Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
hitchies wrote: Tony said (of me) - = Oh dear you misunderstand again I am afraid. Isn't text ridiculous. I have not intended to criticise or patronise or insult or anything else. I was just saying what I had experienced. I am sorry if you have read something else into the raw text. . I think I had better withdraw and not say anything more in the future = Thank you Tony; I fully accept that this originated in a hurried misunderstanding. If you withdraw, you will be sorely missed. :( I simply don't have enough time. I am re-developing a house and also program for worldnews.com . These activities actually pay the bills. I cannot afford expensive hobbies like the QL trading now. I will still be doing QL work, but only when I can. I cannot offer a sensible turnaround for work now. Tony -- QBBS (QL fido BBS 2:257/67) +44(0)1442-828255 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
hitchies wrote: Tony said - What a con! === I'll take that as an apology then. Apology for what? My you are sensitive today. I was not criticising anyone. Tony === ..that's enough patronising. Thank you Tony. Regards to all, John in Wales ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
hitchies wrote: hitchies wrote: Tony said - What a con! === I'll take that as an apology then. Apology for what? My you are sensitive today. I was not criticising anyone. Tony === ..that's enough patronising. Thank you Tony. Oh dear you misunderstand again I am afraid. Isn't text ridiculous. I have not intended to criticise or patronise or insult or anything else. I was just saying what I had experienced. I am sorry if you have read something else into the raw text. Most times I write in QL Users group I am in a rush to leave the house - I am re-building a property in Leighton Buzzard. I simply don't have time to try to work out whether anything will offend anyone. Take it from me that *nothing* I have ever written in the mailing lists including the BBS, except one (Falkenburg), have been written with any intent to offend. I think I had better withdraw and not say anything more in the future (8-)# (See the smiley - that is as near as text can get to the real world isn't it!). I am far too busy anyway for anything much other than building/programming work and my leisure activities. The QL will get little of my attention in the foreseeable future. Tony -- QBBS (QL fido BBS 2:257/67) +44(0)1442-828255 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
Hi Marcel, IIRC that might be a design limitation of Windows (and perhaps most other OSes) but probably not of the Core Duo chip. I wasn't sure whether it was the chip ir the OS. Thanks for the confirmation. Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
Hi Marcel, Not entirely true, using a processor feature called PAE (Physical address extension) some Windows server version can address more memory (up to 64GB). That's the patch I was thinking of, but I was under the impression it only allowed an extra i GB of RAM to be addressed. As an Oracle DBA I have had occasion to use this on a Windows 2000 Server box to get the extra RAM utilised by the database. We had to patch Windows, patch Oracle and even then could only use 1 GB and only for the buffer cache. H, I wonder if you are talking about something different to what I remember. But in practise this will not help you because applications have to be specifically written for this (anybody remember the EMS memory expansions cards of old yore? Or EMM386.EXE? The principle is similar). Me, I do! I used to have Turbo C++ V3 and also Borland C++ 3.01 and those came with a DOS extender. Never got anything to work properly. :-( Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
hitchies wrote: Tony said - What a con! === I'll take that as an apology then. Apology for what? My you are sensitive today. I was not criticising anyone. Tony -- QBBS (QL fido BBS 2:257/67) +44(0)1442-828255 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
Tony said - What a con! === I'll take that as an apology then. Also, why separate DELL only for the (valid) flaming? - surely MAXTOR need to learn something too regarding their own advertised product support which they honour not? Not raining in Wales though! John ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
Norman Dunbar wrote: A good theory, in practice it is let down by either the design of the Core Duo chip or the OS not utilising things properly - I'm not sure which. In a Core Duo, all accesses to the Input Output sub-systems *must* be done by the first core and only by the first core. IIRC that might be a design limitation of Windows (and perhaps most other OSes) but probably not of the Core Duo chip. Marcel ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
Dilwyn, The Toshiba Tecra 780DVD is a PII 266Mhz Laptop is well within the minimum specification for Windows XP. The main problem is the BIOS onlyu supporting 8.4Gn hard drives. I doubt whether there is a BIOS update to cope with highwe capacity hard drives. If you look really hard there is always PII laptops with hard drives that are faulty or not fast enough for Windows XP or Vista, that are being scrapped. Which is a pity, as Linux can be run very smoothly on a PII laptop, but then that means no QPC2... Derek -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dilwyn Jones Sent: 02 January 2008 00:27 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD The existing one is either 6GB or 8GB (forget which). Derek has offered a similar size one for £10 which is probably good enough for such an old laptop. It used to have Windows 98SE on it, we were trying to replace that with Windows XP when the drive gave up the ghost. We've tried several times to FORMAT it, but it stops at the same place every time at the 13% mark in the FORMAT with a horrible noise. It won't boot up now of course, so we resort to the Win 98 startup disk to FDISK and FORMAT it, hoping to be able to convert it to NTFS for Win XP if and when we get it to format! The hard disk was itself a second hand replacement for a smaller hard disk which was in it when we bought it. I've since given away that small hard disk. Thanks for offering - I'll try Derek's offer first and appeal again if that is unsuccessful. My son is 12 now and VERY into his computers (as you might expect of a son of mine!). This Christmas, he got a little £60 Aiptek digital video camera, spent most of Christmas day recording his mum, dad, grandparents etc and made a very good half hour video of it all (with Windows Movie Maker, which was a traumatic learning experience until we realised we had to set Windows Virtual Memory to a massive 1GB to edit a video at a snail's pace on a 1.4GHz Pentium, which makes me very glad of what we are able to achieve at a few MHz on a QL sometimes) which is now on DVD doing the rounds of the family! Quite a learning curve, involving digital video editing, DVD creation software, SD card usage, USB file transfer, bluetooth links between phones and computers to import stills taken on 2 separate mobiles etc. A bit hairy at times, but we've both learned so much in just over a week that we are very happy about our achievement even if it was a bumpy ride! Bluetooth was an interesting experience and quite a challenge. My son had got a new Nokia phone late last year and I swapped him something for his old Motorola V3 phone which in an even worse condition than my ancient Nokia. Both phones (allegedly) have Bluetooth. We bought a USB 'Dongle' for his PC (just £2.50 from Ebuyer) so he could transfer his photos to his computer. That worked quite well from phone to PC, but the PC won't play the MP3's he's downloaded from his phone (don't know if it is a new file format problem, or if the MP3's are flagged only to work on the system they are downloaded as an anti-piracy or something). Then we realised the PC wouldn't send to the phone, but the phone had an obscure security setting which prevented that, but even after finding that we're still struggling to send to the phone. Next, we tried phone to phone. That was a hassle, it was only today we (well, my son actually) eventually found some little used feature on one of the phones which had prevented successful 'pairing' of the two phones - we were soon able to transfer files from one phone to the other very easily as long as we weren't far apart - I guess Bluetooth is only meant to work up to a few metres apart. Even more successful was connecting my phone to my PC and setting my Freeola dial-up to point to the USB-phone link as a modem. Dial out, and the phone magically springs to life, connects to Freeola and a little later I was downloading email and browsing via the mobile, then I realised it was 25p per minute. Oops, back to BT I think. But it works - I should be able to use this as a modem while away from home, possibly at Quanta workshops, and if the QPC or QemuLator TCP/IP can work with it, I'll be able to get some degree of internet access and emails from QPC via mobile phone, though I haven't got that far yet. I also want to get a USB Bluetooth dongle like my son's to see what I can achieve with that. While all this PC fiddling (and I call the PC fiddly as opposed to QL tinkering) may seem irrelevant, the fact that this appears to the PC just as any other modem, it means that I can set my sights on finishing the QPC email program I started writing last year and wouldn't that be great - mobile email access from QPC running on a laptop! My pet project for 2008 perhaps :-) -- Dilwyn Jones - Original Message - From: Rick Chagouri-Brindle [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
According to Microsoft the minimum computer specification is: Pentium 233Mhz, 64Mb ram, CDROM drive, SVGA, Mouse, 1.5Gb Hard Disk space. But I would say that a better minimum specification is the specification is: Pentium II 200Mhz, 128Mb ram, CDROM drive, SVGA, Mouse, 5Gb Hard Disk space. The utility you refer to is he Windows XP Upgrade Advisor. Or from the Windows XP setup program using the the command switch: winnt32.exe /checkupgradeonly Derek -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 02 January 2008 01:50 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD --- Original Message --- From: Dilwyn Jones [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD The existing one is either 6GB or 8GB (forget which). Derek has = offered a similar size one for =A310 which is probably good enough for = such an old laptop. It used to have Windows 98SE on it, we were trying = to replace that with Windows XP when the drive gave up the ghost. = We've tried several times to FORMAT it, but it stops at the same place = every time at the 13% mark in the FORMAT with a horrible noise. It won't boot up now of course, so we resort to the Win 98 startup = disk to FDISK and FORMAT it, hoping to be able to convert it to NTFS = for Win XP if and when we get it to format! The hard disk was itself a second hand replacement for a smaller hard = Are You Sure The laptop will support win Xp??? Usually if it was originally win 95 or 98 it will not measure up to XP, at least the ones I have seen of that vintage. There used to be a utility that you ran while in 98 that evaluated the needed upgrades before you could install XP or if XP would even run once installed. Did you try that before going the XP route??? ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm -- This email has been verified as Virus free. Virus Protection and more available at http://www.plus.net -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.17.13/1205 - Release Date: 12/31/2007 15:32 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
Microsoft nearly always under-quote the minimum memory requirements for any sort of effective use of their OS. For XP anything less than 128Mb is painful, and 256Mb is really what you should regard as a minimum to avoid excessive disk swapping. Dave -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Derek Stewart Sent: 02 January 2008 09:15 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD Dilwyn, The Toshiba Tecra 780DVD is a PII 266Mhz Laptop is well within the minimum specification for Windows XP. The main problem is the BIOS onlyu supporting 8.4Gn hard drives. I doubt whether there is a BIOS update to cope with highwe capacity hard drives. If you look really hard there is always PII laptops with hard drives that are faulty or not fast enough for Windows XP or Vista, that are being scrapped. Which is a pity, as Linux can be run very smoothly on a PII laptop, but then that means no QPC2... Derek -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dilwyn Jones Sent: 02 January 2008 00:27 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD The existing one is either 6GB or 8GB (forget which). Derek has offered a similar size one for £10 which is probably good enough for such an old laptop. It used to have Windows 98SE on it, we were trying to replace that with Windows XP when the drive gave up the ghost. We've tried several times to FORMAT it, but it stops at the same place every time at the 13% mark in the FORMAT with a horrible noise. It won't boot up now of course, so we resort to the Win 98 startup disk to FDISK and FORMAT it, hoping to be able to convert it to NTFS for Win XP if and when we get it to format! The hard disk was itself a second hand replacement for a smaller hard disk which was in it when we bought it. I've since given away that small hard disk. Thanks for offering - I'll try Derek's offer first and appeal again if that is unsuccessful. My son is 12 now and VERY into his computers (as you might expect of a son of mine!). This Christmas, he got a little £60 Aiptek digital video camera, spent most of Christmas day recording his mum, dad, grandparents etc and made a very good half hour video of it all (with Windows Movie Maker, which was a traumatic learning experience until we realised we had to set Windows Virtual Memory to a massive 1GB to edit a video at a snail's pace on a 1.4GHz Pentium, which makes me very glad of what we are able to achieve at a few MHz on a QL sometimes) which is now on DVD doing the rounds of the family! Quite a learning curve, involving digital video editing, DVD creation software, SD card usage, USB file transfer, bluetooth links between phones and computers to import stills taken on 2 separate mobiles etc. A bit hairy at times, but we've both learned so much in just over a week that we are very happy about our achievement even if it was a bumpy ride! Bluetooth was an interesting experience and quite a challenge. My son had got a new Nokia phone late last year and I swapped him something for his old Motorola V3 phone which in an even worse condition than my ancient Nokia. Both phones (allegedly) have Bluetooth. We bought a USB 'Dongle' for his PC (just £2.50 from Ebuyer) so he could transfer his photos to his computer. That worked quite well from phone to PC, but the PC won't play the MP3's he's downloaded from his phone (don't know if it is a new file format problem, or if the MP3's are flagged only to work on the system they are downloaded as an anti-piracy or something). Then we realised the PC wouldn't send to the phone, but the phone had an obscure security setting which prevented that, but even after finding that we're still struggling to send to the phone. Next, we tried phone to phone. That was a hassle, it was only today we (well, my son actually) eventually found some little used feature on one of the phones which had prevented successful 'pairing' of the two phones - we were soon able to transfer files from one phone to the other very easily as long as we weren't far apart - I guess Bluetooth is only meant to work up to a few metres apart. Even more successful was connecting my phone to my PC and setting my Freeola dial-up to point to the USB-phone link as a modem. Dial out, and the phone magically springs to life, connects to Freeola and a little later I was downloading email and browsing via the mobile, then I realised it was 25p per minute. Oops, back to BT I think. But it works - I should be able to use this as a modem while away from home, possibly at Quanta workshops, and if the QPC or QemuLator TCP/IP can work with it, I'll be able to get some degree of internet access and emails from QPC via mobile phone, though I haven't got that far yet. I also want to get a USB Bluetooth dongle like my son's to see what I can achieve with that. While all this PC fiddling (and I call the PC fiddly
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
Dilwyn Jones wrote: snip Even more successful was connecting my phone to my PC and setting my Freeola dial-up to point to the USB-phone link as a modem. Dial out, and the phone magically springs to life, connects to Freeola and a little later I was downloading email and browsing via the mobile, then I realised it was 25p per minute. Oops, back to BT I think. But it works - I should be able to use this as a modem while away from home, possibly at Quanta workshops, and if the QPC or QemuLator TCP/IP can work with it, I'll be able to get some degree of internet access and emails from QPC via mobile phone, though I haven't got that far yet. I also want to get a USB Bluetooth dongle like my son's to see what I can achieve with that. It will be at 9600bps. ... so at 25p a minute don't try to do serious work (8-)# Mind you that speed is the fastest a std QL can do, of course. Tony -- QBBS (QL fido BBS 2:257/67) +44(0)1442-828255 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
Dave Walker wrote: Microsoft nearly always under-quote the minimum memory requirements for any sort of effective use of their OS. For XP anything less than 128Mb is painful, and 256Mb is really what you should regard as a minimum to avoid excessive disk swapping. Spot on, Dave (as you should be (8-)# ). I found exactly that. In that light, I am staggered that M$ recommend (I believe) 1GB RAM for Vista. In the same vein, that means 2GB is the realistic figure. Crazy. Tony -- QBBS (QL fido BBS 2:257/67) +44(0)1442-828255 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
Interesting enough 1Gb is more than enough for Vista - it can actually run respectably enough in 512Mb.Perhaps they have learnt their lesson, and as memory is cheap do not want the PC vendors to cripple performance by stinting on memory. Having said that if I was going to buy a new machine for use with Vista I would probably go for 2Gb or 4Gb. Modern machines have hyperthreaded CPU cores, so you are more likely to load multiple applications and still get decent performance if you have lots of memory available. dave -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tony Firshman Sent: 02 January 2008 10:24 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD Dave Walker wrote: Microsoft nearly always under-quote the minimum memory requirements for any sort of effective use of their OS. For XP anything less than 128Mb is painful, and 256Mb is really what you should regard as a minimum to avoid excessive disk swapping. Spot on, Dave (as you should be (8-)# ). I found exactly that. In that light, I am staggered that M$ recommend (I believe) 1GB RAM for Vista. In the same vein, that means 2GB is the realistic figure. Crazy. Tony -- QBBS (QL fido BBS 2:257/67) +44(0)1442-828255 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
Re; This does not apply to Seagate (and Maxtor) or Western Digital. They do not ask for any information other than disk serial number. Tony === Tony must think I imagined it ;-) But, in case it is of further interest ,I copy two correspondences (from April 2004) below. I have a lot more including something 'formal' from Dell's legal dept! Regards to all, John in Wales == From ME .. Can you help with this please? I bought from DELL (as I have told them) because I knew that they used only the best third-party suppliers. I have explained to them that surely (as it is stated by you on the device) it is underwritten by you - so why should DELL hesitate? In effect, to put it starkly, this situation puts MAXTOR - as well as DELL- in a bad light. . = From DELL - Please include the following line in all replies. Tracking number: ET20040309_006363 Dear John. Thank you for contacting Dell Hardware e-support and services I understand your concern, but sorry to say that Dell treats only warranty issued on the time of purchase, not the warranty from the manufacturer. Once the part is purchased by any vendor and sent by Dell it is Dell's product and we will not consider the warranty of the manufacturer. I have even discussed the same with my manager and we will not be able to help you in this issue. = From MAXTOR - Thank you for your email. When Maxtor sells hard drives to Computer Manufacturer's, they also sell the warranty of the drive to the PC Manufacturer. Therefore in this case Dell now owns the warranty of Maxtor drives which they use in their PCs. Maxtor no longer cover the warranty of their drives once the drives have been sold to PC Manufacturers. If you have any other queries, please do not hesitate to contact us again. Kind Regards, Edwina Fogarty, Customer Support, Maxtor Ireland. end-jgh ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
hitchies wrote: Re; This does not apply to Seagate (and Maxtor) or Western Digital. They do not ask for any information other than disk serial number. Tony === Tony must think I imagined it ;-) But, in case it is of further interest ,I copy two correspondences (from April 2004) below. I have a lot more including something 'formal' from Dell's legal dept! What a con! Next time this happens simply take out the hard disk and send it alone. That is what I did with a HD in a Compaq laptop that was way out of guarantee and not a murmur. Yep - that confirms I will *never* buy from Dell - they are crooks to take that attitude. Tony Regards to all, John in Wales == From ME .. Can you help with this please? I bought from DELL (as I have told them) because I knew that they used only the best third-party suppliers. I have explained to them that surely (as it is stated by you on the device) it is underwritten by you - so why should DELL hesitate? In effect, to put it starkly, this situation puts MAXTOR - as well as DELL- in a bad light. . = From DELL - Please include the following line in all replies. Tracking number: ET20040309_006363 Dear John. Thank you for contacting Dell Hardware e-support and services I understand your concern, but sorry to say that Dell treats only warranty issued on the time of purchase, not the warranty from the manufacturer. Once the part is purchased by any vendor and sent by Dell it is Dell's product and we will not consider the warranty of the manufacturer. I have even discussed the same with my manager and we will not be able to help you in this issue. = From MAXTOR - Thank you for your email. When Maxtor sells hard drives to Computer Manufacturer's, they also sell the warranty of the drive to the PC Manufacturer. Therefore in this case Dell now owns the warranty of Maxtor drives which they use in their PCs. Maxtor no longer cover the warranty of their drives once the drives have been sold to PC Manufacturers. If you have any other queries, please do not hesitate to contact us again. Kind Regards, Edwina Fogarty, Customer Support, Maxtor Ireland. end-jgh ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm -- QBBS (QL fido BBS 2:257/67) +44(0)1442-828255 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
I read in the Guardian (so it must be true!) that the maximum memory that can be used is 3Gb but that could be just for XP. - Original Message From: Dave Walker [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, 2 January, 2008 10:31:36 AM Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD Interesting enough 1Gb is more than enough for Vista - it can actually run respectably enough in 512Mb.Perhaps they have learnt their lesson, and as memory is cheap do not want the PC vendors to cripple performance by stinting on memory. Having said that if I was going to buy a new machine for use with Vista I would probably go for 2Gb or 4Gb. Modern machines have hyperthreaded CPU cores, so you are more likely to load multiple applications and still get decent performance if you have lots of memory available. dave -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tony Firshman Sent: 02 January 2008 10:24 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD Dave Walker wrote: Microsoft nearly always under-quote the minimum memory requirements for any sort of effective use of their OS. For XP anything less than 128Mb is painful, and 256Mb is really what you should regard as a minimum to avoid excessive disk swapping. Spot on, Dave (as you should be (8-)# ). I found exactly that. In that light, I am staggered that M$ recommend (I believe) 1GB RAM for Vista. In the same vein, that means 2GB is the realistic figure. Crazy. Tony -- QBBS (QL fido BBS 2:257/67) +44(0)1442-828255 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ Support the World Aids Awareness campaign this month with Yahoo! For Good http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/forgood/ ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
I suspect that you are right for standard Vista, but if I was buying for a new machine I would be going for the 64-bit version which has no such limit. Dave -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Andy Barber Sent: 02 January 2008 17:38 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD I read in the Guardian (so it must be true!) that the maximum memory that can be used is 3Gb but that could be just for XP. - Original Message From: Dave Walker [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, 2 January, 2008 10:31:36 AM Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD Interesting enough 1Gb is more than enough for Vista - it can actually run respectably enough in 512Mb.Perhaps they have learnt their lesson, and as memory is cheap do not want the PC vendors to cripple performance by stinting on memory. Having said that if I was going to buy a new machine for use with Vista I would probably go for 2Gb or 4Gb. Modern machines have hyperthreaded CPU cores, so you are more likely to load multiple applications and still get decent performance if you have lots of memory available. dave -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tony Firshman Sent: 02 January 2008 10:24 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD Dave Walker wrote: Microsoft nearly always under-quote the minimum memory requirements for any sort of effective use of their OS. For XP anything less than 128Mb is painful, and 256Mb is really what you should regard as a minimum to avoid excessive disk swapping. Spot on, Dave (as you should be (8-)# ). I found exactly that. In that light, I am staggered that M$ recommend (I believe) 1GB RAM for Vista. In the same vein, that means 2GB is the realistic figure. Crazy. Tony -- QBBS (QL fido BBS 2:257/67) +44(0)1442-828255 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ Support the World Aids Awareness campaign this month with Yahoo! For Good http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/forgood/ ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
Dilwyn Jones wrote: My son is 12 now and VERY into his computers (as you might expect of a son of mine!). This Christmas, he got a little £60 Aiptek digital video camera, spent most of Christmas day recording his mum, dad, grandparents etc and made a very good half hour video of it all (with Windows Movie Maker, which was a traumatic learning experience until we realised we had to set Windows Virtual Memory to a massive 1GB to edit a video at a snail's pace on a 1.4GHz Pentium, which makes me very glad of what we are able to achieve at a few MHz on a QL sometimes) which is now on DVD doing the rounds of the family! I can really empathise with that! I have two boys one almost five and the other is three and a half! The five year old got a laptop for his third birthday! Some might call that extreme, but it was a secondhand P4 which I was able to upgrade with all the bits and boys I had accumulated over 15 years in IT! He had been showing such an interest in my PCs and more than that even at that early age an ability to use the mouse, click on icons, even load the right disks for his games and education programs! Having two very competitive boys very close in age, I took the precaution of getting a second laptop at the same time as the first - an identical model - and putting it away until we judged the younger lad was ready. Well, that happened this Christmas and both boys now are having great fun playing their games and surfing their (restricted to permitted sites) internet. It amazes me how quickly children pick things up in this day and age but good luck to them! The nearly five year old got a digital camera for Christmas and he has been taking photos of everything and everyone and now can upload the photos to his laptop without help! In fact, after a disappointing response to the ad for my assistant's role at work, i am thinking of offering him the job!!! ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
Hi Dave, Dave Walker wrote: Modern machines have hyperthreaded CPU cores, so you are more likely to load multiple applications and still get decent performance if you have lots of memory available. A good theory, in practice it is let down by either the design of the Core Duo chip or the OS not utilising things properly - I'm not sure which. In a Core Duo, all accesses to the Input Output sub-systems *must* be done by the first core and only by the first core. I read this about a month ago in one of the mainstream computer comics - can't remember which one now that I need to. Apparently, core 1 says to core 0, stop that and service this I/O request for me, so core 0 has to comply, so anything running on the first core is interrupted while it passes on I/O requests for the second core, and the second core is delayed in processing I/O while it hangs around waiting for the first core to pay attention! An interesting design I thought when I read it. Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
Are You Sure The laptop will support win Xp??? Usually if it was originally win 95 or 98 it will not measure up to XP, at least the ones I have seen of that vintage. There used to be a utility that you ran while in 98 that evaluated the needed upgrades before you could install XP or if XP would even run once installed. Did you try that before going the XP route??? A Toshiba Tecra 780 laptop will run XP ok . . . I used to run it on a Compaq Armada laptop PII-233 CPU and 256MB RAM. In classic mode in particular it was completely acceptable. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
Norman Dunbar wrote: database buffer cache, noit for program units etc. Not sure whether XP suffers from the 2GB limit or allows 3 GB though. Linux doesn't have this problem, apparently. Indeed, XP can see and use up to 3.5GB RAM - I have this installed on both my wife's PC and my laptop. Linux doesn't have this limitation as I have the full 4GB of RAM recognised and used on my Kubuntu Linux machine. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
Dave Walker wrote: I suspect that you are right for standard Vista, but if I was buying for a new machine I would be going for the 64-bit version which has no such limit. Dave The only problem with 64bit Vista is that the driver support is still appalling and the performance increase over 32bit Vista is minimal at present . . . pity really . . . ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
Get a Nomi SIM card, it cost me £5.00. Logged on to website used their Home Talking package I called my brother in Australia for 50ish minutes. I still have £5.43 credit left! Can't say 'fairer than that!' - Original Message From: Dilwyn Jones [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, 2 January, 2008 7:18:11 PM Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD emails from QPC via mobile phone, though I haven't got that far yet. I also want to get a USB Bluetooth dongle like my son's to see what I can achieve with that. It will be at 9600bps. ... so at 25p a minute don't try to do serious work (8-)# Obviously...but the main thing is it works, so on the very rare occasions I'd need net access (e.g. when away from home) I know it's possible. As you say...no serious work at 25p a minute though in time I might find better deals. The 25p a minute is for the first few minutes, after that it goes to cheaper rates for the same day. But still, impractical for anything but light occasional use. Mind you that speed is the fastest a std QL can do, of course. Sometimes I suspect this PC can't even manage that with the slow dial up speeds from here sometimes :-( Dilwyn Jones ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ Yahoo! Answers - Got a question? Someone out there knows the answer. Try it now. http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/ ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
Rick Chagouri-Brindle wrote: Dilwyn Jones wrote: My son is 12 now and VERY into his computers (as you might expect of a son of mine!). This Christmas, he got a little £60 Aiptek digital video camera, spent most of Christmas day recording his mum, dad, grandparents etc and made a very good half hour video of it all (with Windows Movie Maker, which was a traumatic learning experience until we realised we had to set Windows Virtual Memory to a massive 1GB to edit a video at a snail's pace on a 1.4GHz Pentium, which makes me very glad of what we are able to achieve at a few MHz on a QL sometimes) which is now on DVD doing the rounds of the family! I can really empathise with that! I have two boys one almost five and the other is three and a half! The five year old got a laptop for his third birthday! Some might call that extreme, but it was a secondhand P4 which I was able to upgrade with all the bits and boys I had accumulated over 15 years in IT! He had been showing such an interest in my PCs and more than that even at that early age an ability to use the mouse, click on icons, even load the right disks for his games and education programs! Having two very competitive boys very close in age, I took the precaution of getting a second laptop at the same time as the first - an identical model - and putting it away until we judged the younger lad was ready. Well, that happened this Christmas and both boys now are having great fun playing their games and surfing their (restricted to permitted sites) internet. It amazes me how quickly children pick things up in this day and age but good luck to them! The nearly five year old got a digital camera for Christmas and he has been taking photos of everything and everyone and now can upload the photos to his laptop without help! In fact, after a disappointing response to the ad for my assistant's role at work, i am thinking of offering him the job!!! ___ Give it to Ben (8-)# Ben started at about 2! He was using my laptop which was a 386-030 mono. There was a superb dinosaur DOS program that imitated English (speaking dinosaurs!) amazingly well through the system piezo 'speaker'. It loaded off floppy at boot, but the idiots asked two questions: 1) VGA (y/n) 2) sound (y/n) Other than that idiocy, all the rest was fine for a 2 year old and he had great fun. I wrote a program to pipe in the answers from a file, so he did not need to try to learn to read and type *that* early (8-)# Starting kids early with *anything* is always a good idea. Ben has turned into a brilliant programmer. He has been earning thousands a year since he was about 12 from the company I work for (Worldnews). Get one of your offspring to design a VOIP system for you home. Ben has set up Asterisk for me, and I can now make and receive calls anywhere on the internet using my home phone. He has also set up mythtv which not only provides a 3 tuner digital terrestrial system under Linux, but anyone on the local network can view live TV and recordings etc. You just wait!!! Tony -- QBBS (QL fido BBS 2:257/67) +44(0)1442-828255 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
Norman Dunbar wrote: Andy Barber wrote: I read in the Guardian (so it must be true!) that the maximum memory that can be used is 3Gb but that could be just for XP. Up to XP at least, Windows 32 bit can address only 4GB of memory. However, this is split into 2 GB for the user processes in total, and 2 GB for the 'kernel' processes. It is completely useless to put more than 4 GB into a Windows machine for this reason. Under Windows 2000 server and Windows 2003 server, there are patches you can apply (2000) or that have been built in (2003) called something like 'large memory system' to up the limit from 2 GB to 3 GB *under certain circumstances. Oracle databases, for example, can use the extra 1GB but only for database buffer cache, noit for program units etc. Not sure whether XP suffers from the 2GB limit or allows 3 GB though. Linux doesn't have this problem, apparently. Sure doesn't. Worldnews have a few 8GB ECC systems, and the motherboard (and Linux) supports up to 32GB or so. -- QBBS (QL fido BBS 2:257/67) +44(0)1442-828255 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
The existing one is either 6GB or 8GB (forget which). Derek has offered a similar size one for £10 which is probably good enough for such an old laptop. It used to have Windows 98SE on it, we were trying to replace that with Windows XP when the drive gave up the ghost. We've tried several times to FORMAT it, but it stops at the same place every time at the 13% mark in the FORMAT with a horrible noise. It won't boot up now of course, so we resort to the Win 98 startup disk to FDISK and FORMAT it, hoping to be able to convert it to NTFS for Win XP if and when we get it to format! The hard disk was itself a second hand replacement for a smaller hard disk which was in it when we bought it. I've since given away that small hard disk. Thanks for offering - I'll try Derek's offer first and appeal again if that is unsuccessful. My son is 12 now and VERY into his computers (as you might expect of a son of mine!). This Christmas, he got a little £60 Aiptek digital video camera, spent most of Christmas day recording his mum, dad, grandparents etc and made a very good half hour video of it all (with Windows Movie Maker, which was a traumatic learning experience until we realised we had to set Windows Virtual Memory to a massive 1GB to edit a video at a snail's pace on a 1.4GHz Pentium, which makes me very glad of what we are able to achieve at a few MHz on a QL sometimes) which is now on DVD doing the rounds of the family! Quite a learning curve, involving digital video editing, DVD creation software, SD card usage, USB file transfer, bluetooth links between phones and computers to import stills taken on 2 separate mobiles etc. A bit hairy at times, but we've both learned so much in just over a week that we are very happy about our achievement even if it was a bumpy ride! Bluetooth was an interesting experience and quite a challenge. My son had got a new Nokia phone late last year and I swapped him something for his old Motorola V3 phone which in an even worse condition than my ancient Nokia. Both phones (allegedly) have Bluetooth. We bought a USB 'Dongle' for his PC (just £2.50 from Ebuyer) so he could transfer his photos to his computer. That worked quite well from phone to PC, but the PC won't play the MP3's he's downloaded from his phone (don't know if it is a new file format problem, or if the MP3's are flagged only to work on the system they are downloaded as an anti-piracy or something). Then we realised the PC wouldn't send to the phone, but the phone had an obscure security setting which prevented that, but even after finding that we're still struggling to send to the phone. Next, we tried phone to phone. That was a hassle, it was only today we (well, my son actually) eventually found some little used feature on one of the phones which had prevented successful 'pairing' of the two phones - we were soon able to transfer files from one phone to the other very easily as long as we weren't far apart - I guess Bluetooth is only meant to work up to a few metres apart. Even more successful was connecting my phone to my PC and setting my Freeola dial-up to point to the USB-phone link as a modem. Dial out, and the phone magically springs to life, connects to Freeola and a little later I was downloading email and browsing via the mobile, then I realised it was 25p per minute. Oops, back to BT I think. But it works - I should be able to use this as a modem while away from home, possibly at Quanta workshops, and if the QPC or QemuLator TCP/IP can work with it, I'll be able to get some degree of internet access and emails from QPC via mobile phone, though I haven't got that far yet. I also want to get a USB Bluetooth dongle like my son's to see what I can achieve with that. While all this PC fiddling (and I call the PC fiddly as opposed to QL tinkering) may seem irrelevant, the fact that this appears to the PC just as any other modem, it means that I can set my sights on finishing the QPC email program I started writing last year and wouldn't that be great - mobile email access from QPC running on a laptop! My pet project for 2008 perhaps :-) -- Dilwyn Jones - Original Message - From: Rick Chagouri-Brindle [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, December 31, 2007 4:14 PM Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD Dilwyn Jones wrote: Does anyone have a cheap second hand 2.5 inch IDE hard drive of a few GB capacity to sell? The hard drive on my son's Toshiba Tecra 780 laptop has failed. We lost Windows, so set about reinstalling only to find it refused. An attempt to reformat failed after 13% (drive made awful noise). Don't want to spend 40-50 pounds on a new drive as the rather old laptop isn't really worth much more than that. What kind of size are you looking for? I might have one, I'll have a rummage. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
--- Original Message --- From: Dilwyn Jones [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD The existing one is either 6GB or 8GB (forget which). Derek has = offered a similar size one for =A310 which is probably good enough for = such an old laptop. It used to have Windows 98SE on it, we were trying = to replace that with Windows XP when the drive gave up the ghost. = We've tried several times to FORMAT it, but it stops at the same place = every time at the 13% mark in the FORMAT with a horrible noise. It won't boot up now of course, so we resort to the Win 98 startup = disk to FDISK and FORMAT it, hoping to be able to convert it to NTFS = for Win XP if and when we get it to format! The hard disk was itself a second hand replacement for a smaller hard = Are You Sure The laptop will support win Xp??? Usually if it was originally win 95 or 98 it will not measure up to XP, at least the ones I have seen of that vintage. There used to be a utility that you ran while in 98 that evaluated the needed upgrades before you could install XP or if XP would even run once installed. Did you try that before going the XP route??? ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
Dilwyn Jones wrote: Does anyone have a cheap second hand 2.5 inch IDE hard drive of a few GB capacity to sell? The hard drive on my son's Toshiba Tecra 780 laptop has failed. We lost Windows, so set about reinstalling only to find it refused. An attempt to reformat failed after 13% (drive made awful noise). Don't want to spend 40-50 pounds on a new drive as the rather old laptop isn't really worth much more than that. Check the guarantee. Seagate have a seven year one and that now covers Maxtor. Western Digital also have a long one. I have used all three many times successfully. You can check and arrange RMAs and even print labels online. Tony -- QBBS (QL fido BBS 2:257/67) +44(0)1442-828255 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
Happy New Year to all! Tony said Check the guarantee. Seagate have a seven year one and that now covers Maxtor. Western Digital also have a long one. I have used all three many times successfully. -- In case this raises too many hopes... I was ( 3years ago) refused the clear terms of a maker's guarantee simply because I had bought the HD as part of a new machine built and supplied by a third party company(Dell) .. i.e. not direct from Seagate (or was it Maxtor?). When in the army I would have said I was choked! - 'cause I was. Thanks to all who have contributed here during 2007 and especially to those who maintain the list. It's great. Best regards, John in Wales ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
hitchies wrote: Happy New Year to all! Tony said Check the guarantee. Seagate have a seven year one and that now covers Maxtor. Western Digital also have a long one. I have used all three many times successfully. -- In case this raises too many hopes... I was ( 3years ago) refused the clear terms of a maker's guarantee simply because I had bought the HD as part of a new machine built and supplied by a third party company(Dell) .. i.e. not direct from Seagate (or was it Maxtor?). When in the army I would have said I was choked! - 'cause I was. This does not apply to Seagate (and Maxtor) or Western Digital. They do not ask for any information other than disk serial number. Tony -- QBBS (QL fido BBS 2:257/67) +44(0)1442-828255 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
Dilwyn Jones wrote: Does anyone have a cheap second hand 2.5 inch IDE hard drive of a few GB capacity to sell? The hard drive on my son's Toshiba Tecra 780 laptop has failed. We lost Windows, so set about reinstalling only to find it refused. An attempt to reformat failed after 13% (drive made awful noise). Don't want to spend 40-50 pounds on a new drive as the rather old laptop isn't really worth much more than that. What kind of size are you looking for? I might have one, I'll have a rummage. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[Ql-Users] 2.5 inch HD
Does anyone have a cheap second hand 2.5 inch IDE hard drive of a few GB capacity to sell? The hard drive on my son's Toshiba Tecra 780 laptop has failed. We lost Windows, so set about reinstalling only to find it refused. An attempt to reformat failed after 13% (drive made awful noise). Don't want to spend 40-50 pounds on a new drive as the rather old laptop isn't really worth much more than that. -- Dilwyn Jones ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
