Vista Ultimate OEM

gav Wrote:
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> Buying the latest graphics card is never good
> value, but in my opinion they are the most
> impressive component - look at how graphics have
> changed over the years - if you went back to GP2
> from 10 years ago you'd be shocked at how bad it
> looked, yet you remembered it to be awesome. I
> reinstalled it about 2 years ago (to get the
> excellent menu music), and I still have nightmares
> now.

LMAO

go check the other games forum, there are a few screens of GP2 in there

Yup - Indy 500 running through DosBox almost looks better :D

haha i installed Indycar racing by papy about a year back, and i seriously could only JUST differentiate between the wall and the road :S

"Buying the latest graphics card is never good value, but in my opinion they are the most impressive component - look at how graphics have changed over the years - if you went back to GP2 from 10 years ago you'd be shocked at how bad it looked, yet you remembered it to be awesome. I reinstalled it about 2 years ago (to get the excellent menu music), and I still have nightmares now."


Tell me about it, I reinstalled gp2 about a month ago, and man its rubbish!
Even better, I installed GP1 and ran it through dosbox, that was just funny. For some reason in my head I could remember there not being any Aliasing and when i ran it, oh dear.

The 8800's are very impressive though.

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i'm using vista now and i have to say it's pretty damn good. if a little safe lol you do kinda have to give the comp permission to do just about anything

if i got a new sound card + new graphic card so everything works perfect i probably wouldn't bother returning to XP, i'd miss too many of the features on vista

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iCeMaN pAuL Wrote:
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> i'm using vista now and i have to say it's pretty
> damn good. if a little safe lol you do kinda have
> to give the comp permission to do just about
> anything

You can turn user account control off in control panel > user accounts. You'll then need to tell security centre not to remind you that it's turned off too as it gets a bit upset.

It's a good idea in my opinion, but it's a bit too safe.

Fine for normal home use (as in mummy) but yeah, most of us sensible ones will turn it off. I suggest you leave it on until you can at least spell your name properly, Paul.

Thats been on OSX for a while, However I leave it on, as the whole family here keep using up my laptop and none of them understand OSX, so it stops them from buggering it up

I'd probably leave it on my PC too, even though it can be annoying sometimes, it does stop accidental System changes or someone coming on your PC and start meddling


PSN/Xbox 360 ID - Ianwoollam

Just installed vista today :D

im well impressed.

now for some reason i cannot see my cd/dvd drives in vista or XP. :|

i used to have the problem intermitantly but all i did was reset pc and they would come back, now i cant get them back at all

You need a new PC

Well we have been trying to find out what caused my pc to not boot. We found an old psu in the loft so swapped it, connected everything internally and had only a keyboard and and monitor attached at the back. When we first booted it up with my hd that failed months ago (remember my old thread) it booted into safe mode just. So we turned it off and tried connecting the western digital hd which I brought to replaces the "failed" Maxtor (which booted into safe mode, kept making strange noises though, as before.) and it past post but then did exactly the same thing that originally happened which started the problem off, just as the post screen flicked away and the xp boot screen was due to be shown the screen stayed black and the hd activity light is solidly on. Nothing appears to happen though. At post it sounds like the disk is initializing, but It the drive is not recognised in dos (we made a bootable floppy from this pc). We took the hard drive out of the machine, and were trying to look for the drive parameters on the sticker but couldn't find anything. Couldn't see anything on google either. Then dad noticed that when you shake the disk (not vigorously) you can hear the read head sliding around which doesn't happen on another old disk we found. This doesn't seem right to me but I don't know. Is there any chance that the disk will work as a slave drive IN my new pc when I get it? If not is there anything I can do. Replacing the power board was one suggestion, but apparently that wont work as each disk is unique (they cant make a perfect disk) and the board contains data on where all the faulty sectors are and using a different board would mess the mapping up. The short of it is there is a hell of a lot of stuff on that disk that we cant loose, Lots of family photos (we backed up loads of them, but not the last two months worth and we took loads of Xmas) as well as my computing coursework, lots of websites that I was working on, all my ipod music ( off my cds and a few songs brought from itunes ) and all my gp4 wip stuff that I dont want to loose. If there is nothing else would I be able to get it recovered professionally, and if so roughly how much would it be (£50? £100s £1000s!!?)I really cant believe it, my Maxtor started making clicking noises, the hd before that kept "freezing" and now this. Three hd failures seems very very unlikely to me especially when my wd was only about a year old, and its a wd. I think something else has caused previous "failures" motherboard maybe?

Hope I can get my data back .
Thanks for the help guys, dont know what Id do without you!
Wills.

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>Then dad noticed that when you shake the disk (not vigorously) you can hear the read head sliding around

well THATS not good. If the head is sliding around it's most likely scratching the platters. That's bad.

Glyn Wrote:
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> You need a new PC


agreed. i have cd/dvd roms this morning :|

Agreed with Bernie - though I doubt it would be scratching the platters - the heads are designed to move across them at incredible rates, so I doubt it moving across them with it turned off will do any further damage. As for the shaking... hmm - I certainly wouldn't have done that if there's critical data to come off them.

There's no harm in trying it in your new PC - it can't damage anything, only not work.

As for methods of recovery - in theory you can replace the board if you can find the same exact model somewhere (Ebay would be your best bet). This would be the cheapest way, but it's not something I would do myself (I suck at that sort of thing).

My own personal choice would be to get a USB IcyBox (either for SATA or IDE, whichever it is), and try that. I've had a lot of luck with broken drives working when they're given their own dedicated power - I've got 3 broken disks now (one a laptop drive) that still work if powered externally, yet aren't recognised if connected to the internal PSU. It's around £20 for an IcyBox (at Scan.co.uk), and if it does work, it'll be by far the cheapest way. Even if the drive doesn't allow access in My Computer, try to use something like Acronis True Image to create an image, and then mount that image as a virtual drive, using that instead of the broken disk.

After that you're down to specialist recovery companies. I've never used one myself, and as such can't recommend one, but you're probably looking at something between £400 and £600, though there's a few variables involved such as the condition of the drive, how much data there is, etc.

My finger is pointed firmly at the PSU for multiple drive failures. Any cheap one will eventually cause this sort of problem, and it's not unknown for a faulty one from a reputable manufacturer too. The only other thing that could really do it is overclocking while not limiting the PCI or PCIe bus - SATA drives can fail that way - or poor quality feed of electricity into the room/house. In that final case, the only thing to do to fix it is to get an Uninterruptable Power Supply.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/2007 09:57AM by gav.

Thanks, I will probably try the icy box out, I really hope it works.

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sigh

now my computer wont turn on. im going to kill something soon

[edit]

would a HDD make a computer not turn on at all?

see it wouldnt turn on i had power to the mainboard (little light was on) but nothing from the on button. so i removed my 2nd hdd power and sata connection, then i found i could boot into Windows XP. so i shut it down, put the 2nd hdd power and sata cables back in an everything works fine.

man i need a new pc.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/2007 05:14AM by NeilPearson.

NeilPearson Wrote:
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> would a HDD make a computer not turn on at all?

Nope. Sounds like you've got a heap of @#$%& power supply and it's struggling in the warm Aussie heat. Get something decent

i had the powersupply for ages now, and its only like 25 today. plus its always worked in the 40+ days :P

NeilPearson Wrote:
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> i had the powersupply for ages now...

*strokes chin*

Maybe we have found the answer

Just cause its old doesn't mean it won't work Hell thats why you pay so much on this Computer hardware lark, so it's made out of good quality components which will last alot longer!

However Neil's a cheapskate so its probably is a unbranded naff Power Supply :D


PSN/Xbox 360 ID - Ianwoollam