Hardware Index
I have a motherboard with a VIA Apollo Pro 133A chipset and an Intel Celeron processor. I know the Celeron runs the FSB (front-side bus) at 66MHz, but is there any way I can drive my memory faster - it is rated as PCl00.
Set the DRAM speed in the BIOS to HCL+33M, and your memory will be driven at 100MHz. Since PC performance is affected by many variables, running the memory in a 66MHz FSB system at 100MHz won't result in a massive improvement.
We've measured about 8% performance increase in such systems using SYSmark 2000 and Quake III Arena benchmarks but it's worth doing.
Can I use PC133 memory in a system running at 66 or 100MHz externally?
Yes you can, but it will run at these lower speeds. Some modern chipsets however, have an option to run the memory at the host clock plus 33MHz, which could, say, drive memory at 100MHz on a 66MHz FSB Celeron system -see the first question in the Hardware section.
I wanted to do some work with large image files, so I upgraded my Windows 98 system to a whole I Gb of RAM. I couldn't wait to see what it was like, but when I restarted it refused to run, saying there was insufficient memory! I can't get it to work no matter what I do, so I've taken the memory out for now.
It must be something to do with your system. There are a couple of things I can think of that might solve your problem. It's possible that upgrading to Windows 98 ME might help (or to Windows 2000), although the latter may not be a great choice if you play games on your Windows 98 system as well.
There's a workaround for your problem, but it does restrict your system to using only 768Mb of the available RAM (though given the price of hardware these days, you may be better off getting a new motherboard, as that might also solve your problem. The fix involves adding a line to the [386Enh] section of SYSTFM-INI, a file I thought I'd seen the back of forever. Make a backup copy of the file first, then open it and add the following line, thus:
[386Enh]
MaxPhysPage=30000
When you've done that, save the file and restart the system. It should now load Windows, though using only 768Mb of your 1 Gb of RAM. For the curious among you, that figure of 30000 is a hexadecimal one. MaxPhysPage values are worked out using this formula:
4,096 x MaxPhysPage (decimal) = Amount of RAM in bytes. Thus, using the example above, if you want to limit Windows to 768Mb of RAM, which is what is needed to fix the problem, the formula would be: (768 x 1,048,576)/4,096 = 196,608 (decimal) which is 30,000 in hex.
Could you could tell me what AGP Pro is?
AGP Pro is an extension to the Accelerated Graphics Port specification, which can supply up to 110w of power to particularly hungry graphics cards. An AGP Pro card requires a motherboard with the wider AGP Pro slot, but the slot can also accept conventional AGP 1x, 2x and 4x cards.
I've been thinking about buying some memory to go with my Athlon processor, but I have a couple of questions. First, what's the difference between PCI600 and PC2100 DDR memory; and second, what's DDR memory?
To take the second question first, DDR stands for Double Data Rate and is basically a technology that doubles data throughput to the processor. Those PC1600 and PC2100 figures represent that throughput, so PC1600 delivers 1.6 Gbytes/sec, while PC2100 delivers 2.1 Gbytes/sec. One point you need to bear in mind is that while PC1600 DDR RAM works with all Athlon processors, PC2100 DDR RAM works only with 1,1.13,1.2 and 1.33GHz processors, and only with processors that use the AMD 760 chipset
I'm about to upgrade my PC from an Intel to an AMD processor, probably up to the 266MHz front side bus, 1.2GHz AMD processor, 256Mb of DDR memory and an ATi card (Radeon). The problem is that I've read an article that the processors made by AMD can overheat. What I'd like to know is, how do I go about trying to make sure that the processor doesn't overheat? Which cooling fans should I buy?
Sure, AMD processors can overheat. So can Intel processors. In fact, so can any processor if its cooling fails or if some silly sod overclocks it to make it run faster than intended, which has become common among a very specific community that tries to wring the last drop of performance out of its processors.
The problem is that for each one in this community who genuinely knows what they're doing (and the risks involved), there's a bunch of fools who think its cool to brag to friends how they got their 800MHz processor to run at 10GHz, and how fast their games are now blah, blah, blah. These are the same fools who shout loudest when their processor overheats, taking out not only itself but quite often the motherboard too (I've seen motherboards that the processor has actually melted). Every increase in clock speed means an increase in heat dissipation, and so overclocking equals overheating -one way the smarter overclockers choose to get round the problem is to whack in a Taj Mahal-sized cooling fan on top of the processor in an attempt to keep it cool enough to survive the speed increase.
There are times when extra cooling within a system is desirable anyway, and indeed I've a system that has extra cooling fans located around its case, but that's only because its so heavily populated with drives, cards and other sundry devices. Anyway, as soon as I was able to, I moved some of these devices out of the system into a new one. I didn't, however, need to upgrade the processor fan, because the one it came with was perfectly adequate for the job it was designed to do -that is, to cool the processor within its designated working tolerances.
I've spent several weeks running a savage set of tests on a large number of systems, ranging from 1.2GHz AMD Athlons to 1.4GHz Intel processors, and not one has showed the slightest inclination to overheat. Therefore, in answer to your question, go out and buy your excellent-sounding specification and enjoy it, safe in the knowledge that if it does overheat it would only be because the fan on the processor had failed, and not because you failed to buy an industrial refrigeration unit for it.
I have £300 to spend on a motherboard, graphics card and sound card. I'm building myself a general purpose/gaming system and would appreciate some advice. I've already decided upon an Athlon 750 processor, 30Gb U DMA-1 00 hard drive and 128Mb Ram as well as the other peripheral components.
Creative Labs' SoundBlaster Live! sound card and Video Logic's Sonic Vortex 2 are hard to beat at around £50 each. As you've opted for an Athlon 750 processor you'll need a Socket A motherboard. Almost all the available options are based around Via's KT133 chipset and as the chipset controls much of a motherboard's functionality and capabilities there isn't too much to choose between the available options. However, steer clear of boards with integrated audio and video and look for three Dimm slots for maximum expansion potential and, of course, UDMA-100 compatibility.
A high-end Socket A board meeting these requirements will cost between £110 and £130. This will leave you about £120 to spend on a graphics card. As mentioned in the first reply this month, the best graphics card at a reasonable price is probably the 32Mb GeForce2 MX, which will cost around £100 to £120, depending on whether or not you want a composite video-out port for squirting your PC's output into a TV. Of course, if sound quality isn't a concern you could opt for a motherboard with integrated audio. Such a motherboard will probably cost a little more than one without sound, but should be no more than around £140 for UDMA-100 support, and as little as £90 for UDMA-66 support. Either way, this will leave you the best part of £200 to spend on a graphics card, which will be enough to secure a 32Mb Voodoo 34500 or ATI Radeon SDR (at around £150) or even a 32Mb GeForce2 GTS or ATI Radeon DDR (at around £200).
I read with interest about screen ribbon cables for Compaq Presario notebook computers ('Funky Ribbon: Clinic, Shopper 155) I have also experienced no success in obtaining a replacement cable for a Presario 1215. Although Compaq promised that a new screen - its only solution - included a cable, it actually arrived without one! There currently appears to be no solution to this problem, except to connect the notebook to an external monitor. Any help really would be appreciated.
It just so happens that help might well be at hand for everyone looking to repair notebooks with screen faults. Following our plea in Shopper 155 for suggestions as to how to repair a damaged ribbon cable from a Compaq Presario notebook, we were contacted by Peter Abbott of Electroversal Limited. Peter claims that although Electroversal cannot repair broken screens (ie, smashed glass) they can solve many other problems, including black lines, missing segments and damaged ribbon cables. Depending on the fault and the amount of time involved, prices for LCD repair typically range from £100 to £150. Electroversal also claims to repair various PCB and other faults on notebooks, UPS units, printers, fax machines and a range of other peripheral hardware. For more information see www.electroversal.com or contact the company on (01582) 582023.
I have no desire to watch TV while using my computer, but I do enjoy listening to the radio. Do you know of any FM/AM radio-only cards and if so where I might be able to obtain one?
ADS Technologies manufactures something called the Cadet PC Radio which is an FM/AM radio receiver PCI card. We haven't tested one and there are some postings on the Internet to suggest that its AM reception capabilities are not particularly good. Unfortunately it is also the only product we've come across that might meet your requirements. Detailed information can be found at www.adstech.com/products/cadet_more.html. Costing $40 (plus P&P), it is only available directly to the US and Canada and despite links to a number of UK retailers we couldn't find any stockists. An international sales email address (international@adstech.com) may yield more information and the Eire-based distribution centre can be contacted on (00353) 61702042.
I am trying to find out how easy it is to view DVD movies on my television when played on my PC's DVD drive. I have a Tiny 500MHz PC with an integrated DVD drive and supporting software, which combine to produce very acceptable output to my monitor. However, I want to view them on my much larger TV screen and as I do not have a TV tuner card or TV out equipped graphics card I have no S-Video or composite RCA video output.
I spoke to the 'experts' (ha!) in my local PC World, who advised me that I could connect my TV via a special cable to my sound card to achieve what I wanted. I'm not an expert, but surely this won't work because there's no way to get the picture across. I was actually hoping to be able to watch movies on my TV as opposed to just listening to them!
I assume there is a PCI card that will enable me to do what I want but so far I've not managed to track one down. I do not want to watch TV or receive Teletext on my PC and given that I can pick up a standalone DVD player for my TV for about £150, can you suggest a sensible and cheaper solution?
You are correct on both fronts. Connecting your sound card to your TV will not transmit the DVD video signal and all you'll gain from this exercise is to switch the sound from your PC's speakers to your TV's speakers. You do need an S-Video or composite RCA video output and you can install a PCI card that will give you just this. One of a number of options is Creative Labs' DXR3 MPeg Card. In addition to being an MPeg3 decoder card - which will probably also improve the DVD playback capabilities of your PC - it offers both composite video out and AC3 audio support. So as well as hooking up your TV for flicker-free DVD playback, you can also benefit from full 5.1 surround sound if you invest in a set of compatible speakers for the ultimate home movie experience. If you really want to push the boat out you can also view the composite video output through a projector. The Creative Labs DXR3 card will cost around £60 (inc Vat). If you can't track one down, the VideoLogic DVD Player card will also do the same job and costs around £75.
Alternatively you could replace your graphics card for one with a composite video out port, with options starting at as little as £30, but given the benefits offered by an MPeg3 decoder card (such as the DXR3), this is the recommended route. Also, if you don't fancy taking the case off your PC or don't have any available PCI slots, a further option is to hook up an external VGA converter. Such a device can be used to convert a standard VGA signal to either S-Video or composite video. Audio would need to come directly from your sound card.
An external box wouldn't support AC3, but for installation convenience and the ability to transport between PCs, this is a viable option. One such product, the VGA Converter Lite, comes from Lindy Electronics (www.lindy.co.uk) and costs £120 not much cheaper than a standalone DVD player, but it can be used to access email or play PC games on your TV, which a standalone player can't do.
I know that I should have listened to the old saying "If it ain't broke don't fix it" but now it's too late. I am connected to NTL Internet with a Diamond SupraExpress 56 modem and used to get brilliant connection speeds of around about 119,000bps. Then I thought it would be a good idea to download the software from Diamond's site and flash my modem to the V.90 standard because my ISP states that it supports k56 and V.90. All went well with the install, except that the fastest speed that I can now connect to the Internet is 49,333bps. How on earth do I flash my modem back to the k56 standard?
Bad news: the k56-flex standard does not support connection speeds of 119Kbps. In fact, it is no faster than V.90. The clue is in the name, you see k56 = 56K. There is an analogue communications standard that can connect you to the Internet at 119Kbps but there are some severe restrictions on how far away you can be from your ISP. In fact, you have to be within five metres of its server and the name of that standard is the null modem cable.
What I am saying is that 119Kbps is just the speed of your serial port, not the speed of your modem, and if l had a penny, or better still a quid, for every person who has written to me over the years with that particular misconception, I wouldn't have to write the Helpline every month (not that I am motivated by anything other than my love for the subject matter, mind).
V.90 is the only 56K protocol that is universally supported these days, and the fact is that you are probably getting better connection speeds than before because NTL probably disconnected all its k56-flex modems over six months ago.
In PCF102, someone wrote in with a BIOS that wasn't keeping time while his PC was switched off. I had the same problem with my father-in-law's PC, after I replaced his motherboard, CPU and upgraded to Win 98. In the end, the problem turned out to be the system date. With Y2K checking and so on, I'd somehow left it at 2099, rather than 1999. This didn't show up, because most dates were displayed as yy rather than yyyy, but some games, virus checkers and so on refused to install/run, probably because they were out-of-date or the PC isn't Y2100 compliant, or something.
Anyway, I reset the clock back to 1999, rebooted, and everything now works. I then rolled over to 2000 and everything still works. I don't know if this qualifies for Geek of the Month, because it's a simple answer, rather than a hardware/sunspot/RFI combination.
It most certainly does not, on three counts:
1, I'm not convinced that a date rollover problem would affect the time.
2. His problem only manifests when he plugs his Zip drive and scanner into the same wall socket as the PC.
3. That sunspot/RFI thing.
When someone can show me how an overloaded 13-amp socket can prevent a PC from correctly maintaining the time when it is switched of, they will take away the highly coveted Geek of the Month trophy and not before.
Am I right in thinking that because an AMD Athlon has a bus speed of 200MHz, the motherboard runs at 200MHz, so 100MHz RAM (or 133MHz) won't work? Or am I missing something blatantly obvious?
You're missing it but it's not what you'd call obvious. RAM doesn't have a clock speed as such - its speed is measured in terms of its access latency, in nanoseconds. That's the time between asking for the data and getting it. RAM has always been slower than the CPU - that's why we have cache memory to act as a buffer against this lag. If the speed discrepancy is too great or there isn't enough cache, the motherboard needs to be configured to insert one or more wait states for memory addresses. A wait state is when the processor is forced to pause for a clock tick between requesting the contents of a memory address and receiving the information.
As clock speeds have crept up, faster RAM architectures and better manufacturing processes have been developed to cope with the lower latencies demanded by the processor. The PC 100 and PC -133 standards are a way of telling the consumer that those chips are better than ordinary RAM (which has now been retroactively labelled PC-66). The Athlon requires 8ns RAM or faster, which translates to PC-100. If you have PC-133 RAM then that's obviously better but the Athlon has sufficient cache that we don't need to wait for PC-200 RAM before we can start kicking Intel's behind.
If I were to overclock my motherboard to 133MHz, would I have an AGP slot running at 4X instead of 2X? If so, I could make full use of my GeForce Annihilator. Or do you need a specialised port? I have an Abit BE6 motherboard.
This would be like saying that because leopard seals eat raw fish, a quick bowl of sushi is all that you need to enable you to swim for half an hour underwater in the Arctic Ocean.
Clearly, there's a little more to it than that or the Japanese wouldn't need to spend money on a whaling fleet. AGP is a port, not a bus, because it only connects two devices -the CPU and the graphics card. It is largely independent of the PCI and front side buses and the development of AGP4x involved more than just swapping the clock crystal. You need a whole new motherboard with a whole new chipset -the i820, for example. Given the current technical and political difficulties Intel is having over the RDRAM architecture that it requires, I wouldn't recommend that anyone upgrades to an i820 motherboard just yet.
In any case, AGP4x or not you won't make full use of your GeForce because the fact is that none of the games currently available generate anything like enough polygons to strain the graphics processor. Once you get to AGP2x, large textures alone are not enough to saturate the bandwidth of the AGP port.
My wife has a PC with a 300MHz Cyrix II. I have a Pentium 200 MMX. She has a naff motherboard compared to mine, with fewer PCI slots and only 72-pin memory slots with 32MB RAM. The question is, can I just swap over the processors or will my dearly beloved always have the faster system?
This is eating you up isn't it? Your wife (to whom you presumably originally promised "All that I have, I give to you,") has a bit in her computer with a higher number than yours. You don't care that your CPU was last considered cutting-edge before any of my children were born, you just want to be the biggest fish in your stagnant little domestic pond. Well, the good news is that clock speed aside, your CPU is still quite a bit better than hers at anything involving floating point maths, which is nearly everything these days. The bad news is that in recognition of her tolerance in putting up with such recondite childishness, I am arranging for a brand-new 850MHz Athlon PC to be delivered to your wife.
No. I'm not really, but I had you going for a moment, didn't I?
I have recently bought a new PC containing what I believe to be a Pentium III 500MHz chip. However, when I go to My Computer-Properties in Windows, it says I have a Pentium II.
I was about to phone the shop up in anger when I noticed on the boot-up listing that it said I have a PIII 500MHz MMX. So now I'm confused [Long list of test and utilities (some of which report P2 and some PIII) snipped). Please tell me what I've got before I go completely fecking mental.
The Pentium III is so similar architecturally to the PII that many older utilities misidentify it and for some reason this seems to get a certain kind of person very aerated. Never mind the fact that it is actually printed on the CPU itself, if you can be bothered to look. Which do you think is more likely, that old software can't always identify the name of a processor released after the software was written? Or that new software would incorrectly lump all older PCs together?
I have a V.90 modem and have only ever been able to connect at 28,800bps. When I contacted BT, I was told that I am the proud owner of a DACS line which, as I understand it, is a con by BT in which it takes one line and splits it to create two separate lines producing a maximum transfer rate of 28.8Kbps. "Our lines are only guaranteed for voice and nothing else," I am told, and if I want to get a line guaranteed for digital I should hand over great handfuls of cash to BT for Home Highway, assuming my locality can support it.
I get two or three letters like yours every month and every time I chase BT about this it tells me the same three things:
1. It doesn't guarantee lines for data but if customers complain about their DACS line, it will do its best to switch them over to a proper line.
2. Home Highway isn't really an option because it is precisely the rural locations that don't have enough line capacity to provide a full line to every single customer that are not usually suitable for ISDN connections.
Despite this, it seems that BT staff continue to tell people, "Tough luck, get Home Highway." Although contractually BT is within its rights, I suggest that you write to BT and tell it that you are switching to Mercury or Eurobel and will not be switching back until it takes off your DACS.
In PCF105, the Spacemonkey's Guide to 3D Acceleration (page 26) says that it is possible to put two cards in your PC. I have made some enquiries and am told that there will be conflicts between the two cards, is this correct? My existing card is a Matrox G200 AGP with 8MB RAM.
Spacemonkey doesn't make such a sweeping statement anywhere that I can see. If you have a 2D-only graphics card, you can plug in another 3D-only card. If you have a Voodoo2 3D card, then you can add a second one to enable Single-Line Interleave (SLI) mode. Beyond that, you will generally see no benefit at best and incompatibilities at worst. There is only one AGP slot, so the second card would have to go on the PCI bus, which puts the new card at a sizeable disadvantage to start off with.
Cheap 3D
I have a good computer except for its 3D hardware and software. Every month I get your mag and I can't play any of the demos because my computer has a 1 Mb VGA card (I think). I would buy myself a 3D card but I don't have the money. Could you please try to get some 3D software for me and put it on the coverdisc?
If by "3D software" you mean a program that entirely does away with the need for hardware 3D acceleration then, alas, there is no such thing. If anyone were ever to achieve such a breakthrough, he would inevitably plunge headlong into a rocky ravine after the trained hit men at 3dfx cut the brake lines on his car and glued the accelerator pedal to the floor. The job of a 3D card is to take some of the processing burden of rendering 3D scenes away from the CPU. Software rendering is perfectly possible - DirectX has always provided support for it - but, by definition, software must always be executed by the CPU which therefore slows it down. Some games allow software rendering, some don't, and if a developer has decided not to allow it, it is because the game you're playing is so processor-hungry that it would be unplayable unless you had a 3D card.
To some extent, of course, a faster CPU can compensate for the lack of a 3D card but a 1Mb VGA card has lots of other limitations as well, such as restricted resolution and colour depth. Also, the fact that your graphics system is so outdated makes me wonder just how good the rest of the hardware really is. A 300MHz PII only counts as fair these days and I bet you haven't even got that.
My clock keeps losing time. Every time I switch on my system it seems that it is totally off. I keep setting it back but it still doesn't work. What should I do?
A system that is totally off when you switch it on, you say? What an interesting contradiction. Try replacing the CMOS battery on the motherboard.
Having been a poor acting student for three years and a struggling artist for the past two, I don't have a lot of wedge - quite frustrating given that I've been obsessed with computers since I was nine. I want to buy, or build, a PC soon, and obviously budget is a concern -but I want to make it as future-proof as I can in terms of upgradability. When upgrading a CPU for a faster chip, what else must be upgraded? If I were to get a 350 or 400MHz chip and the appropriate motherboard, what is the maximum CPU speed that motherboard will allow? Does the RAM have similar problems when upgrading? Does the video card need to be upgraded, too? Alternatively, the office I'm temping in is dumping a load of 100MHz PCs. (Yes, I know, but they're free!) Do you think there's any scope for upgrading them, or maybe salvaging anything from them to use in a newly built PC?
There's no such thing as a future-proof PC any more. If there ever was it was only in the sense that Intel saw it as expedient to market so-called Overdrive chips that provided some of the processing oomph of the next generation CPUs, while remaining pin-compatible with the previous one. This never made much money and the practice has long since been abandoned. In its place is the diametrically-opposite design philosophy, which is to make sure that each processor requires a different socket, chipset and supply voltage from the last. This means that Intel can't sell upgrades any more but, then again, neither can AMD, so everything is still all right.
A motherboard such as the Tyan Trinity 400 (£81 from www.simply.co.uk) can take all Intel PII, PIII and Celeron CPUs in all of the currently available clock speeds, including those that need the 133MHz bus. It won't take AMD's Athlon or any of its variants, and it will still be obsolete as soon as Intel abandons the PGA370 format. RAM is in a similar state of flux, with new architectures popping up faster than mushrooms in a wet pig field, but older flavours of RAM tend to remain available for longer so this is less of a worry, really. I would certainly snap up the opportunity of a free 100MHz Pentium but this is more because I am a sucker for a bargain than because there is any real prospect of upgrading it. Cannibalism is a much better idea and you could easily reuse the PSU, case, monitor, hard disk and keyboard.
I have a very serious problem with my modem. A month ago I bought myself a Creative Blaster V.90 PCI 015655 modem. It was a breeze to install, but when I connect to the Net the modem dials but then goes haywire, making all these loud screeching sounds. I have no idea what to do.
Do you mean "loud screeching sounds" as in the sound of the modulated data travelling down the phone line? Use a line splitter plug to connect a telephone handset to the same line while the modem is connected to the Internet and listen in. If the sound in the earpiece is the same as the sound the modem is making, then you are a prawn for panicking and your modem is just not disconnecting the speaker after it connects. Add atm0 to Extra Settings in Control Panel - Internet - Connection Tab - Settings - Properties - Configure - Connections Tab - Advanced. If, however, you mean a totally different set of loud screeching sounds no modem has ever made before, then you are a pilchard for being so laid back and should return your modem under warranty immediately.
I've inherited an old system from a friend that works fine but has one puzzling problem, namely the modem lights flash sometimes when I move the mouse about. It isn't a serious problem I know, but wondered if you knew what was causing it? The modem is on COM4.
Haven't seen this for a while. Its actually a graphics card problem, and can be seen in old S3-based cards like the Diamond Stealth 32/64, the Orchid Fahrenheit 1280 or just about any card that used specific versions of the S3 chipset. If it bothers you a lot, the most feasible cure short of changing the graphics card - is to move the modem to a different port.