Computer lifespan

StoneHeartFarm · Sep 3, 2001

Scruffy,

Flashed my BIOS last spring. Definitely not a fun job. Went to the Motherboard Manufacturer's website and downloaded the fix and printed off their instructions. No surprise, the instructions (including full screen shots) bore NO resemblance to what actually transpired. Made it through somehow and now have the newer (not New since this motherboard doesn't have the proper little blue tag) BIOS. I had to do it because I wanted to upgrade to a PIII 500 from the PII350. The old BIOS recognized the 500 but didn't know what the chip was.

I agree that AMD has it licked on the 64 bit issue. I think Intel is gonna backwater again before this is all over. Who wants a chip that won't even run the current windows? I read last night that Intel is planning to scrap Rambus and go to DDR Ram. That might suddenly make them a contender again. It should lower the entry cost and make the systems faster.

I found an ad in Computer Shopper for Windows 98.2 w/license for under $100.00. It might be less frustrating for you to just switch. Intel keeps trying to automate more and more of the general processes of operating the system and that makes it harder and harder for experienced operators to do the stuff we're used to doing.

SHF

PS DVD-R is coming. Watcha think?

Anonymous Poster · Sep 3, 2001

...DVD-R is coming...

Stephen...

Do you mean DVD-RW?... they is here! /w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif

That's why you're seeing the dirt-cheap prices of CD-RW and DVD-R's lately... along with VHS VCR's pricing plummeting...

The new kid in town... DVD-RW has arrived @ $700. for the consumer last week... next month...aaahhh maybe $300... and so on and so forth... /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I can't wait to see what replaces the DVD-RW in two years... /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif

scruffy · Sep 3, 2001

SHF, I don't think much of the DVD....period. T'iz fine for the TV, but I do not want it on my computer. I (when I do) watch TV on the TV, and compute on the computer, never the two do I mix.
I've got almost every version of Windows, most flavors of DOS, several flavors of UNIX, as well as Linux here, except for the latest release of Mandrake (8.0 or 8.1...the newest beta release). This machine will stay where its at, and the new one should be up and running in the next week or so, it will have Linux and WIN98SE on it, running an AMD 1.33Mhz CPU, 60 gig h/d and 1 gig RAM memory. NO DVD-RW! Instead, It will have a 52X CDROM, and an IOMEGA CDRW, as well as a ZIP drive. If that turkey won't hum along, then I don't know what I will try next.
I paid 49 bucks for the WIN98SE a few years ago, it is an upgrade version, but when you load on a blank h/d, its no different than the full version.

scruffy · Sep 4, 2001

ZoneAlarm can be hacked, at least according to this report.
"ZoneAlarm Can Be Hacked (Warning)
Scribbled by Daniel Gray

I had this confirmed by the people in the newsgroup: alt.binaries.2600. They did a test on BlackIce and ZoneAlarm to see what program was the best. BlackIce noticed all of their attempts and gave warning; ZoneAlarm missed 10 of the attacks, and four of the attacks were with hard drive-wiping viruses in a time bomb.

The back door has something to do with a malformed address; I was not quite clear about how this works, but I was assured that it does. ZoneLabs knows about this and is, in fact, working on a patch to cover this problem. I checked in the Windows XP Beta Newsgroup and asked about this problem. I was told that only people who don't care about being attacked will use ZoneAlarm. Once the company gets rid of this backdoor, then they will be worthy of being mentioned again in your newsletter. Right now, it is not worth the risk."

PBMAX · Sep 5, 2001

the print screen key works like that on peace...Winsux 95 running .Just hit print screen and past it were ya want it.

Laziness is the Father of invention.../w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif
Lil' Paul
Proud owner of TC21D

PBMAX · Sep 5, 2001

scruffy,I had heard rumers of this but am not supprised.I hope it backfires and bites them on the but(Both CHEEKS)...!!!I will not be buying a copy for as long as I can help it.....I have also heard around the scuttle but that they are moving completely away from DOS with this new up-grade to somethin closer to windows NT(AKA WIN2000)...Maybe we should all go to Lynex and run a winX imulator.....See how bill likes that...I personely feel that once I buy the software it's mine do do with as I see fit in my own home so long as I don't use it in any way to make $$$....Like selling bootleg copies(felony no thanks but somefolk are stupid)...Were they have the advantage is that most pc buyers today buy off the shelf pc's so If it comes on the pc already how do you fight the move to it...?Me I currently run winME its nothing more than 98 with bugg fixs and of course new buggs of its own....Same as win 98 was to 95...Had to load ME twice to get it to work and now every time I shut down and boot up the darn thing thinks it wad shut down wrong and runns scan disk every time you turn it on..I'll fix it later...
Buy the way rember when Sun corp took bill to court.Got what he wanted but it didn't seem to help us much...
Have found issues with hard ware...Like I no longer let Me look for drivers win I install Printer,scanner,video card etc.It tends to lock up unless I tell it were to look...This seems to be the driver installers issue with the new hardware so far not winpane ME.

ya'll in joy

Laziness is the Father of invention.../w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif
Lil' Paul
Proud owner of TC21D

scruffy · Sep 5, 2001

WIN98SE is (IMO) a much more stable platform than ME.
Paul, if you haven't loaded the IE 5.5 SP2 upgrade, you may wish to consider the fact that it disables the plug-ins for internet explorer, and stay at SP1. I found that out after I installed it, and now I have to back it out. DON'T go to IE 6.0!
In time, all my computers will be Mandrake Linux O/S, and Bill can go suck eggs. On the face of it, his XP will create quite a backlash IMO. It could even be the impetus to push Linux over the top....at least in the home computing world.

Bird · Sep 5, 2001

I appreciate the information, Scruffy; don't reckon I'll be using that $20 off XP certificate that came with this new computer.

Bird

scruffy · Sep 5, 2001

Bird, I suspect ol' bill has a big enough retirement fund. Micro$haft is breaking new ground in customer relations!

Bird · Sep 5, 2001

Yeah, Scruffy, he's got a pretty good retirement fund, but of course, his expenses are probably pretty high, too. I suspect it's expensive to maintain that little house of his, and I don't even think he has a tractor./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Bird

StoneHeartFarm · Sep 5, 2001

John,

As I understand it, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW and DVD-R are all different DVD standards. DVD Ram is available now. But, the disk made on it may or may not run on a stand alone DVD player. DVD-R will make disks that play on any DVD player. So you could transfer your home movies to disk and save them for posterity (99 years). If I'm getting the gist of the articles and blurbs, the delay waiting for DVD-R is due to everybody arguing over the standards. But the advantage over CD-RW is storage in the gigbit range.

Geek.com is yelping about 333DDR Ram. Apparently the first boards are supposed to be out this fall and and one RAM maker has thrown most of their capacity into producing the chips.

Scruffy,

If the XP licenses were $10.00 per additional machine I could probably be convinced that it was reasonable, IF the locking sent no information to MS, and the whole thing was handled through the system it was placed on. Unfortunately, what you're describing doesn't sound like it. What if you lose your disk and have to reload? You wouldn't be able to borrow someone else's. If it's saving system configuration, does that mean that every time you upgrade processors, motherboards, etc you would have to buy a new license?

How stable is Linux running windows simulation? Will it pretty much run all windows programs, or are there lots of hang ups? Probably going to stick with 98 for awhile.

SHF

CVHoss · Sep 5, 2001

Paul,
Found out something new again last night when trying to take a screen shot of an error box to send to my web hosting server. I took a screen shot by just pressing printscrn. Had multiple windows open at the time, including the error box. By pressing just printscrn, it took the shot of the entire screen (all open windows). By pressing alt-printscrn, it took the shot of only the active window (the error box).

Hoss

TerryinMD · Sep 5, 2001

Microsoft product activation is not a big deal, really.

My wife does mechandising for Microsoft through a second party company. We got a copy of Windows Office XP which had to be activated through this "feature". First time is a breeze, activated via the internet. We reinstalled it onto another machine, went through the internet activation feature, and got an error message saying that the software is currently registered on another machine, "Please call this number......". So, I did. Took about five minutes. I said that we installed it on a faster machine. He asked if I uninstalled it on the older machine. I said yes. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif Got the new 20 digit activation code and was off running.

How much of a hassle?? A little... Can't blame Microsoft - they're just trying to make a couple of bucks....

As far as privacy, an independent company looked over the licensing software and found that Microsoft does not pass any privacy info. By law, they can't. I wouldn't worry about that issue too much. What they really are doing is using the computer system information to create a licensing key. This technology is also used by other software manufacturers to protect users from copying to different machines. Put it on new machine and get a new license key. Part of the price of using bigger, better, faster, more complex systems.

Hope this helps....

Edited by TerryinMD on 09/05/01 12:05 PM (server time).

scruffy · Sep 5, 2001

SHF, Glad you put that blurb on DVD and the different protocols....I haven't followed it at all, no interest.
If you change hardware in an upgrade, its buy again time. You may be able to beg them into re-activation, IF you lose a hard/drive for example...at Bill's discretion.
Linux is a very stable O/S...the fun part is getting all your hardware/drivers set up...but that is why Mandrake 8.0 is so nice, it gives you a pick list of hardware, you select yours and it loads only THAT driver, not several hundred/thousand like M$. It trims the bloat out of the load. The bad thing, if you wish to term it as such, is you need software that has been ported for UNIX/Linux, which there is getting to be quite a lot out there. Linux has a GUI interface, and if you go to the mandrake home page, they have a powerpack with 7 cd's chock full of linux aps.
My personal preferance is to get away from M$ and go to an O/S that offers stability, and utilizes system resources to there greatest extent. Windows is NOT very efficient by any means. Your system is much faster with Linux than Windows.

Bird · Sep 5, 2001

Yep, Hoss, I just read about that little trick yesterday in the book I bought.

Bird

Bird · Sep 5, 2001

Scruffy, I think I told you earlier that I had ordered Norton SystemWorks on the Internet a week ago, then got an e-mail that it was back-ordered. Today I got a flyer in the snail mail from Symantec offering to sell it me with $30 off. So, I sent an e-mail to cancel the Internet order and ordered it from their "800" number./w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

Bird

Anonymous Poster · Sep 5, 2001

...WIN98SE is (IMO) a much more stable platform than ME....

I don't agree...

If WinME is installed raw... not as an upgrade... it's extremely stable. If ME is installed as an upgrade over someone's existing ...one or two problems...... then you end up with multiple problems...

ME however is very top heavy... takes about 500-600 mb vs. the "old" Win95 of 70-90 mb.

The +'s are excellent multimedia features...{kids love the mp3's stuff} and geared for the internet...

I just installed IE 6.0 on this customer's computer for the 2nd time... the hard drive is choking near the end of it's life and has many sectors mapped out bad... and the customer has no more money to change it...

scruffy · Sep 5, 2001

John, I agree that ME is more stable when installed on a clean drive...been there, done that, have also re-installed over ME, almost as good, have uninstalled 98SE and installed it, ok, (ain't never done an upgrade - ain't that dumb). This last was a refresh over ME and it is a PAIN. If my cdrw was working, I'd backup the files I want, fdisk, and start ALL over again...but it would be with WIN98SE.
Don't get me wrong, there are aspects to ME that are nice, and there are aspects that are not nice. My wife loves it, the son loves it, but they don't have to deal with it...when they have a problem, I have to fix it, and I'm tired of fixing it.
I've never gotten the cdrw (ricoh) working in ME. Worked fine in 98SE, but even upgraded software and drivers have not convinced it to be able to record correctly. (just an example) Wifes cdrw works like a charm. Go figure. That's why I liked Ol' Grumpy (Kubota L175), it didn't have a keyboard/monitor, and no users except me.

Anonymous Poster · Sep 5, 2001

...no users except me...

That's the best kind...

I know exactly what you mean...

I brought home one of my shop computers so the kids can access the internet while I did a major upgrade to theirs...

This one shop computer only got turned off when God gave us power outages... otherwise it ran 24/7 answering our phones and the fax... etc.

Well, the kids had to download some things...... from the internet.../w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif... the ole girl has never been the same... what is it... "if it's not broke... don't fix it?"... Absolutely, it ran fine under Win95C... very very stable until the kids did their thing... so I know where you're coming from... /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I used a Ricoh CD-RW [believe 7060?} for a while, copied just about everything, very few coasters... Upgraded to a HP... what a disaster! The HP's have to be the most overrated and overstated writers on the market... if it says 12X... divide that number in half for the true speed... they make a great printer {printout quality-wise}... but the CD-RW's are junk.

I just got some new CD-RW software I'm been using... Prassi - PrimoCD Plus... now owned by Veritas... I've tried it on a few different CD-RW's and it worked on everything so far under WinME... plus it's simple and quick... and no coasters yet! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif