Dillweed

Thump Thump. My comments were making fun of the previous posts at hand. It was written tongue in cheek, hope that helps.

The only way to make your computer go faster is to turn the components into superconducting materials by getting it down to 0 degrees Kelvin. Let us know how it goes,

Thanks for the great guide. I've used Gentoo for awhile now and find that the installation has gotten a lot easier than it use to be. I generally find that installing Gentoo or distro for that matter is pretty easy...for the most part. What always gets my shorts tied up in a bunch up is updating the stinkin' OS. I hate to emerge --sync and then start updating my system and then have something break or an emerge fail. Would it be possible to get a good updating guide or maybe some tips on what you guys do when updating your OS, especially when emerge fails? Maybe, I asking the wrong question, but reading the Gentoo forums, everyone has an opinion on how it should be done, and I'm not sure which is the correct way, if any are correct for that matter.

I guess the first question to be asked is, What kind of sound card do you have?

Fixed this problem if anyone is having the same dealio. It seems that increasing the usb polling rate from the default to 500mhz crapped out my joystick and keyboard combination. I thought I had the polling rate at 500mhz before I reinstalled WinXP, but I could be wrong. Anyways, I dropped the polling rate to 250mhz and all is fine. Later, Dillweed

Howdy all, Not sure if this is the proper forum to post as this at first I thought my problems might be a software issue, but after some testing and fiddling around I'm beginning to think it might be a hardware or bios issue. Let me explain. For Christmas my loving wife let me purchase a new computer case for my computer guts. So after moving the hardware to the new case, I decided to do some bios upgrading and windows reinstalling, ugh, what fun. I flashed my Lanparty NF4 sli-dr with Ocz tony's 704-2bta bios and reinstalled windows. I had been running the 623-3 version for my tccd memory. I am not overclocking and my hardware has been rock solid stable for the past year. I slipstreamed SP2 and nvidia chipset drivers (for my Raid0 hard drive config) into my WinXP cd using nlite and reinstalled windows. During the past year I have been running an Evga 6800 GT in the second slot of the PCIe because or chipset heat issues. I replaced my previous chipset cooler with a Thermalright HR-05 SLI and moved my graphics card back to the top PCIe slot. The OS installation went fine, as was expected. I then installed the same software I have been using, for example: antivirus, keyboard and mouse drivers, misc drivers for my hardware. Basically everything was exactly as it was before I reformatted, or so I thought. For my mouse and keyboard I'm using an usb logitech MX518 mouse and an usb logitech G15 keyboard. Both are great and so far have had no problems with them, although the software logitech puts kind of sucks. Anyways, I also have a Microsoft Sidewinder Precision Pro 2 usb joystick (best joystick ever made in my opinion because it never needs to be calibrated. It's a shame they don't make them anymore.) Ok if you kept up with me so far, here is the problem. As an owner of a Logitech G15 keyboard, the lcd screen is indispensable. I use various lcd programs to monitor games and to monitor my temps and fans when I'm in a game. These programs are the same programs I used before reinstalling windows. My problem is when I plug my Microsoft joystick into the USB port the lcd software locks up. It doesn't lock up the computer, it only locks up the lcd software. The joystick works fine, just the lcd screen goes to the crapper. To get it working again, I have to reboot and unplug the joystick. This is the same logitech keyboard software I had been using for the past 8 months with the old bios and had not encountered a problem like this. I also have a saitek usb joystick and plugging it in also locks up the keyboard. Trying various usb ports on the motherboard and on the keyboard will still lock up the lcd screen. I've noticed that when I boot Windows with the joystick plugged in Windows can't start the joystick drivers, and the lcd screen doesn't work. It's only when I've unplugged the joystick does the lcd work. The only thing that I've really changed with my computer is the bios, the video card PCIe placement and the chipset drivers slipstreamed into the Windows install cd. I'm at a loss on how I can get my keyboard to play nicely with my joystick, no pun intended. I done an number of windows installs before posting this so I'm safe to assume it wasn't a windows installation fault. I'm not sure about the chipset drivers and I don't want to have to flash back to the 623 bios and lose my Raid drives. Am I missing something in the bios that I forgot to set when I flashed to the 704 bios? Anyways, I'm desperate and was hoping that someone could help me get to the bottom of this problem. Not sure what else to say, expect sorry for the long post and if you need more explanation or any tips on fixes please post. I'm willing to try most anything. lol! Thanks, dillweed

I generally just split my hard drive in two. I put the OS and everything executable (programs) on the C: drive and all my files, documents, downloaded programs and stuff, ie., crap on the D: drive (or whatever windows decides to call it.) I would just put my OS on one drive, but some programs like to be in the same partition as windows and I don't want to have to worry about future space for programs. Basically, I don't know if there is a good way, just a "preferred" way. Try partitioning different way and see what fits your needs and likes and go from there.

Knock on wood, I've been using raid0 for my OS for the past couple of years without problems. Heh, now that I've said that there goes one of my hard drives. Anyways, I built one of those 320 gig firewire/usb external backup hard drives (for not too much money) and keep a good backup schedule just in case of problems. I think even if one of the hard drives fail something like spinrite can fix it or at least I have my backup on the external harddrive. What is the difference if a regular ide/sata hard drive fails over a raid0 array? I mean it is probably a pain to retrieve the data off of either one, but shouldn't everyone be flying by the seat of there pants, right? I mean the benefit vs risk ratio, in my opinion, favors the benefit of raid0. If you are running that many hard drives, run a raid0/1 where you have the benefits of raid0 with the peace of mind of raid1.

That is true, but I don't think that I have a faster connection than other people playing the same games as me, because their pings are (on average) the same as mine. I think people tend to find servers where their pings are low, therefore that negates the connection issue. As far as having the games on separate hard drives, I'm not sure about that. I tend to think you would have the most success running raid0 for the OS as well as the games. I tend to think if you are access a regular hard drive for the OS and have raid0 hard drives for games and the such, then the regular hard drive becomes the bottleneck when the game has to access the OS for some reason. Therefore, you lose much of the benefit of having a raid array. For the Software vs hardware debate. When I ran benchmarks on my drives, I generally come up faster than scsi drives. Using the benchmarks tools in the hard drive thread in these forums, my drives outpaced the benchmark standards in the programs. (sorry I can't remember the program or the details for that matter, because I haven't run it in over a year.) My opinion is that the cpus out today you won't even feel the performance decrease if even exists at all. True, running linux on software raid may be more of a chore or exercise in patience, but it can be done. Software raid on linux use to be a issue in the past, but the drivers in the kernel that are out now work pretty well. I haven't tried with an dfi board, but they work really well with the highpoint 372 pci card. Just my thoughts, and take it with a grain of salt, as I'm far from an expert with computers, more of a tinkerer, heh.

Just a small real world experience. I'm running Raid0 on here with 2 hitachi SATA2 160 gig hard drives. I mostly play BF2, the occasional DOD:S and Oblivion. You can see my computer in my sig. Anyhoo, I find a huge decrease in load times for BF2. Generally, I am the first person loaded in BF2 on any given map. This means I beating out my friends new Core2 Duo computer. I'd say that load times relies on more that just hard drive speed (memory size, defragging, etc), but it doesn't hurt to have them in Raid0. BTW, where did my sig go? Is it because I used the quick reply?

If you're not too concerned about security and only need a temporary setup to connect to the internet using a windows machine, use this program http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/network/proxy.htm. It works great for http and ftp connections by setting a simple proxy server on the computer you want to share the net connection. I don't know if you are going to be gaming or something funky so YMMV. Setup the program on the computer connected to the internet and somehow connect to it, ie., hub, switch, crossover cable. Then use the proxy setting in your browser to connect to the proxy server and off you go. I could go on, but the readme files explain it better than me. Good luck!

How does one sign up for MS Partner Program? I've checked with the website, but it doesn't really give the cost or the requirements. Just asking Anyways, we can get back on topic....Sorry for the interruption.

Not sure about the other stuff everyone posted, but Unlocker is the best program out there to delete things that won't delete It's super simple, even my wife and my kids (ages 3 years old and 2 months) know how to work it. Anyways, here's the link if you haven't fixed the problem yet. http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

Thanks for the correction. I knew I was missing something there. I use to be fluent in Polish (read, write, speak, etc), but as you can tell that is not the case anymore. It's sad I spent all that time learning one of the hardest language for an English speaker to learn and then forget it all. Anyways, have a good one, and good to see you here.

Czesz Mateusz, Witamy cie!!! lol, and that's about all the I can remember of Polish. I'm not a big contributor to the board, but one of the reasons I keep lurking here is the friendly people and see so many people from other countries. I lived in Mokotow and Zoliborz for a few months. Pretty cool place if you are on the right side of the river. Anways, zycie ci miwego zbudowanego komputorow, if that is correct. I can't remember a dang word of Polish, because there is no one here to speak with. trzymaj sie, Dillweed