So I fixed my comp and was on a winning streak...

Now SC2 decides to present me with an endless stream of fun "the memory could not be read" crashes.



Not even going to bother with it anymore. Going to reinstall the whole comp from scratch and see if it's the hardware or still more software **** ups. Good bye weekend. :/

 

bye rora's weekend!

 

see ya

 

Have fun!

 

I don't much like computers anymore either.

But is it right that I keep thinking to myself that I want to invent my own computer and my own operating system? And is it right that I've already decided a name for it?

 

At least I still have my laptop. ^^

 

Cheers for having multiple compies! :yes: I think I actually have more computers in the house than I do displays.

 

Same, because we got a server here. (and the comps/laptops of my roommates)

 

:laugh:

:\

I guess we'll duel some other time. I'll be available one week from now, you have until then to fix it

 

People take a weekend to reinstall....????


I get ticked off that I'm loosing a day.

Did you try the new clearing your battle.net cache trick? Seems a few people have fixed their crashing after 1.0.3 patch issue by doing this.

 

How long does it take you to reinstall Xev?

The last time I did this was in July after a hard drive problem. It's not just the OS, there's all sorts of applications and service packs to install too, and then configuring everything, and making shortcuts and menu entries. For most of the stuff I have to hunt for the discs, or download again, and then I forget to install some things because it's not like I have a list. Then there's things like fonts and personal files to put on which are backed up on various random CDs which I have to wade through.

It takes me over one day to get things installed, but a couple of weeks to get everything back how I like it.

And quite often something doesn't work properly after reinstalling, like my hibernate doesn't work now. It's a complete mystery why it doesn't work because I'm using all the same settings/drivers/service packs as before.

 

We'll, I can't argue with the fact that it takes a few weeks to get stuff reinstalled... but its also a chance to "not" reinstall applications you no longer use. Stuff like windows updates doesn't take me long, because I always have them downloaded ahead of time thanks to WSUS Offline. It might not get all of the updates, but knocking out 80+ updates is a great time saver. Same said for using nLite or vLite to integrate updates and drivers before installation.

 

This. Really useful specially if you don't have fast internet, plus, you can get it to auto-install drivers and oft-used apps. By the way, I've found installing Windows 7 to be much faster than installing XP. Base Windows 7 install just takes less than 30 minutes (from USB flash drive). I've also streamlined my install process by keeping ISO's (+product keys) and up to date versions of drivers and application installers inside a "Recovery" folder on a central server (parity protected). Some of the more essential apps/drivers (particularly network drivers) are also stored on a USB flash drive. Not having to hunt for discs, etc makes initial PC set-up a breeze.

Some things I keep in the Recovery folder:
Drivers/Libraries
latest Catalyst drivers
latest Forceware drivers
latest DirectX Redist
.NET 3.5 SP1
VC 2008 Redist
XP SP3
printer drivers

Software
2xExplorer
7zip
Acrobat Reader
CoreTemp
CPU-Z
Dropbox
Firefox
Flash Player
FurMark
GPU-Z
HWMonitor
ImgBurn
IntelBurnTest
MPC HomeCinema
Microsoft Office 2003
Microsoft Office 2007
Microsoft Security Essentials
Notepad++ Portable
Orthos
Prime95
RealTemp
SpeedFan
StarCraft Battlechest
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
Virtual CloneDrive
VLC
WinRAR
WinZip
wPrime

Apache, PHP, Python, Visual Studio, etc are kept on separate virtual machines. It's just easier for my sanity to keep 'em isolated not to mention makes the apps relatively portable.

 

You can get XP to install faster then Win 7 or Vista, but the trick is to integrate a disk controller driver in boot mode regardless whether you need it to boot, then setting a trigger so the XP installer will install in "Windows 2000" classic mode.

I first did this with an nForce2 chipset back in the day, and it shaved nearly 10 mins off reinstallation (with full system format). Remove all of the useless drivers in XP, and we're talking wicked fast setup because the driver database is only large enough to contain the drivers you actually need and nothing else. Doesn't really matter much in this day in age though, since I'm using 64-bit OS's like Windows 7. :/

I guess tricks like this are stuff you figure out just for giggles when you have the same OS for 8+ years.

 

hai thar tech-savvies.



So i have this external hard-drive (1TB), but it has neither an off button, nor does it shut off when I turn off my computer. So my question is: ' would it be harmful to my EHD if I cut the power after I've shut down my pc'?

 

I prefer software to be portable, so I can just drag-drop a program folder from CD onto the hard disk. I have quite a few freeware programs prepared on CD like that, which can make reinstalling them quick and easy. Not much software can be installed that way though. I'd very much like if it could be.

In the 16-bit era, I think all (non game) software worked like that, because hard disks were optional extras at that time. Installing things to hard disk was just a case of copying the contents of a floppy disk onto the hard disk. Games didn't work that way due to a combination of copy protection and custom bootsectors.

The operating system was generally impervious to damage because it was held in read only storage (either on ROM chips or a read only boot disk). This system architecture has some nice qualities which are missing from modern PCs.

 

Well, you can probably make it a little safer by installing your OS on a separate drive. Still, it's of course not as good as the old fashioned way of the Commodore 64 and stuff. ^^

 

But then when you try and run your software you'll get "xyz.dll not found in C:\Windows; C:\Windows\System32; F:\Programs\xyz; etc."

 

So with my design, we could do something like this:

For creating shortcuts, what you could have is something like an "install.inf" file included in each program's directory. Not essential to include, but advised. This would be a flat file, editable with notepad.

Each one contains information for creating shortcuts / start menu entries.

Your operating system would have a function to scan your programs folders to read and apply all install.inf files it finds. Or they could be applied individually, or selectively.

So for example, if you plug in a usb stick with some programs on it, the computer might be configured to automatically scan for install.inf files in it's programs directory, and then apply them.

These programs would appear automatically on your desktop/start menu, and be automatically removed when the stick is unplugged. It would work much the same for programs installed to the hard disk, or a CD, or a floppy disk.

 

Ah, kill me now! Well, not really, but I hate those.