O.T. Computer Cleaning Maintenance:

Here's the driver install:

http://i58.tinypic.com/5yz4t0.jpg

http://i58.tinypic.com/s3ilwj.jpg

http://i57.tinypic.com/24zkcqu.jpg

and GPU-Z

http://i61.tinypic.com/2r5f7o8.jpg


Thanks for all the great links
Robert

Here's what the 8200 originally came with:

http://i62.tinypic.com/2gy62jk.jpg

and what Device Manager shows at present:

http://i61.tinypic.com/20iymhz.jpg

http://i61.tinypic.com/2ccs4dw.jpg

http://i62.tinypic.com/35m4gzr.jpg

Robert

Here's my plug-ins:

http://i57.tinypic.com/125nqbn.jpg

Some of these are different than the 8500 so
I don't now if I should activate them or not?

Thanks,
Robert

I keep getting these which is why I
showed you the plug-ins:

http://i58.tinypic.com/2dumkxu.jpg

Robert

Mark Twain wrote:

Here's my plug-ins:

http://i57.tinypic.com/125nqbn.jpg

Some of these are different than the 8500 so
I don't now if I should activate them or not?

Thanks,
Robert

For the bottom four, it's probably not going to
make that much difference. The two you've turned
on at the top, are more likely to be used every day.

Paul

Mark Twain wrote:
I keep getting these which is why I
showed you the plug-ins:

http://i58.tinypic.com/2dumkxu.jpg

Robert


https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb...ponsive+script

"Webroot Spy Sweeper

Webroot Spy Sweeper can cause this problem. Disabling Spy Sweeper's
Tracking Cookies feature (or disabling Spy Sweeper altogether) can
solve the issue."

That's the only item there, that might be relevant. Google
is attempting to set a cookie, and trying over and over again ?

*******

Otherwise, you might need tools to understand what
is going on. Apparently Firebug can help with that,
but I've never used it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firebu...efox_extension)

My browser has an error console, but when a script is looping,
somehow I doubt that will be working at the time. So an
actual debugger might be the next step. Certainly, disabling
scripts entirely, will result in a blank page and no Google
Groups for you. They won't run without their army of scripts.

Paul

Mark Twain wrote:
After I had the card installed and brought most of it
up to date (except the drivers) I used your links to
upgrade Adobe Flash Player/Plugin.

I then ran the latest Nvidia driver download you provided
and installed it.

I don't quite know what you mean when you say 'Is the
fan blade on the card jammed, or does the blade turn
freely?

If your speaking of the top fan (the one I nudge occasionally)
It turns freely. I also noticed its allot easier starting the
8200 than before.

Here's the old card:

http://i61.tinypic.com/2lu9s3q.jpg

http://i59.tinypic.com/1jpycp.jpg

Amazing that a Geforce2 MX would just up and
die like that. There is practically nothing
on the card that can fail. It doesn't have
that many caps on it. It doesn't use a low
voltage core. (The entire thing could be
running from 3.3V levels.) And I don't see
any burn marks to go on as a hint.

That leave bit-rot on the VESA BIOS chip onboard.
That's the SST chip with the green label on top. Without
a working VESA chip, that may cause the BIOS to not
be able to display anything. Flash chips are only
guaranteed to hold their contents for ten years. And
one guy who used to hang out in the group, had motherboard
BIOS problems a couple times, that looked like bit-rot
on the large DIP flash chip on the motherboard.
(He could fix stuff like that - he repaired
motherboards for people.)

Other than that, I'm out of ideas as to what could
have happened to it. Sure, RAM chips can fail,
but why would they do that, after this many years ?

Paul

Mark Twain wrote:
Here's the driver install:

http://i58.tinypic.com/5yz4t0.jpg

http://i58.tinypic.com/s3ilwj.jpg

http://i57.tinypic.com/24zkcqu.jpg

and GPU-Z

http://i61.tinypic.com/2r5f7o8.jpg


Thanks for all the great links
Robert

Would your AV be blocking that ?

My copy of 175.19, is 38,674,984 bytes.
Is that the size of the one you downloaded ?
My download is dated from around 2010, so I
got the file around five years ago.

And the evidence you've presented so far, suggests
the existing NVidia driver (the one running your
Geforce2 MX), is running the 6200 for you. The device
manager labeling of the card suggests that to me.

I might have suggested going to Add/Remove and
removing the 45 series driver, but I feel at
the moment, it's better to allow the new driver
installer to handle that. It's your symptoms
that bother me, and I don't want to make things
worse for you, by forcing you to endure days
of running the 8200 at 640x480 (tiny screen
syndrome). The best approach right now, is
to figure out what is blocking the 175.19 from
succeeding, so your screen stays at a reasonable
resolution. I find the small screen thing (where
the OS uses the fallback VESA driver) to be very
annoying.

It might not be an OS issue as such - and it
could be one of your "armaments" against malware
that is doing it. You would think if Avast
was responsible, there would be a log entry of
some sort, or some dialog box from Avast
telling you it "saved you from a disaster" or such.

Paul

There actually have been a couple of
pop-up messages concerning Firefox
unrecoverable error which I thought
I mentioned.

Also, when logging off it did an update
of something because it told me not to
turn off the computer. While at the same
time I had the same thing happen to the
8500 with 13 updates.

The resolution on the 8200 is exactly
like the 8500 now so I see no problems
your describing.

The temperature seems to be well within
limits.

I'm thinking of buying speakers for the 8200
so that I can hear the beeps etc as you pointed
out. It came with Bose speakers but I'm
using those with the 8500. So I'm checking
out speakers on eBay.

If the 8200 were your computer is there anything
else you would do?

Thanks once again for all your great help,
Robert

Mark Twain wrote:
There actually have been a couple of
pop-up messages concerning Firefox
unrecoverable error which I thought
I mentioned.

Also, when logging off it did an update
of something because it told me not to
turn off the computer. While at the same
time I had the same thing happen to the
8500 with 13 updates.

The resolution on the 8200 is exactly
like the 8500 now so I see no problems
your describing.

The temperature seems to be well within
limits.

I'm thinking of buying speakers for the 8200
so that I can hear the beeps etc as you pointed
out. It came with Bose speakers but I'm
using those with the 8500. So I'm checking
out speakers on eBay.

If the 8200 were your computer is there anything
else you would do?

Thanks once again for all your great help,
Robert

Well, I think you have *some* driver running
for the 8200. So maybe what you've done is sufficient.

You know there are a million reasons for Firefox to have
errors. You could check your Firefox and see if there is
any check box for Hardware Acceleration and disable it.
The box in this example is un-ticked.

It's in Advanced : General : Browsing, of the Firefox preferences.

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/...pl8gvu8jpg.jpg

Your temperature readout on the 6200 seemed reasonable,
and I didn't see a problem there.

The Flash plugin, it doesn't look like the control panel
for Flash has a hardware acceleration setting. And putting
that control in the playback window (when playback could
be busted), would be pretty silly. But that's the way that
one works.

If your Firefox behaves badly and you're not using the
Flash plugin at the time (not watching Flash video), then
it could be just the Firefox hardware acceleration setting.
I thought Firefox used 2D BITBLT for some reason that
escapes me. (I.e. A pointless "optimization")

Paul

Is it possible the old card is good but
the software became corrupted somehow making
it unusable? If so, I can always save it for
a backup.

I don't mind paying for the new card because
I like the cooling fins which the other
card didn't have and the resolution and
response if far greater than before but
from your comments I gather the original
card was pretty good?

I put it in the anti-static bag the other
card came with.

I was wrong, I didn't have Bose speakers
with the 8200 they're Harmon Kardon and
pretty nice actually.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/3114011...lpid=82&chn=ps

I checked on both computers and you were
right, the Hardware Acceleration box was
ticked so I disabled it on both.

Lastly, I was thinking of eliminating
some of the bulk on the 8500 HD. I was
thinking of buying another 1TB Seagate
external HD and move most of the files
the

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...=-1&isNodeId=1

Unfortunately, it seems Seagate's quality
isn't what it once was. So could you
recommend another?

Thanks,
Robert

Mark Twain wrote:
Is it possible the old card is good but
the software became corrupted somehow making
it unusable? If so, I can always save it for
a backup.

I don't mind paying for the new card because
I like the cooling fins which the other
card didn't have and the resolution and
response if far greater than before but
from your comments I gather the original
card was pretty good?

I put it in the anti-static bag the other
card came with.

I was wrong, I didn't have Bose speakers
with the 8200 they're Harmon Kardon and
pretty nice actually.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/3114011...lpid=82&chn=ps

I checked on both computers and you were
right, the Hardware Acceleration box was
ticked so I disabled it on both.

Lastly, I was thinking of eliminating
some of the bulk on the 8500 HD. I was
thinking of buying another 1TB Seagate
external HD and move most of the files
the

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...=-1&isNodeId=1

Unfortunately, it seems Seagate's quality
isn't what it once was. So could you
recommend another?

Thanks,
Robert

These are difficult times, when it comes to buying
hard drives.

I like to pick up a bare drive mechanism. Since
you seem to be on track for using more space, I
selected a 2TB one. That's the largest you could
use on WinXP (8200) without "tricks". I have a 3TB
connected to my WinXP PC here, but I use the
Acronis Capacity Manager driver to do that. And
I lost some hair, getting that installed, the
process was so unreasonable. So if you stick
with a 2TB drive, that's a good size for your
"mix" of machines. If you just had the 8500 with
Windows 7, that limitation would be removed.
The Acronis Capacity Manager doesn't "work thru" a
USB enclosure, so that's another hair loss issue
if buying "too big a drive for WinXP". While buying
2TB drives is "being a chicken", it's a lot less
worry later.

WD BLACK WD2003FZEX 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 3.5" Hard Drive $123
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822236624

For an enclosure, you could use a USB docking
station. But those can tip over on your table,
and the base doesn't usually have enough of a
counterweight for the job.

This solution is $34 (at the moment) and comes with a fan.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817707227

The instruction manual, contained no interior shots of
the product. Instead, this is as close as I could get,
to what it looks like inside.

http://www.thinkcomputers.org/hornet...losure-review/

As *always* happens with these things, the airflow is
brain-dead. The aluminum tray with the cheese-grater
holes in it, is right over top of the 80mm fan.
(And I can't see the fan, to see if it is a replaceable
type. It could be an 80mm 15mm thick fan for example,
and not the same as a 25mm thick computer case fan.)

Having a fan is better than nothing. I would have to
modify my unit upon receipt, get out my aluminum
nibbling tool, and cut away most of the tray
(the bits not needed for mechanical support) to
get better airflow. At least the enclosure has
exhaust vents, but they're *tiny*. I have purchased
one enclosure here, which had an intake fan and
no exhaust vents at all. It took 10-15 minutes
work with my electric drill, to make a cheese
grater pattern on the bottom of the enclosure,
so the air could get out.

So when you buy this kinda crap for $34,
"some assembly required" is the rule of thumb.

But that's just a bad habit I've got, of
"fixing stuff that doesn't need fixing" :-)

The power adapter, is the kind with the snap-on prongs.
I'm not all that excited by that type of adapter,
but mine hasn't fallen off yet. You snap on the
set of prongs appropriate for your location in
the world. It makes it easier for them to distribute
the product world-wide. I much prefer wall adapters
with dedicated North American prongs on them.

HTH,
Paul

When you say these are hard times for
buying hard drives are you saying it's
because they are more expensive or the
quality has gone down or both?

If I buy another external HD it would
only be for the 8500 not the 8200 so
there would be no restrictions.

However I would prefer the HD to be
already cased unless that drives the
cost up which it probably does but it
may be worth it and I prefer North
American plugs which is probably the
better option if at all possible. This
isn't immediate but I would like to
have some external storage to free up
space on the 8500.

Would I use Imageburn or Nero or something
else to move files from the 8500 to the
external HD for access/storage?

Thanks,
Robert

Mark Twain wrote:
When you say these are hard times for
buying hard drives are you saying it's
because they are more expensive or the
quality has gone down or both?

If I buy another external HD it would
only be for the 8500 not the 8200 so
there would be no restrictions.

However I would prefer the HD to be
already cased unless that drives the
cost up which it probably does but it
may be worth it and I prefer North
American plugs which is probably the
better option if at all possible. This
isn't immediate but I would like to
have some external storage to free up
space on the 8500.

Would I use Imageburn or Nero or something
else to move files from the 8500 to the
external HD for access/storage?

Thanks,
Robert


You don't need anything special to move user data
files.

Moving an operating system is another matter, as the
files have all sorts of goofy permissions, and those
need to be preserved. That's why we have Macrium Feflect,
to make imaging or copying easier.

With a single folder of movie files, you can just
drag and drop that. Later, right-click and do "Properties",
if you want to review the amount of information in the folder.
It should match the source folder (you can right-click the
source folder and check its properties). Once you're sure
the copy went well, you can delete the original folder,
then empty the trash bin.

With regard to hard drives, I try to select something
where I haven't yet seen issues. With the small Seagates
I was previously using, they seemed to "wear".

If I was going with Seagate now, I would continue to do
what I was doing in the past with them. Buy two. Do identical
things with them, so both have a copy. If one fails,
you have the second one. That's my Seagate algorithm.

If you want to buy pre-enclosed drives (like the one you
currently own), the issues a

1) No cooling for the drive.
2) Frequent spin-down to keep drive cool.
3) You get the cheapest drive mechanism possible.

Those are the things we can be sure of.

The thing about my collection of Seagates, is the
SMART statistics are not encouraging, yet, the drive
continues to run. Unlike the Maxtor brand failures I've had,
the Seagates are still going. But the evidence is, they're
not all that healthy here right now.

Paul