wutske

It's not because he downloaded vista that it is persĂŠ illegal. You can legaly download vista, but that's only the business version. And why running both along side ? Because not everything works on vista like it works on XP. joe, considering your problem. I suggest you first do a full virus scan (I see you've been doing on, but I think you're using Norton ... baaaaad choise, try doing an online virusscan, or install a virus-scanner without on-access protection, like the free version of bit-defender, or Clam Anti-virus portable). Next, scan for malware using ad-aware and spybot s&d. Infection is one option. What you might try is booting the WinXP cd in recovery and ruling out Vista's boot manager by doing a fixmbr. Next, try the same for Vista. Last but not least, start backing up your data ...

You've got the be very stupid if you zap yourself when opening a psu . You can only do that if you touch the bottom of the PCB (the conctacts of the capacitors). But most modern motherboards tend to discharge the PSU reasonably (because of the stand-by LEDs), so there isn't too much to worry about (but you still have to be very carefull, never underestimate the power of electricity)

I've made my descicion (at last ). I'm going for a Dell Inspirion 6400, they're giving a free upgrade from 1Gb to 2Gb (200 euro's ...), Vista home premium instead of XP and a free printer (not that I care, but it's a nice addition ).

The Dell XPS M170 has such a graphics card, the laptop is designed for gaming and it even comes with a warranty especialy made for gamers . Something that might help you is some sort of magazine, they sometimes review a bunch of laptops and it's a good way to get to learn some new brands (wich surprisingly offer good stuff for 'unknown' companies).Try looking in the database on notebookreview.com

Something that does help is slowing down the read speed of your cd-rom drive (using a tool like cd-bremse). This is what windows does for you when it encounters a lot of CRC errors on a cd.

The most easy way to fix the windows mbr is using the windows recovery (fixmbr), but then he'll need the driver disk too. Something people should know is that microsoft isn't to blame for not supporting SATA by default, when windowsXP came out, SATA was nothing like it is now.

I've tried it here ... hopeless . For the first time in my life I regret not having bought a Pentium4 instead of an AthlonXP (no SSE2 ). I tried it on my dad's Core2 Duo laptop and things ran terribly slow (it could be fixed by removing a file, but didn't try that because my dad needed the computer ... he never gave me the change to look it up ...)

Here's a dutch article, they've tested for us : https://uk.hardware.info/ (if you don't understand it, you could always use bablefish or some other kind of online translation service).

maybe he installed a key-logger on your computer or some kind of monitor software for children. Try running adaware and spybot search and destroy, those are most likely to find key-logger.P.s. and otherwhise, try sueing him for not respecting your privacy (just kidding )

Try make a custom windowsXP cd using nlite (http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/), it can add drivers to the installer, it even can make a complete unattended install without installing useless stuff (eg. msn explorer, windows messenger, ...).

Linspire is a distro that looks alot like windows (that why it was made and that's why it first was called lindows, wich microsoft ofcourse didn't like and they sued the company for it). Another good one (never tested, but it looks a lot like it) is Linux XP ( http://ww11.linux-xp.com/ ). A last addition I want to add is ReactOS ( http://www.reactos.org/ ), it is open source, but I don't think it's linux. Anyway, it realy mimick the windows look.

someone asked me to re-install office XP, but she has lost the license key she got when she bought her computer. Is there any (legal) way to get a new license key ?P.s. don't even think about mentioning OpenOffice

I can't agree more with you, the frontpage of the forum is very bad atm. It doesn't have any structure in it anymore. Something I hate too is when you add a smiley to a post, why does it SELECT the smiley, it's annoying because I always overwrite it ... . Besides those 2 annoyances, everything looks nice (except maybe the fact that it's again such a lame XP-bleu-ish look).

I voted Logitech, altough Microsoft mice are very good too. Both feel well and both have experience on how a good mouse should work. What I don't like about some mice is that the scroll wheel scrolls too smooth. I prefer a mouse with a distinct difference between every scroll, it should clearely 'click' and the distance between 2 'clicks' should be large enough (you see, a mouse isn't just a stupid thing in wich no toughts are put ).So far, I've used a few OLD microsoft mice (serial and PS/2 models), and they were STRONG. I once got so angry I started bashing the mouse on a metal bar and eventualy I cooled off because I couldn't get the mouse destroyed .I've been using my simple cordless logitech mouse (with a ball, not optical) for a long time and I'm very happy about it. I've also had a wired Logitech Mouse (optical), but I rendered that one useless (pressing too hard one the buttons when I get angry wore the buttons out, so now you have to press so hard on them that you get instant-rsi after 15 minutes of work ).P.s. I don't have a anger-problem

well, I don't realy watch that much videos (btw. if I'd want to watch stuf from TV, I'd have to buy a capture card first + I'd still need to buy the MCE control ). The price difference is about €45 (XP Pro is the more expensive one of the 2).But you know what, I'll get the MCE, if I don't like it, I can still install XP Pro on it (or vista, or linux, or wathever ).

hmm, that would be nice. The reason why I doubt between MC and PRO is because I actualy use XP Pro, and I've once use XP home and it just didn't feel right , I missed some things that make XP better to configure.Vista wouldn't be a problem, I still have a free copy of Vista Business waiting for me at MSDNAA , and since my main pc (Barton2500+, 512MB ram) isn't fast enough, it'll probably end on my laptop. But a free upgrade would be nice too

okay, time to wake up. Using a PATA > SATA connector will NOT give you any speed increase. It's not because you use a serial port > USB2.0 (if that might exist) convertor, that you'll be able to transfer data at 480Mbs over a serial port .Also, do not forget that SATA does not even offer a speed increase on drives sold nowadays. A good HDD transfer at MAX 70Mbs, wich is still below IDE100 or IDE133, so don't even think that SATA or SATA2.0 will give a speed increase.About the power cable, it has to give enough power, it's connected to your PSU, even the cheapest ones can power lots of hard drives without a problem.

believe me, my stereo was swapped too . Luckily, I have a 5.1 wich is connected using a tulip connector wich made it very easy to swap the channels .

I'm going for a Dell Inspirion 6400, it's not that expensive, it has good battery time and it's one of the few laptops that come with a non-reflective screen.So this is what I'll probably take:- T5200- 1024Mb RAM- 120Gb HDD- Radeon X1400- 9Cell Battery- Bluetooth- XP Pro or XP Media Center (still doubting a bit)- 2 year Basic SupportPricetag: €1240

is it realy that bad that the stereo signal is swapped ? And are you realy sure this also happens when you use your headset (btw. can't you turn the microphone in such way it's facing the other way ?).

I think everybody has mixed experiences with brand X and brand Y.My search still continues . I'm thinking about either dropping the non-glossy screen thing or the better graphics card (and getting an onboard graphics card), sigh. Why do they even consider putting a glossy screen on something you can use everywhere (especialy in places where light conditions are terrible).A friend at school has a Lenovo laptop, the screen is not glossy (wiiii ). How are the Lenovo's in general ?

if you paid for 256Mb and got 128Mb I would go back to the shop ... Another possibility is that you're using double sided memory. In that case, you can only use 2 slots (normaly, this depends from board to board, but usualy it's because the motherboard can only handly a certain amount of memory banks).

I'm I right or not : https://www.amazon.com/ref=nb_sb_noss_null Don't worry to much about the instability/$, that was just a stupid remark of me . About the tweaks and hacks, I am talking about tweaks and hacks, not about drivers . I don't know what tweaks and hacks, that's the point. I'm waiting for other people to discover new, interesting changes (eg. using the MS Bluetooth on WinXP SP1, so I won't have to upgrade to the annoying SP2 ). The most important thing I'm waiting for is a good way to bypass activation for non-business versions of Vista (you can only active Vista for 1 pc, and that's it) Anyway, I've just discovered I can download Vista Business from MSDNAA, completely legaly with license key , being a student rocks .

The HP and Toshiba aren't what I'm looking for (I'm looking for a non-reflective screen). It seems to be damned hard to find a descent, non-reflective screens on a laptop I'll be looking into the alienwares, tough I doubt they'll be easy to find in Belgium (please don't tell me I come from Holland, plz ), but the area51 m5550 looks good at first sight . damned, the alienware has a glossy screen too .

It realy depens from community to community. The gamers community will always remember Fatality (you know, the almost unbeatable gamer that has it's name put on several peaces of hardware), while I as a belgian [M]adshrimper will always remember jmke (because he made [M]). I think the best way it to write a good, an extremely good, cheap and wanted program. Begin small, grow big (I'm obviously pointing into the Microsoft and Apple direction) and then do some strange things so you'll get in the news or something. You can write a virus, a deadly virus, but there'll be more people that will hate you rather than looking up to you. Or, you can go into politics and give a speech on television while you're drunk. We had one (btw, he was not flemish, we have other weirdos in politics), he's famous now thanks to youtube (check it out: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ ).