kevin , thanks . i had googled mccwsawin and nothing came up but on entering mccwsa i saw the reference to bthelpnotifier.exe.

removed it on startup and shutdown ok now , thanks. bthelp did not load properly from the hub disk and had to go to website for update - there does seem to be something wrong with it

any idea what this exe command does?

Found this

"bthelpnotifier.exe is a process installed alongside BT Broadband and provides additional configuration options for this product. This program is a non-essential process, but should not be terminated unless suspected to be causing problems"

and

"BTHelpNotifier.exe System tray icon for the Virtual Assistant from BT Broadband, used to communicate internet problems via the network rather than telephone."

Also try this. There is some good info.

http://forums.vnunet.com/message.jspa?messageID=851859

well the virtual assistant is a waste of time anyway!

having removed this exe command will i now be able or not to communicate with the help online question answer service?.

Don't know the answer to that - but I hope you never have to!

maddoctor. Before I quit BT I had numerous problems with the BT Help programme (although from memory it was a different one that used to mis-behave from the one you've got). I deleted the Help software and everything was OK. When I used to call the BT help centre to report trouble they never asked me to use BT Help. My advice would be to ditch it permanently. It's very basic even when it works. I remember getting 0.5 meg service and the Help suite told me everything was OK!

bolshi , not worried about losing the bthelp as peeps here are so good at helping and thanks to all above who replied to my plea.

i have had a similiar experience when i tried to get help from btindia , i had gone down to 40kps download and was told everything was ok! after going thro endless basic routines.

maddoctor. The reason I started looking around for another provider was the BTIndia experience. It took me 90 minutes to report a fault the last time! And I do mean the LAST time!

I think the best Forum for all types of Broadband problems and also the best Web site for gaining knowledge on Broadband issues, is at

http://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php

A good place to buy BT Modems and also other tackle, as and when they have it, is at

http://www.puzbie.co.uk

Puzbie's also have a good Forum. They sell quite a lot of stuff on eBay and do this mostly on a 'Buy it Now' basis.

Does anybody have any experience of Hanns G (or Hannstar) monitors? If so, are they reliable?

I'm contemplating picking up 4 of their 19" widescreen TFT's (AH191DP) at under 100 each which seems very good vfm given their spec.

Also would I need to change my Matrox splitter cables to DVI or could I get away with a VGA to DVI adaptor on each cable?

Hilary, the monitor you refer to has a power consumption of 55W per hour. An LG L194WT monitor ( 125.00 from Scan.co.uk ) uses 34W. Multiply the difference by four and the LG's will save you about 60 pence if used for, say, 10 hours per day. This soon adds up. Also, the LG is a far superior monitor, having a contrast ratio of 2000 to 1 and a very wide viewing angle. In other words, what you initially lose on the purchase price you will soon make up for in running costs and possibly fewer visits to Specsavers! The LG monitor comes with VGA to DVI adaptors.

http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1&sku=104703

With a 3 year warranty hilary, you know they are reliable

Thanks guys, I'll take a look.

And if you go for the Dells, ring them with the order - they're usually prepared to knock a bit off the price if you're spending a bit.

Excellent point you make, Pimpernel

Hilary, the LG L194WT monitor is now 114.97 at Currys. That is a fantastic price.

on currys website,

Due to high demand the following item(s) are currently unavailable.

In order to get the higher display quality on a digital display you do need a DVI connector, you can't convert a VGA signal to digital quality. There are splitter cables on Ebay but be very careful that they are specified to work with your model of Matrox card since there are different wiring configurations for different models even though the cables look the same.

to cut a long story short my graphics card can't keep up.

I want to run 4 monitors at 1920x1440 or better but I can't as this sends my cpu usage as shown in task manager through the roof whenever loads of trades start going through on L2 (i'm using advfn L2). Once this happens my L2 windows start lagging, my monitors start flickering as they try to refresh and I can't actually place trades with certainty that they will take place. Basically I haven't got a clue what's going on with the market and start missing entry and exit points.

I assume when the card can't keep up it then starts buffering data with the processor/hard disk on the pc and this is why my performance collapses? - not sure - I know enough to hazard guesses but i'm no technical expert.

I have currently a Matrox g450mms which I bought to replace a g200mms I had previously. I thought this would help my problem as it has 128mb ram but in reality in doesn't seem much better than the previous card which only had 32mb ram (although this was a dedicated 8 per screen). If someone told me it was actually worse I wouldn't disagree with them !

my guess is that although the card is technically capable of running 4 monitors at 2056x1536 in reality it just doesn't have the performance to do it.


I'm looking for a way forward on this as it's costing me loads of money as I can't see everything I want to see in real time.

some thoughts
1. just buy another card. don't mind spending 500 if it will do the job. Not sure what to buy
2. I could put my old g200mms card in as well as the g450mms and then say get each card to run 2 monitors only. This would reduce the load on the 450 card somewhat but i'm not sure if it creates another processing overhead which means it won't actually achieve faster performance.
3. I read somewhere about 2 years ago and my memory might be rubbish that windows now supports dual monitors. so can I put in the 256mb graphics card that came with my pc, use it to run say my primary display and let the 450 run the other 3 screens (or even more bizarrly put all 3 graphics cards in therby keeping the load on each one low)

Any help greatly appreciated.