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Just Wanted to Say Thanks for All the Good Information
I have a custom made PC that was built in late 98 and a few months ago I
started getting the error "unable uo update ESCD" on boot but windows would go ahead and load. A look on the internet said it was the bios chip on the motherboard gone bad so I went to a couple of local PC builders and was told to junk the PC. I found another Asus P299 motherboard on eBay for $10.00 so I got it and swapped out the bios chip and then updated the bios to the latest version. I had always been afraid to try this before. Disabled things I don't use in bios, serial ports, parallel port, etc.and then decided to reformat and reinstall Windows. Downloaded all the various drivers and put them on a CD, did all the Windows updates. Next I installed Office XP only installing the features I actually use and then did the same thing with the rest of my software. It's amazing how stable WinMe can be and how fast it boots (6sec) and shuts down (3sec) when it's installed properly and and doesn't have a bunch of useless stuff loading at startup. Over the years I've printed many messages from this newsgroup and they were invaluable in configuring and eliminating glitches. A few things I remembered how to do like switching from APM which ME installed to ACPI but many of them I had completely forgotten. It might have been silly to put all this time into an old PC but It was a good project to focus on while awaiting surgery for prostate cancer and I learned a lot about PCs. Even got the nerve to do a bios update to my XP Pro machine. Again, thanks for taking the time to help people with their problems. Al |
#2
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Just Wanted to Say Thanks for All the Good Information
Al: Your computer success story is nice to read, not so your health report. Wish you the very best of luck. Myself I had opted out on surgery and the others, to prefer "watchful waiting". Of course, I am probably a bit older than you, too. Only 6sec. to boot? That's amazing, how did you accomplish it? Really would like to know. Harry. "Alton Davis" wrote in message ... I have a custom made PC that was built in late 98 and a few months ago I started getting the error "unable uo update ESCD" on boot but windows would go ahead and load. A look on the internet said it was the bios chip on the motherboard gone bad so I went to a couple of local PC builders and was told to junk the PC. I found another Asus P299 motherboard on eBay for $10.00 so I got it and swapped out the bios chip and then updated the bios to the latest version. I had always been afraid to try this before. Disabled things I don't use in bios, serial ports, parallel port, etc.and then decided to reformat and reinstall Windows. Downloaded all the various drivers and put them on a CD, did all the Windows updates. Next I installed Office XP only installing the features I actually use and then did the same thing with the rest of my software. It's amazing how stable WinMe can be and how fast it boots (6sec) and shuts down (3sec) when it's installed properly and and doesn't have a bunch of useless stuff loading at startup. Over the years I've printed many messages from this newsgroup and they were invaluable in configuring and eliminating glitches. A few things I remembered how to do like switching from APM which ME installed to ACPI but many of them I had completely forgotten. It might have been silly to put all this time into an old PC but It was a good project to focus on while awaiting surgery for prostate cancer and I learned a lot about PCs. Even got the nerve to do a bios update to my XP Pro machine. Again, thanks for taking the time to help people with their problems. Al |
#3
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Just Wanted to Say Thanks for All the Good Information
Harry,
In the bios I disabled the serial ports, parallel port, USB support (put in a USB2 card), and boot up floppy seek. I also set it to boot straight from the C drive since you can always change that if you need to boot from a floppy or CD. I set the folders view to Classic, don't use Active Desktop which means you have to use a bmp for the background rather than a jpg, and unchecked all the visual effects. Active Desktop seems to make a difference but not sure about the others. Office XP puts osa.exe in the startup folder. Deleting that makes it take a bit longer the first time you start an Office app. but after that Office apps start as fast as if osa.exe was loaded. ATI puts a control on the taskbar but that can be disabled in the software. It's only useful if you're constantly changing screen resolutions, etc. I have an HP photosmart 2410 all in one and it loaded a bunch of stuff, some in the start menu and some in the registry. I was able to remove all of it without ill effect except that the buttons on the all in one won't activate the software which I never did anyway. Acrobat Reader never seemed to play well with ME so I installed Foxit Reader instead. Foxit Reader is still rather primitive but it works for me. QuickTime loads QTTask which I eliminated without ill effect. After going through all my software and doing this the only things that load at startup a Scan Registry System Tray Load Power Profile Load Power Profile *StateMgr KB891711 Still ImageMonitor The only things in the taskbar are the clock and volume control. The last thing I did was use jv16 to clean everything out of the registry that I thought was safe to eliminate (several hundred items). I have a Linksys BEFSR41 router which seems to be adequate as a firewall so I don't use firewall software. I don't think this helps with speed but I set a static IP address behind the router and turned off DHCP. Also, I don't use antivirus software. This might be dumb but I've never had a virus, worm, or any other malware. I use judgment about where I go and the same judgment seems to work well on the internet. I do use SpyBot Search and Destroys Immunize feature to block bad web sites. Also having a good ISP with great antivirus and spam software helps. In a year I only get perhaps a half-dozen spam e-mails. I had my prostate surgery on my 66th birthday. It's been nearly a year now and the tests still come back less than 01 so I'm sure they got it all. I didn't even consider an alternative to surgery since I wanted the cancer out ASAP. My surgeon was surprised by my attitude when he did the counseling about options but I couldn't consider it a big deal. I have a grandson with leukemia. He has diagnosed at 9 mos. and has had 2 stem cell transplants. He's 5 now and has been in remission for nearly 6 mos. After watching everything he's gone through and how he's taken it I think it would be hard to complain about anything that happens to me. Al |
#4
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Just Wanted to Say Thanks for All the Good Information
Thank you Al for your detailed descriptions. You most certainly have a healthy attitude. The parallel between your and my story seemed quite coincidental. Our 7 year old grandson recently died of neuroblastoma after a four year battle. In hindsight I wouldn't even have had the biopsy, but my PSA is fairly stable at a low rate and it doesn't look bad. I am happy for your success, because in half the cases there are problems, even reoccurrences. You have been very helpful with insightful instructions. Harry. "Alton Davis" wrote in message ... Harry, In the bios I disabled the serial ports, parallel port, USB support (put in a USB2 card), and boot up floppy seek. I also set it to boot straight from the C drive since you can always change that if you need to boot from a floppy or CD. I set the folders view to Classic, don't use Active Desktop which means you have to use a bmp for the background rather than a jpg, and unchecked all the visual effects. Active Desktop seems to make a difference but not sure about the others. Office XP puts osa.exe in the startup folder. Deleting that makes it take a bit longer the first time you start an Office app. but after that Office apps start as fast as if osa.exe was loaded. ATI puts a control on the taskbar but that can be disabled in the software. It's only useful if you're constantly changing screen resolutions, etc. I have an HP photosmart 2410 all in one and it loaded a bunch of stuff, some in the start menu and some in the registry. I was able to remove all of it without ill effect except that the buttons on the all in one won't activate the software which I never did anyway. Acrobat Reader never seemed to play well with ME so I installed Foxit Reader instead. Foxit Reader is still rather primitive but it works for me. QuickTime loads QTTask which I eliminated without ill effect. After going through all my software and doing this the only things that load at startup a Scan Registry System Tray Load Power Profile Load Power Profile *StateMgr KB891711 Still ImageMonitor The only things in the taskbar are the clock and volume control. The last thing I did was use jv16 to clean everything out of the registry that I thought was safe to eliminate (several hundred items). I have a Linksys BEFSR41 router which seems to be adequate as a firewall so I don't use firewall software. I don't think this helps with speed but I set a static IP address behind the router and turned off DHCP. Also, I don't use antivirus software. This might be dumb but I've never had a virus, worm, or any other malware. I use judgment about where I go and the same judgment seems to work well on the internet. I do use SpyBot Search and Destroys Immunize feature to block bad web sites. Also having a good ISP with great antivirus and spam software helps. In a year I only get perhaps a half-dozen spam e-mails. I had my prostate surgery on my 66th birthday. It's been nearly a year now and the tests still come back less than 01 so I'm sure they got it all. I didn't even consider an alternative to surgery since I wanted the cancer out ASAP. My surgeon was surprised by my attitude when he did the counseling about options but I couldn't consider it a big deal. I have a grandson with leukemia. He has diagnosed at 9 mos. and has had 2 stem cell transplants. He's 5 now and has been in remission for nearly 6 mos. After watching everything he's gone through and how he's taken it I think it would be hard to complain about anything that happens to me. Al |
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