Im am going to upgrade from Windows2000.

I have found it to be a pain latley. The computer just stops for about 10 seconds every now and then, games crash in about 30 mins of playing them. I wasnt happy because I was playing Golden Bear Challenge 6 and just got an Eagle before it went

I am getting the blue screen of death and some times when first starting up Rundll32 loads about 10 times and keeps loading and loading :S

Anyway. Im getting a new HDD soon and thinking of installing XP. But whats the difference between Home and Pro? Any one know? Any performance difference?

 

Stuart

you probably won't use Pro, I use home edition and its more than adequate, Im not sure on the differences though

 

Mike

Home edition has some of the networking and tools removed, the perfomance is the same.

 

Herman

I would not touch XP with a barge pole - it is still unproven as far as I am concerned.

 

Win 2K has been rock solid on my desktop and my laptop, but I do have all the latest service packs and drivers.

 

My guess is there is something else wrong.

 

Simon

I have all the service patches and all the critical updates. I have broadband and it updates every time I boot up.

Got windows XP Pro and luuuuuuuuuuve it,takes the piss out of 98 .

 

------------------

Neither, try Mandrake 8.2, http://www.mandrake.org .

 

Its free and stable. If you want to spend a few pounds buy WineX from www.transgaming.com or a similar product from www.codeweavers.com.

 

This way you can use MS apps, but instead of them crashing your compter they only crash themselves.

 

You can have everything you use in Windows (except the crashed) for free. This includes email, office, IM, etc.

Windows XP home is fine for most stuff - you wouldn't notice any difference between the 2 in normal use.

Home will not allow connection to a network that uses a Domain. It works fine in workgroups though which is the only type of network you would have at home anyway (unless you have 100 kids that require secure logins!)

 

Stuart.

 

Either your memory or PSU is faulty or your CPU is getting too hot.

 

Could be something else hardware related but generally if you are getting rundll errors Id say you got hardware probs.

 

Ill send you XP pro if you want - install it with just

.mobo

.memory

.cpu

.videocard

.hard disk connected - of it throws a paddy its hardware probs

 

 

------------------

->Glen

Stuart,

Exactly the problem I had with Maccas PC.

Was crashing all over the place on Windows 98 so we decided to re-install with XP Pro but it wouldn't have it.

Got to a different point in the install every time and bombed out.

Turned out to be a faulty AMD processor.

 

Is it true that XP sends shit loads of info to Microsoft regarding registry, etc? I want to upgrade to XP but don't like the idea of info constantly being taken from my PC each time I go online...

 

Peter

I've got XP Pro on one machine, XP Home on the other, both are way better and more stables than Windoze98 (they also boot up ready to use in 45 seconds). The only differences between home and pro I've noticed is you cannot share an internet connection from home edition, so I had to move my modem from one machine to the other and you can only use remote desktop to a pro machine. Other than that, very similar, definitely recommend either and better than Windoze 2000

 

 

 

------------------

Its not overheating. I have plenty of fans on it and Asus prob tells me my temperature. When idle the CPU is 59ºC and when working goes up to 70ºC. My PSU is a 350Watt one.

 

Something is not right. I turned it on today to check my mail, and left it for about 30 mins. When I came back I tried to load IE and my computer said out of memory :S

WTF!

Something is on a look and keeps loading taking my memory.

 

Chris. There is a problem with AMD's and installing XP. You have to disable FSB266hmz down to 133Mhz in the bios while installing. When its installed you can put it back to 266.

 

I know what you are saying Glenn. That is usually the problem, but I feel its 100% software. I have run diags on everything and everything is fine. I dont overclock or anything either. The HDD is fine, I used to have one that had a duff power and so I know what the symptoms are and its not showing any. The graphics isnt overheating, because the graphics start to rip before it crashes with overheating, and then it tends to lock out the whole computer and not just drop to desk top. The only thing that I can think off is the soundcard. But the diags say clear and it never happens when playing music or watching MPGS or any other vids.

It used to be able to run games for hours with out a glitch. Now its 20mins tops.

Its not overheating as I said and my computer turns it off if it goes over 80ºC.

 

Peter. I hear that too. I also know a person who phoned Microsoft for help and they told him that they know that he has unregistered software on his PC. But by law they should not allowed to look, but that is why they are not allowed to do anything about it, just tell you that they know.

I have Office-XP and when I installed it, it unlocked its 60 trial by registering on the net. The next time I installed it I had to phone them up and they give me the 3rd degree about why am I installing again!

I have done this about 6 times now, because I am forever installing.

 

 

Originally posted by SRRAE:

Its not overheating. I have plenty of fans on it and Asus prob tells me my temperature. When idle the CPU is 59ºC and when working goes up to 70ºC. My PSU is a 350Watt one.

 

Something is not right. I turned it on today to check my mail, and left it for about 30 mins. When I came back I tried to load IE and my computer said out of memory :S

WTF!

Something is on a look and keeps loading taking my memory.

 

Chris. There is a problem with AMD's and installing XP. You have to disable FSB266hmz down to 133Mhz in the bios while installing. When its installed you can put it back to 266.

 

I know what you are saying Glenn. That is usually the problem, but I feel its 100% software. I have run diags on everything and everything is fine. I dont overclock or anything either. The HDD is fine, I used to have one that had a duff power and so I know what the symptoms are and its not showing any. The graphics isnt overheating, because the graphics start to rip before it crashes with overheating, and then it tends to lock out the whole computer and not just drop to desk top. The only thing that I can think off is the soundcard. But the diags say clear and it never happens when playing music or watching MPGS or any other vids.

It used to be able to run games for hours with out a glitch. Now its 20mins tops.

Its not overheating as I said and my computer turns it off if it goes over 80ºC.

 

Peter. I hear that too. I also know a person who phoned Microsoft for help and they told him that they know that he has unregistered software on his PC. But by law they should not allowed to look, but that is why they are not allowed to do anything about it, just tell you that they know.

I have Office-XP and when I installed it, it unlocked its 60 trial by registering on the net. The next time I installed it I had to phone them up and they give me the 3rd degree about why am I installing again!

I have done this about 6 times now, because I am forever installing.

 

 

 

Stuart,

 

I've been an overclocker for years and I can tell you I wouldn't be happy at running a CPU anyway near that hot. I've seriously overclocked my Athlon and I run 53 degrees peak (and I'm not happy with that). Before overclocking, it was running around 39 degrees, maybe 42 peak.

 

I really think that could be the problem. I had stability problems when my CPU got to about 60 C, but then I had overclocked it massively and was just experimenting (and half expectin to hear a loud bang ).

 

If you think it could be soundcard, take the card out for a bit and eliminate that from the equation, but your temps do seem high!

 

Also, I've had to install XP on a few Athlons and I've never had to change the FSB from 266 to 133. Maybe I'm just lucky, and I have only installed from one particular XP disk, but never had to do it, and never heard of that problem.

 

Hope you get it sorted though, things like that drive me crazy.

 

Andy

 

Andy.

XPs are hot but I was wondering about the heat.

I have a case with 3 5 1/4 inch bays and 2 3 1/2 and they are all full. So there are no slots for me to expand. Also, EVERY PCI slot is taken up so there is no room for the heat to move round. I have a power fan which sucks the heat from inside the computer out. But its located right above the CPU fan and was sucking air away from it causing it to heat up.

The is no room in my computer now and I think that has a lot to do with it. The CPU fan is a COOLMASTER 7500rpm copper one which is said to be the best one for overclocking and good for over 3Ghz. But because of the confind space the air is not cooling and its just blowing hot air onto the chip

Stuart

70 Degrees is too hot for an XP cpu.

 

Its air flow - you can have a fan the size of tims arse on there but if its cramped it will cook.

 

Get a full tower and round IDE cables and put an extractor under the video card.

 

Leave the sides off.

 

HTH

 

(its deffo heat bud!)

 

Glen

Yup, Stuart, its the heat. Today I have the sides off my machine and a giant room fan (16 inch, lol) to keep it in the spec I'm happy with. As you've said, you're machine is packed and so no air is getting around. At least your graphics card is likely yo be AGP and so in the top slot, as it will run hotter than other expansion cards.

 

In the short term, you may want to invest in some of those twisted IDE cables. They improve airflow dramatically I have found since normal IDE cables are very wide and flop all over the place, and leave the sides (and anything else) open and off the machine.

 

My Coolermaster case has 5 80mm fans build in, and some are designed for sucking in air, others for expelling hot air. This is on top of a motherboard fan and processor hsf. I'm still paranoid! BTW, I've found that my IBM harddrives like to corrupt with a mobo temp of about 36 degrees so there is another thing to bear in mind.

 

You XP processor runs cooler than my older 1.4Ghz Athlon so for the heat to get that big, its pretyy serious. I'd invest in a new case perhaps, your heatsink/fan wont help you in such cramped conditions.

 

Good luck!

 

Andy

I have had similar temperature problems with some Athlon XP's and TBird's. I believe AMD rates the max temperature of the XP at 90 celcius, but the motherboard and memory need to be much cooler than that.

 

An easy way to test is to go to the bios setup and underclock the processor. The XP is locked to a certain frequency but there will be at least one lower frequency that it will boot at. I would start trying at 1000Mhz and work up. When you find that magic frequency boot up and use it for a while. If the temperature stays lower and it is stable then you have found the problem. You may need to reinstall while underclocked to ger rid of file system problems caused by previous lockup.

 

When I had a similar problem with a XP 1700 in a full case that was running around 70 I bought a Golden Orb fan with two fans stacked on it. This brought the temp down to below 60 and everything is stable now. At the office I often underclock rackmounted systems and leave them overclocked for stability.

 

Also make sure you use a thin layer of the grease that comes with the heatsink. Dont use very much, but if you dont use it at all cooling is really decreased.

By complete chance just found this XP Home/Pro comparison.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/howtobuy/choosing2.asp