defrag, I believe it to be a waste of time as rebooting windows alone will undo a lot of it. The Drive has been Scandisks and there are no errors. If you picked up on my thread, you will see it's only IE7 that I normally have running with 6 tabs open
secondly - James is right - hard-set swap drive to another hdd on a different bus - eg if your system disk is on primary - set it to secondary hdd somewhere eg swap = 320mb - 760 mb (set it to 760 as both max and min) it saves the expanding and contracing allocation of hdd space if they are both the same
thirdly - start run msconfig startup tab and turn everything orff (except the vitals) google anything you are not sure of
Forgive me but I dont see where James has posted any of the above in this thread.
fourthly - SiSoft Sandra will help at optimising your PC
Maybe
fifthly- ensure your fans are running ok inside the PC, and consider a liquid cooling system (they can lower noise too - which is nice)
Dont believe there are issues there the Machine has adequate cooling, the problem I believe is software related.
sickly - mozilla firefox is the browser of choice and if you look at its footprint compared to ieX you will understand.
Fair point, but I dont think that is the full problem solver.
sevenly - are u on router or adslmodem - cos if u are using an adsl modem then chuck it in the bin and get a router/switch arrangement such as the netgear DG834PN and turn off the wireless and run fixed cables and turn on NAT
Wont touch wireless with a berge pole, modem and options are still a consideration, am about to move home so will upgrade then. I still come back to feeling it's just a cse of flatening the machine and formatting etc, tis way overdue, and probably clogged with all sorts of crap from old programs. By far the longest I have used a macine with out reformatting. Just looked, My documents folder is dated 4th Nov 2--7. Thats 9 months cotinous use. Normally build myself a new machine every 6 to 9 months.
eightly - which pc based firewall are you using cos you could ininstall it, install the latest high ranking product eg ESET security suite and do a complete hardware scan . . .
....................well thats what i would do for a start anyways
gl and hf
All good points matey and thanks.
Have had a new board and CPU sat here with 4GB (2 x 2GB) ready to build for about six months, I think it's about time it got assembled.
Will take some time out and do that first, back up the old machine to it and then go fault finding.
Cheers for all your help. :y :y
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Skruntie,
With all due respect, you shouldn't disregard defrag like that. Last week (I am a network admin) I saw a £2million SAN system grind to a halt because of the high fragmentation on its disks.
You ought to defrag on a regular basis. A reboot will not do this.
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Registry Mechanic also works for me. It clears out the dead links, file extensions, references to missing DLLs etc. from the Registry.
It's not cheap (about £15).
It found over 400 errors on two different XP systems on the first pass.
Defrag is definately worth doing every month or so IMO.
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Defrag is less important on modern filesystems as it was on FAT style. True multitasking/multiuser systems make it even less important. In fact, filesystems like ext3 don't have any defrag utilities available.
NTFS v5 as used on XP only shows, on average, small improvements after defrag.
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If you're in the realms of clearing registry, far better to go down rebuild route.
On my day to day XP machines, I tend to rebuild every 6 - 12 weeks. On Vista, I haven't had to do planned rebuild, as I've always blown it up spectacularly. Current laptop gone since November on original build (not seen that sort of desktop stability since NT4!)
For XP users, get a decent basebuild with drivers, Office suite, all configured, then use a decent clone tool ;)
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Skruntie,
With all due respect, you shouldn't disregard defrag like that. Last week (I am a network admin) I saw a £2million SAN system grind to a halt because of the high fragmentation on its disks.
You ought to defrag on a regular basis. A reboot will not do this.
Used to defrag on a daily basis with various operating system.
After proving to myself after a defrag and a reboot by defraging again, I just believe it to be a waste of time on a system/boot disk. But no I do not disregard the benrfits of Defrag
I actually think I would get better results from some sort of registry cleaner.
Not wanting to call anyone's abilitys on here as I am a complete novice by comparioson to a lot of you. I am allways willing to learn.
But I know the way I abuse my systems installing and uninstalling software, I normally format and reinstall on a reasonable basis, with this install being well overdue.
I tend to have different uses for my machines, but recently have been doing everthing through just the one hence the mess.
Mainly I was just looking for monitoring, test and evaluation software utilites to see what I could suss out about my system.
There is no need to spend money on it, but there is a need to find out why a 5 day old 500GB hard drive died on me. I thinl it was the lack of heat disipation as the hard drive is fitted via plastic rails inside the chassis, rather than being screwed into the metal part of the metal chassis of the case llowing some heat to be drawn away. Ectra fans should not be an issue for hard drives, especially when there a 2 spaces above and below, and the side panel of the case is never ever fitted.
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Defrag is less important on modern filesystems as it was on FAT style. True multitasking/multiuser systems make it even less important. In fact, filesystems like ext3 don't have any defrag utilities available.
NTFS v5 as used on XP only shows, on average, small improvements after defrag.
Hadnt read this when I replied to the above, but I reckon my past findings have just been confirmed (to a degree) as I say, there are reasons to back up the benefits of defrag as well. I would say there is more benifit for data storage and speeding up file searches.
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If you're in the realms of clearing registry, far better to go down rebuild route.
On my day to day XP machines, I tend to rebuild every 6 - 12 weeks. On Vista, I haven't had to do planned rebuild, as I've always blown it up spectacularly. Current laptop gone since November on original build (not seen that sort of desktop stability since NT4!)
For XP users, get a decent basebuild with drivers, Office suite, all configured, then use a decent clone tool ;)
From being self taught and learning through trial and error, it seems I am not too far wrong on my findings them.
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Seems to have proved itself during the quiz tonight.
My computer is only hanging during the use of IE7
I generally have 7 tabs on the go, and was flicking betweem the questions page and the OOF forum to emntion a question problem when it locked up.
No other programs running at all.
Tempory internet folder etc etc, all delted on a regular basis. So am now on Mozilla to see if it glitched at all before I flatten it all.
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That'll be why i keep going back to IE6...
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That'll be why i keep going back to IE6...
mmmm, maybe an excellent idea.
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I use firefox on my PC at home,
aslo for keeping the PC running nicely i am using advanced windows care from http://www.iobit.com/
program download is here http://www.iobit.com/beta.html
1 click and it cleans your PC up with a few additional tweaks for more advanced users
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That'll be why i keep going back to IE6...
mmmm, maybe an excellent idea.
If you change your mind, Windoze update will try and install it again!!
Just uninstall Interet Explorer 7 and it should default back to IE6...but just to be on the safe side, http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1e1550cb-5e5d-48f5-b02b-20b602228de6&DisplayLang=en - Click on "Download" and "Save As", so you have it without going on the internet....with no browser!
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Hi skruntie
lemme see - james responded to your thread header with the first reply, that is to say reply#1 with
"If the HDD is constantly in use, have you got enough Ram? Maybe it's using the swap file instead?"
This i agree with. Hence i elaborated by adding some tips about making the swap file quicker to respond - so thats where the thrashing/grinding to a halt occurs w.r.t not enough random access memory.
I really do think a regular defrag is a key task in speeding up the machine.
Your problem reminds me of a problem i had a while ago, a cracked copy of a well known security suite, slowed browsing to a halt. I removed it, rebooted, defragged, rebooted, cleared my profile out a bit, rebooted again, defragged again and rebooted. All these reboots are for the sake of "last known good" to be safe. If you reboot between actions then you always have a last known good to fall back on but if you do em all in one go you are asking for trouble :D
I installed a new security suite and after a few simple settings hey presto ! speedy browsing once again - try it :)
Sisoft sandra will help with your pc optimising----> for sure :y
you say you think your problem is software related. . but then you said this "I thinl it was the lack of heat disipation as the hard drive is fitted via plastic rails inside the chassis, rather than being screwed into the metal part of the metal chassis of the case llowing some heat to be drawn away. Ectra fans should not be an issue for hard drives, especially when there a 2 spaces above and below, and the side panel of the case is never ever fitted." - which is certainly hadware related
My comment about liquid cooling kinda finds a home there doesnt it ?
OK I understand your wish to leave making a decision on using a router to later, but know this, a USB adsl modem is a point of presence on the internet, which means your PC is a point of presence on the internet, and as such it has no flak jacket (gateway) to hide behind, and so you are super vulnerable ! With a router, suitably set up + Network address translation, at least you have a chance, along with a personal security suite. My recommendation this week is ESET, with coconut maccaroons and a large bottle of pilsner of your choice.
Lastly i feel for you with your bad 1/2 Tb hdd, ive lost a few hdd myself and its really annoying, but your supplier could have dropped it on the floor, the warehouseman could have dropped it on the floor, and your delivery guy could have thrown it with all his might into the back of the van. All these things happen, so send it back, write a nice letter, and (as a carrot woorks better than the stick) consider yourself a richeous dude because you werent made too angry over this. ;)
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Thhe machine is well and trully redy to be formatted though. But I found out last ight my key has run out on my Windows disk am hanging on before I do anything with my main PC.
What do you mean by this? You have lost the COA key? or Its used on more than one PC?
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2 Seperate issues, the PC hanging is one, and the hard drive dyding is annother.
hard drive 1st, yes I totally agree on the neglegt on delivey, Aria and City link need I say more. Deffo heat must have been an issue, too hot to touch. Alas it will just get dropped in the bin after being smashed to bits.
Sensetive password data on it, if I do retrieve it then I will find a formatting/shredding utily to detroy the data stared with a couple of formats and send it bach for an exchange.
The system hanging is a combination of a clogged registry system and a naff IE7 proram.
I have no speed issues with the machine other than that of it doe naff all when it hangs.
It runs flawlessly 24 hours a day playing games and running certain programs. It just stuffs up when I start using IE7
Still dont think it warrants a defrag
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Thhe machine is well and trully redy to be formatted though. But I found out last ight my key has run out on my Windows disk am hanging on before I do anything with my main PC.
What do you mean by this? You have lost the COA key? or Its used on more than one PC?
Have installed my Windows 4 or 5 times and the CDA key uesage has expired.
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Time to upgrade to Vista me thinks.
Whats everyone think of it.? :y
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Thhe machine is well and trully redy to be formatted though. But I found out last ight my key has run out on my Windows disk am hanging on before I do anything with my main PC.
What do you mean by this? You have lost the COA key? or Its used on more than one PC?
Have installed my Windows 4 or 5 times and the CDA key uesage has expired.
What happens when you activate by phoning them up? Online activation often fails at work (IT repair shop) however the same key via the phone, and it works fine (It's an automated system)
I have once had to speak to someone at MS, and I just said that the PC had a virus. bloke said 'Right fine, type out these numbers (Blah Blah) then click on next!'
:y
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Time to upgrade to Vista me thinks.
Whats everyone think of it.? :y
Oh christ god nooooo... DONT do it! Would rather have Windows 98 than Vista!
Pfft... and you thought your HDD light and RAM usage were crazy now!!! ;D
Having said that, Ive never actually sat down and used it for more than 5 mins... I get fed up with waiting for stuff to load and clicking on the supid 'windows needs your permission' or what ever it says messages. >:(
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Time to upgrade to Vista me thinks.
Whats everyone think of it.? :y
I have Vista on my notebook and XP on my desktop.
I find Vista is barely acceptable; it`s slow, cumbersome and 'nannyish'.....and compared to XP, it`s inflexible and frustratingly difficult to tweak.
I think an XP (SP3) installation; kept 'light' with (6 monthly) 'clean reinstalls' and with DAILY antivirus/spyware/adware scans can`t be beat! :y
I use 'Vista' just for armchair-browsing (w/Firefox) now.....anything 'techie'; and I boot the XP 'beast' ;)
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Disagree with all comments about Vista. I have a dual boot of XP pro and Vista Ultimate on my laptop which is old. It has been upgraded but not even using a dual core. It's got a pentium M 1.8ghz processor and 2gb ram. The graphics card won't allow you to use windows aero but still runs Vista at the same speed as XP.
I think the problem people have is adapting to a different operating system. The reason I used a dual boot was because I hated Vista at first and wouldn't work with half of my software. A year on now and I can't remember when I last used XP. Vista is far more stable and runs at the same speed and the majority of programs now work with Vista.
Everyone equally hated XP when it first came out but doubt any of you still believe win 98 is better.
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I use zonealarm to control network access and some other stuff..
But sometimes it becomes sticky and I close it..
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I tend to use Vista now all the time (except work PC, and IE7. Works virtually flawlessly at a technical level, but let down by the fact that users dont like change. Same reason these users refused to use XP when it came out.
Yes, it does need more powerful hardware than XP, but then it is 6yrs newer!
IE7 tends to be very, very stable. If you are getting weird issues, check out what ActiveX plugins you have enabled, and kill most of them off.
And lastly, esp for XP users, don't run as Administrator, unless you are very PC savvy (in which case, you should know better)
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Thhe machine is well and trully redy to be formatted though. But I found out last ight my key has run out on my Windows disk am hanging on before I do anything with my main PC.
What do you mean by this? You have lost the COA key? or Its used on more than one PC?
Have installed my Windows 4 or 5 times and the CDA key uesage has expired.
What happens when you activate by phoning them up? Online activation often fails at work (IT repair shop) however the same key via the phone, and it works fine (It's an automated system)
I have once had to speak to someone at MS, and I just said that the PC had a virus. bloke said 'Right fine, type out these numbers (Blah Blah) then click on next!'
:y
Not tried that one. But will give it a try.
Many thanks. :y :y
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Disagree with all comments about Vista. I have a dual boot of XP pro and Vista Ultimate on my laptop which is old. It has been upgraded but not even using a dual core. It's got a pentium M 1.8ghz processor and 2gb ram. The graphics card won't allow you to use windows aero but still runs Vista at the same speed as XP.
I think the problem people have is adapting to a different operating system. The reason I used a dual boot was because I hated Vista at first and wouldn't work with half of my software. A year on now and I can't remember when I last used XP. Vista is far more stable and runs at the same speed and the majority of programs now work with Vista.
Everyone equally hated XP when it first came out but doubt any of you still believe win 98 is better.
Was considering doing a duel boot set up.
Any issues in doing so? Which one is best insatlled 1st. :y
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I tend to use Vista now all the time (except work PC, and IE7. Works virtually flawlessly at a technical level, but let down by the fact that users dont like change. Same reason these users refused to use XP when it came out.
Yes, it does need more powerful hardware than XP, but then it is 6yrs newer!
IE7 tends to be very, very stable. If you are getting weird issues, check out what ActiveX plugins you have enabled, and kill most of them off.
And lastly, esp for XP users, don't run as Administrator, unless you are very PC savvy (in which case, you should know better)
All makes semce, never thought to check all the Active X stuff. Current machine is a 3.0 Ghz Single core with 2 GB of ram and will revert back to a 356Mb 8600GT Video Card.
Other machine will be a 3.4 Ghz Single core then upgrade to a dual core 3.0 with 4 Gb ram and a 768Mb so this machine will be getting Vista on it.
I was one of those that didnt like change, I never wanted to come off dos and win 3.11
Now I run a stable machine and try new software on something else.
Lets face it, we have to move with the times. :D
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I tend to use Vista now all the time (except work PC, and IE7. Works virtually flawlessly at a technical level, but let down by the fact that users dont like change. Same reason these users refused to use XP when it came out.
Yes, it does need more powerful hardware than XP, but then it is 6yrs newer!
IE7 tends to be very, very stable. If you are getting weird issues, check out what ActiveX plugins you have enabled, and kill most of them off.
And lastly, esp for XP users, don't run as Administrator, unless you are very PC savvy (in which case, you should know better)
All makes semce, never thought to check all the Active X stuff. Current machine is a 3.0 Ghz Single core with 2 GB of ram and will revert back to a 356Mb 8600GT Video Card.
Other machine will be a 3.4 Ghz Single core then upgrade to a dual core 3.0 with 4 Gb ram and a 768Mb so this machine will be getting Vista on it.
I was one of those that didnt like change, I never wanted to come off dos and win 3.11
Now I run a stable machine and try new software on something else.
Lets face it, we have to move with the times. :D
Never knew you spoke Chinese Phil :D :D :D
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I find Vista is barely acceptable; it`s slow, cumbersome and 'nannyish'.....and compared to XP, it`s inflexible and frustratingly difficult to tweak.
Sad but true Debs, I said that to my mate when progress forced me on to XP. I haven't tried Vista, but MS knows XP is used by grownups too, so there is a way to turn the nannying off. Should be true for Vista - or the business world won't use it. Should just be a quick 3 months of finding out how :)
For those who would prefer '98 - try exposing a machine running 98 to regular internet use and see how long it lasts. Not long I think...
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I tend to use Vista now all the time (except work PC, and IE7. Works virtually flawlessly at a technical level, but let down by the fact that users dont like change. Same reason these users refused to use XP when it came out.
Yes, it does need more powerful hardware than XP, but then it is 6yrs newer!
IE7 tends to be very, very stable. If you are getting weird issues, check out what ActiveX plugins you have enabled, and kill most of them off.
And lastly, esp for XP users, don't run as Administrator, unless you are very PC savvy (in which case, you should know better)
All makes semce, never thought to check all the Active X stuff. Current machine is a 3.0 Ghz Single core with 2 GB of ram and will revert back to a 356Mb 8600GT Video Card.
Other machine will be a 3.4 Ghz Single core then upgrade to a dual core 3.0 with 4 Gb ram and a 768Mb so this machine will be getting Vista on it.
I was one of those that didnt like change, I never wanted to come off dos and win 3.11
Now I run a stable machine and try new software on something else.
Lets face it, we have to move with the times. :D
Never knew you spoke Chinese Phil :D :D :D
Am A Black belt in Oragammi as well Dan. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
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Disagree with all comments about Vista. I have a dual boot of XP pro and Vista Ultimate on my laptop which is old. It has been upgraded but not even using a dual core. It's got a pentium M 1.8ghz processor and 2gb ram. The graphics card won't allow you to use windows aero but still runs Vista at the same speed as XP.
I think the problem people have is adapting to a different operating system. The reason I used a dual boot was because I hated Vista at first and wouldn't work with half of my software. A year on now and I can't remember when I last used XP. Vista is far more stable and runs at the same speed and the majority of programs now work with Vista.
Everyone equally hated XP when it first came out but doubt any of you still believe win 98 is better.
Was considering doing a duel boot set up.
Any issues in doing so? Which one is best insatlled 1st. :y
As long as you've got a copy of Vista and XP to sort out any unexpected boot problems it's not difficult. You shouldn't need to fix it anyway if you follow the instructions carefully (I have a habit of ignoring them).
It doesn't really matter which way round you install them as long as you follow the instructions for which ever route you take. There are instructions for both ways.
Only future problems to think of are partitioning. You will struggle to resize partitions on your boot disk after installing the dual boot so better to have a decent sized hard drive for the OS's in the first place.
Here's the how to...
XP installed first...
http://apcmag.com/how_to_dualboot_vista_with_xp__stepbystep_guide_with_screenshots.htm
Vista installed first...
http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_vista_and_xp_with_vista_installed_first__the_stepbystep_guide.htm
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I tend to use Vista now all the time (except work PC, and IE7. Works virtually flawlessly at a technical level, but let down by the fact that users dont like change. Same reason these users refused to use XP when it came out.
Yes, it does need more powerful hardware than XP, but then it is 6yrs newer!
IE7 tends to be very, very stable. If you are getting weird issues, check out what ActiveX plugins you have enabled, and kill most of them off.
And lastly, esp for XP users, don't run as Administrator, unless you are very PC savvy (in which case, you should know better)
All makes semce, never thought to check all the Active X stuff. Current machine is a 3.0 Ghz Single core with 2 GB of ram and will revert back to a 356Mb 8600GT Video Card.
Other machine will be a 3.4 Ghz Single core then upgrade to a dual core 3.0 with 4 Gb ram and a 768Mb so this machine will be getting Vista on it.
I was one of those that didnt like change, I never wanted to come off dos and win 3.11
Now I run a stable machine and try new software on something else.
Lets face it, we have to move with the times. :D
Never knew you spoke Chinese Phil :D :D :D
Am A Black belt in Oragammi as well Dan. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Always thought that you were gifted :D
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Cheers for that, will look into it. :y :y :y
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Another thing, did you sort out your copy of XP. Is it activated at the moment? If not you don't need to phone microsoft or reinstall XP. Just PM me if you need help.