Dil

If the computer won't boot from a boot disk, the first thing to do is check the BIOS settings have the floppy drive listed as the first boot device.

If that doesn't work, Google for a new boot disk.

Dil

If it is just the system.ini file that is fouled up, you should be able to boot the machine in safe or DOS mode from the hard disk (press F8 on startup). There are normally some old copies of system.ini hanging around that you can remame.

Spaceman
Thanks for that - no wonder they are selling webcams for next to nothing.

Just for information I have set up a fixed DNS using no-ip.com. Having said that, as a novice it is not easy to follow instructions from people like this:

http://www.robertwisbey.com/how_to_web_cam_wme.html

He makes it sound all so simple - but as you say - it aint.

Have tried to stay away from MSN Messenger because of stories of it being an excellent way for hackers to get into your machine - but maybe that's the simplest way to go.

mg (defeated)

mg, I haven't heard stories about MSN Messenger (ICQ yes). I use it regularly for a video link both ways to Italy. Works fine for the video on broadband although it's not really true video, more a sequence of stills at 1/4 sec. interval or so. Sound I don't use since it maxes out the connection and affects the performance of the video side.

Opti that was my original problem , pressing F8 or any other key wouldn't let me get to the DOS prompt , all I wanted to do was reformat the hard drive.

I can get into the BIOS set up but I can't get to the DOS prompt from there either.

Dil, can you boot from a CD? if youe are going to reformat you could do that from your OS CD and then do the reformat as part of the reinstall.

Your symptoms sound as though you might have a virus or trojan ;-(

Kayak
Thanks mate - looks as if it's MSN Messenger then.

mg

Spaceman , if I put a Windows CD in it comes up with a message something like

"get lost , use an emergency boot disk , then use scanreg / restore to find your missing system.ini file".

Can't remember the exact wording.

Dil

Are you booting from the Windows CD? What option are you then choosing?

From the original Windows CD when I get that message.

I don't get any options.

at the risk of sounding pedantic.....

Its difficult for IT people to give good advice without exact information, accurate error messages and codes are very valuable, and enable us to assist far quicker and more importantly to give accurate information.

Dil

Normally, when you boot from a Windows CD, it will start by inspecting the system and then ask whether you want to install windows. At that stage, it may also offer a repair option. If you select the install option, it will then ask you where you want to install and you have the option of deleting the existing partition and then reformatting. If you elect to install in the existing Windows directory you will be given the option of fixing the existing system.

If you run the disk without booting directly from it, the behaviour is different. I have seen some Windows disks supplied by computer makers that try to copy a disk image to your machine, but there is normally a way to get into the basic windows setup.

You be as pendantic as you like Opti , your talking to an idiot :-)

Remember once Croc advising me that kicking my tower every time the hard disk made a loud whirring sound was probably not my best option. He was right eventually :-)

I'll try swapping disks this evening and take it from there.

Cheers.

I just know that someone is going to be able to help me with this.

I need to purchase a new pc for trading. My current on (P4 1.5ghz 768m ram) is just too slow and I can't stick any more ram in it. CPU time is running permanently between 50 and 100% during the day and ram usuage is at about 550m.

This is after deleting all the spyware and paying to not to receive adverts from advfn (some of which appear to use stacks of power as they are running flash or shockwave or some such all day).

So, what's the difference between say a P4 with hyperthreading and a Xeon?
I know the Xeon's appear to have a slower CPU but there must be some reason they stick them into servers? you wouldn't after all deliberately stick slower cpu's into servers unless there was a reason.

The reason my pc currently struggles is due to the number of apps I am running. Typically I've running the following if it helps anyone give any advice
etrade
cmc
finspreads
cap spreads
IG
City Index
8 advfn L2 windows
8 money L2 windows
Streaming ftse chart from advfn
2 stockwatch from moneyam
plus some assorted other ie windows running charts or ie pages etc.

I also use outlook,excel and word during the day as well.

Is the following assumption of mine correct?

1. Wouldn't it be a lot cheaper and faster to use MoneyAM's 'Terminal'?

2. Instead of having 16 applications open running L2, wouldn't you just have 2 Terminal applications open with 8 L2 windows open in each?

3. Is there a better or more efficient way of integrating Terminal and the windows open inside it, to save on resources and improve speed?

Any comments from MoneyAM's techies?

It does appear that if you run multiple L2 windows from advfn using ctrl N it does use less ram but the trouble is I've found this setup to be less stable. Might try it out again on Monday to see if the issue was related to bandwidth as I was lucky enough to get braodband this week.

CC

786MB limit on RAM is unusual, you presumably have a fairly old motherboard so I would investigate whether you can take advantage of the larger memory modules now available. While your checking this, find out what is the fastest processor that you can fit and upgrade it. It would also be worth checking how much disk activity there is.

If you go for a new computer, I think the Xeon processor has a lot more RAM cache and can therefore operate more efficiently on intensive computing. The Hyperthreading proccessors are designed to look like 2 CPU's so that multiple tasks shouldn't hold each other up.

Another good thing about the Xeon is that they work well with 2 or 4 on a motherboard which gives you the best of both worlds.

I doubt your current machine will be upgradeable to a Hyperthreading CPU, but if you were to fit the fastest possible and possibly get some more RAM then it may keep your machine going till the end of the yaer when dual core CPU's will be common.

I can`t get windows update to work on ` automatic`, the switch is greyed out- I am the administrator, so perhaps I turned it off- how do I negate that?

cheers.

I have a Dell pc Optimist.
It's supposed to take 1GB of RAM but no what what I do the BIOS won't see the full amount. It was 99.5% stable with 1Gb but the BIOS and thus windows reported only 768 which was odd to say the least.

99.5% stable wasn't good enough for me as a full time trader so in the end my wife got one of the 512 sticks and I stuck back in a 256 which I had to start with. PC has been 100% stable ever since.

I loaded the latest bios release as well but that didn't help.


I am tempted by this:
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?cs=ukbsdt1&kc=npiuk4&oc=pe614201&x=13&y=8

I'll then bung say 2 or 4 sticks of these from here at 60 a throw:
http://www.misco.co.uk/productinformation/~49979~WW~/Why%20not%20get%20the%20most%20from%20your%20PC.htm

add a keyboard, mouse, dvd cd-rom etc, rob the matrox quad port card from my existing pc

and I'm sorted.


The only thing that's worrying me is whether the xeon processor is the right animal for the job or whether I should just be sticking with a conventional P4 with hyperthreading.

All I use the pc for is trading so I don't need anything with a stupidly large hard drive.

The Dell link is not working but if it is for a cheap Xeon then you won't have a bad computer and as I mentioned above, the end of the year will see some far better hardware around.

As regards your memory, it would be worth updating your BIOS to the latest version but I suspect that there is a problem with either the memory or one of the slots. Do a Google for 'memory test' there are several available including one from Microsoft. See if you can borrow a single 1GB stick and see if that works.