My new XPPro CD from MS

[cantthinkofanickname]

I inherited a 2.8Ghz PC that someone just threw away! So I discovered it had an "illegal" copy of XPPro on it when I went to update it. OK. So paid the £95 quid to get it legalised and later received my Windows GA disc in the post. Now, I have a 160Gbyte and two 80Gbyte drives for this setup and I am wondering how best to configure these two. Currently the OS is on a 10Gbyte partition on the 160 so not sure what the advantage is of having it this way. Does this happen when installing anyway?Anyway I was thinking of having the 80Gbyte for windows and using the 160 for backups over the network from some other local laptops at home. Then I want to place Linux somewhere. Any ideas on the best arrangement? I will end up with a DVD writer and the 3 drives.Thanks for any suggestions.PS also looking for ways determine my motherboard. The machine is says it's a Packard Bell ACPI multiprocessor P4. Apart from stripping it down I cannot see any identifying marks I have traced its serial No. to their support but the board profile does not appear on their pages as I have 4 memory card slots with two filled at 1Gbyte. I hope I can add some more

[FuzzButt]

Hmm.Well your setup idea is a good one to go with. You can figure that Windows XP plus the programs you might install are going to eat a good majority of that 10 GB. Mine is 11.7GB for everything without loading any games on it. A lot of people will say seperate it out into different partitions but really there is no need for that with multiple drives. So Ya throw XP on the 80GB by reinstalling XP. Choose the correct drive and delete the current partition and go from there. Use the 160GB for network backups and clones of your 80GB drive. Now if you are going to put Linux on there with it there are other options. Personally I would go with a 50/50 split of the 160GB as the primary and use the 80GB for a data volume. Install XP first but when you delete the current partition select the size for the new one somewhere around 80GB leaving the rest empty for your linux install. This way the resize will not take all day when you go to install your distro of choice.As far as the motherboard goes. Pop the side off and write down any text you can find on the motherboard. Post it here or try it in Google. Chances are the info is out there somewhere.

[goretsky]

Hello, You might want to consider installing the operating system you are going to spend the most time using on the fastest of the three hard disk drives.Also, you may wish to erase all three hard disk drives before using them with a utility like DBAN or the hard disk drive manufacturers' diagnostic disks. It would also probably be a good idea to test all the hard disk drives for errors as well before using them to store anything important.Regards,Aryeh Goretsky

[striker]

I inherited a 2.8Ghz PC that someone just threw away! So I discovered it had an "illegal" copy of XPPro on it when I went to update it. OK. So paid the £95 quid to get it legalised and later received my Windows GA disc in the post. Now, I have a 160Gbyte and two 80Gbyte drives for this setup and I am wondering how best to configure these two. Currently the OS is on a 10Gbyte partition on the 160 so not sure what the advantage is of having it this way. Does this happen when installing anyway?Anyway I was thinking of having the 80Gbyte for windows and using the 160 for backups over the network from some other local laptops at home. Then I want to place Linux somewhere. Any ideas on the best arrangement? I will end up with a DVD writer and the 3 drives.Thanks for any suggestions.PS also looking for ways determine my motherboard. The machine is says it's a Packard Bell ACPI multiprocessor P4. Apart from stripping it down I cannot see any identifying marks I have traced its serial No. to their support but the board profile does not appear on their pages as I have 4 memory card slots with two filled at 1Gbyte. I hope I can add some more

Packard Bell ...........?????? O boy....Do you have windows already running on it ? If yes, Everest might do the trick for ya and reveal all things inside. (or the previous version, Aida, does the same)

[cantthinkofanickname]

Packard Bell ...........?????? O boy....Do you have windows already running on it ? If yes, Everest might do the trick for ya and reveal all things inside. (or the previous version, Aida, does the same)

Why O boy? Is it crap or good?http://support.packardbell.com/uk/item/ind..._palomarpe&Anyway thanks everest did the trick. This is a 07/29/2003-Springdale-G-6A79AM4KC-00 and It would appear I have a number of options:1. The memory can be <= 4Gb. It has 2 x 500Mb so I ma tempted to buy two 1Gb as I think XPPro can only do 3Gb. Am I right?2. the memory in there is DDR333MHz2.5 but it would appear from the everest o/p that the FSB effective is 800Mhz and the Memory bus effective is 320MHz s could I buy the 800MHz memory versions?3. It would appear this have Serial ATA so I could buy these type for the hard drives. Is it worth it?4. I wonder if a BIOS upgrade if available is worth it?5 Only other thing is sound. My DVD unit has a connector attached but where does it go?

[striker]

1. You can even go beyond 3GB but you'll need an extra switch at the boot option when using XP; however, from what I have read over on other forums it might give you more troubles than pleasures. I think it comes down to what you're going to use the machine for. If it's XP and linux, and you don't need a blazingly fast machine while configured with default options, I would just max at 3GB and not go beyond it. Heck I would even opt for 2GB or maybe 2.5.However, I would use all the same memory modules and don't mix them. (crucial.com comes to mind here)2. With CPU FSB:800 MHz (which seems to be the max for this mainboard), you can use memory up to DDR400 aka PC3200.3. SATA ?

* Two integrated Serial ATA host controllers capable of independent DMA operation on two ports. The SATA controllers are completely software transparent with the IDE interface, while providing a lower pin count and higher performance. * The ICH5 SATA interface supports data transfer rates up to 150 MB/s

I have experimented with a main board in the same order as this one, it also supported SATA 1st generation, like this board. The higher performance as mentioned above (from the link you posted) is pure theoretical being the lower spec SATA series and not the SATAII series. It depends on the price of the SATA drives you may want to use in here, if they're significantly more expensive than standard PATA drives I would think twice before investing. OTOH if you want to get the max out of this board, you may want to consider the SATA option, albeit it's a board from 2002/2003 : SATA used is not the latest, CPU is not the fastest on earth, RAM is not the fastest either, so make up your mind...I would not invest too much money in it.4. A BIOS upgrade ? I never advise on a BIOS upgrade because I see that as a personal decision to be made by the owner. All I can tell is that in such a case I would study the release notes of the particular upgrade very thoroughly and check exactly what was updated and why, and then and only then I would make up my mind to see whether I really need these extras. If they don't mention it and/or I don't need the extras, I would leave the BIOS alone. Is there a back up option for the contents of the BIOS ?5. the connector, you mean something like this:http://www.logicsupply.com/images/photos/c...CDaudio_big.jpgThat one goes to JCD1 (CD-ROM Audio Line In) at the main board.PS : PB, I had my fair share of problems with one of their machines. Albeit the one I owned was a bit older, a PB Miami. The condensors on it blew out of it skyhigh, the main board itself was undamaged. I repaired the board and after that it worked OK and never showed anymore problems when using win98 or ME. I finally got rid of it. Must have been so around 2000-2001, don't remember precisely.For the rest :I would use one hard disk drive for Windows alone.The linux(-es) I would put those on the other hard disk drive(-s).

[cantthinkofanickname]

Yes, thanks striker, I shall leave the SATA alone. I see there is advice on the BIOS about the upgrade trying to use the SATA and hanging - so I'll leave the BIOS alone. It has two 500MHz sticks and I would like 2Gb so will buy 2 more. That should be enough as my current Laptop has 1Gb and for the work I do is fine (there does not seem to be too much drive operation as I work). Is there a sure-fire way of telling if the ram is stretched a bit?The machine is wisper quiet. And even though it's 4 years old surely not much slower than a new one? Anyway today I shall reinstall with the new MS OS cd I have and hope the drivers are OK for it. Will I have driver problems as no driver disc is available?Another thing, I have a TFT display TFT1560PSA and google finds no drivers for it. When I connect it it seems to constantly switch on and off as if it's trying to reset. It does it from 1 sec cycles and (when warm?) speeds up a bit. The display is also very dim eve though the brightness is set high. Any ideas?Thanks.

[striker]

Is there a sure-fire way of telling if the ram is stretched a bit?

What do you mean by that ?

Will I have driver problems as no driver disc is available?

Are you sure there's nothing available for that machine ?What's on the sticker on the backside : model number wise. Take that to search PB. (There used to be drivers and that sort of things)

Another thing, I have a TFT display TFT1560PSA and google finds no drivers for it. When I connect it it seems to constantly switch on and off as if it's trying to reset. It does it from 1 sec cycles and (when warm?) speeds up a bit. The display is also very dim eve though the brightness is set high. Any ideas?

Might be the backlight gone south, but to be sure take a linux live CD and test the TFT with that.If that does not fail, then it probably is a wrong setting for one of the refresh rates. Most people think the higher the Vertical Refresh rate the better : that's true for CRTs but not for LCDs, with those its always 60Hz and that's it. The crap talking about 70 and 75Hz is only the possibility the display has to be driven by that frequency, but for every LCD 60Hz is the default. When you set this too high you'll either get no screen at all or a 'out of range' error message. The right frequencies to be used for both the Horizontal and Vertical rates one can find in the manual or lacking that maybe online.What's the brand/manufacturer of the display ? (bottom or back, sticker reveals it maybe)

[goretsky]

Hello,From looking at the specifications from your new Packard Bell computer's motherboard, you should have little trouble downloading the Intel i865 chipset drivers from this page on Intel's web site and the Realtek 81xx-series network interface drivers from this page on Realtek's web site.Having them unpacked and on a CD-R or USB flash drive ready to install before loading the new operating system may make things a little easier for you.Regards,Aryeh Goretsky

[cantthinkofanickname]

I hadn't thought of the board drivers! I was assuming XPPro CD would have them all as a default. I will try to collect them first. At what stage does the PC get loaded with these/ Is it possible to grab them from the machine now (before I start the reinstal)?Thanks.PS now looking at the downloads it appears these are loaded AFTER the OS is installed. I want to do a disk clean and repartition s nothing will be on the disk or are the divers stored on the board?I take it that the chipset and PCi are all I need? (not done this before).

Edited December 11, 2007 by cantthinkofanickname

[patio]

You can wait until you have finished the complete OS install...Windows will use generic drivers in the meantime.I'd install them right after though.

[goretsky]

Hello,As Patio noted, once you have finished installation of the operating system you can then start installing device drivers. The overwhelming majority of them should be avaliable through the Windows Update service, so once you connect to the Internet (preferably from behind a residential gateway with NAT and SPI to secure the connection) you should be able to begin downloading them, along with whatever patches and hotfixes are not yet installed, but you may first have to install the network interface and/or the motherboard chipset drivers in order to enable the network connection. Regards,Aryeh Goretsky

[cantthinkofanickname]

OK, so far so good. Only one problem. I have plugged in a 2nd drive as a slave to the primary on bus 0. Although XP said "new hardware found - hard disk" I cannot see it on "My PC". I suspect it's because it was a Linux drive and formated as Reiser. How can i get it formated in XP. The only thing I can think of is to use a Linux live CD to see it. What are my options in XP? Thanks.

[patio]

ight click My Computer and select Manage...Then choose Disk Management...if it shows up there you can right click it and Format.

[patio]

Nice catch as always Temmu...

[cantthinkofanickname]

One side issue, I have a sound lead from my DVD unit. Where does this plug in to my motherboard? It is a flat 4 pin plug. I have one PCI extension board which feeds the display. What I want is the sound to go to the display speakers.

[striker]

Basically, see post 6, item 5 above.The display, is that a PB too ?

[cantthinkofanickname]

Basically, see post 6, item 5 above.The display, is that a PB too ?

PB? no, I now have decided what I want out of this PC:1. backup from my aging Laptop. So I need a good backp program to run on it. I use the XPPro backup utility but I would rather have one which just zips the folders so I can get at them without the creating programm. It must be able to backp across a network. Any ideas?2. I need it to play cds & dvds to the display speakers. I have a radeon 9200nf installed and have a Sound Balster Live! CT4780 in the cupboard. I have connected the DVD unit to the motherboard socket and do not see a connector for it on the radeon but there seems to be one on the SB Live!. How do I get the sound to the LCD display (it has an audio input but I'm a bit green on this subject).3. Ihave downloaded drivers for both units but waiting to get some advice as to which on to use.4. I thing the 9200 was there from new because there is no other display socket on the back panel. Would this be the case?Thanks.

[b2cm]

2. I need it to play cds & dvds to the display speakers. I have a radeon 9200nf installed and have a Sound Balster Live! CT4780 in the cupboard. I have connected the DVD unit to the motherboard socket and do not see a connector for it on the radeon but there seems to be one on the SB Live!. How do I get the sound to the LCD display (it has an audio input but I'm a bit green on this subject).

The motherboard has no onboard video, so the Radeon 9200 is an add-on card installed on the AGP port.You do not need to connect the audio cable from the DVD drive to the motherboard. To use the flat panel speakers, use a cable to connect "G" and the input jack on the monitor.

[cantthinkofanickname]

You do not need to connect the audio cable from the DVD drive to the motherboard.

Then where does the cable from the DVD unit go (or how does the digital signal get to the speakers)? Thanks.

[b2cm]

how does the digital signal get to the speakers

If you are using XP, DVD drive ---> IDE cable ---> motherboard --- audio line out ---> speakers. If you are using DOS (with sound card and optical drive drivers loaded), you will need that internal cable to play audio CDs.

[striker]

yep, and sometimes on linux.

[cantthinkofanickname]

If you are using XP, DVD drive ---> IDE cable ---> motherboard --- audio line out ---> speakers. If you are using DOS (with sound card and optical drive drivers loaded), you will need that internal cable to play audio CDs.

Ah, I see that I need a single cable from that jack socket to the same on the display unit assuming the main cable does not take the audio signal.Anyone comment on my point 2 above about the choice between using the sound blaster or 9200nf boards (I don't want both in place)?

[striker]

Ah, I see that I need a single cable from that jack socket to the same on the display unit assuming the main cable does not take the audio signal.

The main cable (IDE) has nothing to do with the fact of transporting the audio signal from the main board to the monitors build in speakers. For that you'll need the external connection cable from connector G on the rear of the computer (backplane) to the speakers in socket on the monitor.

Anyone comment on my point 2 above about the choice between using the sound blaster or 9200nf boards (I don't want both in place)?

There is no choice; the radeon 9200nf card you definitely need to have anything visible on the display. The other one, the sound blaster card, is a sound card which you don't need at all because your main board has on board audio. So you end up with only one card in it, the graphics card radeon 9200nf. Sound will be handled by the main boards sound chip.