Thanks to those who helped re my cpu usuage problems. Not completely sorted but discovered the following:
ADVFN L2 - if you enter the wrong epic it brings up a box with "incorrect epic" or something. CPU usuage then goes 100% until you close the box even if you close the underlying ie page
ADVFN streaming charts - if you run these in 100x100 size they use alot of memory and cpu. However if you run them in 75x75 it uses a quite distusting large amount of cpu (strikes me as v bad programming if just changing the magnification of the chart makes so much difference). Won't be using advfn streaming ftse tomorrow - will try with d4f - at least it won't chew cpu time

CC, MoneyAM streaming works well on the FTSE although you don't have any studies yet of course.

One for you techies out there!

I have a Gigabyte 7N400 Pro motherboard and just recently it has started to give problems.

When the power supply is interupted it fails to recognise the correct processor and seems to load the failsafe defaults. This can be remedied by going into the bios and manually putting in the correct parameters etc. I have updated the bios from the live update to the latest F13 bios, but when I have this problem it seems to record an F6 bios on the POST. It is a dual bios motherboard and by this I assume that a secondary bios is stored on the board as a backup in the event of a failure.

My thoughts are that the battery backup is not working and therefore settings are being lost etc, however I thought the whole point of having a secondary backup was to avoid these irritating problems.

Any thoughts, relevant or otherwise, would be much appreciated

Well, I didn't know about Dual BIOS so I went and read your motherboard manual :-)

The two versions of the BIOS are entirely separate. Once you are happy with the F13 bios you would press F8 on boot to enter Dual BIOS/Q-flash and then copy the main BIOS to the backup BIOS (copy main ROM data to backup, page 76/77 of the manual).

There is a problem with the main BIOS which is why it's rebooting from the backup BIOS, which is still F6. It could be that your battery is dead, I would try changing that first. It's just a button battery on the motherboard, easy to change. Otherwise it could be that the flashing of the main BIOS did not complete properly, so try re-flashing.

Once you are happy the main BIOS is working fine then copy it to the backup BIOS as above, and it should copy the parameters as well as the BIOS code. As I read the manual you would have to do this whenever you change any of the BIOS parameters and are happy the new parameters work.

Thanks Kayak. I assume that these batteries are available from Maplin or similar?

I will have to dig out that manual again!

I would have thought a jeweller's/watch shop should have it 2Abbey...

2Abbey, I am pretty sure it the battery as K states. I think the 2 BIOS's are there in case one gets corrupted not to cover a failed battery, if you missflash a BIOS you can end up with a dead motherboard, some of the motherboard manufacturers have backups where you use a floppy and some beep codes and some have dual BIOS like yours and some dont have an easy method, if they have a removable BIOS chip they can be resurected but if they dont its often too expensive to sort and the best solution is a new motherboard.

If a change of battery does not rsolve this I would suspect a motherboard fault.

Back to my cpu usage issues as still not happy although things improving.

A couple of observations - even at 20:00 with only stockwatch running my cpu usuge varies between 5 and 15% (no other apps loaded at all). As soon as I close it cpu drops to 0%.
On this page my cpu usage runs at 0% when I am not typing
On moneyam home page my cpu runs at about 10% just viewing it
On advfn home page cpu runs at about 15% just viewing it

Is it all this damn advertising that is using my computers resources? Is that possible?

Yep, the animated advertising, paricularly the Flash ads, consumes a significant amount of CPU. You can see the difference by turning off "Play animations in web pages" in Tools/Internet Options/Advanced.

Having some probs with the remnants of the Code red virus. Norton and all the other virus checkers say it is no longer present but something is recreating c:\explorer.exe
Any ideas?
D.

Are you running a Windows server without realising it, Croc? Easy to do with Windows 2000 since IIS is enabled by default on installation and is unpatched to start with of course. Check Internet Services Manager under Control Panel/Administrative Tools. I think the explorer.exe file is the file that arrives via the exploit and is then run to cause the damage. It may not show up in a scan until you reboot and execute it via the run commands in the registry.

Croc

The string "c:\explorer.exe" should not appear in the registry at all. It may be worth searching for it.

Kayak- have turned off those animations - yes the difference is very noticable.

croc, sometimes its worth going through the manual remaoval checks toi ensure the thing has been eliminated, i have seen bits not get removede by the stingers and tools. Here is a link with info about code red if you page down you will see the manual removal instructions.

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/codered.worm.html

[edit] i didnt actually read the manual instructions for this worm but I just have and they dont help much. Often symatic list all the files and registry keys involved but not in this case. SO apologies for some useless info...

[edit 2!] There is also a code red ii and here is the link for that in case its the version you have, this contains more detailed technical info.

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/codered.ii.html

I've just managed to delete Windows Explorer... Does anyone know how to get it back?

I've just started using XP Pro after several years of Win 98. I've tended to use Windows Explorer quite a lot for moving files around, copying documents, etc. Because it's so handy I prefer it to be on the first start menu rather than buried. So I tried to copy it from All Programs -> Accessories to the first start menu (the one you get when you click on start). Something went wrong and its disappeared completely. I have a shortcut "Windows Explorer (2)" exactly where I wanted it to be, but it doesn't work because can't find the necessary file...

PeterG
This is where mine is, hopefully yours will be in the same place.

C:\Documents and Settings\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories

or C:\WINDOWS\Driver Cache\i386

or C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories

Prod

OK, it's back. Thanks, Prodman.

Thanks for the help :-)
D.

can anyone help, i need to creat a start up flopy disk for windows 2000 pro