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  1. I

    Windows-centric choice of *Nix plus GUI

    I'm considering either Kubuntu or Xubuntu, for a relatively old 384 MBs (max) PC I've built from the discard pile/ shelf / cabinet where old parts go. Which of those GUIs will a long-time W98 / W2K user (shorter time with XP -- kept resisting that one until fairly recently) find easier to...
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    Where do the fans of oldies hardware congregate?

    During those years (end of the 90s), I was covered up in work, with little free time for myself, especially not to play many PC games. I want to recreate a couple of PCs of the sort that a well-fixed gamer might have owned, to play some of those old games, but as well as anyone back then could...
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    Getting no sound from a music CD in the PC

    When CD players were new on the scene, there was a cable you had to connect from the back of the drive to either your audio card, or a header for your onboard sound. I haven't seen those cables included with optical drives in a very long time, and I don't think I've had any legacy ones I kept...
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    Conflicts with audio processor drivers in Windows98se

    I've been wanting to play Decent: Freespace for the last several years, but haven't taken time to assemble a period-matched Windows98 system until now. I have an Asus P5A mainboard, running an AMD K6-2 processor at 400 MHz, with 384 MBs of PC-100 RAM, a 40 GB Hdd jumpered to only show up at...
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    Are SATA hard drives a problem for W2K no matter what?

    It's with an Abit K9N SLI mainboard, and a Seagate 500 GB drive. I pre-formatted it to have a couple of partitions smaller than 128 GBs available before updating to SP4, but it keeps having this Fatal Stop after getting halfway through the install.
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    Slow, or mislinked images

    Is the delay part of the software change? I let the article about the Lian Li case sit there for about ten minutes, and never saw even one image get downloaded.
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    Regarding high-amp AMD X2s / FXs and some MBs unable to handle them

    I have a new AMD X2 6000+, AM2, 125 watt CPU, and an Abit KN9 SLI (nForce 570) MB, that I currently have an X2 4200 intalled in. Several recently produced MBs were reported to have had troubles handling high current draw CPUs -- have there been any similar complaints about "older" chipset MBs...
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    Limited W2K usability of an HD 3850

    As if there was so very much different between them, but all of the 8.x drivers abort in W2K and leave just the 16 color 640 by 480 screen, but Windows isn't satisfied with the generic VGA driver and pesters me at every W2K bootup. On the PC in question, with a dual boot, W2K isn't used...
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    XP Activation process looping

    On the PC system in question, XP is a secondary OS to W2K, used occasionally to play some games on. A month ago, maybe, I booted to WinXP (only has SP2, it's got an AMD cpu in it), and heeded Microsoft's entreaty to consider some updates. I would never allow Auto Updates and I don't like...
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    AVG Free 8.0 has conflicts regarding permissions?

    After several years using AVG Free with no problems, the current upgrade has gone awry, per the topic summary. Possibly, it wants me to run as Administrator, but that options flashes past in Safe Mode before I can change that, although my (W2K) user account has full privileges. Not even...
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    Building an X2 in spite of C2D superiority

    Assume I already have an AM2 cpu, not a plus, just an X2 4800, for example, and past decent luck with eBay sellers, and would be interested in a reasonably good mid-level system based upon an AMD dual-core from a year or two ago. How did the Asus M2N32 mainboards work out? Particularly the...
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    Gary Gygax, of DnD fame, has died

    All of us who play RPGs owed Gygax a great deal. With Dave Arneson, he created the original Dungeons and Dragons gaming rules. Apparently having been in ill health for months, he was 69 when he died at home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, before noon today, Central Daylight Time. He will be...
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    Maintaining an underlying troubleshooting option

    When Win9X was rather new, and especially when it was Win95, pre-debugging, I relied on MS-DOS to occasionally fix things that went wrong. After Win2000 came along, it was the Win98se that I kept as a dual-boot emergency option. But as the systems become much more powerful and complicated, the...
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    Video Driver Problem, Win98 / X850 XTP

    The Catalyst 6-2 drivers for Win98/ME work fine with an X800 XT and an X850 Pro in other PCs here, but the downloaded install's setup claims it has no drivers for this video card. The CD I have didn't have Win98 on it, and the other two X8**'s were OEMs, without any CD. The closest I've come...
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    Let's talk about old (PC) space sims for just a moment

    Right up front, I always go ahead and admit that while I like games, and do play them quite often, what I like most is just messing with computers. I've built most of my own for about twenty years now. The older complete systems I mostly give away or sell, but I always have some old PC...
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    Dedicated OS "sub-version" or complete distribution for firewall?

    I want to extend broadband Internet across my home LAN, but I have a current big surplus of older hardware already, so I thought that I would run something on the order of Smoothwall as a dedicated firewall system on a P3 I have on hand that runs very quietly (I also probably could make it up to...
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    Sticky Power Switch

    I have an almost new Aspire X-Dreamer just like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811144042 Right now, the switch wants to remain "on" after powering up, which shuts the system back off again. When I say new, I mean it was unpacked and admired two weeks & a little...
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    Site query: Where did the control for read/ unread ststus go?

    How to reset the threads for timeliness, so I know which are already done with?
  19. I

    GPU Review Web Site was down

    Anyone see any announcements that they'd be offline ? Well, I suppose that no one did. But it finally came back.
  20. I

    Adapting HSF control to case fan use

    I have had a couple of different Thermaltake CPU HSFs that came with speed controls, each uses two wires only (with the plug that looks like a two-pin version of a Floppy plug), and my case fans use standard 4-wire Molex jacks. I have a 120 mm, normal 12v fan that isn't terribly noisy on its...
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    (Moved) Any decent SFX format power supplies yet?

    (Moved) Any decent SFX format power supplies yet? Same Topic Summary: Never have found any to fit, with more than 200 W Mini-ATX psus Versus SFX, the standard mATX is "sideways" compared to the end cap size that is needed to replace the underpowered 150 W in an Enlight HTPC case I want to...
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    Need to Move: "Any decent SFX power supplies yet?"

    I asked in the forum for compact cases, got no hits: "Mini-ATX versus SFX, the standard mATX is "sideways" compared to the end cap size that will replace the tiny 150 W in an Enlight HTPC case I want to use. Any time I find 250 W or more advertised, it's the one that is wider than its...
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    Any decent SFX power supplies yet?

    Mini-ATX versus SFX, the standard mATX is "sideways" compared to the end cap size that will replace the tiny 150 W in an Enlight HTPC case I want to use. Any time I find 250 W or more advertised, it's the one that is wider than its depth. Mine is 2.5 by 4 inches on the end cap, with the 5 inch...
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    Anand's tests of 256 vs 512 MB video in Oblivion

    Last spring, Anand wrote three articles in which the Oblivion game was a central element, and in one of those, described tests with ATI X1600 video cards in two onboard memory sizes, showing surprisingly slower results for the cards with larger memory. But I didn't find that article under...
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    BioWare's Web Site (NWN, NWN2) keeps going offline

    Following a purposeful manintenance period, BioWare went righ back down again about an hour later, and remained broken a couple of hours. No official word offered why, and now, same again. I wonder if Atari reneged on a payment for their share of the server bill?
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    Netgear Routers vs. ordinary hubs, killed LAN when changed

    The PC's in here were originally on an 8-port hub, and setting the (peer to peer, with Win98, many years ago) LAN up was quite simple. It ran like that quite well, but I wanted more than one to be able to access the same 56K connection, and "sharing" seemed badly broken. So I bought the...
  27. I

    Will AVG eliminate AVG Free?

    What else is there as good? K. *
  28. I

    New Spammer, numerous forums

    Delete the idiot's account,or lock the fool out or whatever. He has left the building. Thanks. Mod
  29. I

    Dual-Boot quandary

    With both on the same ("C:\") boot drive, repairing the earlier is going to mung up the newer one's Boot Manager settings, and I have totally forgotten how I have fixed this in the past -- when I have dual-boots, I put each OS on its own separate logical drive. I'm hoping that a site like...
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    Any easy way to pinpoint driver conflicts as a source of (Freeze-up) problems?

    It came out of a general Utility PC here that I hadn't used a lot (it's not a new, fast, snazzy machine at all). I had not exercised the 3D aspects of the card to its full extent, but I did play some Crimson Skies, MS Flight Simulator 2002, and KOTOR-I segments with that card and saw no...
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    Mystery article about Express 3200 Chipset

    Very curious article. I keep thinking it will stay around long enough for me to read more than the first page, but it never seems to stay up very long at all before it's gone again, and so far, with no indication on its first page why it has no longevity . . Pretty sure I've seen no other...
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    I might prefer a small CRT, but what about LCD's at 17"?

    So far, I have zero knowledge about LCD devices, save that they seem quite expensive to me. This week, CompUSA is advertising a $179 device at 17". I've tried scanning the sticky on top, but there's too much to absorb readily. Let's do the opposite. I want a general purpose display for a...
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    That horribly stupid and ugly Patriot Ad vs. my cataract

    Any and all wise-rectum remarks about whether ad blockers are a normal part of any browser are equally unhelpful in disposing of such a boorish, blatantly sexist, and totally worthless advertisement, if this site's regulars care a lick about anyone other than their own selfish selves. AFAIK, I...
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    Anomalous Internet responses -- ISP fault, perhaps

    Meanwhile, I will end up doing a reboot, "Just in Case", even though this PC has only been running a very few hours this session. BUT, if it's the ISP or the OS that's wonky, why is "Annoyances.Org" one of the only web sites that seems affected? Anyone else finding that site running...
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    Foolishness in the Operating Systems Forum

    http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=34&threadid=1757947 I am more than merely a little annoyed.
  36. I

    Want to tie down Win98se drivers early

    For budgetary reasons, even when I'm at the most enthusiastic level I allow myself to reach, I have to trail two years behind the PC geek technology leading edge, to get the depreciated prices on stuff. I'm looking ahead a few months to my first A64, and seeing a problem coming already. Unless...
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    According to my Mozilla Browser, AT was Offline all day and then some

    All day yesterday, I would get a screen saying that the site was under maintenance (forums only), and to check back regularly. It didn't change until I shut down (was forced to do so when Mozilla froze up solidly) and then rebooted today. I usually run Win98se on the 'Net surfing PC (this...
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    Conflict in an OEM CD's serial number "requirements" - it's goofy

    My sister thought she wanted a PC once before, and TTBOMK, never used that one. I'm not going to huge expense and trouble this time for the same thing to happen all over again, but I didn't have a Win98 se to use (it's a pretty doggoned old PC I've started fixing up). The best '98se OS deal I...
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    Is there anything unusual about Socket 370 & P3's I've forgotten?

    As the de Facto family PC fixer, I've tinkered with the occasional Intel-based PC's someone had trouble with, but mostly tried to encourage them to move to AMD as I'd done, and not even upgraded a Pentium system for anyone since the earlier P3's (I don't think). And I was allowing a local White...
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    Running a Firewall PC w/o display, kb, or mouse

    Server motherboards have options in Setup to skip over the POST checks for terminal type peripheral parts. I'm putting this here, in case there are Linux users here familiar with what I hope to do. (OR do you have to contrive some sort of dongles out of otherwise junk cables to get a...