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so my momsters computer has a problem where it keeps restarting without warning. i have been trying to figure out what the problem is for so long now and the answer i need gets dropped in my lap. after blowing all of the dirt (not dust at all really. it was that thick.) out of it i am betting that it is going to boil down to bad ram. if not that then a corrupted driver. not that i know what the hell i am talking about but i would put money on it.
anyway i was reading the copy of the official windows xp magazine that i bought when i found the answer(s) in the same article. this is not a magazine i read on a regular basis (if only for the $15 price tag) but i am drawn to these british magazines that come with full versions of programs. this particular one only has one full program valued at £16*. that makes it currently about $30us. and then there is the fact that this one actually came with two cds full of stuff to cram onto my hdd. as an added bonus the main focus of this issue is crash proofing windows xp. or so they say.
sure there are other things in the magazine that are useful but here are the two that we are concerned with right now. get it on.
the really funny thing about that one is i could not find documentation on it anywhere. nothing on turning this "feature" on and off. on the ms website or in a general search. this is funny because one of the rules with the antitrust lawsuit was that every little aspect of xp had to be documented. dammit i miss my easter eggs. get it on.
this was good because the utility i did use for the very occasional ram check was a shareware one and i had to hunt for it everytime i needed to install it. but i know there is an easier way to create a bootable cd. cant remember it right now bt i know there is a way. there has to be because there is a will.
in other software related news blockbuster seems to have dropped their aol cds. kinda. they have been replaced by netscrape cds. they are actually for the netscrape isp service. too bad aol owns it. it is not the first time aol has bought another isp and then slowly sucked the life out of it. i know they did it with gnn and i am thinking they did it with compuserve. the good part about it is that i am assuming that it comes with the netscape browser. i could pop the cd in right now and find out for you but i dont feel like it. no matter how you look at it any thing is better than another aol disc.
while we are on the subject of browsers i should tell you a funny little story. because i have been spending so much time at the neopets site i fingered i should update my flash player. the fact that they told me i had to update my shockwave player was a not so nicer reminder. during the istallation it asked me what browsers i wanted it to work with. what got me is that it only listed four (ie, opera, beonex, firefox). aside from those already mentioned (and lynx) i know there has to be more. gimme. i also know that contrary to what
allism says firefox is not the only one i need. :-P!
i mean shit if i only needed one of anything there would not be 15 version of aol on this computer. actually there are probably more on the c: drive but i am not going to check. again. the really sad part about that is that 1) i am not kidding about the number of copies and b) i have not had an aol account in about a year. they are still there because they have not had everything stripped out of them. one of the reason there are so many is because of beta testing and the bad habit their software has of crippling one copy when you remove another. and then there are the international versions. though i never did put the japanese version on here. if you want to play with them the easiest place to find them is on the winme cd.
to warn you while installing one of those plugins (shockwave i think) it asked if i wanted to install the yahoo toolbar. they were even nice enough to already have it checked for me just in case i wasnt really paying attention when i installed it. for that macromedia can go to hell.
its crap like that that forces me to run ad-aware about once a month. which i finally got mikey to install it. well i didnt really i just told him what he needed after he got hit with an evil plugin. while we were talking about it i told him to not be surprised if it came up with 250 hits. that is the average i have seen for the way their computer gets used.the worst i have ever seen was my fathers which spit out more than 500. as it turns out mikeys had 229. not to far off for a guess.
and in case you are wondering the last time i ran ad-aware i got six hits. five of them were cookies. one of them is a file that i need for a certian program to fun but the version i have is a patched version so there are no worries on my part. i am not saying i am paranoid but i am.
*occasionally i really pull stuff out of my ass you know that? i could find the pound symbol (£) while writing this so i figured i would copy it from the character map if i could find it. got it on the first try even. if you need it go to start->run->charmap. i have neveer pulled it up that way and have not even looked at it in several years but there it is. who knew?
**these were scanned in twice so that i would not have to type them. first as an image. then after i got them all cleaned up and lined up they went in as text. yeah i had to correct some things but not near as much as i had expected. this is special because it is the very first time i have ever used any ocr software. i actually find it kind of odd that i had not even played with it before.
anyway i was reading the copy of the official windows xp magazine that i bought when i found the answer(s) in the same article. this is not a magazine i read on a regular basis (if only for the $15 price tag) but i am drawn to these british magazines that come with full versions of programs. this particular one only has one full program valued at £16*. that makes it currently about $30us. and then there is the fact that this one actually came with two cds full of stuff to cram onto my hdd. as an added bonus the main focus of this issue is crash proofing windows xp. or so they say.
sure there are other things in the magazine that are useful but here are the two that we are concerned with right now. get it on.
Stop Errors**
If your system restarts automatically without warning, this is because Windows XP has encountered a serious error and is unable to continue working normally, These are referred to as Stop Errors and their causes include defective hardware, drivers or an incompatible service. If you're experiencing this behavior on a regular basis, you should make an alteration to your system that will prevent an automatic restart and will enable you to see details of the error. Open System Properties and select the Advanced tab, then under 'Startup and Recovery', click on Settings, Under System failure, uncheck Automatically restart and finally dick OK. In future, when a Stop Error occurs you'll see a blue screen with full details of the error, including a specific code. For example, the error Stop 0x000000EA or THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_ DRIVER can appear after you've Installed a new graphics card or updated the device driver, so mate sure you nave the correct driver and try reinstalling ft. For specific details of the meaning of any of the other Stop Errors, check out Microsoft's site at http://support.microsoft.com.
the really funny thing about that one is i could not find documentation on it anywhere. nothing on turning this "feature" on and off. on the ms website or in a general search. this is funny because one of the rules with the antitrust lawsuit was that every little aspect of xp had to be documented. dammit i miss my easter eggs. get it on.
Memory matters**
If the RAM that's installed in your system isn't working, you'll experience all manner of problems - your PC might lock up or you might get random system crashes. As we've already seen, this type of behavior can also be caused by a number of different things. Therefore, you'll need to make use of a utility that tests your installed memory and advises you if it's working correctly or not. Go along to http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp, where you'll find the Windows Memory Diagnostic tool. Click on the link to download it. When you begin installation, you'll need to create a startup disk that contains the Windows Memory Diagnostic tool. The option 'Create Startup Disk' makes a bootable floppy disk, and the 'Save CD Image to Disk' creates an ISO image that you'll be able to burn to a recordable CD in order to make it bootable.
To test your memory you need to boot from your newly created CD or disk, and then the Windows Memory Diagnostic tool begins to test your memory automatically. There are three different test suites available for use within the program: Standard, Basic and Extended. The Standard runs by default, and if the first pass completes without incident then it's likely that your RAM is working correctly. It probably won't detect any errors during the other passes while the same settings are being used. You can perform a more thorough test by pressing [T] while the Windows Memory Diagnostic tool is running and selecting an alternative. Microsoft advises that you leave this running for an extended period, perhaps overnight, to make sure the check is as thorough as possible.
this was good because the utility i did use for the very occasional ram check was a shareware one and i had to hunt for it everytime i needed to install it. but i know there is an easier way to create a bootable cd. cant remember it right now bt i know there is a way. there has to be because there is a will.
in other software related news blockbuster seems to have dropped their aol cds. kinda. they have been replaced by netscrape cds. they are actually for the netscrape isp service. too bad aol owns it. it is not the first time aol has bought another isp and then slowly sucked the life out of it. i know they did it with gnn and i am thinking they did it with compuserve. the good part about it is that i am assuming that it comes with the netscape browser. i could pop the cd in right now and find out for you but i dont feel like it. no matter how you look at it any thing is better than another aol disc.
while we are on the subject of browsers i should tell you a funny little story. because i have been spending so much time at the neopets site i fingered i should update my flash player. the fact that they told me i had to update my shockwave player was a not so nicer reminder. during the istallation it asked me what browsers i wanted it to work with. what got me is that it only listed four (ie, opera, beonex, firefox). aside from those already mentioned (and lynx) i know there has to be more. gimme. i also know that contrary to what
allism says firefox is not the only one i need. :-P!i mean shit if i only needed one of anything there would not be 15 version of aol on this computer. actually there are probably more on the c: drive but i am not going to check. again. the really sad part about that is that 1) i am not kidding about the number of copies and b) i have not had an aol account in about a year. they are still there because they have not had everything stripped out of them. one of the reason there are so many is because of beta testing and the bad habit their software has of crippling one copy when you remove another. and then there are the international versions. though i never did put the japanese version on here. if you want to play with them the easiest place to find them is on the winme cd.
to warn you while installing one of those plugins (shockwave i think) it asked if i wanted to install the yahoo toolbar. they were even nice enough to already have it checked for me just in case i wasnt really paying attention when i installed it. for that macromedia can go to hell.
its crap like that that forces me to run ad-aware about once a month. which i finally got mikey to install it. well i didnt really i just told him what he needed after he got hit with an evil plugin. while we were talking about it i told him to not be surprised if it came up with 250 hits. that is the average i have seen for the way their computer gets used.the worst i have ever seen was my fathers which spit out more than 500. as it turns out mikeys had 229. not to far off for a guess.
and in case you are wondering the last time i ran ad-aware i got six hits. five of them were cookies. one of them is a file that i need for a certian program to fun but the version i have is a patched version so there are no worries on my part. i am not saying i am paranoid but i am.
*occasionally i really pull stuff out of my ass you know that? i could find the pound symbol (£) while writing this so i figured i would copy it from the character map if i could find it. got it on the first try even. if you need it go to start->run->charmap. i have neveer pulled it up that way and have not even looked at it in several years but there it is. who knew?
**these were scanned in twice so that i would not have to type them. first as an image. then after i got them all cleaned up and lined up they went in as text. yeah i had to correct some things but not near as much as i had expected. this is special because it is the very first time i have ever used any ocr software. i actually find it kind of odd that i had not even played with it before.
