atmo

Start > Run > "dxdiag.exe" (no quotes). Display tab > check "DirectDraw Acceleration" is enabled. Next, try updating the drivers for the onboard video. If it's using a basic vesa driver, then that could possibly be the cause of the problems. If it still doesn't work properly, then it's probably just not up to the task. Some older chipsets just dont do very good hardware video acceleration. Have you got a card you could try?

I've seen that error a couple of times when trying to migrate a windows install to another system, it's generally caused by the existing install not recognising/having drivers for the ide/sata controller. Why that would occur on a previously functioning system is a bit of a mystery though. Corruption perhaps? In any event, i'd try booting from an XP cd (if you only have a recovery disk provided by an oem you'll need to borrow/aquire a full install cd) and doing a repair install over the existing install. Instructions on how to perform a repair install are here: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm Once that's done and you've recoverd your files (and made a backup!!!), i'd give that drive a thorough check over. All HDD manufacturers have diagnostic tools (either for windows, or a bootable floppy/cd image) available from their website.

I agree with most of what's been said already. A laptop if budget isn't a concern, mATX desktop if you're after bang for buck. I know of a few guys that run a high end card in their full sized desktop, use onboard/cheap video on their mATX lan box when it's at home, then swap the high end card in when they go to lans.

I've only tried it on one system so far. I did notice a bug in the installer, if you select the option to manually edit partitions, there's nothing in the drop down menu for the mount point when you select to create a new partition, although you can type it in yourself. If you dont select a mount point, then select edit, the options are present in drop down menu. The added option to skip downloading the package lists during install was welcome, as the ubuntu servers were being hammered at the time. If not for that, it may have taken all night. I also liked the restricted driver manager, although i did have some problems getting it to work. When i selected the nvidia driver, it popped up the warning, i selected enable and it did nothing. Reboot, tried again and then it worked. Once the driver was installed, i still didn't have an option to set the screen resolution to 1280x1024 via the gui (only options were 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768). The auto installer also doesn't enable the nvidia control panel (at least for me it didn't), which meant either manually creating the entry or editing xorg.conf to add the modes i wanted. Nothing to lose your head over, but it could cause problems for some. Overall it's definately an improvement over 6.10 though.

It sounds like the board isnt passing POST. It could be an incorrect BIOS settings, a faulty board, ram, cpu, video card etc. It may also be a faulty power supply, or that the power supply can't supply enough power, or that something isn't connected properly. There's also the possibilty something's shorted somewhere. The first thing i'd try is resetting the CMOS, which clears the BIOS data. Disconnect the power and pop the battery out, or use a jumper to bridge the clear cmos header (refer to the motherboard manual if you have one) If there's still no life, remove/disconnect everything that isn't necessary for the system to POST. You'll need to have the CPU & it's heatsink/fan installed in the motherboard, a video card (with a monitor connected) and the power supply. No mouse/keyboard, sound card, add-in IDE/SATA cards, hard drives, optical & floppy drives, usb devices etc. They aren't reqiured for the system to POST. Failing that, remove the motherboard from the case, and make sure there are no misplaced standoffs screwed into the motherboard tray. If possible, try setting up the system outside the case with everything layed out on a bench, but make sure the motherboard etc. is placed on a cardboard box or something non conductive. At this point, if it still fails to pass POST, it's time to swap hardware. Plugging good hardware into a possibly faulty system can lead to a bigger pile of dead hardware. It's rare, but it can happen. If you have a good working system, and the hardware is compatible, try swapping the video card & ram with the faulty system. RAM is usually the easiest to change. Try one stick at a time (unless it's RDRAM which must be run in pairs), then try another video card. If the system's spread out on a bench, or if the power supply is easy to remove, i'd swap that out next, followed by the cpu. If you can swap in another CPU, or install the CPU from the non working system in another board, i'd try that next. The only remaining part is the motherboard, so if you get to this point and it still wont fire up, then you can be fairly sure that's what's wrong with the system. XP Pro needs about 2-2.5GB for the OS and swap, depending on which service pack, updates etc. are installed. I wouldn't install it on a drive smaller than about 5gb.

There's a similar theme going on in the spare room here: Has anyone here gone to the trouble/expense of building up a nice rack setup at home?

1440x900 is the native resolution for nearly all 19" WS LCD displays (notebooks/laptops are the exception) so you probably wont be able to go higher. If you want/need higher resolution you'll need to move to a larger monitor. 20, 21 & 22" WS are usually 1680x1050 native, 24 & 27" 1920x1200, 30" 2560x1600.

5000+ is 2.6ghz w/ 2x512kb l2 cache

Sure, if someone want's to add them (i'd probably mess it up). Here's another two: 1920x1200 1920x1200

Most new cases will have at least two USB ports on the front. I'm not sure what your local prices will be like, but i'd go for: Core2Duo E6300 Gigabyte 965P S3 2GB PC5300/6400 (DDR2 667/800, CAS 5, nothing too fancy) 320MB 8800GTS (if you can stretch the budget that far, otherwise a 7600GT) Case & quality 400w psu (20A+ on +12v or combined +12v rails) You didn't mention if you needed hard drives or optical drives, floppy etc. The 320MB 8800GTS is currenly the best bang for buck card available, far surpassing the performance of the 7900GS. If you need to keep the budget in check, the 7600GT will save a reasonable chunk of cash and doesn't lag too far behind the 7900GS. It'd also be a better choice if you were to upgrade to a faster card in a few months time.

I came up with these while messing around with PSP. Click the link above the images for 1920x1200 versions. I figure most of the people here can resize or crop to suit smaller resolutions, but i'll make smaller versions if there's demand for it. If anyone would like a specific color, let me know and i'll see what i can do. Link Link Link Link Link Link Cooper: phpbb doesn't allow images that link. Moved the link to the text above the image.

How old a system are we talking about here? A ~400mhz PentiumII with a video card that can do hardware video acceleration will do basic video playback & music, but wouldn't be an ideal choice as a media center. At a minimum, i'd suggest something like a P3/Athlon 1ghz+, 512mb of ram and a reasonable video card (a Geforce4 MX or better) with outputs to suit your tv (composite, svideo, component, vga, dvi or hdmi). If you're into HD video, you'll be wanting something like a P4 3.0ghz or Athlon XP 3000+ at least. As far as software goes, you dont necessarily need anything special. If you're prepared to have a cordless keyboard and mouse/trackball sitting on your coffee table, then Windows 2000/XP with something like media player classic or VLC will do the job, as would a recent flavor of linux with xine or similar. An IR remote & reciever will make controlling it a bit nicer, but ideally you'd combine it with some sort of media center front end, like Windows XP MCE or MythTV for linux.

Yes. It's primary purpose is to allow an install of windows (and applications) to be deployed across several machines, even if they have different hardware. There are some situations where it won't work though. One example i've seen is when i installed Windows on an IDE drive, then attempted to move it to another system where the drive was connected using an IDE > SATA adaptor. The result was a bluescreen, as it couldn't recognise the controller. Installing the SATA controller drivers before running sysprep got it working though.

Another option would be to remove the drive from the laptop with the broken rom, install it in another laptop or a desktop (using an IDE adaptor) and install windows from there. After the install, run sysprep.exe (in deploy.cab in the supporttools folder on the WinXP disc), power the laptop/desktop system down (dont restart it or you'll need to run sysprep again) and move the drive back into the laptop with the broken rom. It should redetect all the hardware on first boot.

Try this: http://www.erightsoft.net/SUPER.html