Posts by oalee

Product keys are usually either Retail (ones that comes with copies of windows purchased individually) or OEM. The one you have on the sticker under your laptop is an OEM product key. You are correct in assuming that they use the same image on the laptops that they manufacture. As for the OEM product key, they are basically just a reference that your copy is licensed and not a pirated copy. These are usually pre-activated already. As far as I know these product keys do not work in new installs.

Since there is really no valid upgrade path from windows XP to win 7 then it's also logical to assume that it also works vice-versa. Downgrading to Windows XP from win7 will require you to do a clean install of XP wiping out all of the contents of the HDD. The only problem is that if the machine you're using came with win7 then most probably you won't find drivers for Win XP. I have encountered similar issues working as a tech support for Toshiba where customers wanted to downgrade from Vista to XP and there are no available drivers for the hardware.

In addition, if your HDD is SATA then you might have problems installing win XP on it. You will need RAID drivers to be able to do it.

I was wondering of the same, what exactly is it you mean by increasing the bandwidth limits? does this refer to network/internet usage?

I agree with most of the posts, this would basically constitute as hacking a machine. It is also true that it could've been stolen and pawned, the possibilities are endless.

As for upgrading the laptop, the only thing i can think of that you can upgrade really is the memory. Probably some usb connected stuff but those are not really much help in terms of performance. You can try and see how far it can go by running some graphic intensive games and let it shutdown when it overheats. At least it gives you an idea on what games can run on it. It shouldn't get damaged if it automatically shuts down after it reaches a certain temperature.

Caper is correct, there is no valid upgrade path for Win 7 from XP. You will need to do a custom install which is basically a clean install requiring you to wipe out your old windows and replace it with a new one. You will definitely need to back-up all of your files or else you lose them. If you are currently running Win XP and wants to switch to win 7, then run a clean install to ensure that no other problems are run into.

Laptops are not really designed for gaming. One of the downsides of using a laptop for gaming is it becomes prone to overheating. The GPU is usually not designed to handle graphic intensive applications. There are, however, gaming laptops such as Alienware. Additional RAM is always good, you can never have too much RAM (of course only within the limits of the OS support) but I doubt that it would really be very effective anyway. But a jump from 4GB to 8GB should show significant improvements.

You need to first check if your computer meets at least the minimum System Requirements for Windows 7.

1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

If it does then you will need to run a clean install of Windows 7. It is not true that you need to upgrade to Windows XP. There is no upgrade path from Win XP to Win 7. The only OS that you can upgrade from is Win Vista. I suggest you visit the Microsoft website and run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor (I'm not sure if it's available for Win2K though.)

All you need to do really is just copy the webpage files to your external device. This is usually saved under C:\Documents and Settings\Username\My Documents\My Web

Try to look it up and make sure you don't only back up just the webpage but also include all the images that are on the page.

This doesn't look like its even connected. Check the connections (wireless switch if connecting through wifi). it should show the connection on the bottom-right corner of your screen.

These are usually plugins required by a certain page. Most of the time if you just click on the "x" or box it will direct you to where you can download the plugin. I suggest start clicking away but make sure you read all of the things before downloading them. :)

Being a technical support for Toshiba Notebooks, one problem with downgrading a notebook from vista to xp is where to get the drivers or even if there are any for the devices on your notebook. Just check on the manufacturer's website and see if there are any available drivers for XP.

are you using a notebook or a desktop?

If it's a desktop, try plugging in the keyboard to another computer and try it again to see if it's the keyboard that's screwed up.

If it's a notebook, try plugging in an external keyboard and try it again.
You should be able to determine if it's a Vista or a Hardware issue.

:)

you might wanna try and disable any anti-virus if you have any installed just for troubleshooting sake. Try to open a safe website such www.google.com to see if it works. I think I remember something about windows liveone care blocking internet connections. Another thing that you might also wanna try is to flush the DNS using ipconfig. Run the command prompt as administrator and type "ipconfig /flushdns" without the quotes. Tell me if it works. :)

i've been using firefox for quite a while now. before firefox was created, I use netscape and Opera. I only use IE whenever there are some sites that require them but I use firefox most of the time.

You might wanna try to reset the IE settings. To do this, just go to Internet Options on control panel and under the Advanced tab, it will be the button that says Reset. This will remove all of the addons that you've installed to IE.

I don't suppose there should be any problems making your computer dual-boot. I haven't tried it myself with Vista but have tried it with other Operating Systems. You just need to make sure that the Boot Loader is properly set up. In this case, you can probably use the windows bootloader that comes with it on installation. One problem that you might have though is, some computers that came in with VISTA doesn't have XP drivers available.

Some things to do when trying to extend your monitor or just simply clone your desktop onto an external TV using an S-Video cable.

1. Make sure that the cable you're using is not defective. (you'll hate yourself for trying so hard to make it work and find out that it was a defective cable in the end)
2. Plug in the cable on the S-video OUT port on your notebook and on the S-video IN port on your TV.
3. Switch the video to the correct channel/mode. Some TV's, like the one I have at home, have up to 3 video channels.
4. Notebooks/Laptops have specific Fn-key combinations that you need to press to toggle between displays. Here are some Fn-key combinations, some of them are model specific so you'll have to play around to find it. Acer Fn + F5, Dell Fn + F8, HP Fn + F5, IBM ThinkPad Fn + F7, Sony Fn + F7, Toshiba Fn + F5.

Hope this helps.

Laser's correct... you'll need to have a TV Tuner card or any USB TV tuners to be able to watch TV on your computer. I have one at home myself and I only use it to transfer videos from my camcorder to my computer and then burn it onto a DVD. There are tons of TV Tuner cards out in the market and I'm sure that you can find one that suits your needs.. :)

Good news to each and everyone that are actually having problems, have had problems or simply just needs help with Windows Vista Service Pack 1. Microsoft is offering Free unlimited installation and compatibility support is available for Windows Vista, but only for Service Pack 1 (SP1). This support for SP1 is valid until March 18, 2009.

Below is the link for the Microsoft Support Site. Oh, and it even comes with e-mail and chat support... :)

http://support.microsoft.com/oas/default.aspx?ln=en-us&prid=11274&gprid=500921

Bigger problem than processor compatibility is motherboard and other peripherals you have. For instance, you may have motherboard drivers (which would cover the processor), but no video drivers for W98. If you examine CD's that came with your stuff, you'll see if their manufacturers support outdated windows 98.

Even without apropriate drivers, your system should run on generic drivers, but at the loss of performance. Some software (like 3d games) would not run if required drivers are not installed.

I'm sure most of the hardware manufacturers do have driver support available for download from their websites, not all of them though...

ahh, great to have a warm welcome.. :) i need a lot of catching up to do... the site looks totally different.. i'm kinda bit lost.. LOL

There shouldn't be any problem installing windows 98 on a pentium 4 PC. not unless you've tried and have encountered problems, in that case, you'll need to elaborate more on the problem encountered.

Dear all,

I've been an active poster and a moderator of Daniweb. I have been AWOL for quite some time now and is very for being so. I have decided that I need this site to continually improve my techie knowledge more than the site needs me as a moderator. I have decided to spend more time in the site.

Please forgive me for I need to catch up on things, new rules, and new posts.

I hope i'd be of help to everybody since i've learned a lot of things from this site.

"Knowledge is not the best thing to have, it's the ability to share it."

Oliver

P.S. Dani, sorry for being gone for so long. I promise to make it up to the site and it's members. :)

That is definitely a dead motherboard. I think i've experienced that once or twice...

In any case, I think "geek" has evolved to connote an unconcious, uncontrolled, unbridalded enthusiasm about computer technology, to the exclusion of anything else.

HUH?

I do the same thing as Dtone's. I just copy the .pst file from my old Outlook. But what I do is just set up a new folder for my .pst file and just open it from outlook --> File -> Open -> Outlook Data File. I get all the folders from it including the address book. This is one reason why I chose to use Microsoft Outlook over Outlook Express. I just delete everything else that I don't need.

- You may be having lots of stuff that loads on startup, check what you have loaded whenever you start up. If you find applications that are not really necessary, get rid of them.
- Check your free disk space on the system partition
- Check your windows for Trojans/Adwares/Spywares

Stupid program.. Just crack it, I don't recommend it.

Quan Chi2, Daniweb forums does not encourage/allow software piracy. Please refrain from giving such comments.

well, it can also be a compliment in a way.. just depends on how you take it though...

I suggest you post a HJT log in the Viruses, Spyware & other Nasties forum. You might've left some more virus/trojan behind.

How do you you adjust the hue/brightness? do you use the video card utility or WMP's? Does it happen to all video formats and players? what WMP version do you have?

This thread has been reposted to the proper forum and is now closed.

just reboot off the XP CD, it should do all the dirty work for you (installing & formatting and all...) Prolly just a faulty installation...

Just boot from the CD, delete the existing partition, install on it.. it should re-format disk and install automatically. If you don't have the XP CD, then you have a problem... I suggest you get a copy since you'll be needing it.

How many applications do you have running?

I tried re-installing over an existing win98 before and all it did was carry over the same problems that it had before.

You can also try checking out the Viruses, Spyware & other Nasties forums. You might be nursing some nasties in your windows...

Here's my 2 cent take on WinME:

I've installed/used windows ME for quite a time and made comparisons with other windows versions. It's more like a windows 98 with the XP feel. It seemed to me that it was a dry run of the XP environment using win98's technology, plus the tons of drivers that bloats up the disk space usage of the OS. I'd rather be using Windows 98 than WinME. But then again, it's just me... :)

The only way that I can think of to make anything computer-related secure is not to use it. case-in-point: everything has a bug/loophole/exploit, it's just a matter of choosing the one that's less vulnerable.
One thing I can assure you all is that since I changed from IE to FF, I got rid of the spyware/adware/hijack problems which was the original reason why I switched browsers.

From the Control Panel, double click on add/remove programs, click on the 'Windows Setup' tab and tick the check box games from the components to be installed/uninstalled and click ok.

well, one is eight and the other is six... they use it mostly for yahoogames...

...they atleast try to trick me into saying yes to an activeX

That's the point... Since it's very much agreed that common sense is never common, not everybody reads what pops-up their browsers and not everybody is as computer literate as most of us. Using IE6 is fine, if we're the ones using it, but then, an office computer that everybody has access to cannot be monitored everytime. The only time you get to notice a computer that's used by most of the employees is when something goes wrong with it. I still use IE6 at home but had to install firefox for my little bros and sis to use. They're not even old enough to understand me explaining the pros and cons of using IE6. I'd rather let them use something that's less prone to spywares/adwares than spend a day or two trying to explain something that they won't understand until a couple or more years... :)

Considering stand-alone browsers are available which provide those features, and which do not inherit the security risks of IE, I can't really understand why anyone would choose an IE 'bolt-on'

I agree!!! eversince the appearance of all these spywares/adwares/trojans, I started thinking about why a web browser should be embedded to an OS. Firstly, the internet is more comparable to "Open waters" which is very much unpredictable and very much unsecured. If considered so, why would you want your computer's OS attached to something that's very vulnerable to hacking and cracking. Secondly, the OS has nothing to do with web browsing. What do the OS care if I want to go surfing NBA.com online, or read CNN online or better yet, go surf for some online porn :mrgreen:. The point of all these is, you use browsers for surfing the web and that's what it's supposed to do. It's not supposed to affect the whole Operating system of your computer... I've been using firefox for a while now, and I'm encouraging everybody in my office to use it too. it gives me less headaches and worries about adwares and spywares that they might accidentally install on the computer.

oops, my mistake... sorry bout that catweazl... was very sleepy last night.. :) it was 1o0oBhP. :)

I've encountered that problem before, the only thing is, I know where the keys are supposed to be. It's the keyboard most of the times... the @ sign is shift-2 and the # is shift-3 and so on... but like what catweazl said, try changing your keyboard language settings..

If you happen to have all the installation CDs for the applications you have I'd suggest a fresh install of the system. This is so because upgrades usually carry their previous problems to the new upgraded OS.

might be having a seizure... :mrgreen:

And they may even cut you off completely for violation of contract by blocking their metering software from reporting its findings.

well, this depends on the contract agreement... but i'm pretty sure that all data that comes in and out of your internet connection is properly monitored. From where I come from, we have prepaid internet connections for dial-up and unlimited DSL/Cable connections come in flat rates...

How many business's still use NT? (I know of a few) (Ok so cost of upgrading OS, and the hardware it needs is a major factor) but if NT does the job so well for companies as big as BT (for example) to still use it in some areas of their business, Why bother making longhorn?

I know one really large multi-national company here that still uses winNT, I know so coz' i resigned from working there a year ago. :) They're one of the largest company here and yet I don't see them upgrading to win2k or winXP... it's because, "i t w o r k s j u s t f i n e . . ." with the proper security settings and all, almost nobody can screw anything up...

I'm still downloading the SP2.. I'll try it as soon as i'm done with this stupid thing at work and it finishes downloading.