Kevin RiceTechnical Editor
Trivia will return next Thursday when I return.
Q:
A:
NOTICE:
PC Q&A; will be gone from tomorrow (11/10) through next Wednesday (11/15). Tomorrow, there will be a hardware feature in place of the Q&A.; Next Monday through Wednesday, I will be in Las Vegas at this year's Comdex show, reporting "live" from there with a daily feature about the new things I see there. Questions received between 11/10 and 11/15 will be disregarded. I hate doing it that way, but there's no way I could go through six days' worth of Q&A; in one sitting and still be sane at the end of it, and I return to San Francisco late Wednesday evening.
Enjoy tomorrow's feature and the reports from Comdex next week, and I'll be back to answering things next Thursday.
Have a general question? Be sure to browse the FAQ first. It's broken up into categories for your convenience, and at least 50% of the questions I get are answered there, including video card, motherboard, and other system questions.
Stuck in a game? Chances are you'll find a walkthrough and other hints/tips/cheats for it here.
Buying a new computer? Pick the right one. Find out how to avoid a lemon.
Don't know what's in your computer? Pop the case off and match the parts to the pictures with this handy feature.
Is the hard drive chugging during game play? Need to speed everything up in general? Check here.
No broadband internet access in your near future? Make that 56K modem scream by following the tweaks here.
And finally, if you're just curious about an error message, a new term, or pretty much anything else, chances are you'll find information on it by searching here. This is far and away the best, fastest search engine.
Q:
Trivia Answer: Swords and Sorcery
Oh, and BTW, your Google link at the top of QA has been missing for the past several days. It was last
sighted on Nov 1.
Anonymous
A:
Ding! Ding! Ding! We actually have a sword here with "Swords and Sorcery" engraved on it.
And thanks. I didn't realize I'd lost the Google link when I copy/paste that stuff. It's back.
Q:
How many polygons, under real game environments, thats with lighting and all, can a PC with a Ge-Force 2 MX, a 533mhz Celeron processor, and 128MB of RAM pump out a second! I know a PS2 can pump out about 10-20 million, but it has a 300mhz processor and appalling RAM! So how many can a PC like the one above pump out!
Please answer my question. Thank you!
T.Kadungure
Harare, Zimbabwe
A:
You're making a common mistake in assuming that processor speed and the amount of video RAM are the determining factors in polygon pushing power. The Thunderbird 900 with 256MB of PC133 RAM and a GeForce2 Ultra 64MB next to me could not do something like SSX or Madden 2001. While I don't know the exact numbers on your specific system, it's not a good measure to use in the first place. Because the chips in the PS2 (and virtually every other console) are specialized and devoted only to games, they are a ton more efficient than their PC counterparts. Even the Xbox doesn't use an "off the shelf" P3 chip; it's a customized chip based on the P3.
It is for this same reason that consoles, even though their hardware is not upgradeable, typically last in a competitive sense for at least 3 years if not longer. Although it's sort of ugly now, the original Tomb Raider ran on the PSOne, and that had a 33MHz processor and a meg of video RAM on it. For the PC, it took something like a P166 and 32MB of RAM. It has to do with efficiencies in the architecture and the intent with which the chips were created.
Q:
Hello Kevin, A friend came over the other night while i was laying trying to sleep. He got on my computer and he began some typing, i thought it strange that he be typing because he usually just plays games. I heard my computer shut down as he was typing, he was not prepared for it to shut down because he was still typing as it shut down. He then got up and left. I wanted to know what he did, so i turned on my computer and it said this
During the last boot-up, your system hung for an improrper cpu external speed setting. Your system is now working in safe mode (bus:100mhz, Dram: 100 mhz, pci:33 mhz). To optimize the system performance and
reliablility, make sure the cpu speed conform to the specifications of your cpu.
Kevin, do you have any idea what he did or was trying to do to my computer? If he was trying to do something he knows he wasnt supposed to im going to be pissed. A7V mobo and 750 thunderbird
Anonymous
A:
On an Asus motherboard like yours (and some others), when the power is suddenly turned off -- no proper shut down, no power button hit, etc. -- you'll get that message. It's just telling you that it has reset to defaults so that your computer works again. Saving and exiting from the BIOS screen will return everything to normal. Either you had a power surge and or he hit the powerstrip or something. I doubt he was trying anything weird, although it's possible that he was attempting to overclock. That motherboard is used a lot by people who overclock because it's fairly safe -- it'll reset like that if there's a problem with the settings.
Q:
Mr. Rice
Just put a PC together with an external 3COM modem on COM1. Its hardware based. My old comp had an internal PCI SOFTWARE modem in it. The new computer is plugged into the same phonejack. The new computer connection
speed maxes out at around 25k. Old computer usually connects at 38+. Called my ISP see if they b0rked something, answer is no. Called the phone company see if I was on a SLC or if they did something in the 3 hours that it took for me to get back online and they said no. Had them come test my line-it checks out. Did some homework, tweaked some stuff blah blah blah the usual stuff. Why am I connecting at 25k with a much faster computer and a hardware modem. Thanks, I have people to kill.
Also, I checked the speeds at the ComputingCentral webpage and teh DSLReports webpage and they returned the same data.
Sofie Halliwell
Chambersburg, PA
A:
It sounds like the COM port may be shared. Even if it isn't, switching the modem to COM 2 may fix your problem. I'm not sure what else it could be.
Q:
Greetings all knowing one. Please forgive my ignorance, but I have a question. I recently ran into a problem with my monitor and was curious what you thought the problem may have been. Turned my machine on and everything was fine (windows splash screen, text messages etc) until Windows itself tried to start, then the monitor started turning itself on and off without showing any pictures at all. Could this be caused by a bad driver or is my monitor possessed by one of the demons in Diablo II that I had just installed.
Thanks again,
Scott
Dearborn, MI
A:
We just had a similar problem here. The way we got around it was to go into Windows in Safe Mode, completely uninstall all the drivers, restart the mode, install the reference drivers, restart the machine and then install the latest drive update. That's how it worked for us and it does make sense. I don't think the installation of Diablo 2 had anything to do with it -- it's more just a driver corruption. (We hadn't installed anything -- it just happened.)
Q:
Kevin,I would like to thank you for a great column. I have a question regarding Windows ME. I would like to upgrade, but have heard It's more stable if you do a clean install. I read you need to put in your Win 98 disk as a check. My problem is my system came with a restore cd for Win 98 and a Win 98se upgrade disc. Is there any way to do a clean install with this problem?
Anonymous
A:
I don't know if I'd recommend using WinME just yet as it's been more problem infested than expected, at least in my experience. If you're going to do it, though, you can just use the Win98SE upgrade disk. During the installation for WinME, it'll ask for "proof of ownership" of a previous version of Windows. At that point, put the Win98SE CD in there. It'll check it, say OK and then ask for the WinME disk again.
Q:
Hey Rice. I'm going to be upgrading my hard drive from a 8 GB, 5400 RPM, ATA66 drive to a 20.4 GB, 7200 RPM, ATA100 drive. (I have an Asus A7V mobo that supports ATA100). My question is this: What's the best way to go about transferring the info from my old drive to my new one? If I connected the new drive, (with the old drive set as master) could I simply copy over the entire old HD to the new one? I'm going to be taking the old 8GB drive out, so I need to be able to boot from the new 20GB drive. I've heard that programs like Norton Ghost or Drive-2-Drive make an exact "clone" of your drive. If I used this type of program, would it allow me to boot up from the new drive after the old one was cloned?
In short, what's the best way to install the new drive. Thanks for your help.
Chris
Salt Lake. UT
A:
You've answered your own question. Initially making the new drive the slave to the old one and then using something like Norton Ghost will in fact make an exact image of the 8GB drive on the 20GB drive. After it's done, remove the 8GB drive, make the 20GB drive the master, and the computer should run off the new drive just fine.
Q:
Hey Kevin,
You basically scoffed at the idea of a PS2 emulator or card from Sony, however I saw an interesting article the other day on Sega looking to make a Dreamcast card for the PC. I couldn't find the original article I saw, but I searched Usenet at deja.com and found another article with the rumor at:
Who knows if it's true, but if Sega can do it, don't count out Sony.
Jeff Spencer
Rolla, MO
A:
We've heard the same rumors, but we've got no confirmation. There are some technical implausibilities with it though. First, Sega games come on proprietary GD-ROM disks. There's no GD-ROM drive available for the PC. Perhaps Sega could market new games on DVDs or CD-ROMs, but then they screw the three million plus who've got a Dreamcast already. Second, how are the Sega peripherals (controllers, the modem or ethernet card, etc.) going to work? It's got four inputs on it for controllers, meaning there'd have to be some sort of external converter to use them (as well as the VMUs). Third, there's still the problem of running under Windows and the limited bus speed of a modern PC.
That being said, a Dreamcast "card" is slightly more plausible mainly because the graphics chip in a DC is a modified PowerVR Series 2, which is based on a PC graphics card. That's the only thing that would give this rumor any sort of plausibility. Even with that, though, the bus width and speed on a PC simply wouldn't cut it, and everything again would have to run under Windows.
Q:
Kevin,
Thanks for the great Q&A; page you do...very insightful, might I say! I have a question you might be able to answer about Windows ME. Here at work we run (currently) two Pentium III 500Mhz computers, each with 128MB RAM. With the work we do, there is a lot of task-switching/multi-tasking going on, which takes a lot of the resources up. But we only use Windows 98se, which I hear only utilizes up to 96 MB of RAM instead of our full 128. And I've heard it rumored that Windows ME will take advantage of the full 128 MB we have. Is that true, and should we upgrade? I would upgrade specifically for that purpose if it were true. Or is it only Windows 2000 that utilizes all the RAM under the NT kernel? So then, is it better to upgrade to Windows ME or Windows 2000, since we are a small business, but need to utilize much of our RAM?
Thanks in advance,
Jeremy
A:
That's not true. Go through the tweaks linked at the top of the page -- the description starts with, "Is the hard drive chugging during game play? Need to speed everything up in general?" In there, I go through Virtual Memory tweaks that explain how to force Windows to use all the available physical memory.
Q:
Hi Kevin. After reading your response to the guy asking about CD-RW / CD-ROM placement on the IDE's, I switched my CD-ROM drive to slave on IDE 2 (it was previously slave on IDE 1), with the CD-RW as master (on IDE 2). No problem. My question is, the CD-ROM was previously listed as drive "D", but is now listed as "E", with the CD-RW taking "D" position. I'm assuming this is because the CD-RW now is master on IDE 2. Is this correct? Just wondering. Thanks.
John MacDonald
Wantage, NJ
A:
The master is detected before the slave device and is therefore given the "higher" letter. That's completely normal.
Q:
regarding a letter that was posted yesterday about ISA slowing down the computer... Asus actually did many tests with its new A7V motherboard with and without the ISA slot and came to the conclusion that just by having an ISA slot, the entire system is slowed by 1%-2%. Not that many users will be able to notice this performance hit, but according to Asus' test, there is one.
Chris Cook
Troy, MI
A:
Thanks for the info.
Q:
hello kev
i just built a new system which i am having major problems with it. my system is ; amd duron 700mhz fic az11 mboard via chipset and intergrated sound, ati radeon 32meg ddr vid card 10 gb harddrive the porblem is that
every game i try to play crashes my whole system please help me i am suffering form counterstrike withdrawl
best regards
zane condren
A:
I'm guessing that you've got the older VIA drivers. Get the 4.24 version of them here. When installing them, do not install the AGP in Turbo mode; install them in Standard. Also, enable the DMA channels. (This will be an option while installing.) Restart, and see if it still happens. If so, do you have the latest Radeon drivers? Make sure by checking the updated at ATi's website. I believe the latest version number is 4.12.3056.
Q:
I ordered all the parts for a new comp. I know how to install all the hardware and where everything goes. However, I'm not quite sure what to do when I flick the power switch on. I'm confused about what boot-disks to use, when to use them, when to configure stuff, etc. It'd be nice if you did a feature on this sorta thing. (I don't wanna look like an idiot asking a friend to do this for me.)
Anonymous
A:
First, make a Startup disk from whatever computer you used to send this email. This Startup floppy will have a generic CD-ROM driver, which you'll need. Next, put the floppy that came with the hard drive in, boot up, and let it do it's thing. It'll prepare the hard drive for use. Finally, boot with the Startup disk, put Windows in the CD-ROM, and run setup. Windows will detect most of the stuff in the machine and ask for driver disks along the way.
Q:
Have you ever heard of www.ibuypower.com, and do you know if the site's reliable for ordering a PC? Also, what do you think of my configuration - amd thunderbird athlon 900 mhz, asus a7v via kt-133 4x agp board, 128 mb sdram pc133, 30 gb udma 66/100 7200 rpm hd, visiontek geforce 2 mx 32mb 4x agp, 16x dvd pioneer, acer cd-rw 10X4X32, SB live x-gamer, altec lansing acs33 3pcs subwoofer and speakers, yada yada yada...
Thanks.
Neil Manzullo
Alexandria, Virginia
A:
In the "Buying a new computer" link supplied at the top of the Q&A;, I actually recommend IBuyPower. That system you're considering seems fine for game purposes (and practically anything else).
Q:
Just some FYI on instant on computing. I believe the reader who wrote in on 11/8 was referring to mRAM computing rather than standby/hibernation mode which is standard nowadays in Win OS's. IBM is currently R & D'ing magnetic RAM which is a form of memory which can store it's state with or without power and for extended periods of time with little to no need for refreshing, sort of like a hard-drive only for RAM. This would allow computers to be turned on for instantaneous use because all system state information (OS, open applications, etc.) would be resident in the mRAM which would not be flushed between every power up like current RAM. Modern day RAM can only hold information as long as the bit pattern (info held in RAM) is constantly refreshed, otherwise the pattern degrades and the information becomes corrupted and no longer useable. With mRAM, turning your computer on/off will be just like turning your monitor on/off today. Unfortunately, we'll probably have to wait 5 to 10 years for mRAM, but it is something nice to salivate over :)
Ramon Iovin
Cheney, Washington
----- RELATED LETTER -----
this is regarding the guy who asked about "instant-on" computers. I think he was referring to upcoming MRAM memory which, like hard drives, uses magnetic memory that doesn't need to be sustained by a constant power
supply, the 0's and 1's stay until something changes them. This allows for your RAM to power down, but still retain the same information as when it was turned off, so when you turn it back on, its exactly how you left it, "instantly" on.
Josh Carter
St. Louis, MO
A:
Thanks for the info.
Q:
I know this is a PC section, but I have an Imac problem that i hope you can help with. I have Quake 3 for the mac and i have a macally imouse pro. The mouse is not working in game. I have the latest drivers as well as the Game Sprockets from Apple 1.7.5 and it still doesn't work. I download the USB Card Support 1.4.1 as well. Any ideas?
Anonymous
A:
I can't really help because my experience with Macintoshes is very limited. You'll have to find a Mac Forum somewhere for help or, of course, you could get a real com... err, a PC. (Frank uses Macs all day and we constantly refer to it as the clear blue toy.)
Q:
Kevin! In response to Andrew Chiong, of Columbus, Ohio, with the Win98se suspend problem, I had the exact same problem under the exact same circumstances. He described it perfectly and, as you suspected, I figured
it would be an easy fix to go into Display Properties and put it back. However, to my surprise Win98 had taken that option away! Needless to say, I was slightly dismayed. Nevertheless, I decided it would be a good idea to check in the APM in the BIOS, however, that did me no good, either. I am happy to report however, that after a reinstall of Windows, my suspend is working correctly now. Of course, I had also reformatted at the time, so it was a clean install. I don't know if he will be able to install over Windows and be successful, but I would definitely try that first, before deleting it.
Michael Flowers
Independence, MO
A:
That seems a little extreme, but if it works, it works.
Q:
Kevin,
I had a question about the wonderful ATI All in Wonder Radeon review you did a while back (never hurts to kiss up a little heh).
In the review I read that there was a PCI version of it available. I have tried pricewatch and had no luck locating it, nor with my usual hardware haunts. Do you have any idea where I can pick up one of those bad boys? (I have an AGP slot, I just want this to run dual monitors with).
Thanks,
Arnie Carvalho
Springfield, IL
A:
Mike Wolf did that review, but his Nintendo editing butt could probably use it. heh
Anyway, you can get older AIW cards in PCI format, but I don't remember them talking about a PCI version with the Radeon chip on it. If they do intend on releasing a PCI version of the card, they have yet to announce it, so you'll have to settle with an older card.
On a side note, we received a box of AGP All-In-Wonder Radeons today. Guess what will be doing all our movies and many of our screenshots with from now on?
Q:
Mr. Rice,
A question (as if you weren't expecting one)
Do all you DR guys work in different cities? Like do the Sony guys work somewhere outside of San Francisco (that is where the people working on the PC section work, right?) Just wondering...
Rishi J
Foster City, CA
A:
All the editors for Daily Radar are within shouting distance -- about 30-40 maximum away from each other. On top of that, all our magazines -- NextGen, PC Gamer, ODCM, PSM, etc. are made right here on the same floor of the same building. Maximum PC, Maximum Linux, Total Movie, DigitalFOTO, T3 and Revolution are downstairs.
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