Micro Mart Forum / PC Talk / Micro Mart Forums

palicomp.co.uk processor rating

keith — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:56:25 GMT

Just reading this weeks mag and saw there add with a q6700 advertised at 10.64Ghz. I thought about reviving the 9Ghz thread for this but thought better of it , but isn't this just a massive marketing con to suck in the unitiated. It gets worse with an E4600 advertised at 4.8 Ghz. Now that is one seriously impressive overclock on some quality equipment or lining up someone to be bitterly dissappointed.

The Windows License Situation

snakelegsoup — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:21:53 GMT

A few years back I bought a laptop machine - it has served me well and has traveled the world with me. But, now it is dead. It could be brought back to life but actually I want to replace it with a more up to date one. Obviously the machine came with an operating system. (XP Home) I am just about to complete building a desk top machine.

OK, that's the back ground. Now here is the question.

Where do I stand, in legal terms, regarding the re-use of the operating system from my laptop? I will not be resurrecting the laptop - in fact, it has already been partly stripped for parts.

The reason that this question has come up is that I was not supplied with a system disk when I bought the laptop, only a 'recovery disk' which wants to install various equipment specific software. This will not work with my new system.

If I can find a way around this installation problem, do I actually HAVE a license to do so? In other words, does my license to use the OS extend to a different computer? (Given that it will be on one machine only)

Opinions would be interesting but if anyone knows a definitive legal answer that would be even more so.

just upgraded to vista,how do i get to MSCONFIG?

mitzibishi — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:28:31 GMT

just upgraded, its ok, running smooth on full settings, just a few things bug me, 1 the pop ups asking me if i want to do stuff ive already clicked on & where is the RUN option on the START button. i want to be able to run msconfig, msinfo etc like on XP.

How do i get to MSCONFIG on vista to stop all the quicklaunch crap

What is the best browser in your opinion

sexyed123 — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:27:25 GMT

Well as i can not add a poll ill have to ask u to post what u think is the best browser. im just wondering what most people use because people seem to be locked in a war between which browser u should and souldnt use

i would also like to here the thoughts of people when it comes to there browsers and also why it is better than any other one

It would be nice to here of thoses exsotic browsers which are less used

Re: Mark Pick article "Is Windows Dying?"

Dangerous Dave — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:12:29 GMT

Well, not withstanding this thread in the Mag feedback section -http://forum.micromart.co.uk/Topic293657-40-1.aspx

I enjoyed the MP article, well researched and some interesting angles. However, there was an elephant in the room, namely:

What happens when Windows finally dies?

The business world will still need an OS, and apart from Apple, I can't see any immediate successor. Now all the Linux guru's will be frothing over their keyboards at the moment, but wait a minute before you get the verbal flamethowers out! ;)

There is a lot of third-party code in Windows that is licenced from other companies. It's mainly media codec's and drivers, but a "free" OS like Linux can't include it because the GPL and "free as in Beer" distribution system is incompatible with the per-customer licencing structure these Third-Party add-ons require. I've been pondering this (but not too much, :) ) and see it falling out one of three ways:

1/. Everyone starts using MacOS, as it includes versions of most of the required Third Party code. Unlikely, as there'd need to be a huge investment in hardware, unless Jobs starts selling the OS separately for compatible WinTel systems (Designed for Mac, anyone?)

2/. Microsoft releases a Linux distro (Windows 8?), include the required code and sell it at a premium - stressing the "value-added" over other Linuxes. Not a unlikely as it seems, MS did actually have a Unix flavour in the '80s. But the amount of humble pie that would need to be eaten will definately squash this one :P

3/. The bigger (Suse, Red Hat, Mandriva, PCLinuxOS et. al.) Linux distro's include the required Third Party code into their "enterprise class" Distro's and start charging for them. This is a much more likely proposition, and arguably is beginning to already happen (the relationship between RHEL and Fedora being a case in point).

So, all is rosy in the garden, no? Well, I'm getting a shiver down my back at this thought. Is anyone here old enough and bold enough to remember the "Unix Wars"? Back in the late '80s and early '90s, there were many vendors of System V Unix (the AT&T version not the BSD version). Companies like IBM, SUN, HP, Sco, Novell, Microsoft and others were all selling it as an OS. Note, that this was the *same* OS in all cases.

Then, one of them decided that they weren't *differentiated* enough and there was no *vendor lockin* to persuade customers to stick with the vendor's other "great" products for Unix (basically customers would buy Unix from IBM and then go to SUN for an Enterprise DBM). So, this company (I don't know who started it) started shipping a different Shell from the others, or some library files would be missing, that "just happened" to be required by a competitors application (but not be the originator's) - I'm sure you get the picture.

Pretty soon *all* the Unix vendors were at it, some more blatantly than others (Solaris was originally Sun Unix, you know), with the result that the Server/Workstation world was filled with versions of the *same OS* that refused to work with applications and utilities from competing companies in any number of small, subtle, but fatal ways. A real "car crash". :(

Now, I mention all this beacuse if Red Hat, SUSE, Mandriva et. al. start offering paid-for versions of Linux with third-party code in them, I can see that they'll want to maximise the market for their Distro over the others. And the easiest way to do that? Yeah, you're smart kids . . . you guessed it.

BTW, if you've ever experienced dll hell on Windows - it's a walk in the park compared to troubleshooting static and dynamic libraries on a *nix system - where even different versions of the same library can cause the whole thing to fatally crash :crying:

Pc tv

stowe — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 21:14:41 GMT

Hi all i got a pc tv doogle And dont get no resiption unless i plug in a booster can you get a booster that runs of usb port ? THANKS IN ADVANCE

AC VGA Coolers

-Wiz!- — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:23:19 GMT

The new coolers they have just don't seem as good as the previous generation to me. I liked the fact they ejected the hot air out of the case but the recent models just don't seem to do this any more? Seems like a backwards step to me...:)

Bill's gonna love this

Gummibear — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 22:07:44 GMT

Some one taking the proverbial?
http://www.phunny not

some very dodgy stuff on that site GB not family friendly

Random Acer Aspire One option...

asininity — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 13:34:48 GMT

Just been looking at the Acer Aspire One as my new cheap laptop and am a bit confused about why this version [url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Aspire-One-Netbook-Integrated/dp/tech-data/B001BZ4QUI/ref=de_a_smtd]HERE[/url], which as far as I can tell is exactly the same apart from 512 less RAM as this [url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Aspire-One-A150-AbNetbook-Integrated/dp/tech-data/B001BZ4QV2/ref=de_a_smtd?ie=UTF8&qid=1215864980&sr=1-4]ONE[/url], is even being offered.

I know moneys is tight now a days but whats the point?

Nvidia fabs not so fab after all

DaveHand — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 14:00:10 GMT

Apologies if this has been covered already, but it looks like a potentially very costly boo-boo.

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/07/09/nvidia-g84-g86-bad

AMD/ATI

theBishopp — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 12:14:05 GMT

Well, according to this - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/11/amd_write_offs/ - they are in a bit of trouble...

According to what I know about the hardware market, specifically what AMD have just launched (4Xxx GPU's) and the fact you can get a complete system basis from one supplier (chipset, CPU, GPU), I would think now would be a perfect time to buy their shares, seeing as they are at such a low ($5)... It feels to me very much as if you had the opportunity to buy into Apple during their lean years, with big things to come from AMD. They won't be allowed to go out of business, someone would buy them if it came to that.

Thoughts please! :)

Digresssion in topics

Spedley — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:21:47 GMT

It seems to me that people going off topic is a sympton rather tan the problem.

I often think of a digression which is relevent to the inital post but still off topic. The reason I either go off topic or don't bother posting is because by the time I have answered the current top and read all the posts 'since my last visit' and explained the point and linked to the previous topic it is no longer worth the effort.

Perhaps if topics were more easily created and cross referenced (i.e. a 'create sub-topic' button) then there would be far less digression and a far more active forum.

FF3

-Wiz!- — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 21:57:34 GMT

How do you re-enable it? :)

i34 - Multiplay

Spedley — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 21:55:07 GMT

I live just around the corner so I'll be there for some of it. Is anyone else going? It would be good to meet some forumites.

[url]http://i34.multiplay.co.uk/[/url]

Safari

Mitch — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 19:40:40 GMT

Give it a go if you haven't tried it. It is very good indeed and incredibly responsive compared to IE7/8 and Firefox. I tried Flock too, and although it has got some great features, I just want a browser that is quick to open and responsive and Safari certainly ticks all the boxes there, even though it is a little sparse of features and add-ons. (But it has a grammar and spell check, so that is really all I need)

Spybot Serach and Destroy 1.6 - new version

Speedee1 — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 10:56:06 GMT

Have you downloaded the new version of Spybot Search and Destroy?

It does a full scan on my old W98 desktop, Athlon XP 2400, 224MB ram, with a old (slowish) 6GB drive in 12 minutes!

When I ran it on my newish laptop I thought I had only set minimal filesets; it used to take about 50 minutes!

Very Speedee

Nvidia may be quiting Chipset making!

FreakShow! — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 00:57:30 GMT

[url]http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=299867[/url]

I haven't read the source, but skipping one generation, will have them out of it for quite a while I'd have though, considering that LGA775 has stuck round for a couple of years.

Are there some hidden issues back there?

A+ Essentials

mam — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:28:34 GMT

Hello:):)

I have just completed 3 IT courses at college,and will be enrolling for the A+ Essentials in September.

Can anyone out there who has taken this exam offer any guidance/advice/tips with this course please.
Cheers:)

Cheap Calls.

Fixtheleek? — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:41:47 GMT

This looks very interesting, would it work over here.:)

http://www.magicjack.com/4/index.asp

It is a long way from ‘Press Button B’:P

Ram modes...

shuggie — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:46:37 GMT

Hi all, has anyone come across this before? When I installed mobo in sig 1 running two sticks of 1GB ram the option came up on the bootup screen.....dual mode, ganged or unganged. have tested computer in both modes and there doesn't appear to be any advantage/disadvantage. It appears that ganged mode treats the sticks in dual mode as one 2GB stick, whereas unganged looks like normal dual mode. It is an AM2 mobo and is not on my AM mobo.....:)

Ripping audio from a dvd.

-Wiz!- — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:20:21 GMT

Found the below software. Just wondered if anyone had used it?

http://dvd-mp3.org/index.html

It's for a legitimate purpose...

Had your updates today?

-Wiz!- — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:44:51 GMT

Both my laptops received their updates as soon as they were switched on. :)

DNS_Vulnerability.

Nvidia Drivers.

Teafie — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:38:16 GMT

I duno whats going off at Nvidia.

They slag Intel off and say when it comes to laughabee that they haven't got a clue how to write a driver.

Well hold on there Mr. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black ass.

Drivers 175.16 where not to good as alot of games under XP failed to run properly and those games typically where the on going franchises like: UT,HL & NFS.

These drivers caused an uproar on the NV forum, I too joined in as I was well disgruntled with NV not maintaining support properly for older games.

This made alot of gamers like my self hawk the drivers site for new drivers, then out came 175.19 but within a day they where withdrawn from down load.

They actually made matters worse as I observed and the NV forum guys claiming that these new drivers damaged hardware (LOL).:P

As of last night drivers 175.19 become available to down load again.

This is where it gets fun, all those people like me who previously had used 175.19 drivers on there system and then when you tried to run the new 175.19 xp would report that they where already on your machine.

Well of course they would be wouldn't they. so when I launched the driver from the start menu I inadvertently loaded the old 175.19 giving me all previuos problems.

It was not until I trawled my pc to remove all aspects of the old 175.19 that I could load the new 175.19. (09,07,08)

How dumb are NV, what have they been hiding, why could they not release amended 175.19 as 175.20.

Come on NV your drivers may be operating size nower days but your old hands at it.:angry:

Ooooops this turned into a rant.:)

Nvidia say not to DX10.1

-Wiz!- — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:04:53 GMT

Nvidia are to skip DX10.1 support in favour of DX11. Here.

DX11 news here.

Cross-platform internet DNS vulnerability

Attercop — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:49:19 GMT

Whether you're running Linux, Windows, Cisco, Sun, or other DNS servers, you are at risk from a newly discovered vulnerability. So says Dan Kaminsky, head of penetration testing research at IO Active, who accidently discovered the DNS "design flaw" earlier this year.

You can check whether the DNS servers you use are vulnerable by clicking the [b][url=http://www.doxpara.com/]Check My DNS[/url][/b] button in the upper right corner of [url=http://www.doxpara.com/]Kaminsky's Web site[/url].

Quoted from the full article [url=http://www.linux.com/feature/141080]here[/url].

What are the latest specs

JayCee — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:44:37 GMT

Hi guy's as the heading says i'm looking for a rough guide to spec's that would have been around 2 years ago.
My present rig is shown below, and I am looking to upgrade the motherboard, CPU and memory for as little as possible.
I like AMD processors, as an example of what I can afford, my present mobo cost me £10 ( brand new), the memory 2nd hand £20 CPU £20 last 2 off ebay.
So under a £100 would be good.
I use the computer mainly for surfing and wordprocessing, no games exept the odd online ones.

When I bulit it the spec must have been at least two years old then, but I just need a guide so as I know what to look for
Cheers

PC World - Price Promise/Match

Speedee1 — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:42:50 GMT

I emailed PC World a few weeks ago to ask about their price promise/match, as the sign that used to be in the front of my local store disappeared. They emailed me back an answer to say where to look on their website, and I found it.

Today, I need a new wireless router in a hurry and was thinking of getting a Netgear DG834G and a USB adapter too, and whilst looking for a good price hoping to get a price match, I couldn't find the statement on their web site anymore - have they pulled it??

I did a couple of web searches, but didn't find any news??

Thanks Speedee

backup/syncing software

captaintim — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:59:49 GMT

Hi folks.

I have 2 desktops and I've just replaced my old laptop with a new one, so now I have 2 laptops aswell. Plus lots of CDs full of backed up documents etc which I need to go through.

I'm trying to find something that will nicely sync documents on my laptop with my desktops - I'd like it to backup the documents and get rid of duplicate files so that I don't have to wade through GB's of stuff...

Do you know of anything suitable? Would Windows Homeserver do the job?

Many thanks,

Tim

Computer Building

neopob — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:03:13 GMT

I am currently fed up in my dead end job. I would like some help. Could someone please tell me how and where i can get into a Nationally recognised course for computer building/fixing etc. I have built my own computer and am currently rebuilding a p4. When i left school i went to college and did 1 year in electronics C&G, i finished but through reasons to complicated to explain could not finish the second year. I am not interested in Electronics to be quiet honest as the mathematical side is v.boring. I do however enjoy taking things to pieces to see how they work and putting things together and (hoping) they work :). I am quiet willing to start with the basics and even if required go into depth with the system/hardware side of things, but find i am not so good with writing/correcting/implementing software. I am also 36 next week lol.
Your help would be greatly appreciated as i cannot find anything that really points me in the correct direction.

Windows Server 2003

2005Greg — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:01:44 GMT

Does anybody have and links to complete tutorials and guides on Windows Server 2003? I found the website below which is useful to a point, however I am looking for guides which include users, and their file space preferably.
[URL]http://www.visualwin.com/[/URL]

Thankyou in advance for your help.

Microsoft doing what it does best

conrad101 — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 01:03:54 GMT

Now if I were a suspicious man I might be thinking that Carl Icahn is a proxy for a well known software company:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7493790.stm

It's official - MS interested in Yahoo carrion meal

Whats the best?

asininity — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:49:13 GMT

I'm in the market for one of those small "netbooks" and was wondering what you guys think of the new processors for them, mainly:

Intels Atom
VIAs Nano
Nvidias Tegra

I've been reading about them and was wondering which one you'd rather have if you were after a netbook.

Intel CPU price cuts

-Wiz!- — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 12:53:25 GMT

Apparently....[i]"Intel plans to cut the price of the E8500, E8400 and E7200 and probably a few more CPUs...".[/i]

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8297&Itemid=1

Vadim Computers gone BUST.

nightlight — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:42:57 GMT

Just had a look on Vadim Computers (V-Solutions) and I see as of today they have cease trading.

Nividia in trouble

nightlight — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 06:49:44 GMT

Have a look at this over at The Inquirer http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/07/02/nvidia-opens-whoop-ass-itself

They appear to have a product failure, in fact hundres of million dollars worth, cause by defective GPU's dies.

It gets worse the further you read down the page, ATI is causing Nividia serious problems, also Gainward bought Palit, and started making ATI cards instead of Nividia..

And ATI still has other HD4870 cards due out soon.:D

MSI Wind / Advent 4211 (re-badged Wind)

Computer Dave — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:40:29 GMT

Hello everyone...this I thought was worth mentioning about because of the woohar I've had today

As you all know MSI have released their new netbook just two days ago here in the UK. I have been reading the last few weeks some of the replies on http://forums.msiwind.net/msiwind/?sid=c112f904ddf84a9d59a537aca1c9b546

UK pre-orders where only available at a few select places and I managed to secure one with CCL (the 1GB XP Black Model) for £304 (before prices where properly adjusted). I'm still waiting for it to be dispatched.

Yesterday I discovered that PC World would be stocking an Advent 4211 which was discovered to be an MSI Wind but re-branded for OEM and a fair bit cheaper http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/editorial/advent-netbook/?int=home-1 at £279.99 (compared with £330-£350 elsewhere). This explains the shortages (along with 3 cell batteries only until late August, due to battery factory fires) as most have ended up as DSG exclusives.

So I decided this morning to order one from PC World using Collect@Store I also found a 5% discount code (yawjuly08) and got it down to £265.99. This is before Quidco cashback of 2.5% as well ;) The guys at the store only had a few in stock (still in crates) and I happily took mine and drove home (nearest store is 11 miles away). It came with Microsoft Works 9 SE, but no recovery CD. There is a recovery partition and some utilities but I've wiped that off (see below as to why).

I got home and assembled it correctly and pressed the on button - it would get to the BIOS splash screen and then it would turn off. I tried again this time without the battery then without the mains etc etc but to no avail. After about 20 mins I decided to take it back assuming it to be faulty and so drove back again. I got to the store and explained to one of the TechGuys who immediately pressed the button and low and behold the Windows XP logo loaded up. Turns out I was holding the on button in for to long. He only pressed it quickly whereas I held it for 5 secs (like I have to on a previous laptop I've used). I couldn't believe it - how stupid.

However he tried it again but this time shut the Wind down during the inital Windows XP setup (post main installation) - OH DEAR! It corrupted the installation and asked for setup to be re-run...the Wind has no optical drive...so he thought he could run the TechGuys Recovery option at the menu only for it to ask for a disc! (also winlogon was corrupt). What a balls up. I informed most of them about the Wind (they all wanted one) and I said I can try re-installing Windows XP from a USB stick at home (I have no external optical drive) - I've just spent 3 hours this evening trying and it works - I have just this minute completed the installation! WHAT A STRESSFUL DAY - ITS TAKEN THE WIND OUT OF ME! :D

All DSG stores are selling it and you can get it £5 cheaper than PC World at Dixons with codes :rolleyes:

tracert - internet route tracing

Spedley — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:34:20 GMT

I've just been fiddleing with the tracert command (for a mental excersize regarding p2p) and it's quite interesting.

For those that don't know (i.e. me 10 minutes ago) tracert sets the TTL or Time-To-Live value of each packet sent to a url. Each time the packet is forwarded, it subtracts 1 from the TTL value and if it reaches zero then it returns a message to tracert saying time out.
So, tracert sends out messages with TTL=1,2,3 etc until the destination site returns a response which give you the path taken by the packet (almost, many packets and paths may be different).

It quite interesting, here is my tracert to google.co.uk
[quote]C:\Users\***>tracert google.co.uk

Tracing route to google.co.uk [216.239.59.104]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 8 ms 23 ms 18 ms 10.254.196.1
3 14 ms 8 ms 11 ms brhm-t2cam1-b-v104.inet.ntl.com [213.106.228.157]
4 15 ms 9 ms 11 ms brhm-t3core-1b-ge-011-0.inet.ntl.com [195.182.176.69]
5 21 ms 17 ms 11 ms bir-bb-b-so-020-0.inet.ntl.com [213.105.174.5]
6 12 ms 13 ms 35 ms win-bb-a-so-220-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.188.145]
7 15 ms 12 ms 14 ms pop-bb-b-so-230-0.inet.ntl.com [212.43.162.194]
8 33 ms 12 ms 12 ms tele-ic-2-as0-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.184.6]
9 48 ms 19 ms 15 ms 212.250.14.138
10 14 ms 13 ms 28 ms 209.85.255.175
11 31 ms 32 ms 91 ms 209.85.250.216
12 35 ms 26 ms 25 ms 64.233.174.185
13 27 ms 78 ms 30 ms 216.239.49.126
14 27 ms 29 ms 27 ms 216.239.59.104

Trace complete.[/quote]

Anyway, after another topic on the MM forums it seems that a big problem with P2P tracffic is the impact it has on traffic routing. It would seem to me that to minimise the number of re-routes could greatly enhance P2P services. For example, if people were sharing the same file it would make sense that NTL users shared it amongst themselves and AOL users amongst themselves with minimal sharing between the two providers.

Is there a similar command to tracert like the ping that will display the tracert value so I can see quickly how many hops the packet has taken?

Open for discussion on tracert or P2P and network traffic.

New eBay Search

Bmess1uk — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:52:19 GMT

Hi,

I hope I'm not taking the Mick posting this here, but I'm assuming that there's a lot of long time eBay users here who like me spend a fair amount of time looking out for some PC related bargains.

You may have noticed that eBays search page layout has changed recently, and that the opt-out function to keep the old layout is being removed in four weeks time.

If you've not seen it yet you can check it out at http://playground.ebay.co.uk/. It's based around lots and lots of very annoying pop up java windows. It looks and feels like an interface that's in Alpha testing, let alone a finished product.

This topic has caused a massive stink in the eBay community over the past couple of days, and if you use eBay a lot and this really annoys you, and you would like to keep the old layout, or at least keep the option to opt out of the new layout then maybe you'd like to sign this petition.

http://www.petitiononline.com/eBaySch/petition.html

Hope you don't mind me posting this here, but we need to get as many signitures as possible.

THanks

For all those getting a 48XX

-Wiz!- — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:14:46 GMT

AC do it again...What a monster! :cool:

Info_here!

Core 2 vPro?

MartenReed — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:28:31 GMT

Was in an IT suite at school today, with the "lovely" new Dell Optiplex 755 series. I noticed a sticker on them saying "Core 2 vPro". What's the difference between a vPro and a standard one?