Recent Posts

3626

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 31, 2008, 11:12 AM »

Thanks - stange that the main site (V-Com) doesn't have any reference to that given that the same update page sends you there as their home page!

3627

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 31, 2008, 03:05 AM »

Just reinstalled PowerDesk Pro 6 and noticed that if you run "Update" from the help menu it mentions PowerDesk version 7. Can't find anything about it though on their website ?

Strangely the version I had on my system was the same version as the one suggested above. However the one linked a few posts back is only about 7Mb whereas my original version I donwloaded at purchase is 35Mb (and it is the same build).

3628

General Software Discussion / Re: MAILSTORE EMAIL ARCHIVER

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 31, 2008, 03:02 AM »

When you open MailStore you just click on the "Import Messages ... " and your profile button to update your email archive. It is very fast (takes just a few seconds) and only imports new stuff since last time.

Personally I prefer this to having something constantly running in the background.

MailStore Server has automated updating by schedule.

3629

Living Room / Re: Upgrading Video and Power Supply on an Dell XPS 400

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 30, 2008, 04:04 PM »

Personally I think it is madness on Dell's part but presumably it provides good evidence of warranty invalidation if you fry your mobo with an ATX PSU and acts as a real disincentive to tinker !!

3630

Living Room / Re: Upgrading Video and Power Supply on an Dell XPS 400

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 30, 2008, 01:16 PM »

Couple of articles:

Dell Power Supply Converter
Converting a Dell (proprietary) power supply for use with a standard ATX motherboard

3631

Living Room / Re: Anyone registered with www.thebox.bz ?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 30, 2008, 06:21 AM »

It is a private torrent - there are a couple of TV shows that I want to catch up on that only seem to be available there.

3632

General Software Discussion / Re: MAILSTORE EMAIL ARCHIVER

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 30, 2008, 05:11 AM »

Other threads mentioning Mailstore:

MailStore Home 2.5.1 released with lots of improvements
How do you archive your Email or MBox2CHM?
HELP !!! Outlook corruption
How much email do you keep…and why?

I think there are a number of MAilstore users around here and I haven't seen anything other than impressed comments. Like you I have given up using X1 but I have just upgraded to Office 2007 on my main machine and that uses Windows Desktop Search in Outlook 2007 to do instant searches. Haven't used WDS much yet but I will continue archiving to Mailstore.

I emailed them a while ago with a few bugs and suggestions - it looks as though they are going to come out with a paid for version for home users (Mailstore Plus ???) which will remove some of the restrictions of Mailstore Home, but presumably not add all the server functions of the expensive version. As a home user I can't really see how anyone could justify the server version's cost. A simple solution is to creat an extra profile that includes PST files from other computers. You can then archive those PST files too in your main database - but you would need to duplicate it across all your systems.

I suppose another alternative would be to put the MailStore Home DB in a shared location (so long as you don't expect to have the MAilStore DB or any of the Outlook PST files open on more than one machine at a time).

3633

Living Room / Re: Computer will not start!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 29, 2008, 07:04 PM »

3) I already tried removing everything but the CPU and PSU. Is there a reason why you're suggesting these specific items? I could try the video card and 1 stick of RAM but I don't have a floppy drive.

-Deozaan (March 29, 2008, 01:37 AM)

Some motherboards fail to boot without memory installed - you will just get beeps. A graphics card is useful if you want to see any error messages  . You could try known good graphics and memory cards - at least then you isolate that the problem is not the memory and graphics.

I suggested a floppy because you can boot up a floppy of diagnostic tools - or at least a DOS disc. If you don't have a floppy I suppose a single CDROM would do.

If it doesn't boot with a very minimal set of components it is one of three things:

• PSU - try swapping it for another one and see if things improve
• BIOS or NVRAM corruption. Most mobos require that you you not only pop the battery but also move a link to ensure the NVRAM is flushed. Check the mobo manual. Don't forget to put the link back before restoring the battery though or powering up as you will fry your board.
• Motherboard component is faulty or dying.

Good luck - it is a real PITA when this sort of thing happens and a good reason for buying a mobo next time that has a sensible documented BIOS (such as AMIBIOS) where at least you know what the beep codes mean!

3634

General Software Discussion / Re: Disabling Acrobat 8 IE integration

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 29, 2008, 05:27 AM »

Load up Acrobat/Acrobat Reader and go to Edit Preferences then uncheck the option under Internet.

3635

General Software Discussion / Re: Cause of Vista crashes

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 29, 2008, 04:09 AM »

Don't Apple use nVidia and ATi cards? Until recently they used nVidia 7300 and now they use ATi Radeo 2600HD XT or NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600.

-Carol Haynes (March 28, 2008, 07:33 PM)

Well, OS X uses OpenGL, and those cards are compliant with the latest spec, so there's no much hurry to use the latest and greatest card. Besides, I think the most graphic-hungry game available for the Mac is Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, which although a demanding game, it's not Crysis by any stretch. Still, the GeForce 8800 GTS is available at the Apple shop.

-Lashiec (March 28, 2008, 08:43 PM)

Out of curiosity do NVIDIA and ATI provide the drivers on Mac systems or are they written by Apple or a third party?

3636

Living Room / Re: Computer will not start!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 28, 2008, 09:27 PM »

Couple of thoughts:

1) Check all the capacitors on the motherboard - if any are starting to bulge that could be your problem ...

2) How old is the machine? When did you last change the NVRAM battery on the mobo - losing NVRAM can cause odd problems.

3) If you remove everything from the system except the graphics card, one memory stick and a floppy do you still have the same issue? If so it would suggest PSU

3637

General Software Discussion / Re: Cause of Vista crashes

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 28, 2008, 07:33 PM »

Maybe they should follow Apple's lead and use their own hardware.

-Rover (March 28, 2008, 02:50 PM)

Don't Apple use nVidia and ATi cards? Until recently they used nVidia 7300 and now they use ATi Radeo 2600HD XT or NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600.

See http://www.apple.com...nology/graphics.html

It is interesting to see that Apple consistently stay at least one generation behind cutting edge graphics (however they present their graphics capability). Given that most high end cards are really aimed at gamers I suppose it makes no sense for Apple to be at the bleeding edge since they don't really do games.

3638

General Software Discussion / Re: XP boot display problem

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 28, 2008, 10:21 AM »

I had the same problem when running two nVidia cards in SLi mode and it was documented in the forums. The problem was resolved with the latest drivers for me.

3639

Living Room / Anyone registered with www.thebox.bz ?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 28, 2008, 10:02 AM »

Just wondered if anyone is registered with www.thebox.bz as they are only accepting registration by invitation.

If anyone is registered could they send me an invite by PM ?

Cheers

3640

General Software Discussion / Re: XP boot display problem

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 28, 2008, 08:29 AM »

This is a known bug in some versions of nVidia drivers. You need to go to www.nvdida.com and download the latest drivers for your graphics card.

3641

Living Room / Re: Kodak (Complaint)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 26, 2008, 09:41 PM »

I have to confess I had similar experiences with Kodak a few years back and would never buy their products again.

I had (still have - though I don't know why) a camera that produced really nice photos but the battery life was rubbish and the shutter had a 3-4 second firing delay which meant you couldn't take action shots. Anyway one day it turned itself off and would not come back on again. I went through numerous phone calls untill I finally got an RMA. It was returned working but with a scratch on the body work. It had also apparently taken over 4000 photos while it was away - seems unlikely and I assume I was sent a different camera. A couple of months later the same fault appeared and I was told that my warranty had expired and they no longer make the camera.

I have another firend who had similar experiences with an Easyshare camera.

My advice is move on and save yourself the hassle. When you can afford it get yourself a Canon camera - they are excellent kit and the tech support is very good (at least in the UK). The iXus range is very nice for a relatively cheap compact  point and shoot digital. They also have the advantage that they support their cameras even after they stop making them!

3642

Living Room / Re: XP boot-up problem

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 26, 2008, 06:17 PM »

Glad to hear it is resolved.

Trouble is all sorts of crap accumulates in Windows which grind everything (including you) down over time.

I finally gave up trying to troubleshoot my system issues and have taken the plunge to do a complete reinstall from scratch. That's why I have been offline for two days.

I now have a resolution ... no more crap installs on my main system. Crap gets installed (if at all) in VMWare. VMWare is great because you can take a snapshot before you install anything, play for a while and then revert to the snapshot - so you don't have to uninstall and you don't accumulate rubbish!

3643

General Software Discussion / Re: Stellent viewers.. what exactly are they?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 24, 2008, 08:06 PM »

<irrelevant pedantry>
Yahoo Desktop Search is X1
</irrelevant pedantry>

3644

General Software Discussion / Re: Does KGB Archiver really achieve high compression rates?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 24, 2008, 08:03 PM »

I compressed a VirtualBox VDI (virtual disk image) file of a Server 2008 install. That's 5.8 GB uncompressed.

-Eóin (March 23, 2008, 07:44 PM)

Ah but is it uncompressed? If you are downloading a virtual disc there is an emphasis on the image being as compacted as possible so have the builders of the image turned on disc compression in Windows when they were packaging it up? Also there are loads of CAB files which are already compressed.

Having said that if 7-zip can do a better job in 45 minutes (not exactly known for its speed either) then what is the point of KGB ?

3645

General Software Discussion / Re: Does this program exist - Video Splitter/video Screen capture program

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 24, 2008, 05:56 PM »

I don't know of anything that can do all that but TMPGEnc MPEG Editor can split files (by rmoving frames before and after repeatedaly on the same file) with virtually no rendering (there is still the disc time taken to write the split files to disc). It can also do this in batch mode so you can prepare a load of files and then process the lot overnight.

It will autoname output files sequentially.

It's not free though - but the quality is excellent. There is a free trial version.

As for video capture Camtasia Studio support Microsoft formats but it is an expensive product just to acheive that - you might be better using another format and using the TMPGEnc product to convert to MPEG format.

3646

Living Room / Re: the award for most clueless pc user ever - my candidate.

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 24, 2008, 10:32 AM »

Presumably because the locks are simply mechanical devices that can be forced, picked or bypassed with a coat hanger.

3647

General Software Discussion / Re: Random Reboot issues (was Anyone else having random reboots with Firefox)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 24, 2008, 08:31 AM »

This saga continues ....

Still getting random reboots on my system and can't figure out what is causing it.

I get no errors in my system or application event logs (apart from the Save Dump note when the system restarts).

It seems almost totally related to the kernel sound drivers as they are the common element in every reboot - and there was a reboot yesterday when a reboot caused issues only in the kernel sound system (even though there was no sound playing, and no audio app open at the time).

I have tried removing my Audigy 2 drivers and the card and gone back to the mobo sound interface for the time being but I am still getting reboots!

The only other device in my system that could be causing this is a HaupPauge TV card which also installs sound drivers so I will try ripping that out.

I have thoroughly checked memory with multiple memory testing programmes (including Memtest+ and MS Memory Tester) and can't find any problems. I can't see how it can be the CPU otherwise it would fall over all the time.

I have two systems with identical mobos so I have swapped mobos, and video card systems so the only things in my system currently that are common with before are corsair memory cards, the TV card, the hard discs (floppy, 1 SATA, 2 ATA, 2 DVDRW)and the PSU (plus USB devices: keyboard, mouse, printer and a couple of external Seagate hard discs and an internally installed card reader - plugs straight on a USB header on the mobo).

I have attached a few recent DUMPCHK outputs from the error dump following the STOP condition (0x1000007e)

Anyone got any other ideas how I can troubleshoot this?

3648

Living Room / Re: the award for most clueless pc user ever - my candidate.

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 24, 2008, 05:59 AM »

"Then why don't you just use the key to unlock the door manually?"
"Do you mean I can do that?"
"Yes Maam, just like in the days before transmitters, just put the key in the lock and turn it."

-oldfart (March 23, 2008, 03:44 PM)

Great if it works but I have found that if you never use the locks manually  they gradually seize up and won't turn.

Having said that I can still open the driver's door on my car with a key but I am instantly deafened by the alarm going off - which can only be turned off with the transmitter - so if the battery is dead ....

3649

Living Room / Re: XP boot-up problem

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 23, 2008, 01:41 PM »

Have you checked your event log?

I have found that services failing (or being very slow) to start can cause log delays at startup. If there are no errors showing try putting a shortcut to eventvwr.msc in your HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run key.

It will load during system startup and you can watch system as the system loads - just keep hitting refress - see if anything in particular seems to take a long time to start. They should drop out with an error but if it is hogging the system maybe it is avoiding this!

3650

General Software Discussion / Re: EverNote beta 2.2.0.372 has some nice new features

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 23, 2008, 12:52 PM »

None of the Evernote apps have a license number.

What you need to do is uninstall. Reinstall the older version and start the upgrade again. While it is downloading the updated version check your user Temp folder (in XP is is at c:\Document and Settings\<user id>\Local settings\Temp and you should be able to find the installer.

Once it has downloaded quickly copy and paste it as IIRC the updater deletes the installer when it finishes.

This is the full version installer.