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651

Living Room / Re: Life without XP SP2 - is it possible?

« Last post by dantheman on August 24, 2007, 09:14 AM »

I don't know how Broadcom drivers work but with Netgear when you install the drivers you are given the option of using Netgear's applet or Windows Connection Manager - you also get this option if you update drivers.

Dan, have you checked Broadcom's website for new drivers for your WiFi interface? Most companies update these regularly and they may have fixed dropping connections issues.

Failing that borrow a USB interace from someone and try that for a while or try a cheap USB WiFi 'thumb' adapter or a PCMIA card adapter to find out if it is the Broadcom hardware causing the problems. You can configure a new adapter without upsetting the settings for the Broadcom adapter (you will just get two alternate WiFi connections in Windows Conncetion Manager page when you install a new adapter).

-Carol Haynes (August 24, 2007, 08:37 AM)

Boy! I should have followed up on my initial computer studies!
I have Broadcom 54g max perf. 802.11g (whatever that means) on a Compaq Presario R3210CA
It's just simple. I got lost on Broadcom's website!
Lost in space man!
 

If i could only find a quick contact somehow... who knows!   

652

Living Room / Re: Life without XP SP2 - is it possible?

« Last post by dantheman on August 24, 2007, 04:27 AM »

Yep. CPUidle seems to be doing it's thing just fine.
Not yet 100% convinced that it will make my computer life much longer though.
Nothing about this software from Snapfiles nor CNet.

HP finally decided to change the hard drive after quite a few months of "labour".
One of those things i hope never happens to anyone.
When your computer goes away for 3 whole months... Naw, i won't get into that one.

Still back to square one.

-Have no way to remove Broadcom.
-Have installed all latest updates for XP Home except SP2.
-Dlink is working fine at keeping me logged on to local Network but line still sporadically falls from the internet (other pc's do not) without word of notice.

653

Living Room / Re: Life without XP SP2 - is it possible?

« Last post by dantheman on August 23, 2007, 05:22 PM »

@Darwin,

While you were out to lunch i went for a stroll and did some lawn mowing. 
I'll have to meditate on what you wrote about.
Could find anything in programs with Broadcom and the option you shared.

@Carol,
This NetGear business, is that another contraption like DLink?

Pardon my ignorance folks!

654

Living Room / Re: Life without XP SP2 - is it possible?

« Last post by dantheman on August 23, 2007, 01:27 PM »

I'm not entirely sure... Can you open up your wireless connections from the Control Panel (right click on Wireless Network Connection and then select View Available Wireless Networks) and press F12 to take a screenshot of the resulting window (maximize the window first, otherwise whatever else you have open may be visible in the screenshot)? You'll then need to open up Paint (usually found in start-programs-accessories) and then paste the contents of your clipboard into it and save it as a png file. Then attach it to a note here and we can take a look. I suspect that when you say that there is a dlink configuration under the wireless connections tab that you are referring to the network and not a third party connection configuration utility

-Darwin (August 23, 2007, 01:11 PM)

Hope this does the trick (done with Screencaptor!) 

This other one just in case:

655

Living Room / Re: Life without XP SP2 - is it possible?

« Last post by dantheman on August 23, 2007, 12:41 PM »

dantheman - follow this link for instructions on using the XP built in wireless utility. My intention in directing you there is primarily for you to see and recognize the icons and dialogs associated with it. If you do NOT see the wireless icon in your system tray, it suggests to me that you are using a third party utility (Broadcom or D-Link) to manage the connection. If you could check this out and report back we can troubleshoot this part of your problem from there.

-Darwin (August 23, 2007, 11:38 AM)

Darwin,

I appreciate your concern and link.
My connection is good so far (even if has fallen a few times) and there is a dlink configuration that appears under the wireless connection tab even if Windows is "ticked off" to configure those settings. So, from what i should conclude is i'm getting to the web through the Network in the wrong way?

656

Living Room / Re: Life without XP SP2 - is it possible?

« Last post by dantheman on August 23, 2007, 10:45 AM »

Read the notes on CPUIdle on the site and you will see that is normal - CPUIdle uses all CPU time possible to provide 'Idle' time to the system. They explain why it is necessary but just think of it as replacing windows cpu idle process.

-Carol Haynes (August 23, 2007, 10:16 AM)

Thanks for the pointer Carol.
Will look into it.

657

Living Room / Re: Life without XP SP2 - is it possible?

« Last post by dantheman on August 23, 2007, 07:25 AM »

dantheman, i was having serious instability issues that had nothing to do with OS or memory. only after installing CPU Idle did the problem subside, take a look here..

• https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=7387.0

-lanux128 (August 23, 2007, 02:51 AM)

Have never heard of this program before but now giving it a shot on your good word.
I trust people here at DC.   
Wouldn't RAMBooster do something similar?

Update: after installing CPUidle the indicator showed 98 to 99% and it was CPUidle itself the culprit.
Even after reboot it remained same.

658

Living Room / Re: Life without XP SP2 - is it possible?

« Last post by dantheman on August 23, 2007, 07:20 AM »

OK, this begs a further question: do you have a wireless network of your own, or that someone in your residence maintains?

-Darwin (August 22, 2007, 11:58 PM)

I bought this D-Link 524 to hook my notebook to a small "family" network and don't really want to trouble my friend who set it up as life on the farm is pretty hectic!

What i can't understand is the fact that the "Wireless Broadcom" connection shows it is operative and has an excellent connection. The internet connection may fall at times (sporadically) without anything to notify me that it has. Wireless Broadcom shows it is always excellent. Now go and figure that one out?

659

Living Room / Re: Life without XP SP2 - is it possible?

« Last post by dantheman on August 22, 2007, 07:02 PM »

The reboots to get to wireless would worry me (are you using D-Link's wireless app or the built in XP one to connect to your wireless network and configure everything? I had trouble with Cirond Winc and finally uninstalled it and just used the XP component...

-Darwin (August 22, 2007, 06:44 PM)

Pardon my ignorance, but it was a friend who has hooked up the computers.
Mine does not connect directly to the web.
When i see the little blue light on my notebook is on, i know it's trying to access wireless connection.

WRT the RAM... If you can get the RAM cheaply, go for it anyway. I don't *think* you'll see a massive improvement but who knows? Multi-tasking will be improved, that's for sure... They do say that a gig of RAM is the sweet spot for XP so if you're content with your hardware and XP for the foreseeable future you certainly won't be losing anything by upgrading. If nothing else it might help with the unresponsiveness?

RAMs still don't seem to be that cheap! Would like to switch to Vista if i could get a few hundreds for my notebook! 

660

Living Room / Re: Life without XP SP2 - is it possible?

« Last post by dantheman on August 22, 2007, 06:37 PM »

So from what you're telling me, upgrading to 1.2G of RAM shouldn't make any noticeable difference?

Slower boot/shutdown and general less responsiveness is what i get when i "upgrade" to SP2.   

Also, still trying to figure out why it takes 5 to 10 reboots before i can get onto the Network (using wireless)?

661

Living Room / Life without XP SP2 - is it possible?

« Last post by dantheman on August 22, 2007, 05:40 PM »

Hi,

My situation is annoying.
SP2 takes up so much ressources!
Every time i re-install my notebook (hooked up to a Network) it takes about 5 to 10 times before the D-Link works properly and then, without SP2 loaded yet, my connection randomly falls all the time.

Any hint as to how i can keep my XP Home ed. without SP2?
I have 768MB of RAM and plan on going to 1.2G but in the meantime...
Also, do i have to install SP1 if i must install SP2?

Thanks for helping out folks!

662

Find And Run Robot / Re: Need help to find Windows XP Services that run FARR

« Last post by dantheman on July 04, 2007, 10:00 AM »

Just FYI and to show Mouser how important this program is to me, i'm in the process of reinstalling my notebook.

FARR is by far one of the top 5 programs i use every day now.

 

663

Find And Run Robot / Re: Need help to find Windows XP Services that run FARR

« Last post by dantheman on July 03, 2007, 05:15 PM »

before you try restoring the system i think you should pursue your current approach to find out what setting might cause this.  trying to restore the system state or just muck around in general is asking for trouble.  better to keep trying to find someone or some site which can tell you clearly what service chance is causing the problem.  it also has the benefit of learning something that can be of use if it happens to someone else.

-mouser (July 03, 2007, 04:58 PM)

Yep. I've been trying by enabling/disabling those programs that have been set to disabled status and have failed to have FARR work yet. That is, the launch programs part of course.

TweakXP by Total Idea is the program i used. It's odd, as i remember using it before and don't recall it stopping FARR from working.

This program disabled System Restore so you know...
Yes, I know, always make a registry backup...  Ugh!

 

664

Find And Run Robot / Need help to find Windows XP Services that run FARR

« Last post by dantheman on July 03, 2007, 04:09 PM »

Hi,

I did a booboo!!   
Ran a tweaking program without making any registry backups and FARR won't launch any of the selected programs even if enabled in program options. Anyone have an idea of which Windows Services are essential for FARR?

Thank you!

665

General Software Discussion / Re: Ultra Explorer; I am impressed!

« Last post by dantheman on June 25, 2007, 07:04 PM »

I wonder why i went to PowerDesk Pro and then paid for it?

-dantheman (June 25, 2007, 05:37 PM)

- because you only paid $10 ..?   

I know that was my reason!   

-Curt (June 25, 2007, 05:49 PM)

Wish it was true Curt.
But no, i tried the freeware then decided to go for the Pro version and (ugh!) did this before reading up on other available options here at DC. Mind you, i like the program but with so many others which are quicker to start up and practically loaded (if not more) with just about the same tasks, i have some regrets.   

666

General Software Discussion / Re: Ultra Explorer; I am impressed!

« Last post by dantheman on June 25, 2007, 05:37 PM »

I wonder why i went to PowerDesk Pro and then paid for it?

FreeCommander is a pretty nifty one too!

I use Copernic Desktop Search for file content search.
Otherwise, FARR is the tops in that area!

667

Living Room / Re: Firefox Bookmark tool to tag/index/search FAST?

« Last post by dantheman on June 16, 2007, 05:36 PM »

I have a lot of bookmarks...and cannot keep them organized.  I think what I need is a way to index them so I can start typing ... and a tool (TBD) will bring up matching URLS, keys, descriptions. etc.   I know this is what Firefox does...but it just seems slow... and I'm thinking a dedicated tool would be better at the task. 

Anyone have suggestions?  I am going to try using Locate32 (http://locate32.webhop.org/) which I already run for local search...it has text search... but seems like there ought to be some product that is designed to  edit/index and search bookmarks very quickly.

thanks

-222fbj (June 12, 2007, 08:48 PM)

If you have thousands of bookmarks you may want to look into del.icio.us
There's a Firefox plugin that works almost as fast as the browsers' already quick search feature.
There's one thing i like about saving to Firefox, with Deadlink freeware program http://www.aignes.com/deadlink.htm you can check the validity of your bookmarks and download the favicons.

668

Living Room / Re: Firefox Bookmark tool to tag/index/search FAST?

« Last post by dantheman on June 14, 2007, 07:23 AM »

Open-source BookmarkBridge is quite popular.. It is a multi-platform, GUI-based utility that allows user to share bookmarks between all their browsers..

[ Invalid Attachment ]
http://bookmarkbridg...forge.net/index.html

-lanux128 (June 13, 2007, 11:44 PM)

Thanks for the tip lanux128, i had never heard of this one before. Free!
I had purchased Check and Get but that was before i was a little more computer literate.
When i found out it used so much of my computers resources i kind of drop it all together.

K-Meleon is very quick at finding your bookmarks. Much better than Firefox but i prefer the later for extensions and themes. Copernic Desktop Search is another option to search bookmarks.

669

General Software Discussion / Re: Web Mail Recommendation?

« Last post by dantheman on May 19, 2007, 04:23 AM »

well, i only have to click twice, then inbox
but gmail sounds interesting

i don't get much spam
only if i send an email to the wrong place
which i have been dumb enough to do

but i can always make a new yahoo account
import my contacts from messenger and inform them

what is required to sign up for gmail?
what do they want to know?

-cmpm (May 18, 2007, 11:01 PM)

Sign up is free. Just go to www.gmail.com

No email service is perfect and i guess it's all about how you feel for it (like your favourite browser or car or pizza) but i really do like GMail's conversation view.

As hpierce mentioned previously, Bluebottle is pretty good too but when you have almost 3G's of space for free, i think you kind of prefer that to a smaller 250mg.

Enough said on my part for GMail. Wish you the best and most comfortable choice cmpm!

 

670

General Software Discussion / Re: Web Mail Recommendation?

« Last post by dantheman on May 18, 2007, 05:19 PM »

Here's the way i see my Yahoo.ca account:

1st click to enter p.w. (often forgotten even if they say it is remembered for a few weeks);
2nd click to get to mail.
3rd click to get to inbox.
4th click to read message.

One click to enter GMail (which always remembered) and then another to whatever message i please.
That's two clicks to two too many for Yahoowooo!!!

Antispam is awful compared to GMail.
I have a Yahoo account with which i've sent only a couple of emails and i get spammed with a few messages everyday inbox and spam box (that last one's okay).

I also have a GMail account with which i've sent hundreds of messages.
Only the occasional (twice?) spam message hit the inbox.
A few have gone to the spam box.

If you go to www.emailaddresses.com's forum you'll see that most people attest to GMail incredible spam protection.

671

General Software Discussion / Re: Web Mail Recommendation?

« Last post by dantheman on May 18, 2007, 07:29 AM »

A bit late in the game too...

But i like GMail for the above positive notes and also for the fact that:
-you can send mail to make it look like it comes from another address.
-you don't have to click on 100 links before you get to your inbox like Yahoo does.
-filters unlimited.

It's just too much!

 

672

General Software Discussion / Re: Must-have apps in the System tray?

« Last post by dantheman on April 27, 2007, 10:16 AM »

  When I'm stressed I'm tending to post too hasty - and I'm stressed right now: For two days we have been serving several hundred people more than usual, at work. Re-reading my "disclaimer" I can now see that becuse of my poor wording, I have yet again given the wrong impression: The M8 Free Clip WILL DO all these tricks! But the author removed the permanent memory part, meaning that these smart links will 'roll off' as soon as you add new clips, and so be almost worthless. Teasing only.

Hope I got it right this time... 

-Curt (April 27, 2007, 09:52 AM)

Very subtle indication on:
http://m8software.com/

You have to go to this text:
New to Multi-Clipboards? Why not start with our free version?
Click Here For Details

Phew!   

673

General Software Discussion / Re: Must-have apps in the System tray?

« Last post by dantheman on April 27, 2007, 09:37 AM »

Not a problem Curt!

If the program does what it promises, then that's just fine to me.
I can boil my own eggs.   

674

General Software Discussion / Re: Must-have apps in the System tray?

« Last post by dantheman on April 26, 2007, 03:38 PM »

I think M8 Free Clip is quite competitive.   

And it barely uses up 1,500ks of vm!

675

General Software Discussion / Re: Must-have apps in the System tray?

« Last post by dantheman on April 23, 2007, 04:46 AM »

I've downloaded it, unzipped it into it's own folded but clicking on trimall or trimws doesn't make anything happen.

-dantheman (April 22, 2007, 10:25 AM)

you can run the program i mentioned here and then run trimall.

btw, good work f0dder! your neat CLI tool has trimmed about 12-20% of my system RAM.. just cool..

-lanux128 (April 22, 2007, 09:34 PM)

Thanks for the directions guys!
I set up a shortcut to the taskbar and sure enough, it trims the RAM usage.
Next step will be find a way to make it work in "automatic" right?
I loves "manuals" but nowadays you know how it is.

Is this trimall supposed to work on the virtual memory too?