http://www.bootdisk.com/ 011 June 2007
HouseCall
Welcome to the 11th Edition of HouseCall
INDEX
1) Stubborn File Deleters
2) Disposable/Temporary Email Address
3) Can I Skip SP1 And Install SP2 Right Away?
4) Limit On Amount Of RAM For XP?
5) Will Adding More RAM To XP Help?
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1) Stubborn File Deleters
ReMAX posted - I know I have a file on my PC which is causing problems. Problem is, I cant seem to find it to delete it even so some of my apps tell me what it is. Any tips on how to find it and get rid of it?
Pennywise answered:
You might not be able to see the file in question as it may sit in the system32 folder and a virus has hidden it eg. made it a system file. Unhide everything:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial62.html#win2000
For malware give AVG spyware a try:
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/20/lng/us/tpl/v5
Another way to delete the file if you do find it is with Killbox:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/files/killbox.php
Process explorer is a very handy utility:
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html
Double click on a process and view the image to see where it's located.
*** Other stubborn file deleters:
http://www.bootdisk.com/utility.htm
GENERAL FILE UTILITIES
Stubborn File Deleters
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2) Disposable/Temporary Email Address
don questioned - I know there are anonymous email sites that let you send anonymous email. but I'm looking for one that also lets you receive a reply back too - is this possible?
Pennywise responded:
Like a [really temporary] disposable email address?
http://spamhole.com/
http://trashmail.net/
*** Personally I've been setting up disposable email addresses at yahoo.com and/or email.com, but the above 2 options may even be best for many as you can limit the number of hours and/or days used. Most certainly worth trying both of them.
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3) Can I Skip SP1 And Install SP2 Right Away?
BooFredAggy asked - I am using XP original for years and I know that there are updates specifically SP1 and SP2. Do I need to update my PC in order, eg install XP SP1 first and then XP SP2?
*** No, all you have to do to update to the latest and best XP is to install the XP SP2 update. All the fixes in SP1 are included in SP2:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2/default.mspx
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=windowsxpsp2
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/winxpsp2.mspx
http://tinyurl.com/5q6hm
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4) Limit On Amount Of RAM For XP?
Aamir wrote - Is there a limit on amount of RAM XP can handle? i have heard that its 4Gb but another friend of mine has different view thats it can handle more than 4Gb!
Rock said:
Standard 32bit XP can handle up to 4GB but not all of that is seen by the OS, some is used by hardware. 64bit XP can handle up to 128 GB.
Tim S. answered:
Any 32-bit system has an address space of 2**32=4GB. But you wont be able to see and use the entire 4GB. See the following for a discussion:
http://members.cox.net/slatteryt/RAM.html
There is a 64bit version of WinXP, as well as several 64bit versions of Vista. These systems can use much more than 4GB RAM, currently their limit is something like 128GB, I believe. Full 64bit addressing would allow vastly more space.
Ken B. added:
You are both right. 32-bit XP can use up to 4GB, 64bit XP up to 128GB.
*However*, note that that 4GB number is very misleading. There is a 4GB address space, but some of it is used by hardware devices and isn't available to Windows. In practice, even if you install 4GB, you get at most a little over 3GB of usable RAM.
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5) Will Adding More RAM To XP Help?
Robin asked - I have an HP Pavilion a1330n. It has 4 slots. 2 have 512 DDR SDRAM sticks in them. I want to get a total of 2G memory. Can I just get 2 more 512's? Or would I have to get 2 1G sticks? Also, I have an onboard ATI Raedon Xpress 200. I want to upgrade that. Does anyone have any opinions suggestions about what I should get?
Ron M. answered:
You could easily add 2 more 512 mb RAM modules to give you the total of 2 gb. However if you are expecting this provide a performance boost then you need to do some checking before you spend the money. Adding more memory can noticeably improve performance only if the added memory results in reduced usage of the virtual memory paging file. Therefore if the paging file is not currently being used to any significant extent then adding more memory will not provide a significant improvement.
Unfortunately there is no ready way of determining actual paging file usage provided with Windows XP - it does not have an equivalent to the 'Memory Manager - Swap File In Use" reporting provided by the System Monitor utility in Windows 95/98/Me. There is a free utility that you can download and run which will provide this information for you. It was written by MVP Bill James and you can get if from:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm
If that utility shows actual page file usage of 50 mb or more on a regular basis then that is indicative of fairly significant paging file activity. Adding more RAM will reduce or even eliminate entirely this activity thereby improving performance. This apples regardless of how much or how little RAM is currently installed in the computer, at least up to the 4 gb RAM maximum for Windows XP.
As for a video upgrade, the value of doing that depends on what you are using the computer for. Your motherboard does have a PCI Express 16 slot which could be used for a video card. It does not support the older AGP type video cards.
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