98SE vs. Xp

WeblionX · Post by **WeblionX** » Sat Mar 08, 2003 4:15 pm

Let's say this. If you have 98SE and it crashes a lot, and have the money to spend, there is absolutely no reason to upgrade to 2000/XP. I have not been able to tinker with 2000 much and got XP for free, but I can say either way that there is a world of difference between 2000/XP and 98SE. Trust me, you'll love it.

Gyro Gearloose · Post by **Gyro Gearloose** » Sat Mar 08, 2003 5:48 pm

I just wish I knew what causes the "burning" smell I'm getting occasionally. I don't mind software problem(s) if they're not also accompanied by hardware problems. My first two MSI G4MX440 had bad fans. They were partially shorting power through the video card and my motherboard.

I replaced the fan and heatsink; shortly thereafter, the power supply went bad. Now I'm not sure whether my problems are hardware, software or both!

TEAMMATE-8163 · Post by **TEAMMATE-8163** » Sat Mar 08, 2003 6:37 pm

i have had 3 msi proudcts: ti4200, an old k7 pro motherboard, and now an nforce 415 motherboard. never had any probs. did you send back the cards? from what i understand they usually dont have a prob replacing that stuff. as for that burning smell...

Gyro Gearloose · Post by **Gyro Gearloose** » Sat Mar 08, 2003 7:11 pm

i returned the 1st one, replaced the heat sink and fan on the second. The smell is the problem, and the bad power supply. I replaced the power supply with a hd 300 watt 2-fan one. I don't think the problem is the video card, but??? I suspect the motherboard, but???

Now:
1. Do I (upgrade) to WinXP first (which means a new H.D. at minimum)?
2. Do I buy the new motherboard, processor and RAM first? (I have a PIII-733 and want P4-2.2(+).
3. Do I buy a complete system with parts I don't need?
4. Do I just buy an upgrade kit and O/S?
4. Do I punt or Hail Mary?

gotenks · Post by **gotenks** » Sat Mar 08, 2003 7:14 pm

1 i'd recomend any major upgrades first... because you'll have to re-activate your windows after you do a major upgrade.
2 i'd recomend athlon above p4
3 i'd recomend puntfake

TEAMMATE-8163 · Post by **TEAMMATE-8163** » Sat Mar 08, 2003 8:21 pm

i have no idea what could be causing a smell. i have never had a comp that smelled like that. i remember when my dad put together his old amd k6 and forgot to remove that protective plastic piece off of the heat pad....even then it didnt smell and it got pretty hot. perhaps you spilled something on one of the parts when you assembled it. Check your ram and pci slots, i guess something could be between there.. maybe too much dust or something… also check for dust in your power supply. completely remove it, take off the cover and clean the foker.

why would you need a new hard drive to upgrade? i upgraded fine from 98se and i had a 700 mhz athlon slot a...i didnt buy anything new when i upgraded the os.

Gyro Gearloose · Post by **Gyro Gearloose** » Sat Mar 08, 2003 8:35 pm

TEAMMATE-8163 wrote:why would you need a new hard drive to upgrade? i upgraded fine from 98se and i had a 700 mhz athlon slot a...i didnt buy anything new when i upgraded the os.

I have too much data on too small a hard drive. Ideally, I can load the new O/S on the new hard drive and use the old one as D: (actually d: and e: until I'm satisfied enough to make it into 1: 20GB partition).

gotenks · Post by **gotenks** » Sat Mar 08, 2003 8:48 pm

with xp(and porn) i found that a 20 gb partition was too small

TEAMMATE-8163 · Post by **TEAMMATE-8163** » Sat Mar 08, 2003 9:03 pm

i was a bit crafty on how i upgraded from 98se to xp..btw i had a 20 gb hd.

i took the hard drive, hooked it up to my dads comp, and well.. just deleted the windows folder LMAO. i then put the hd back onto my comp, and installed xp from scratch. since there was no previous OS installed, i didnt loose any extra disk space.

when i bought my new comp a few months ago, i did the same thing because i didnt have enough money for a new hd. (i opted to buy a nice ass case insted

)

workes just fine, i never have any probs.

hell, if you have the cash for a new hard drive disregard what i just said. im hopefully getting a new one in about a month.

Gyro Gearloose · Post by **Gyro Gearloose** » Sat Mar 08, 2003 9:12 pm

gotenks wrote:with xp(and porn) i found that a 20 gb partition was too small

You read my mind! But I like to have either 2+ drives, or 2+ partitions - I have 2: 10 GB partitions on a 20Gb drive here. I would also like to have an empty spare partition or drive for temporary stuff like CD image files or swap files. I will probably get an 80GB to 120GB, - split it into 2 partitions; and leave this 20GB empty for the temp stuff.

WeblionX · Post by **WeblionX** » Sun Mar 09, 2003 10:53 am

Okay, you should use the 20GB hdd as your first disk, leave around 2-3GB for WinXP, and the rest as blank space. Once you install XP, put the page file (swap file) on the second partition with a min/max of the same value. Take the second HDD and just put it in as one partition. (Any cable/place you want). The second HDD is great for anything that's not a program. Install all programs onto the second partition on the first HDD, and any regular data on the second harddrive. This should cut down on how many different files have to be loaded off a single harddrive at any time, which should give a small performance boost.

Ohayden · Post by **Ohayden** » Sun Mar 09, 2003 11:51 am

As for a HD, I would go with a Western Digitial 8 Meg Cache (WD800JB). I have the 80 Gig but there is now a range up to 200 Gig out now. The 8 Meg cache makes a BIG difference in loading times. The 80 Gig, last I saw it, was under a Ben.

Gyro Gearloose · Post by **Gyro Gearloose** » Sun Mar 09, 2003 1:14 pm

Does anyone know about power supplies vs. motherboard problems? I have an Asus motherboard. I have smelled burning smells ever since I replaced:
1. The video Card (had a bad fan in 1st and 2nd units)
2. The Power Supply (the old one burned out soon after I got a new-new video card).

Now the computer locks up more and more often.
So I started running Asus Probe - and it keeps displaying random large but short spikes in the power voltages and the CPU temp. The fluctuations are wierd, and always very brief spikes:
1. Sometimes both + and -12V together, sometimes only +12V; sometimes +3.3V will -5V fluctuate together, sometimes separately - one or the other. It seems completely random - both what fluctuates and when, and in what combinations of both voltages and temperatures!

For instance:
in the last 2 minutes:
1. +12v dropped 4v (short spike)
2. +5v and -12v dropped at same time. (short spikes)
3. +3.3v and -5v dropped at same time (short spikes)
4. CPU temp jumped 80 degrees 3-times in a row (very short bursts)
5. +12v and -12v dropped at the same time (short spikes)
6. +5v and -5v dropped at the same time (short spikes)

Due to the random nature of these "reported problems", I strongly suspect the motherboard. I can't see, for instance, the CPU temp going from 25 degrees C to 137 degrees C and back in literally milliseconds!

TEAMMATE-8163 · Post by **TEAMMATE-8163** » Sun Mar 09, 2003 1:31 pm

Gyro Gearloose wrote: Due to the random nature of these "reported problems", I strongly suspect the motherboard. I can't see, for instance, the CPU temp going from 25 degrees C to 137 degrees C and back in literally milliseconds!

uhhhhhhhhhhhh 90 degrees C will cook your cpu. it must be your board giving you incorrect readings. i also doubt that your cpu runs at 25 degrees C unless you have water cooling or some crap like that.

my old comp had a bad power supply... it shut off randomnly. after reading a bit i found out that running my gpu at 1x agp insted of 4x helped keep it on a bit longer.

i say bad board... maybe bad power supply. first try to run your GPU at 1x agp to see if it keeps locking. if it stops locking you ahve a bad powersupply. if you keep getting crap about temps and voltages your board is also screwed.

SwERvE · Post by **SwERvE** » Sun Mar 09, 2003 1:54 pm

Gyro Gearloose wrote:Does anyone know about power supplies vs. motherboard problems? I have an Asus motherboard. I have smelled burning smells ever since I replaced:
1. The video Card (had a bad fan in 1st and 2nd units)
2. The Power Supply (the old one burned out soon after I got a new-new video card).

Seriously, I have found that 9 out of 10 times, if you are having problems with burning down the cpu it is caused by the power supply. Not because its "bad", but because it isnt the right kind of power supply for your motherboard/cpu. Recently most CPUs have been requiring that the powersupply work in exact accordance with the motherboard in order to correctly function. I know that AMD has a list of compatible power supplys and motherboards listed on their website. I am sure Intel has something on their website about this too. Also it would help to read your motherboard documentation very, very thoroughly and if you can't find the info there, consult the manufacturer for recommended configurations.