Rule 1: Mark stuff like that and delete it without even viewing it.
Rule 2: Stop worrying about what it is and where it comes from, because by the time you figure it out there'll be a new and different lot of junkmail cropping up to worry you sick.
Rule 3: Post your next tech question in the appropriate Tech section please, or I'll tell your Dad on you! Gives a bloke the shits to have tea break interrupted by work!!!!!!
This query from the Geeks Lounge has me wondering how others feel about the default settings for email notification. Dani has email notification set to Weekly by default, I believe, to avoid the chance of new members being 'flooded' with notification messages when they first join up. I, on the other hand, have always thought that on a site where people mostly join to get help with their problems, instant email notification for answers to their questions would be a big plus!
What do others think about it? do you think it's fine as is, should it be changed to instant, or should some other alternative be introduced? Please add your thoughts and comments.
The system processor is important to the results as well. Depending on the motherboard of course, those people with Pentium 4 or Athlon64 processors will notice the (slight) performance improvement gained from dual-channel memory configuration. Those people with AthlonXP processors, on the other hand, will experience negligible performance improvement unless they are using onboard nVidia graphics!
Ok, I installed the spyware beta, and did a full scan. It's a cool program, by the way, that gives you unprecedented abilities to control startup processes and the like!
The scan found two things that looked pretty non-invasive, but I quarentined them anyway (hee hee one was the Windows Messaging Service). Still get the popups on this site though.
Mostly the Google toolbar stops them, but as I mentioned, about one in 10 makes it. This isn't a huge issue, but I'm surprised no one esle sees them. :-(
(Most people don't see my large rabbit, Harvey, either)
Chainsaw, I don't see popups on here either, but that doesn't surprise me. Like a lot of others, I've moved to using Firefox as my main web browser (which includes a quite good popup blocker) and IE6 with Windows XP Service Pack 2 for those sites which absolutely DEMAND its use (and which ALSO includes a very good popup blocker).
Google Toolbar popup blocker ceased to be an adequately effective tool some time back ;)
Please don't feel that this is in any way personally directed at yourself. I know we've had a little dialogue about reducing your image size, but I'm afraid that's merely coincidence. Discussion of matters such as this go on behind the scenes on an ongoing basis amongst the administrative team. Refinements and improvements to the forum are constant topics of discussion.
The matter of sig pics is merely one which relates to the overall 'tone' of DaniWeb, which is a forum with many facets. One of the major focusses of DaniWeb is to service a membership of largely Programmers and Webmasters, and attract relevent advertising. Because of that, the 'professionalism' Dani mentions above is a very important consideration.
Personally, I agree with Dani that restricting the images to avatars is perhaps a better way to go, and Dammit, that stops me from having a banner made up of 'Catweazle' pics, like I use on other forums! :D
I'd steer clear of anything which is labelled OEM. Things are done a little differently in the US than they are here in Australia, where you generally cannot purchase OEM versions of products. those are unpackaged (and often unbranded) versions of retail goods, which are produced and sold for the use of system assemblers. After-sales warranty and support can be a problem, because usually the company manufacturing the product will offload the responsivility for support on to the system assembler, rather than handling it themselves. Buy retail versions of products.
Avoid unbranded RAM like the plague, and try to stick to the reputable manufacturers:
Until I find a different machine to do this on, I'll have to put my love affair with Folding@home on hold after three platry work units.
I don't know if it was VMWare or Virtual Server doing it, but I was running into lots of ugly "Not enough quota" errors, and it was wrecking the "real" work that I was doing at the time. I'll have to pick things up a little later. :(
Try setting the CPU usage level down. That should help.
Damn! I'm already part of another Folding@home team, so I guess I'll have to be traitorous to DaniWeb :(
Here's one I did a while back in answer to a reader question for my work site :
Disaster Rap!
I turned on my PC ‘cause I wanted to have fun Wouldn’t you just know it, an error message come It said ‘Check your consistency and I said ‘Hey I do the damned same thing nearly every bloody day!
I told the thing ‘OK’ and it started to whirr and grind When I got to the desktop not a damned thing could I find. Then another message popped up saying a file was bloody missed Then another and another and I started to feel pissed So I rebooted my PC, not to be outdone But no files on the Hard Drive, not a SINGLE BLOODY ONE!
I thought “I know what’s happened, I’ve been done by hacker kids “I’ll fix em, just watch me. They’ll soon be on the skids So I popped my CD in to format my hard drive Install Windows, get it clean again and now it looks alive. Downloading all those updates gonna be an awful grind Dial-up bloody DoDo sure does take it’s blasted time.
I’m feeling pretty clever, gonna have a little brag I’ll write to PC User, try to get into their mag. Typed it out just dandy, every tiny little bit I’m smiling as I …
If you've swapped a Windows XP hard drive into a new system, or changed a motherboard as an upgrade, which is effectively the same thing, a repair install isn't guaranteed to work. In fact, if you've allowed the system to attempt booting to Windows BEFORE performing the repair install your chances of success are lessened.
It might work, but it likely won't. The best chance of success is to fit the hard drive and immediately boot from the Windows CD and effect the repair before booting into Windows from the hard drive.
Format and fresh install is the way Windows XP is designed to deal with the situation, and by far the best approach to take.
Surprisingly, Half-Life 2's story is one of the most disappointing aspects of the game. The first half of the game feels a bit unfocused, while the second half seems rushed. Even worse, the story leaves behind a mess of unanswered questions, and it doesn't touch on any of the lingering questions left over from the first game. Valve likes to leave tantalizing hints and tidbits everywhere in the game, but few of these actually develop into anything interesting, and by the end you're left wondering what the game was all about. In many ways, Half-Life 2 feels like the middle chapter in a much larger story, and it suffers as a result.
P.S. Please shrink that sig pic. It's giving me a headache! :lol:
There are boot files on drive C: which are necessary. Formatting the partition will remove them of course, but you can still use the space on the drive. Perhaps the most straighforward way to approach the situation is to use a partition management tool to 'shrink' the C: partition and merge the reclaimed space into your D: partition.
It was recognised as 256Mb? If so it's simply incompatible with your motherboard. If it was recognized as only 128Mb, then that indicates a need for dual-sided RAM.
You're making jumps in reasoning there that I'm not saying. Did the 256Mb module work? It may be that your motherboard is requiring double-sided modules for larger sizes perhaps. Some older boards will not recognize RAM modules larger than 128Mb unless they are 'double-sided'.
Note: That does not necessarily mean RAM modules with RAM chips on both sides. It means modules with a particular configuration regarding how the chips are linked to each other. Some 'double-sided' modules may have RAM chips on only one side of the module!
The 128mb runs fine by itself. I dont understand what is going on.
In which slot?
Try the 256Mb stick by itself in that slot. If the system doesn't recognise it correctly and work OK with just that module installed, then the 256Mb module is incompatible with the motherboard!
IE is not only the browser which is most prone to hijacks and spyware, it's also the browser which has the least amount of helpful features built into it ;)
If you sett your RAM timings tighter than your RAM modules will handle, you'll experience freezes, lockups and so on. It's best to stick to manufacturer recommended timings unless you are fully aware of what you are doing and what the effects will be. There are tools you can use, such as memtest86, which allow you to test your RAM for stability.
Some links to the tests you refer to would be helpful, rogue-monkey. I'm sure you are misinterpreting what you've seen reported.
Changing to a better display card brings the most benefit for games. Changing to a better cpu can help, but isn't really worth doing unless you are looking at a processor performance improvement of around 50% or better.
Using lower latency RAM would bring the least game performance improvement of the three.
Yes, it stands for PCI Express. Yes, it's being used for newer video cards. No, that's not ALL it is ;)
It's an overall design standard which is serial rather than shared, and also provides better flow control, better power management and the capability of delivering increased power levels, peer to peer communication, and other features. The standard also has the capability for components to be hot-swappable, although that feature is not yet implemented.
You're correct oeone. There is a performance difference but it's not dramatic at all. Most of the 'Value' lines of reputable manufacturers operate at CAS3, while the 'performance' lines operate at CAS2. That makes for a noticeable difference, but by no means a dramatic one. It is, after all, only one small factor in overall system performance.
Besides, if you purchase RAM modules which are rated a speed level ABOVE what you wish to run, you'll most likely be able to operate it at tighter timings anyway, when you clock it back a bit ;)
You will only experience a performance increase in circumstances where you are accessing data on the drive. Games will not benefit other than with quicker load times. Applications such as rendering will only benefit if the data files being worked on (and the resultant calculations) are too large to be held in system memory.
Goodness, please don't draw assumptions about the comparitive performance of display cards unless they are being tested in identical systems! Tested in motherboards which provide BOTH AGP and PCI-E, the PCI-E versions of cards have proved a tiny tad slower in todays games. Future games, which make better use of available bandwidth, will perform better on PCI-E versions of display cards.
Risking your computer for a performance increase that you probably wouldn't even notice IS silly.
Best way I can simlify the effect of lower latency is this:
Take two vehicles an put them on the starting line side by side. Both have a top speed of 100 kph. One can get from 0 to 100 in 20 seconds. The other can get from 0 to 100 in 10 seconds. Then send them on a 100 km race, and stipulate that they have to stop at a checkpoint every kilometre! Which is going to get to the finish line first?
Your RAM works like that. It's accessed in myriads of miniscule 'reads'. The amount of hesitation before it has data ready to be read makes the difference. RAM speed is one thing, but the amount of time it takes to get 'out of the blocks' is another matter altogether!
Brand name is important primarily because of reliability and compatibility. Mix different brands or models of 'generic' RAM and you are far more likely to strike modules which have issues working with one another.
rcrevolution, it might surprise you to hear that the vast majority of people purchase a card for what it CAN do, not for what it MIGHT do with overclocking ;)
Quite correct oenone. And I'd suggest that by the time the bandwidth available can make a difference, I'd suggest that people wouldn't be using a 6600GT to use with it ;)
it is a fact that a X800XT/PE outperformace a 6800GT/Ultra in HL2
It is almost a fact that the PE in the card's title should stand for "press edition". Just about the only copies of the card ever produced found themselves into the hands of hardware reviewers. ATi announced the card, but found it very difficult to manufacture and put on retail shop shelves ;)
Make your comparisons with the X800XT, rather than the almost non-existent XT PE, would be a wise move!
On a high powered, modern PC that's a no. The difference would be imperceptible. But on an older PC the difference between onboard audio and a decent add-in sound card can be quite noticeable.
The performance from inexpensive RAM is the same as it is from expensive RAM, basically. Lower 'latency' figures mean more responsive RAM or course, and better performance. But you can get CAS 2.5 to CAS 3.0 RAM in budget lines so go for that. Choose a reputable brand like Kingston, Kingmax, Corsair or Geil and purchase their budget line. Unless, of course, you plan to do some heavy overclocking. That's where the benefit of expensive, high performance RAM comes into the equation. It's not needed for normal use.
Good luck getting hold of an ATi X800XT PE. Far as I'm concerned that card doesn't exist, because just about the only copies ever distributed went to hardware reviewers ;) ATi will soon be releasing the X850XT PE, which they claim will be easier to produce and put in customer's hands, but it'll only be a PCI card and it'll be more expensive than any other gaming card, EVER!
The 6800 Ultra is a bit more obtainable, just as good, and with SLI beginning to become popular as a purchase option, I reckon the good NVidia cards will hold their value a bit better ;)
Thanks for that Thong_Inspector. I suspected something of the sort but was unsure of the equipment involved.
We usually don't encourage people to post their email addresses in questions or answers, as it directs further discussion away from the discussion topic, but I'm certainly happy to see yours posted there in case lone73 or others reading have such specialised problems to resolve!
One note I'd like to add is that people may be reading this from other parts of the globe. Not every country uses 110 or 115 v AC power supply, so be sure to substitute the correct figure for your location if you are reading this from elsewhere.
Here in Australia, for example, we use 240 v AC for most purposes :)
An appliance DVD player connected via component video cable to a decent large screen TV beats the hell out of watching movies on a PC anyway. Using your PC to watch movies is a long, long way second best!
And yes, that would be an incompatibility between the PC's DVD drive and copy protection technologies included on the DVD.
But there have been several posts which never advanced the count, and this post really makes it only 32. My previous post stated 37, which is octal for decimal 31!
DougB, you should not have to set program compatibility to get that game running. The fact that you've had to indicates underlying problems, most likely resulting from adding an ATi card without first eliminating all traces of NVidia drivers. I'd also suggest you format and start over fresh and clean, to avoid future problems ;)
PCIE and PCI-X are most definitely, certainly NOT the same thing!
PCI is familiar to everybody. It's the slot standard which replaced the old, and now virtually disused ISA slot standard. PCI-X is an extended version of that slot format. This image illustrates PCI and PCI-X slots:
The most recent standard, PCI-E is a bifferent slot format and bus standard altogether. It comes in a number of different configurations, and slot sizes. All of the PCI-E slots use the same PCI-E bus, but different slot sizes use more or less of the bandwidth available. This picture illustrates a motherboard with two legacy PCI slots (using a different bus) at right, a PCI-E x1 slot beside them (for a PCI-E add-in card) and a PCI-E x16 slot (for PCI-E display card).
