Any computer gaming geeks in here?

[GSXR RACER MIKE]

     I had a virus that got deep into my computers system a few years ago and I had to deal with the BIOS at that time. There is a small battery on the mother board that is for the BIOS memory and clock. I was told to remove this battery to reset the BIOS back to a default configuration and leave it out for 20 minutes or so. From what I was told I needed to reset the BIOS to remove the problem it had in it's configuration. I then had to make sure the boot order was correct on the BIOS configuration to have it boot off of the DVD drive. Turns out that the CD player/burner that came on the computer when I bought it has some compatibility problems with my system, and even though it works, it couldn't be used to boot off of or play games with.

     I have no idea if this will help you or not but mabey you also have some type of compatibility problem with the combination of equipment you now have. The other possible issue could be with an inadequate power supply, the tech that suggested the larger one for my computer said that low power can do some weird stuff. :-/

[OmniGLH]

I *think* I may be on to something.

I did some digging, and came across the "Ultimate Boot CD" - http://www.ultimatebootcd.com  Basically, you download an .iso and burn it to a CD (thank GOD my laptop has a burner in it) and it's a bootable disc with DOS, Linux, some utilities, etc.  Kinda neat.

So I burned a copy, booted from it, and chose to boot into DOS.  The disc sets up a virtual ram drive, and then loads the OS there so I can remove the CD-ROM.  So it creates the vdisk fine, but when it starts copying the files over, it fails out with a CRC error.

I think I have a bad RAM chip.  I'm gonna run to Best Buy while I'm out today and pick up another chip.

[spyderchick]

There have been reports of problems with dual RAM. Since I don't have that configuration, I can't help you out. Anyone else have an idea?

[Gixxerblade]

Make sure your bios selector pins are set correctly as well as this will screw things up.

[OmniGLH]

I'm 99.9% sure I've got it.

The doofus at Fry's sold me a 1gb stick of ram.  Apparently that won't work.

On my way out to drop off one of my rear home-theater speakers to get fixed this afternoon, I stopped off at CDW to pick up a replacement piece of ram.  Talking to the sales dude there - he tells me that I need TWO sticks that match... not one.  If I want 1gb of ram, I need to run with 2 512's... not 1 1024.

It was at that point that I remembered something similar with an old Pentium-II box I had years ago.  So I bought the 2 512's from CDW.  Just got home now.  Yanked the 1gb chip, installed the new pair, and so far, it's at least successfully managed to boot up in DOS mode (wouldn't even do that before.)  So I'm gonna update my BIOS with the latest flash from ASUS and try Windows again.  But I think I'm good.

Had I not stopped at CDW... I probably *never* would've figured this out.  I thought the need for pairs of memory sticks went away with the Pentium-II's (as my Pentium-III had no such requirement.)

I do appreciate all you folks trying to help out here.  :)

[OmniGLH]

2 words, 1 letter; X Box  Halo


Sorry, I'm just a smartass. I have not yet found computer gaming comparable to the 27" screen and XBox, but it's cool to watch you guys figure this out. Good Luck with the install.      

Oh yeah... and just to reply - dude, I know what you mean.  I quit playing PC games a long time ago, and have been a PS2/XBOX fan since.  No BS, none of this "configuration" crapola... just drop the game in and go.  BUT... I'm into racing games.  Aside from MotoGP-2 for XBOX, nothing really does it for me.   GT4 is fun for solo-runs, but if I want to RACE, it sucks.  Gotta have a PC to play the 3 sim racers that are out now.

FYI... I'll have my newly-updated for-games PC hooked up to my 34" Sony XBR widescreen HDTV  :)  

[spyderchick]

Congratulations! :D :D :D :D

[OmniGLH]

There was no way I was gonna let this thing beat me....

 ;D

[AZ-MilleR]

Without trying to get too geeky on you, the memory pairing done now is completely different from the old days of pairing memory.  In the old days you had a 32-bit processor and only 16 bit ram, or before that a 16 bit processor and 8 bit ram, or even a 32 bit CPU and 8 bit ram.  So for it to read the RAM properly you need the appropriate number of matching sticks of RAM to equal bits it could address simultaneously.  In the case of a 16 bit CPU and 8 bit RAM it meant pairs of memory.  In the case of a 32 bit CPU and 8 bit ram, memory had to go in groups of 4.  

Today's systems will work either way, paired or not paired, BUT you will get a major difference in speed.  When Intel and AMD went to 800Mhz and above Front side bus (FSB), what they actually did was take 2 sticks of 400Mhz RAM and address them simultaneously.  This gives the effectiveness of a single stick at 800Mhz.  That is why your memory is rated as PC3200 (400Mhz), yet the bus is 800Mhz.  If you ran a single stick of 1Gb RAM as you mentioned you had originally purchased, your 800Mhz FSB Processor would only be running at 400Mhz and as everyone said earlier, that is #1 in building a fast gaming system.  

So you probably had a bad stick of RAM, but you did receive good advice in buying the memory in pairs.  

I might be slow on a bike, but I can fix a computer.

[r1owner]

Oh yeah... and just to reply - dude, I know what you mean.  I quit playing PC games a long time ago, and have been a PS2/XBOX fan since.  No BS, none of this "configuration" crapola... just drop the game in and go.  BUT... I'm into racing games.  Aside from MotoGP-2 for XBOX, nothing really does it for me.   GT4 is fun for solo-runs, but if I want to RACE, it sucks.  Gotta have a PC to play the 3 sim racers that are out now.

FYI... I'll have my newly-updated for-games PC hooked up to my 34" Sony XBR widescreen HDTV  :)  

Glad to hear you got it working Jim...

Is that 34" a CRT?  If so, you suck!!! ;)  BTW, if it is, how do you like it?

That's the TV I want!

[OmniGLH]

Scott I LOVE it.  I traded in my 46" Mitsu projection TV for it.  Even though it's a little smaller, if picture quality is what you're after, then a traditional tube TV is the way to go.  The picture is phenomenal... DVD's look like a HD signal.  

I went for Sony's "XBR" model, but only cuz I got a smokin' deal on it.  If I were paying retail, then I'd go for the "XS" model - 1 step below the XBR.  The only difference is the cable card slot and pic-in-pic.

http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_BrowseCatalog-Start?CategoryName=xbr_tube&Dept=tvvideo