Yea, I'm more or less positive now the seeks of the floppy drives is caused
by the shortcuts on the desktop.
Nope, no problems with multipule instances of software running but I do seem
to have cyclic 3..12% cpu usage happening. I suspect it's something going on
within the "more secure" network crap (I suspect it's something like "Lan
manager service" polling shares etc.) as this pc's networked to 4 other 98SE
pc's.
Overall, system seems stable although I have had two occurences of system
simply rebooting. Never has the system just rebooted under 98SE in years. I
have changed XP's default behaviour to at least see the old (I assume) blue
screen of death
Things do work more smoothly, especially things like my
lpt port scanner which under XP doesn't bring everything else to a grnding
halt like it does under 98SE.
I had little to no problem getting all my hardware to work (and I have a
lot, 3 printers, two webcams, video in and out, dual monitors on separate
video cards, two rumblepads and two wheels (all force feedback), pressure
sensitive tablet, scanner and sometimes digital camera as either MSD or
webcam). Both my cd burner and DVD drive work properly (or at least both
Nero and PowerDVD do what I expect).
Only hardware problem seems to be with the external modem (USR Robotics 56K)
sometimes acting like it's dropped back it's line speed communicating with
the pc from 115200 to "???" so it doesn't understand the "AT" command when
asked to dial. As it's an external modem, usually just turning it off and on
has solved the problem but a couple of times now the modem has "disappeared"
and doesn't return until system is rebooted? I did find an entry in the
registry for the Fax which was set to 57,600 (can't remember exact baud rate
offhand) which I changed to match the dialer, e.g. 115200 and it hasn't
happened since so ... wait and see
If it remains a problem I'll set both
to the 57,600 setting and check again as my dialup's slow enough that won't
matter much
Games suck, big hit in performance from 98SE. Even using the "start /high"
trick doesn't bring them up to par with what I'm used to. I've taken a hit
of at least one drop of resolution (1600->1280->1024->800->640) and have to
back off a bit on eye candy usually also. That's using DX9.0b and Cat 4.3
drivers under both environments.
Under 98SE, I never thought twice about keeping a dl going and starting some
game. Everytime I've tried it under XP, the dl slows enough that the sending
server times out. Probably a result of using the "start /high" trick so my
choices are a) dl, play slow and not enjoy or b) not play when dl'ing. Note,
I'm dialup in rural area never faster than 28.8 baud (I know but there's no
other choice).
Glad I set this up dual-boot so can still enjoy same.
I've also had both Links 2003 and Unreal II kick me out once each under XP.
This has never occured to me under 98SE and I've been using Links 2003 for
well over a year (closer to two) but Unreal II only had a month.
PPd said:
pip.you suspected right about your odd desktop behavior.........I finally
quit using the shortcuts cause they were
not really shortcuts anymore....disabled Norton's virus which I suspected
to be the problem, but that didn't help.
I don't suppose you've had any problem with programs running 6 to 20
instances of themselves have you? I am almost
always running at 100% CPU usage. I've got a new computer, so I don't
know whether to blame the computer or the program. I've reinstalled windows
and everything was fine for a few days, then the slowdown began all over
again.;
Thought I'd check with the group before I went running to the big guys (ie
microsoft support) If you have any ideas, let me know..thanks
