DjCalvin

Im putting my money on the graphics card.When it starts to add funky color, lines and blocks to your screen.. thats the video card on its way out.Want to push the card to see if it really is that? Run 3dmark05

I have been assigning nic speeds for a couple years on all new boxesthat we build in our datacenters manually. I finally got fed up andpicked up some vbscript books which have been a great help managingsome redunant tasks i must do, but this one stumps me.Key Name:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002bE10318}Under each subkey there is a string value of "SpeedDuplex" with a valueranging from 0+100/full is 4 auto/auto is 0If the device is not a physical hardware nic, it will not have theSpeedDuplex Key, which is a plus for finding real devices vsvirtual/software ones.What I am trying to do is run through each subkey and its strings andchange any that have a string of "SpeedDuplex" with a value of 0 to 4.Im not sure about how to loop through all the keys to do this.Any help would be appreciated.Thx

Ok here is a challenge to all the hardcore linux folks out there.I will greatly accept the switch if it can be proven that Games will run as good under linux as they do under windows.Im a windows guy at heart, but I do work on unix systems at work.Im a gamer, and that will never change.I had switched over to linux about 4 years ago, and I couldnt play crap on linux without dual booting to windows. (I think it was Wine emulation they were running under)Now have there been some improvements in being able to play windows games smoothly on linux?If so, please let me know, and please point me to references which say that is true.here is my setup and what I currently play:Hardware:asus p4ce800-deluxe mobo (onboard gig-e)p4 2.8ghzbfg 6800 ultra1gb corsair XMS pro memory4x200gb western dig sata hd's in raid 1 (2 logical drives)2x 160gb OS and data drives.sb audigy 2Acessories:Logitech g15 keyboardLogitech 6.1 surroundLogitech G5 Laser mouseCeative Zen Xtra jukebox.Couple of flash drives.Dual layer dvd burner ( i think its a lite-on.. been a while since i checked)Games I am currenly playing, and want to continue playing...Godfather the gameFreelancer (old standby favorite)World of Warcraft (just dumped my account actually)Rollercoaster Tycoon 3Civ 4Edit: From what i can tell Cedera is the app of choice for a lot of games.Any suggestions on linux flavor as well? or web sites to point me in the right direction. I will prob dual boot until i can get a handle on things for a month or 2.- C

I'll check it out. If you've been playing for 2 years it should be pretty good.

I hate to revive a dead topic, but is this completely free or is there a fee?
I was looking at the DL link on cnet and it said $10.00 after trial.


-c

Well it all depends on the games you play but most of the big titles out there will run horribly on a 9250.
Also note that some of the manufacturers tend to overclock their graphics card a bit and install nicer fan systems (good brands like Leadtek, BFG etc etc) so you get more performance as compared to the normal reference systems. They cost slightly more but they can be quieter and deliver better performance. When looking for a new graphics card just do a google search around and see which manufacturers give you the most bang for buck. Generally you get what you pay for.

I would Strongly reccomend BFG hardware.
I have been using them since my 4200 and i have upgraded every year to the latest and greatest car out there (stopping at my current 6800 ultra oc) I have had 2 problems with bfg over the last 2 years, and both of them were resolved quickly and painlessly.

BFG gives you a lifetime warantee with their cards, which is friggin sweet when it comes to high end cards.
I had a bfg 5950 ultra that fried due to overheating. (i was overclocking it by 2%) I called up bfg, they didnt even ask me if i was overclocking, I would have told them yes though. (i try to be honest with a $600 card at the time) I shipped out my card, and got a new one within a week.

Now jump ahead to this year.
I shorted out my 5950 ultra when cleaning out my case (screw fell touching 2 capacitors leads) and when i powered the thing on.. you could smell the burnt chip.
I called up bfg, got an rma number and packaged up the box.
Now, I dont know if this will work anymore or even if that person still works at bfg, and I have 6 witnesses to the fact when i opened up the return box.
I put a little hand written note inside the box saying I loved their cards and they are rock solid, but I couldnt find a 6800 gt in my area at a low enough price for me to upgrade to, and asked if they had any suggestions for places in my area.

Well a week went buy and the box from bfg shows up. I opened it up and inside was a handwritten note from one of the sales persons saying something along the lines of: "Im sorry to hear that you cannot find a retailer that stocks the 6800gt oc, We value your return business and would like you to have this 6800 with our compliments"

I open up the shrink wrap and HOLY CRAP! its a 6800 Ultra OC a $700 card at the time.
I called up bfg and thanked them for a good 15 minutes telling them how i will always stick with bfg.
I was like a fat kid in a penny store when i opened that wrapper and to this day remember how happy i was with bfg and their customer service.

I wish i still had the letter from bfg, i'd scan it and post it.

You never know what a little kindness will do when your without a graphics card.
100000000000% true experience with bfg. (toss in all the extra zeros you want)

- C

OK, I will try to find a replacement for it in that case. I don't know of any local computer stores that would allow me to test out their batteries first before buying them. Thanks.

Do you have a test button on the battery? Some Batteries have a little LED on them that tell you what their charge is at.
Also, when your laptop is plugged in, does the power light change from amber to green? or red to amber?
(vs unplugged.. not sure if you have enough power to boot at all)

Tell what router you have, company, Is there a firewall in it?
I have a pre-N wireless router it can go to my neighbours neighbours neighbours house (it's from belkin), It is working very well, My neighbours cant go on it because its protected,
We had some problems with our old router, it became slow....
Well I am will to know what you guys have...


It is 600% faster than G wireless, has 800% more coverage 20% more coverage if you are using G reciever on your computer... It goes to our upstairs bedroom so were on the net all the time

As far as my wireless network goes, this is what I am running:

Netgear WGU624 Double A & G router.

Gives me dual 108mbs channels on g and dual 54's on A
I used to use the A channel when i had 2.4ghz phones, and now G since i switched out my home phones to 5.8
I havent had any trouble with this router, my 2 other routers are Netgear ProSafe Routers which allow me to assign vpn clients and licenses for the family when someone is on the road.

Some of the older netgears had massive heat problems, which would cause the slowdown and lockup issues. if you still have those problems, i would suggest searching for netgear lockup hack on google.. couple people have slapped 80mm fans to their routers for a nice $4 fix.

- C

Another thing you need to consider with VOIP is your home phone vs home network setup.

if you have a 2.4ghz(802.11g) network, and a 2.4ghz phone, be prepared for drops and horrible horrible sound.
You might not notice it, but those who you talk to will.

Same thing with 802.11a and 5.8ghz phones.

i ran into that myself and switched out the phones to 5.8ghz, ended up dumping vonage due to my isp sucking anyhow...

I've found that VOIP is really bad compared to home lines.
The quality of the line is mostly distorted and it's like you can hear a ghost voice!

It's often slow and also the software from most of the providers slows down your computer.

It's okay if you use a free voip provider which allows you to ring home phones for free along with some other countries but I wouldn't recommend you to pay for it.
Saf

Want windows switching (Alt tab) to look like vista without the pains of vista?
check this out...
I have been using the powertoys for years, but never noticed this one.. so far, i am impressed...


http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

I have never seen a 13 pin one in my travels, doesnt mean they dont exist though. (you obviously got one )
glad its working though. enjoy your new monitor

Yeah, I'm sure. I got a pin layout image from another site and that's how I got the other information on what they are for. It's definitely not pin 5 since I remember it being near the edge (second to last = 4). Is there such a thing as a 13 pin d-sub cable? It definitely can't be a coincidence that BOTH ends of the cable's pin are missing the exact pins. Anyway, I swapped their LCD's and it's still working now...guess it's just one of those strange things on how they work.
Didn't know that some pins weren't needed...makes no sense to put them there at all then. I checked my new 14 pin cable to make sure...yep, pin #9 missing

Thanks for the info on that.

Just got one for my wife last week.
So far its about 45% quicker than her old g5 at final cut.
she says loading fonts in illustrator is about a 1min load instead of a 5min load with her old one.
(she has about 9,000+ fonts.. i kid you not.)
other than that, its pretty seemless.

just my .02

i have been looking at getting a new computer for some time. specifically a mac. so no-one try to perswade ortherwise, no point - i work in graphics and film.
when i was looking a while back i looked at the powermac g5. they looked really nice and very powerful. they were also what i had seen when on work experience. but then news of macintel came out so i held off.

so recently i have been looking again. i dont see the point in buying a ppc anymore, as like it or not, they are the past at apple. so it's either macbook pro or imac. the imac is really nice and cheaper but i do want something professional. i have been seriously looking at the macbook pro 17". it has the advantages of a laptop and i have extra monitors and a 300gig ext hd for at home. then i can pick up and walk out.

however it only can take up to 2 gig ram and that worries me. surely that will become a bit dated quite soon. and programs will want more to run properly soon. i am also waiting for the adobe software to properly be rewritten in apple Xcode. what does anyone think?

Thanks for the reply. I went to my cousin's house again about a week ago and tried something else (which I should have done earlier ). I bought another vga cable already so that's like $10 down the drain (weird thing was that it says 15 pin when I bought it, but it's actually 14 pins when I took a look at it ). Well, what I did was swapped the LCD monitors between their two computers. Is there a reason why the LCD would work on their other computer and not this one? They have two LCDs...the other one (without the problems - 15 pins intact) will work on BOTH computers. But this 13 pin "problematic" one will only work on the other computer. There was no point of me using the 14 pin cable I got since the issue was resolved by swapping the monitors.

 

My question is what is the difference between the 13, 14 and 15 pin VGA cables? I guess the one they had was NOT damaged but have no idea why it won't work on that computer.

 

Was I ripped off getting that 14 pin VGA cable when it was advertised as 15 pin d-sub?

 

No you were not.

As to why it worked on 1 and not the other? your guess is as good as mine. the missing pins on yours dont sound right honestly.. sure it wasnt 5, 9, 15?

Best way to explain the pins is for you to actually see it yourself:

 

ok, so you have 15 possible pins.

Here is the pin layout:

1 red

2 green

3 blue

4 ID bit

5 n/c

6 red ground

7 green ground

8 blue ground

9 n/c

10 ground

11 ID bit 11

12 ID bit 12

13 H sync / Composite

14 V sync

15 n/c

 

note that 5, 9 and 15 are not used. Some cable makers leave the pins in, others pull them alltogether.

 

The old macs used to use 14 pins, Im not sure about them now honestly though.

 

Hope that helps.

For more pinouts and where i blatently grabbed the image from: Here you go!

I just cancelled My WOW account after a nice 2 year run. (Have been playing since Friends and Family beta)Reason for cancelling: Pretty much cleaning up my finances of what I need vs what I want. And I was not playing it much at all anymore. If wow had'nt delyaed the expansion from spring this year to fall this year, I would more or likely still be playing. (Its boring for a casual gamer once you hit 60)Now my question is this, and this is for those who have played both Wow And guild wars.Which one is better? I like the idea of a free MMO where you have to buy the game, but not pay the monthly. How are the graphics? How is it for a casual gamer? these Updates I have heard about for Guild wars.. What are they? how much do they cost and how often are they pushed out?Basically would love you get the game's perspective from a wow'er's point of view.Oh, and if anyone here is on stormscale (US) let me know your char name and level and I can pawn off some gold to you**while supplies last. - C

To the best of my knowledge, VBScript is a scripting fork of the language Visual Basic and has got absolutely nothing to do with vB (vBulletin) - the forum software.. unless you mean a version of vB that was written in VBScript.. in which case, it won't be called VBScript anymore, but ASP or ASP.NET

 

You are correct Sir!

 

 

Heh, Maybe i can revive this forum section

 

Ill start posting some stuff up later in the week when I am not working.

simple question.Any regulars out there that script in vbscript?Im not the best scripter out there, but do have a lot of system admin scripts that i have written to save admins some time.If needed, i can post what i have. Mainly I want to see if there are any experts out there that can make some suggestions for some scripts I am currently working on.

My money is still on firefox.
Ie 7 is a blantent rip of firefox.. cmon.. tabbed browsing in IE? bah....
We shall see how long the firefox ride lasts, they have been having some problems lately.

-C

Ok, as the title says which one is better????The new IE version has navigation by tabs and stuff like Firefox
Firefox is kinda same
Which one is better?
In my opinion IE tried to copy Firefoz This Time

Why not buy a REAL firewall (not a router)and allow all inbound/outbound port 80 traffic to 1 machine, your internet machine...all other traffic that is on the same network could potentially have internet access if you specifically allowed it. (think upgrades) else they would be denied by a default ruleset.I think i get at what you are saying though.

Piracy has been around since the late 70's early 80's with the introductions of home computers.Now that the media is soooo soo cheap, and people's connections are a hell of a lot faster than they were in 1990 say, the media has latched hold of this.I can remember bbs's back in the day with a 1200baud modem, they had library's of software on removable hard drives and they would swap out a drive a week. Yes, it took you a week to get the brand spanking new Police quest game, but you got it none the less.Now with the rise of this new fandangled "internet" thingie, everyone is doing it.you used to have to hear about a site hosted on an university's network, or a bbs run out of some guys house.now type in what you are looking for in your favorite search engine, and whalla! pirate-o-mania.Im not saying its right. Please dont get me wrong. But its been here for ages and will not go away.most people in general (broad generalization) want something for free.Yes MS makes you pay $120 for windows xp oem, and then once you upgrade your system enough times you cant use it.. THAT pisses me off. when a case like that comes around, im all for telling MS to go screw. I bought the software, I havent shared it or put it on another computer, I just upgrade a lot. I had to call MS 2 weeks ago for a rebuild after i added another drive and moved a lot of disks to another system. They activated it for me, but told me that I could not activate it anymore. WHY? I could not get an answer out of their help desk.15 minutes later, I had to call them again for office 2003. same thing. Becuase I had installed ms 2003 (I purchased it through MS via my company's work from home store) 2 times, I could not activate it anymore and had to buy a new license.BUllCrap!Im going to give an example, a bad one at that.. but it still applies.Your 18 and living on your own for the 1st time, You work for peanuts to pay your rent and groceries, and you want the latest game for your pc. You dont have the money, so you go and download it.Now your car dies the next week. its going to cost you a couple hundred dollars to fix it. (sorry dont know the conversions here) You dont have the money, but you need your car to get to work, to pay the rent, to feed you etc.. do you steal a car? or less petty, steal the parts to fix your car?No.I dont see how you can justify it at all. you cant afford it? well then save your money. you dont want to pay $50 for something you dont know if you are going to like? shareware or demo it somewhere where you can see it in action. Most companies have a restricted demo copy available. The company charges $1500 for the program. Think of the cost analysis of you using this software, will it increase productivity? usually, yes. will it help you in your job? again, yes. Will you make money from it? yes (if you are paying $1500 for a piece of software, there is a reason for it.)Your a student, and you need maya for your animation class? hey.. there's a free maya out there you know for educational folks.if someone can come up with a legitamate excuse for blatently pirating software, i would love to hear it.Im not talking about the MS will only let me activate xp x number of times, or Adobe wont let me install my educational version on more than 2 computers so i got a keygen... Im talking about a real reason.Just my .02

It was the MBR.
Your boot record was currupt and you did the right steps.
This happend to my home machine a couple months ago.

fixmbr, then create a new boot.ini

I had to repair the windows installation on a computer, due to constant power cuts for several days, once it started up and said "NTRDL is missing" etc. so i looked on all the tech sites for ideas on how to fix it, and tried them all. none of them worked. i couldn't fix the boot.ini or winnt files, because they weren't messed up, simply not there. so i tried to copy them again off the windows cd, but after telling me the file was successfully copied, i would look in the c drive and it wasn't there. Next i tried a repair install, but it wouldn't give me that option. What i don't understand is, why will windows, on installation, detect an already installed copy on the hard disk, but not give me an option to repair it? i tried several times, and finally after using the recovery console to fix the MBR, the boot, and then finally rebuilding the boot file, it then gave me the option of repairing rather than doing a full install. I'm not quite sure what it was that did the trick. But i would like to know because it happens frequently. What is a simple, generally tried and proven way to get the repair option to come up if it refuses to?

Now Please correct me if this is false, but arent you forced to use apple's software to load mp3's onto your Ipod? I was under the assumption that this was the case, hense me buying a 30gb zen jukebox.

I'm going to post some more of my comments later as I've got to go... read the full article here: http://www.informationweek.com/archives.asp?newsandcommentary=yes=

 

[N]F

 

 

Try having 100 windows NT servers still in your datacenters and getting patches for that

Or better yet, tell your customers that they have to pay for MS premium support for NT4 patches.

 

Always great to be on the line when sales tells that to a customer.

 

"But our apps run fine on nt4"

Well develop them for 2003

here goes:These are the systems that I have sucessfully installed vista: (march msdn and previous)p4 2.8, 1gb ramamd xp 2800 1gb ramamd xp 3200 512gb ramlaptop: thinkpad t41 (1.5ghz pentium moble) with 512 ramFailed installs: compaq proliant dl 380 g3 (4x2.4ghz) and 4gb ram ( i think its a gen 3 at least)compaq armada m700 laptop (500mhz p3 256 ram)The only thing i have run into is driver issues with sound really, and there are fixes for them now available.Vista will run on an old nvidia card, but has an issue with radeon (go figure, ms in bed with nvidia.. naaaaaah)thats just from testing to see what works where on a lot of work machines.

For thunderbird, its actually simple.Copy your documents and settings\your user\application data\thunderbird folderreinstall thunderbird, copy back the folder and whalla. back in business.wiping the os drive will not destroy your other partition Unless you use a 3rd party/oem system setup disk.As far as firefox, I just go Bookmarks - manage bookmarks - Export.then import them back in once you have firefox reinstalled.

Routers are not OS dependent.
they only route the traffic.
If its connecting to the router's interface, then there might be an issue. I dont know this router in particular if it uses a web based, telnet, ssh, or an application to manage it.

Quick question on this router. I installed everything fine for windows, but I have a partition on my hard drive for Mandriva (Linux). Just curious if anyone knows if this router is Linux compatible, and if it is, what do I do to go about installing it on linux.
Consider this: I am a linux "noobie", so I don't really use it much. I installed this distro to try to learn more about it, and I'm still in the process of learning.