The RAM and XP question

**frogbeastegg** · 10-06-2010, 17:11

Ok, just back and started on finishing my setup. So far not much of as windows 7 fan - it's giving me trouble at every step.

First item on the list: restore boot order to HD only, enable speedstep. Done.

First program on my list: firewall. The PC locked up at 46% installed. Gah! Two questions: What's the problem with speedstep? How on earth can I delete the partial install of zonealarm? The installer won't let me install over the top of the old one, and I don't want to make things more broken by deleting the folder.

Next job on the list: get firefox running so I can ditch IE, which is slow, painful, blurry, scrolls randomly, is awkward to navigate, glitchy, and hideous in all imaginable ways and forms. Problem: firefox won't detect my internet connection. IE does, as I'm here right now.

Help please.

Psychonaut the XP mode is useless for my needs. It's for business programs only and can't run anything I actually own.

**Beskar** · 10-06-2010, 18:59

Other than "Zone Alarm? Are you mad?!" (which could also be the problem for firefox, since it is a hideous programme), I don't understand what you are doing to cause problems.

**Tellos Athenaios** · 10-06-2010, 19:32

Part of the firewall troubles could be in that Windows 7 already comes with a firewall of its own aptly named “Windows Firewall”. So you probably can ditch Zone Alarm and use Windows Firewall instead, or alternatively disable Windows Firewall entirely (which I have never done, but should be possible through the Installed Software thing of the Control Panel). Incidentally uninstalling software can be done through that panel as well.

**Husar** · 10-06-2010, 20:33

Exactly, I've heard mostly about problems with regards to ZoneAlarm, I use the Windows firewall as well, seems to work just fine.

Concerning speed step, I have an AMD phenom with some NVidia chipset and it doesn't adjust CPU speed in either Windows Vista or 7, neither did my old Core 2 Duo E6600. Vista introduced some new way of energy and speed management and apparently those motherboards are incompatible. I would guess that your mainboard might be incompatible as well but instead of just running at full speed all the time actually causes some problems, perhaps it does change the clock speed without windows knowing about it (due to incompatible interfaces or so), causing such lockups, or perhaps something is actually broken that wasn't really used in XP (like whatever is responsible for speedstep to work in Windows 7). I'm just guessing here, I have no detailed knowledge about this, but the whole deal works fine on my laptop that came with Vista preinstalled, I'd suspect and incompatibility of some sort, or maybe a "minor" flaw(minor as in doesn't prevent the PC from running at all), the USB and network ports on my laptop seem to crash out of nowhere sometimes, other days they work fine for hours, one of the reasons I won't buy MSI anymore.

**caravel** · 10-06-2010, 22:33

Firefox may be getting blocked from accessing the internet by Zonealarm. Zonealarm is crapware, get rid that first.

Try the removal tool: http://download.zonealarm.com/bin/fr...cpes_clean.exe

If that doesn't work then something like this should be able to remove it: http://www.appremover.com/

Reboot after removal.

**frogbeastegg** · 10-06-2010, 23:06

Phew. Lots of work. Some solutions, some new issues, lots of learning, and I've managed to find a whole 2 things I like about the entire OS.

Did a system restore to take me back to the fresh install stage. Then I approached matters in a slightly different order. Full windows updates first, reboot, install antivirus, install firefox, check it works, install a few other bits and bobs, everything was fine. Well, except for the fuzzy text, firefox insisting on starting in safe mode and discarding my preferences every time, and a few dozen other annoyances, plus the fact I'm wandering the interface like a lost tourist minus map and phrase book.

Fixed the fuzzy text (font smoothing!) after about an hour of option hunting, fixed the firefox stuck in safemode thing after loads more work, finally made some of the folder and data presentation options less obnoxious, did yet more updates, moved a few backup files from the old PC over to this one, tried out the new version of media player and loathed it (I liked 10; it had some features which were perfect for the way I use it) so got winamp instead as it does something similar but not quite as good as what I liked about MP10, and defragged C: very thoroughly. Phew.

Now I have a mostly working basic OS setup. After this I can try for some of the advanced stuff. Checking directx and video drivers are up to date, testing out a game, getting my writing tools set up, etc.

The two features I like? The presentation of data in the 'my computer' section. You know, the one with the bars under the HDs showing how much space is used up, what system specs are, etc. I used to have to do a bunch of clicking on several screens to get that same gather of info. The other is pinning things to the taskbar. Reminds me of a favoured feature on my macbook.

I use zonealarm because I've only had 1 problem with it in 6-7 years of use; I started using it shortly after I joined up here because it got recommended so often. It played nicely with everything else I had; I use it mainly to control programs dialing out. I'm open to recommendations for a replacement, provided the program is free.

I'll do the removal tool tomorrow. System restore should have gotten the hooks out of other files and left it as so much useless data but I don't trust system restore one bit; it's obviously improved a lot since XP's version but that's hardly saying much. I found that version to be more useful if it was left turned off!

Next question: what's the game browser like for actual use? In theory it sounds handy. In reality? Does it do a decent job of finding patches, finding the right patches, and finding them for a wide range of games instead of just the big names? Anything else useful it can do? Or is it a glorified folder which wants to be like steam?

This thing needs a manual. The little help boxes you can bring up are decent but it's not the same as being able to get a full overview of what you can do and how, then heading off to apply that base knowledge to learn more advanced stuff.

**Beskar** · 10-07-2010, 17:45

Forget about the Game browser, I never used it. Some games don't even appear in it. Never used it in the 4 years of contact with it. I just disabled it.

Microsoft does have its own free anti-virus as well.

I will tell you now, for the love of everything, do not install games/steam/etc in programs. Do a folder on the harddrive you have your games on, called \Games\, for example, "C:\Games\". Other than making it very easy and helpful you have your games separate from your programs, it will save you lots of heartache, due to inbuilt Microsoft security.

**frogbeastegg** · 10-07-2010, 17:54

Originally Posted by Beskar

I will tell you now, for the love of everything, do not install games/steam/etc in programs.

I run a dual hard drive setup. C: is for windows and core programs; D: gets everything else. Amazing setup which I first used by semi accident; I needed a bigger HD because DVD based games had made install sizes go through the roof overnight but did not want to lose everything in a reformat. Way back then we had a local PC shop and they were damned good. They suggested a secondary HD, I reluctantly agreed thinking it would be weird, and within a few days of use I loved it. So many advantages! Nowadays it is a flat out requirement; I will not own a PC with only one HD.

Steam and my games sat on D: untouched during this entire process. All I did was run steam.exe from that folder and it worked for a bit to repair itself; it's now fully functional and I didn't have to reinstall any games. That's a useful feature.

**Beskar** · 10-07-2010, 18:05

Originally Posted by frogbeastegg

I run a dual hard drive setup. C: is for windows and core programs; D: gets everything else. Amazing setup which I first used by semi accident; I needed a bigger HD because DVD based games had made install sizes go through the roof overnight but did not want to lose everything in a reformat. Way back then we had a local PC shop and they were damned good. They suggested a secondary HD, I reluctantly agreed thinking it would be weird, and within a few days of use I loved it. So many advantages! Nowadays it is a flat out requirement; I will not own a PC with only one HD.

Steam and my games sat on D: untouched during this entire process. All I did was run steam.exe from that folder and it worked for a bit to repair itself; it's now fully functional and I didn't have to reinstall any games. That's a useful feature.

That's good.

I did similar, but the problem I have now, Seagate want me to return the harddrive, since it is apparently faulty. The issue with that is, it is a terrabyte drive, and it is 700gigs full. My on-computer harddrive is 500gigs total.

Yeah.. not too impressed with that. They don't even send a replacement first, which I would have thought was obvious. >_>

**frogbeastegg** · 10-07-2010, 18:20

:sigh: Latest problem. I have directx11 installed. Every game I try to play won't run, citing "You do not have d3dx9_41.dll installed". I've tried doing a DX update during the installation of one of these games, and it failed for unknown reasons. So now I'm left attempting a manual fix. Why can nothing in this infuriating OS just work? Every single step no matter how minor has turned into a freaking paper chase! That's why, on day 3, I'm only just beginning to install stuff like games. Gah!

Which reminds me, when I installed the patch for victoria 2 I got a useless windows nag popup telling me that windows wasn't sure if everything had gone ok because windows is a paranoid old granny with no tech sense. How can I kill that? I never want to see it again.

EDIT:GAH!! And now the directx update I attempting using microsofts own latest directx end user runtime failed instantly with no reasons given.

Much more of this and I am going to return my gaming favours to my xbox for the near future - civ 5 et al can go hang!