Would adding more memory help?Currently 512.Using it to edit video etc at mo.Thought it might help to upgrade

Iain, I would add more memory before proc upgrade, add as much as you can, its much cheaper than processor.

Ta chaps.
I have 2 256`s in.Can I add 1 512 or do i have to add 2 more 256`s?

Depends whether you have a slot free Iain! Also on whether the motherboard can take 512Mb modules. You can look in the manual or post up the motherboard model number (normally written in largish letters somewhere on it) and we can look it up.

Before rushing out and getting memory though it's worth seeing if your system is actually memory-bound. Look at the Memory Usage graph in Task Manager when you are using it in anger during the day.

Mr Euro, to get rid of the Messenger Service pop-ups, if you're running Zone Alarm then ensure that incoming ports 135, 137, 138, 139, and 445 are all blocked by it. There is the other way you did last time, but this way is better.

Iain

Although you will only be getting a small improvement in processor speed it may still be worth upgrading your proccessor although I would suggrst a 3.2 or 3.4 Ghz.

This level processor supports hyperthreading which I have found to be very good. As far as windows is concerned it sees it as two procesors which can reduce freezing when doing heavy proccessing. You would have to check whether your application benefits from this.

The other thing you should consider if you upgrade is whether the motherboard and memory are up to date enough to take advantage of the hyperthreading and 800 MHz FSB. As`Kayak says let us know your motherboard and memory details.

Mr E

If it is the Microsoft Messenger service (grey boxes with an OK button) you can go Admin Tools/Services , find the Microsft Messenger service and disable it, although the ports that Kayak mentioned should be closed to the internet anyway. Have yo installed XP SP2 yet?

Thanks guys. No I haven't, I am only on dial up and I heard the SP2 would take me a month to download. By closing the ports am I causing problems elsewhere?

Thanks again.

Oh Kayak, you remember the dog noise? It was somebody signing on to AOL :-)

Mr E

It only took me 14 Hr on an ISDN connection ;) but you can get an SP2 disk with many computer magazines.

As regards the ports, close them and see what happens.

Mr Euro, doesn't surprise me that AOL software is associated with dogs :-)

ta chaps.ill look in the morning and post the model number of the motherboard up for your further assistance;)

Not worth the effort to download, you can order CD here.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/sp2/cdorder/en_us/default.mspx

Does anyone know how to test the speed of PC internet connections?
Would the sped be different for different browers?
Thanks.

axdpc
I use MySpeed for checking the speed of my broadband occasionally. Is that what you meant?
http://myspeed.visualware.com/

7thFloor, thanks, wil try :-)

O sorry for the delay but you should have mail.

I've had a hard drive replacement and now I can't seem to make my CD's or DVD's auto play anymore.

For the CD player, for example, I've gone to the properties box of the drive and under Autoplay told it to open music files with Windows Media Player with no success.

On the DVD side, I cannot play movies anymore at all. They are vob format which I thought was supported by W M Player. Because of the autoplay problem I've used explorer to look at the individual files and double click on them to make them play but no luck.

I have just brought up my Dell 4700 with xphome sp2 and Norton 2004NT . When connecting to broadband the programme asked me to switch off the firewalls and anti - virus software. on doing this i saw that the firewall on norton was ON and the firewall for MS was OFF. I completed the broadband installation and then went back and turned on the antivirus Norton and the firewall on MS. later checking i noted the MS firewall was again turned off so i turned it back on again , switched off the computer , rebooted and now MS firewall seems to be on. Was Norton switching it off?. should i have both firewalls ON or only one? and if only one , which one? I read recently that the MS firewall should never be turned off,
thanks
On a second point i have an optical mouse and am having difficulty with it jumping and particularly offscreen when near the edges , any ideas to rectify this?

maddoctor

"On a second point i have an optical mouse and am having difficulty with it jumping and particularly offscreen when near the edges , any ideas to rectify this?"

Me too. Every so often my Medion optical mouse pointer jumps about 6". This happens at random intervals about 4 or 5 times. The most annoying thing is how sometimes when I am opening a new IE browser window from a link, the mouse pointer and the new window just freezes in the middle of loading. Then I have no alternative but to just switch off and re-boot. In doing so, I lose all of today's 'History' too. I run three monitors by the way.

I also would appreciate some ideas on fixing this.