What sort of connector? Molex, 3 pin, what? Has the case you have got a front or rear fan controller? A monitor panel? Bit hard to answer your question, I think, as that wiring does not follow any standard scheme.
Most fans are either two wire (red/black) or 3 wire (red/yellow/black). The yellow wire is used to monitor fanspeed. Can't help you until I know where that fan is located, I'm afraid.
Another point. Use the commonsense approach to connecting and testing. Initial;ly, have only the cpu and heatsink/fan, front panel connectors, power unit cable, video card, one RAM module, monitor and keyboard connected up. Make sure that BIOS completes its POST test. Then add/connect other components one by one, to make sure all is working. If you connect everything at once, and it doesn't work, you can spend ages of trial and error to find the problem ;)
He's quite right, Squirty. I'm probably an overly cautious person. Use commonsense, make sure that you don't damage the circuit board, and all should be well :D
I'm talking about using those 'red washers' between the motherboard and the standoff. Only if the standoff is a metal one though. It's not mandatory to do so, but it's a sensible thing to do.
On the topside of your motherboard, around the mounting holes, you may find there's a metal 'ring', which the screw head touches when it's screwed down. That should be no problems, as the board will 'ground' to the chassis through the screw.
Simply make sure that you don't allow any screw to overlap any electronic 'tracks' on the motherboard, and all should be well. (That's the reason I like to ensure that the underside is protected.)
I must say that a lot of this is very much off-topic. It's not the same problem at all!
The recycled old euipment you are referring to would not be suitable for use with Windows XP, and it' highly likely that Windows XP drivers would not be available at all for quite a lot of it! We're talking about locating Windows XP drivers, remember.
How can you get fibre washers to stay in place on the metal standoffs while putting the motherboard in place? Glue them on?
Maybe I haven't seen enough motherboards, but all of them I've seen have large bonded surfaces, larger than any screw head would ever be.
But that does bring up another point, if the mounting holes are bonded, using a non-metal washer would prevent the board from being grounded properly.
I always use screws that have a head that looks like it has a washer, but it's actually all one piece.
You fit the motherboard very carefully! :D
Angle it as you put the thing in place, and don't let it come down onto the stand-offs until the rear connectors are in place in the backplate. Hold a bit of presure back on the spring-clips of the rear panel while you're bringing the mobo down onto the standoffs. When you get it in place hold it there and insert one or two screws and tighten them. With luck, you'll only have moved the washers a tiny bit, and you can work them back into place by using a pointed tool (or smalls jewellers screwdriver) down through the screwhole.
Grounding should not be a problem. If you use the correct screws, you'll notice that the motherboard is grounded from the screwhead to the case chassis.
Actually, I tried for 2-3 years to get my programs to work on XP. In the end, I had to set up an XP/98 dual-boot. Compatibility mode is totally worthless. Out of all the games that did not start on XP, crashed frequently, were slow and choppy, or had buttons appearing in the wrong place, only one was improved by compatibility mode, and it was still unplayable. XP simply doesn't run old stuff.
Didn't even think of the AGP, thank you for that. :) I will have to see if the motherboard has an AGP slot.
Beg to differ about the games compatibility. I've only ever found a small number of games which can't be made to work under XP.
Use goodle and search for gamename xp to see if there's an official (or unofficial) patch to fix compatibility, or another workaround mentioned on a messageboard somewhere. For older, DOS games, see this article.
Forget gigahertz. It's no indication of performance, nor has it really been one since the proginal Pentiums went off the market. But especially nowadays!
If your budget stretches to a 3500+, get that. A 3200+ is fine of course (it outperforms a Pentium 3.2GHz) and if you're really cashed up try to get hold of a 3800+ or 4000+ Those should be available soon, if they're not already.
6800GT or Ultra sounds a good vid card choice for sure.
My thoughts are that you should NEVER use metal washers of any form when fitting a motherboard.
If you are using a case which has metal 'stand-offs', I'd advise that you religiously use fibre washers between the stand-off and the underside of the motherboard.
Also be careful that you use screws that don't have large heads for locations where the circuitboard tracks come realy close to the mounting hole.
condor, if you have the same problem and different hardware you need to list the specifics of the hardware you have. Going to a 'one-stop shop' for hardware drivers is an absolute silliness!
Especially seeing's you are 'building' your PC's yourself, why settle for less than the best. Go to the manufacturer websites for the particular components and get the up to date drivers from there.
Driverguides simply provides a bulletinboard of driver locations which (often unknowledgeable) people have sent in. They may work, they may not, they are almost certainly not the best driver available ;)
Better tell us what wiring you got there with the display, mate, and we'll see if we can work it out. The manufacturer website doesn't provide any support documentation.
A bit more info about what wires are there would help a lot!
Correctly fitted and maintained, yes liquid cooling is quite safe. But why on earth would you want to use it anyway?
Improperly fitted and maintained it's NOT safe. Unless you use a quite expensive and cumbersome setup it's only marginally more effective than a decent air-cooling alternative, and unless you are seeking to perform some extreme overclocking you don't need anything beyond air cooling anyway!
Liquid cooling is a gimmicky toy for people with too much money to spend, in my view ;)
caperjack has the right idea. You need to change the boot order in BIOS setup to make CD-ROM the first boot device.
If your copy of Windows 98 doesn't allow for booting from the CD (some don't) then you'll need a Windows 98 startup diskette to boot from, and you can download the contents of one. Another way to approach the job is to find a friend who has a Windows 98 system, and make a startup diskette on that.
Oh goodness. Enough with the 'thanks anyway'. You seem to give up rather easily. Step by step is the way to go :)
Check the properties for the drive and see if it shows up as a burner or simply as a CD-ROM. If it displays incorrectly, you'll find instructions for editing the registry to correct the problem in this article.
You could also try Microsoft's 'Autoplay repair wizard' to see if the problem is resolved. By the way, I have more resources available as well, so don't give up yet ;)
If you are sure that Roxio is successfully uninstalled, try this:
Right-click 'My Computer' and choose properties. On the Hardware tab, choose 'Device manager' Locate the entries for all CD drives and burners, right-click on them and choose Uninstall. Shut down your system, wait a few seconds, then boot it up again and allow the drives to be redetected and reinstalled by Windows.
If you really want to persist with the dual-boot, it sounds like you'll need to shift the soundcard to a different slot, or perhaps even replace it with a more well-behaved one to do what you describe.
All previous restore points are lost after you perform an upgrade install, I'm afraid.
Depending on your particular configuration, you could have Wireless, Firewire AND Ethernet networking available on that laptop, and the slowness might relate to the differences in the way Pro handles networking as compared to Home Edition. If no-one else comes up with a worthwhile suggestion, I'll do a little research for you later on. Wiping the system and starting over should be your last resort. I'm sure it'll be easily fixable :)
Has something gone wrong with the upgrade? Are there 'features' missing which you wish to use? Why, specifically, do you wish to uninstall Pro if it's actually working?
Everything available in XP Home is also available in XP Pro!
If you did not retain the files for the previous Windows version when asked to during the upgrade installation, you will not be able to revert, and will need to format and start over again. If the Restore disks for the notebook are not bringing you success, then perhaps you are not following the correct procedures?
Some more specific information would be helpful. What is the problem with the upgrade? What specific HP notebook do you have?
If you want to have System Restore Points to use, you actually have to SET the things!
By default, Windows creates restore points at regular intervals, but it only retains them for a limited period of time. After that period has expired, the earlier restore points will be overwritten and only the more recent ones retained. But user created restore points are retained permanently, so it's up to the user to ensure that Restore points are created at a time when the system is in tip-top order.
You should DEFINITELY add more RAM to that system, regardless of which Service Pack you have. 128Mb is not enough. Adding another 128 or 256Mb to it will bring a performance improvement which will make you wonder how the hell you ever put up with what you had before!
NO program can continually and successfully cope with problems which you, the user, creates! Disregard any advertising hype to the contrary.
Most errors and problems come from one of only a few sources:
* Crappy software. Avoid downloaded 'freebies' and also, where possible, the 'bundled' software which accompanies printers, scanners, cameras etc. Use quality commercial software for best results.
* Internet use. Ditch Internet Explorer and use Firefox, Mozilla or Opera instead! Avoid file-sharing software and actually PAY for movies, music and software. Don't accept files sent from people you don't know. Never click on 'Yes' to install anything you didn't ask for first, and NEVER take any notice of pop-ups which tell you there's something wrong with your system that some ridiculous website thinks they can 'fix'.
* Hardware installation. If you add new components to your system, install it as 'drivers only' first. Onlt use extra software if you absolutely need to. If you REPLACE a component, ensure that the old drivers for the previous component are properly uninstalled first. If you have a major change, such as replacing a graphics card and changing to one which uses a graphics processor made by a different manufacturer, format first!
* Lack of regular user maintenance. You MUST regularly defrag your hard drive, and you MUST regularly use Disk Cleanup and also clean out temporary internet files. You must also keep your system free from the clutter of having unnecessary programs installed. By the way, …
Rueful Rogue, unless you wrote that yourself could we have a link to the original article where it's published originally please? Copy/pasting stuff like that is a copyright contravention ;)
Moderate Rock, in all seriousness if your PC has no AGP or PCI-E slot for a graphics card, then it's not worth trying to improve the graphics capability of it. The machine is simply not up to the job!
Replacing the system unit is the best way to go, and you can obtain motherboard/processor/RAM bundles quite cheaply.
No. Heading to the Gigabyte website, armed with the correct motherboard id, is the choice of preference.
Driverguide is fine as a last resort when you are seeking drivers, but heading there as a first option is a silly move. The manufacturer website is the correct place to locate the most appropriate and up to date drivers for any component whatsoever.
Avantbrowser and Slimbrowser are both bolt-ons for Internet Explorer, not different browsers. If you use them, you are STILL using Internet Explorer!
WebWombat is an Australian search engine, not a browser!
Mozilla and Firefox might look much the same, but they are different products.Mozilla is a full-featured browser suite, while Firefox is not only based on a different 'engine' - it's also a 'slimline' browser, to which you can add only such plugins and extras as you actually need and use.
Both of those, and also Opera, have features which, when learnt, enable web browsing to be a much more fluid and sensible activity. All those three leave Internet Explorer for dead as far as being a useful and useable browsing tool goes. Add to that the fact that IE is so far flawed security wise that it simply CANNOT be 'fixed', and I'm amazed that anyone interested enough to be posting on a Tech forum actually still uses it!
Anyone who uses ADSL should, in my opinion, use an all-in-one modem/forewall/router. As Chainsaw mentions, they are very inexpensive, and even if you only have a single PC at home, the small extra expense is offset by the increased protection you get. If you have more than one PC, all the management of your network is done by the router for you and there's no need for 'Internet connection sharing' hassles.
It's not a matter of 'why' use one, it's a situation of 'why the hell not?'
Why on earth are you worrying about removing such things? Are you cramped for drive space?
Honestly, these things take up little room, and if their presence is enough to cause you problems then you are definitely in need of adding another hard drive to your system!
If your reason for removing them is an overly fastidious approach to 'housekeeping', then perhaps a little attention is needed for that, because it's sorta moving toward an obsessive/compulsive thing!
Those files do not hurt anything left where they are, whether you plan to later uninstall the updates or not.. In itself, fiddling round trying to find every little thing which can be removed is an approach which is not really 'safe'.
If you have a system, such as eMachines, which doesn't offer BIOS updates on the website, you need to identify the make and model of the motherboard used in the system. (eMachines just assembles the things - they don't make the motherboards). The motherboard manufacturer's website is the place to get BIOS updates. An update obtained from the BIOS manufacturer's website is next to useless, because it will not contain any specialised enhancements to suit the components used to make the motherboard.
Forget FDisk and format. They're outdated and belong to the Windows 98 era!
Pop the Windows CD in the drive and reboot. The PC should boot from the Windows CD, as Compaqs are set to boot from a restore CD if one is used.
When you get to the section of the installation routine which refers to drive partitions, use the included functions to remove existing drive partition(s), create a new partition(s) instead, and ensure you use the NTFS file system to install Windows XP on it. The system partition will be formatted for you during the installation procedure.
Thanks for the comments so far, people. I'll get a chance to try it out myself sometime in the next day or two, soon as I get out of 'camping & fishing' mode ;)
Microsoft has a Beta version of their own Anti-spyware product available for download. (You'll need to use Internet Explorer to download the thing, I'm afraid)
I'm interested to hear the experiences of anyone who has used it. How does it compare to the likes of AdAware and Spybot for ease of use? How does it compare for effectiveness?
What other matters are worth commenting about in relation to the product?
