http://www.bootdisk.com/ 0039 November 2008
HouseCall
Welcome to the 39th Edition of HouseCall
INDEX
1) MarketBrowser And Vista
2) RAID 0 And Vista
3) Rotate Vista Screen
4) New PC, Vista BSODs
5) Driver Issue
Tiny Face
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1) MarketBrowser And Vista
I am NOT recommending MarketBrowser. I "must" have seen it as a "free" app. from a search in Google or when looking for stock information. Looks cool, but for my Vista PC, it results in "lower quality" video from "Netflix". Once gone or closed, Netflix video is fine. Also, MarketBrowser gets you spam, so dont use a real email address for use.
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2) RAID 0 And Vista
nospam wrote - I am trying to install Vista on a RAID 0 but it won't go. While I was able to set up two identical drives in BIOS as RAID 0, the Vista Installation stops shortly after I press Install and waiting for some kind of drivers.
I was under the impression (because I read this in one of the computer publications) that, unlike Windows XP which required RAID drivers from a floppy upon installation, Vista did not. So the trouble is, if the proper drivers are not provided (Vista doesn't indicate which drivers), the installation goes nowhere. Any clues?
Rick R. replied:
Vista supports some RAID systems, but not all. Apparently yours is the latter, so you will need to download the appropriate driver files from the motherboard manufacturer. In Vista, you can supply the files via floppy, thumb drive, or CD.
Ken B. added:
I'd like to recommend *against* RAID0, striping. Although RAID0 sounds like it gives substantial speed improvement, in practice the actual improvement is usually almost unnoticeable. And it has a severe
downside: if either drive fails, you lose everything on both drives.
I used to run RAID0 on this machine, and stopped using it several months ago. I decided that the increased risk wasn't worth the very small speed improvement. My experience since then has been what I expected. I can't discern any difference in speed with or without the RAID0.
nospam comes back:
Of course RAID 0 is a risky but no more than putting your data on one hard drive and not backing it up.
Ken B. said:
Sorry, that's not correct. If you put your data on one hard drive your risk is that if the drive fails, you lose what's on it. With RAID0, there are two (or more) drives involved; if *either* of them fails,
you lose everything that's on both drives.
That's *double* the risk, and in my opinion not worth it for the very small, if any, performance advantage RAID0 achieves.
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3) Rotate Vista Screen
SHAH JEE asked - What is the short key to rotate the Vista screen?
Rick R. replied:
ctrl+alt+up arrow.
Ken B. said:
It's not a Vista issue. The ability to rotate the screen image is a feature of your video card, to help it work with monitors that rotate to portrait orientation. You accidentally pressed Ctrl-Alt, and some arrow key. Rotate it back using those keys.
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4) New PC, Vista BSODs
Folcom posted - Hey there, new to the forum and need some help with my "just-put-together" pc with 64bit Windows Vista. Had a lot of different bluescreens, but those seemed to be the graphics card drivers.
But now I get stop blue screens with some numbers and stuff. Talks about bios, drivers, harddisk tests and anti virus (which i just tried changing without any luck). Vista makes a minidump file of it. Any way I can chech that file, or someone that can?
Rick R. replied:
A new system that's blue screening with a myriad of different codes means you have faulty hardware. Analyzing the dump file isn't going to help. You need to start checking components.
Usually my suspects are in this order: ram, power supply, hard drive, motherboard, processor. The ram is easy enough to check with the onboard diagnostics, even if it ran ok in another system. A power supply tester is easily found for a few bucks. Hard drive diagnostics are generally available from the manufacturer. The motherboard would have to go back to the maker, same for the processor.
*** As an aside. "Usually _my_ suspects are", RAM, then Video card and/or video drivers. PS, HDD, Mobo, CPU are rarely an issue on a "just-put-together" PC.
If your error message was consistently the same, then I'd suspect a software/driver issue. As you stated that it changed each time, this is a fairly solid indicator of a hardware problem. It could be something as simple as your timing in the system BIOS (please tell me you aren't overclocking - if you are, don't).
*** May not be faulty hardware, but hardware that Vista doesn't like. In the "heyday" of local mom/pop PC builders, we used to sell PCs that would work, all tested in advance, etc. That is what you paid for. I dont build PCs for resale anymore, and it does take a lot of time now before I buy the parts for a new PC for myself.
When you put together a PC, keep in mind it may be, and often is, several issues. Put together a new PC one part at a time, ie dont install ALL the cards at once. Video/Ram to start, then install Vista. And dont connect any USB or other extnernal devices until the OS is running fine with no problems.
pooch adds:
If you feel that you need to update your bios with 64bit installed then do it by floppy.
*** Again, another reason to get a 1.44 on any new PC.
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5) Driver Issue
bigcroc wrote - Hi I've bought driver agent and up to a few months ago all the drivers were well most of them were up to date,but after the latest scan I have been told that I have 14 drivers that are out of date.I went to the web site followed the NOTICE,for more information and I downdloaded the driver into the main drive C. Then it tells me to open cmd so I've done that, my problem starts here .............
*** No need to go further. NEVER use a driver update program. Only download the drivers that you need. NEVER update just because new drivers are available.
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