wutske

No problem.I must admint my systems aren't that up-to-date (XP2500+ and a spare PIII), but most of my knowledge is gathered from loads of reviews and forums.I must say that my post could have been a lot better too (I looks a bit rude if I re-read it atm, so sorry for that). Today it's pretty hard to remain simple if it comes to explaining computer stuff. There are so many options compared to the begin '90s or something. (there was hardly any overheating, mostly Pentium, only a small speed difference between 3D cards, ...), but any try is a good try. I learned computer stuff using post like yours, advancing more and more, reading such post .

e-paper: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/13/fujitsu_epaper/ sun credit card pc: https://blogs.oracle.com/roller-ui/errors/404.jsp (this is fake, read the update) the 9x fast cpu's: this might be true, but ... I doubt for mobile applications. There are cpu's that are very fast, but only at doing one kind of calculation (nowaydays they have like 96 cores too ). A GPU is 100x faster (not exactly okay, it's just a number ) at calculation 3D stuff then a CPU. I think you're talking about the Pentium-M, the Conroe, yeah, in the beginning everybody tought it was superfast, but it isn't. It has a huge L2 cache, larger than most benchmarks require (like superpi), so these benchmarks only have to rely on the CPU's superfast L2 cache. For realy life performance it's anywhere as fast as the benchmarks let you believe, faster, yes, superfast, no way.

First try what yordan says.If that doesn't work, go to the VM and select the option for the CD-ROM. Untick the option "connect exlusivly to this VM" and "Legacy Emulation".The first option prevents windows from accessing the CD-rom. Usualy you can't read any cd either. The second is not needed, leave it disabled, it might only cause problems.If that doesn't work, go to the services (right click on 'my computer' > manage | services). There are some services that start with 'VMWARE ...' . Try stopping each service and test if it works.

I realy doubt this is going to help (either on Win9x as on XP). A HDD is slow, and RAM is fast.If the computer has to work hard and can't process all data that comes from a HDD, then the small amount of data is saved in the RAM, afterwards it's read a tad faster, but 4Mb @ 3GBs is not even a second.If the CPU or chipset can handle all data, the buffer is practicaly useless, since data is read right after it's written in the buffer.It's the same for HDD's with 2, 8 or 16Mb cache. It hardly improves speed, maybe only when it comes to smaller files, but the improvements are small.The only way to improve HDD speed isa) tweaking the filesystem (but the improvement is again very small, and sometimes even not noticable) getting a faster HDD (more recent model, faster spinning, ...)c) creating a (decent) (hardware) RAID array

Sounds very familiar. Every morning I go only to check my e-mail (I the f*ck even have to do this because people start to rely on it . Wtf, printing reports in the morning just because those lazy f*ckers started to late ). Anyway, an hours ago or something I was about to clean my room (yeah, exams are over so it's a real dump in here), an hour after I'm still online .

Lot's of remarks: Processing Power: 1) A CPU has several soft of processing capabilities, like ALU en FPU. The improvemts in power depends on what kind of calculation the program requires (it's not that Intel overrules AMD in ALU AND FPU, no, Intel is better at FPU, while AMD is better at ALU). 2) No, AMD cpu's do not run hotter than Intel CPU's, that's absolutely NOT true, in fact, Intel still run hotter than AMD's do (a few years ago, yes, then the AMD AthlonXP's were hot, until Intel created the Prescott, wich was hot enough to overheat in normal conditions). 3) The amount of cache also impacts the performace, why do you think the Celeron's are so bad, just because they only have a tiny L2 cache. Vid Cards: 1) ATI Radeon 9400 ? Doesn't exist as far as I know, there is 9200, 9500, 9550, 9600, 9700, 9800 but no 9400. 2) The mainboard brand and videocard brand does not have to match, absolutely not. You can easly mix different brands without having problems. 3) Different drivers brands are indeed the same, but that's because they use the driver packs from ATI and NVidia (they sometimes add some extra stuff like overclock-controls or some other controlls and information). 4) More video memory can sometimes mean less performance. Only few games use more than 128Mb video memory, so 512Mb is way too much. But, some companies add more memory, but they use SLOWER memory. 5) Don't forget new GPU's run pretty hot too (80°c is normal, even 90°c, but these chips can run over 100°c) 6) SLI/Crossfire allows to link 2 (or 4) graphic cards, theoreticaly doubling the power. It's great if you're gaming on a High Defenition TV (high resolution and high AA and AF settings), but it only draws more power and is pretty useless for the main user (gamer). RAM: Never use ram that runs at a slower FSB than your CPU does, by doing this the RAM will be a bottleneck. Another important factor are the memory timings. Most important are the CAS and RAS timings. Memory running at CAS2.0 is faster than CAS2.5 or CAS2.0, some for the CAS timings. Ow, and not to forget, Command Rate. This setting is realy imporant. A while back, the AMD memory controller could not access 4 memory sticks at 1T, causing quite a loss in performance. But now it's more or less fixed. HDD: You're realy confusing lot's of things. The amount of platter has nothing to do with performance. If a disk has 1 more platter, it just means it is bigger, nothing else. What does improve performance is the density of data. The denser it is (the center of the platter, the beginning of the disk), the faster. Then there is the cache, it also improves performance a bit, but not THAT much. Then SCSI thingy. SCSI is actualy what is used in servers. SCSI drivers are made to run 24/7 (the drives we buy seriously suck when compared to SCSI drives). SCSI allows to run several drives in RAID. There are several RAID modes, 0, 1, 0+1, 5, 7, ... . RAID 0 (striping). This splits the DATA in 2 and saves on 2 different drives. This is of course a lot faster, because 2 drives are doing the work of 1 drive. RAID 1 (mirroring). It just keeps a mirror and protects data in case a disk fails. RAID 0+1. Combination of RAID0 and RAID1. This is very important, because in case of RAID0, you have 2 the chance of losing your data (and if one disk fail, you'll loose all your data, and nothing that can resue it). RAID5 (Striping with distributed parity). A bit hard to explain, but this mode splits data on several drives, but always this mode allows data to be rescued. This mode uses at least 3 drives, more drives are faster. The downside is that this RAID mode needs processing power, if a cards lacks this processiong power then the write speeds will be utterly low. RAID x. These RAID modes are less popular, mainly because they are so expensive. For more info: http://www.acnc.com/raidedu/0 PSU: New hardware requires a lot of power (and it also runs a lot warmer). Except a minimum of 80W for a new CPU and 70W for every graphic card you add. You'll need a lot of spare power too, so at least get a high quality 420W PSU. Ow, and don't forget to pay the electricity bill.

I've had that issue several times when re-installing windows. My mainboards has a S-ATA controller (SE3112) and windows needs a driver loaded from a floppy. This never posed a problem, untill I started using an nLite version of windows ( http://www.nliteos.com/ '> http://www.nliteos.com/ ). I still don't know what the problem was, but I think the installer read the driver incorrectly, causing such problems, so it isn't always a matter of broken discs or other hardware. I'd try nlite, only because the 'pure' version doesn't work.

To be very honest, waaaay too much. I got a bit addicted to it and I recon I should do something about it, because I realy need to get out a bit more often, that's way I'm thinking about photography as a hobby.It's even this bad that before I go to school, I usually spend about 30 minutes online. After school usualy 3-4 hours, in the weekends like 10hours . Sometimes I just surf to nowhere. I have some forums I visit, it happens I visit them 10 times per hour .

Wireless keyboards and mice are very handy for home entertainement systems. It's nice when you can use a keyboard and mouse while you're relaxing in the sofa.The same goes for a computer in your sleeping room. Browsing music and movies while relaxing in bed sweet .

For HDD I realy suggest you to buy one in a shop nearby. Shipping a HDD always yields some risks, it's such sensitive material and shipping a defective model only costs time.I had a dead on arrival disk, brought i back to the shop, got a new one, that one failed a few months later and I got another one in return.Always play save on data storage !

damn, wish I had the money to buy such a laptop .I've been looking for a laptop lately and I probably won't get any further than an ATI Xpress200, 512Mb and 40Gb hdd .Gotta get me a job for the vacations (need much money, new camera, pc upgrade (or new one?), laptop, ...). Me want's much, but can't get much

Well, it's nice if you need all those features, but I'm quite happy with the 2k3 version and in fact I'm also very happy with OpenOffice.org (except maybe the spell correction that needs some improvements).It also looks so ... big ... and baby blue. I mean, baby blue, does that have to look professional ???Well, since I don't linke SP2 either (and I probably won't run Longhorn (me don't like the new name)), I'm goign to stick with MO2K3 en oOo2

Why oh why does everybody want a fancy looking operating system with fancy looking applications and why does nobody want a simple, small application that has a CLEAR lay-out instead of big, shiny buttons with an icon on it that describes about nothing ???There goes nothing but the old 9x/2k-style . I get bored when I use a theme too long, but the simply 2k style had done it's job for years now

I'm not a mac user (and I'm not saying mac isn't good), but when you buy a mac today, you're simply buying an ordinary computer. The cpu, the graphics card, the hdd, ... everything is the same is in an ordinary computer and yes, I still think this is a shame .Nowadays you can even buy a Mac and install windows on it, it's even a stupid move, like Apple is stabbing itself in the back ...So if there's no need for MacOS, you could as well go for a 'normal' laptop.

You'll need a webcam (or a camera with webcam feature) and the free program virtualdub ( ) in order to complete this little guide.VirtualDub needs no installation, you can simply copy every file to a folder like c:\program files\VirtualDub\. Start virtualdub by double-clicking on “VirtualDub.exe”. (best is to connect you webcam before we continue)Next, go to the capture mode via File>Capture AVI.If everything goes right, virual dub shows you what your camera is capturing, if not, you might have to select your webcam in de “Device” menu.Now we have to set the settings.Press 'C' or open the 'compression' dialog via Video>Compression. Here you have to select the right codec. Best is to use DivX or XviD at a bitrate of 256Kbs (you can set this by selecting one of those 2 codecs if available and clicking on the 'configure button').If you want to capture a dark scene (evening, morning, night, ...) you might enable noise reduction in order to get better results. You can enable noise reduction in the 'Video' menu,Since we don't need audio (audio won't run synchronised after speeding up the video) we disable the audio in the 'audio' menu. Simply untick 'enable audio capture' by clicking on this text. This will also reduce size a lot.Next we have to reduce the frame rate at wich virtual dub captures the movie. Press F9 to open the 'settings' dialog. If you want to speed it up twice, you have to choose 15-20fps in order to get a smooth movie. The more you speed up, the less frames you need, but I suggest a minimum of 1-2fps.Last thing we have to do is setting the capture file. Press F2 to open this dialog and choose a name and location where you want to save this file.Now you can start capturing by presing F5 or F6 and you can stop it by pressing Esc. Remember that speeding up a movie means decreasing the length of the movie, so capture during a long time.Now the speeding up. After capturing, get back to virtual dub via File>Exit Capture Mode. Now open the movie you just captured (drag and drop works). Press ctrl-r to open the 'video frame rate control' dialog. Select the 'change to' dot and enter the desired frame rate (if you double the frame rate, the movie will play twice as fast and the length will be half of the original time).In the examples, I've choosen frame rates greater than 30. Since this is too much, I let virtual dub convert the frame rate to 30.You can preview the movie by pressing the ' |>O ' button.Next, you'll need to select the compression, press ctrl-p to open this dialog and select a good codec.Since we don't have audio, we can save some space by choosing 'no audio' in the 'audio' menu.Now save the new movie file by pressing F7 and choosing a new name and/or location.

hmm, I don't think so, but it would be rather useless to run a card at anything lower than 640*480, this resolution is supported by every graphics card, but, windowsXP does not allow you to use anything lower than 800x600, so you won't have any problem using that monitor (except if that monitor can only use a 60hz refresh rate at a resolution of 800x600, because that refresh rate is to low for a CRT monitor and causes head aches and it's not good for your eyes too).

Those cards have the same graphics processor, so they are pratically the same, there might be small difference in other components used (like other brand of capacitors) or maybe a different lay-out, other cooler or other (cheaper or better) memory.Except for such tiny details they are the same, yes.

I have a K700i and I suggest you to get at least the K750i, this has a much better camera, a memory slot (so you can store loads of MP3's) and a cover for the camera (K700i had it removed and my lens is always covered with dust).Also, the build quality is not that good, the top of the phone 'cuts' in your ear when you are calling and the rubber on the bottom to protect the contacts for charging the battery and connection the headset is real crap, it's oversized and sticks out.Ow, and bleutooth sucks on the K700i, it's slow just because the phone is utterly slow, 17kb/s average and no other program can acces bleutooth or infrared...

You can check the taskmanager to see if you need more memory. Look at the program you use (Photoshop I asume) and see how much memory it uses. Also check out how much memory is used in total. If this is over 850Mb, you'd better get some more ram.The cpu is okay, tough there are faster models available. I don't know whether the program you use supports multiple cpu's, if so, you might consider upgrading to a dual core cpu.

I doesn't realy matter if windows knows what cpu type you have, it doesn't realy have optimalisations built in for it, so don't worry. But ... AMD A64 cpu's need a driver so that the QnC function works under XP. Drivers can be downloaded here: http://www.amd.com/en-us . Look for "AMD Athlon™ 64 Processor Driver for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 Version (exe) 1.3.1"

I think because the Yast(2) tool is very powerfull AND easy. It offers a bit the facility people are used to have in windows, yes has more advanced and powerfull settings available.Not only is it powerfull, it also looks realy good the way it comes (some other KDE distro's don't look that appealing without some tweaking).xboxrulz, you're completely right, it doesn't operate as windows, only because it operates and windows doesn't I think that if you realy want a windows->linux clone, you'de have to get Linspire (= lin-- / lindows).

Relatively, IE and FF are about the same when it comes to safety, the only difference is that most of the 'dudes' are focusing on IE (tough there has been a shift).When it comes to compatibility, IE has an extra point, but at cost of HTML-code quality (it renders faults correctly).Usability is for FF, plug-ins are handy and FF has more to offer than IE (IE7 is roughly just IE6 with tabs and a search bar), but it lacks at least mouse gestures.FF is the winner, but my preference is in the Opera camp, and it'll be there forever...

Those are the buses via wich a component can communicate with the rest of the computer.The first was ISA and EISA, those were 8-bit and are nowadays not used.The PCI bus was a faster bus with a speed limit of 133Mbs (if I remember correctly). A normal PCI slot (wich connects an add-in card to the computer) is white.But PCI was to slow for the fast graphics cards, so the AGP standard was introduced (and it's only used for graphics). There are different speed grades, 1x, 2x, 4x and 8x. AGP can transfer several gigabytes per second. Normaly the AGP slots is brown.Not that it wasn't fast enough, but few years ago, PCIe was introduced. This new and faster bus can not only connect graphic cards, but lots of other devices like SATA controlles. The PCIe bus is features several lanes, every lane is an extra x . So PCIe 1x has one lane, while PCIe 16x has 16 lanes. In this way, every devices has it's own connection and doesn't have to share the bus at the same time. A PCIe is normaly black and can be recognised by it's tabs on the side.Hope this helped

This is more a graphic card problem, not a cpu problem, and even more a problem with the graphicsmemory. I suppose these strange shapes are rectangulare and with their tops in the center of the screen?

I'm not shure about this, because I've never used (and never wanted to use) windows ME, but when you boot, try to let it boot in DOS mode. Here you can partition your hdd using fdisk (you can also use linux). Then reboot and let it boot in DOS mode again. Now format the drive and run the windows installer (it could be in cdromdrive:\windows\setup).You'll need a bootfloppy that supports cd-drives in DOS.This is how it works for Win98 SE, so don't shoot me if I'm wrong .On the other hand, I just did a quick google and found this (http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/). So it's possible to resize a FAT32 partition using linux