Need to solve something?

Google it, if your having problems with it...someone else has to have the same problem.

 Tip: If you get too many hits, add specific words to your search

Tips on searching - http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference.html

PC Annoyances Prevention

Yeah you know what they are...Virus', Spam, and Spyware (malware)...Some people got nothing better to do and get paid to do it.

In the menu to the left and below are specific tidbits about each but here is general info.

Applications that you must have:

• Anti-virus - Refer to Virus Page for help. 
• Spyware/malware cleaner (aka adware & advertisement pop-up programs) - Refer to Spyware/malware for help.
• pop-up stoppers - Refer to Spyware/malware for help.  
• firewall - If you are connected directly to your cable modem or use a dial-up modem, then you must have a firewall. If you have a router that connects to your cable modem, you are somewhat protected...but not fully.
• P2P (peer to peer filesharing ie: Kazaa) - If you must...don't use Kazaa, use KazaaLite, be careful there are many imitators that will install unwanted malware. KazaaLite project has been killed, but now Kazaa Lite Resurrection http://www.filesharingplace.com/startpage/index.htm.

 Things I highly suggest:

• Norton Anti-virus - www.symantec.com
• firewall - www.zonealarm.com (XP with SP2 now has a built-in firewall)
• malware cleaner - www.lavasoft.de
• malware cleaner/preventer - www.spybot.info
• malware preventer - http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

PC apps I use...err test.

• MS Office 97 - sure Office XP has some neat stuff, but do you really need it...not
• FTP Explorer - cool FTP www.ftpx.com
• TextPad - its like notepad on steriods, lotsa functionallity www.textpad.com
  • http://johnbokma.com/textpad/textpad-reference.pdf
  • find 2 words in line: "word1.*word2"
• malware removers - Ad-aware, Spybot S&D [recommended (use the "immunize" feature)]
• file syncronization/backup - Syncromagic (sure offline files are nice, but annoying)
• CD burning - Nero
• Print Screen capture - http://www.wisdom-soft.com/products/screenhunter_free.htm

Whats the new stuff?

This section contains things I have researched. Maybe this section will turn into its own page with some kinda format. For now, I will just put my interpretation of them and some links to good information.

• AMD Athlon 64

Ah the new chip from AMD, 64-bit processor. Actually it's the second, the Opteron

Microsoft Support - http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;824087

I have installed XPP and XP x64 on it. XPP seem to work fine(didn't really install any apps), boot time wasn't deceased dramatically but improved. x64 explained below.

Intels competition - Itanium and Xeon (mainly server CPUs, not really designed for desktop)

Articles:

• http://weblogs.asp.net/stoey/archive/0001/01/01/361880.aspx
• http://www.windowsitpro.com/Windows/Article/ArticleID/44686/44686.html
• http://weblogs.asp.net/craigmcmurtry/archive/2004/11/05/252858.aspx
• http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/roundupmobo/athlon-64-3400.html

• AMD Athlon 64 x2

Ah the newer chip got newer from AMD, 64-bit processor DUAL CORE. 2 processors on 1 chip

• http://www.amdreview.com/reviews.php?rev=athlonx24200
• http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/a64-x2-4200/index.html

• Windows XP x64

The new 64-bit OS for them new 64-bit chips.

I have downloaded and installed it. Drivers are hard to find as of 02/2005.

Drivers need to be Windows x64 or Windows 2003 compatible.

• PCIe (PCI Express)

The new bus slot.

(16x) video is similiar to AGP concepts except with a wider bandwidth to processor.

Other PCI-E slots go through a different controller not the BIOS.

good read - http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1087&page=1

laymans terms - http://shop.store.yahoo.com/directron/expressguide.html

really technical - http://www.pcisig.com/home

• Multi-GPUs (graphic processing units)...2 video cards

2 cards better than 1? according to this test they are:

http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.cfm?articleid=612

This article is mainly testing the SLI (Scalable Link Interface) which basically combines the 2 video cards together to make parallel processing units, so it will take the 16 lanes of the primary PCIe slot and split them into 2x8lanes.

• SATA drives

Same ATA drives with different controllers.

When this technology first came out, mfg'ers were just putting analog convertors on their drives basically making them able to use the new cables...they did not change the actual drive controllers to utilize the new tech. Now drives are coming with "native" SATA, making them much faster.

This guy actually took old computers and put SATA drives in them and tested them.

http://www.techbuilder.org/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=59200981

Most of the newer motherboards have been coming with connectors, but who cares...the size of the IDE cable doesn't bother me...

 

• SATA "Simple-Swap SATA drives" aka EZ-Swap

this is a new thing IBM developed, haven't looked at it physically but it looks to be just rails that you attach to the drive and slide it in the frame to make it easy to swap drive...it is not for hot swap, you have to shut power off...but removing a panel and 4 mounting screws takes at least 2 minutes, which will be nothing compared to the rebuild time of the disk array...

http://ebb.org/bkuhn/random-info/ibm-x-series-hd-tray.html

 

• DDR2 memory

guess we need to wait for GDDR3 or XDR

http://www.anandtech.com/news/shownews.aspx?i=24145

http://www.lostcircuits.com/memory/ddr3/

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/ddr2_vs_ddr3/

• Flash Drives

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