Dalo Harkin

Both the errors that you listed are RAM errors so I would say that one of the RAM modules is faulty. BUT its not as clear cut as that (it never is :D) a BSOD can be caused by a split second read/write error within the RAM and these are not always detected by RAM monitoring software. Is the RAM that you have dual channel? do you know the make and model number of each chip of RAM? take the RAM modules out and on the sticker it will say along the lines of:- Speed (PC3200/DDR400) or (PC8500/1066) Timings 5-5-5-15 Voltage 1.8V when using more than 2 matched sticks the RAM will need setting higher and often the timings revised.

Right take out all the RAM sticks and check what it says on each label. It will give speed (PC3200/DDR400) or (PC8500/1066) etc etc timings - 5-5-5-15 Voltage 1.8V If all of these do not match on all 3 sticks then you need to either let the MOBO do the calculations (this is not as accurate or reliable as you setting them manually) when you have more than 2 sticks of 'matching' RAM the DIMMS require more voltage. like I said its not uncommon for one DIMM socket to fail and without knowing what make and model the MOBO is then we cant see what speed RAM it supports

It depends on how much you want to limit the activity. You can just add sites into the trusted sites page on the windows firewall tab and add a new site on an as and when basis. You can use software such as the one you listed, but they are not ideal and often very limiting.

Seedy, I doubt its that older MOBOs would still recognise up to a 1TB RAID. So just to be clear, you have enabled the SATA controller in the BIOS and then SAVE & EXIT BIOS. an additional screen comes up after the post asking you to press F4 to configure RAID or along those lines. If the drives are not detected at this point then either there is a problem with the RAID controller or the disks themselves. Are the disks new and a identical? have you rechecked that the power and data cables are secure at both ends, SATA 2 have latch cables that 'clip' and lock into place whereas SATA 1 dont. If the BIOS cannot see the drives then windows wont either.

Has this now been resolved?

Do you have the latest updates from Windows etc? did you check that your system specs meet what Vista requires, many PCs bult for XP and then 'upgraded' to Vista have issues. You have to remember that while there was not much of a time span between Vista and W7 (2 years) the gap between XP and Vista was 6 years, and hardware changed a lot in this time. To check if you can run Vista on your hardware properly you can run the 'tool' that comes on the Vista disk.

If there was a file missing then it would show on the install and not proceed any further. Did you try and run the .exe as an administrator or just as you 'set as an admin'

Its not always the speed of the processor, its the chip type and the architecture behind it. for example the more cores the better (either physical or logical) the amount of cache it holds etc. an old socket 754 or 939 chip is nothing compared to the modern AMD dual chips nowadays. that being said there are not many rigs around that can beat my Q6600 :) (which by todays standards is old)

Have you tried to uninstall the game and reinstall it, access violations normally occur when you try and use a 'patch' also known as a no-cd/no-dvd Uninstall the game and then reinstall it as an administrator and see if its ok.

If you try and run a chkdsk then what should happen is a small dialog box popup saying it cant check the disk as its in use and then ask if you want it to start at the next boot up. (this is for system drives though) all other 'data' drives will be scanned right away

Hi and welcome to FPCH :D

If you are planning on running RAID through the MOBO then its hardware RAID which is good, but needs setting up through the BIOS normally. If you are trying to see the drives from within windows you need to activate them first from control panel>admin settings>computer management>disk managament (left hand side) the drives should be visible there and then you need to set them to dynamic or active

I wouldn't get it from PC World though, have a look online for better prices

Depending on the PC and the hardware, if the chip supports power saving mode then it may drop slightly when not doing much

Have you tried connecting to the router with a CAT5e cable as opposed to directly to the modem? how does your ASUS connect does it use a 'dongle' or does it have it built in? do you use software or the Windows settings to connect? have you unplugged the router so that it can reboot

Why not just set up a share and then have the 5 machines access that. In short no, you cannot access all 5 pcs at the same time and then transfer the files

All spot on by Kev But I also have a 260GTX and it cant run Crysis on full with AA and AF set to max unless I overclock it. Technically it would run, but if you want decent FPS then you want to set the AA and AF to as high as you can without destroying your FPS :)

If you cant enter safe mode you are going to struggle. Most problems like this can be sorted from within safe mode. Windows should 'auto' detect that you have a driver missing for the GPU and then install the windows default one. Have you checked that the pins on either end of the VGA/DVI cable are all there?? as this is a common problem If none of the above work then you need to do the below Do you have your OS (Operating System) CD? you need to boot from this and run a repair.

You cant run both at the same time, thats the problem, if you are using an add in card then yes you need to disable the onboard one, as it can cause conflicts

so you have:- 1x 512MB and 2x 2GB sticks depending on how old the MOBO is then 4GB may be more than it can handle. do you know what the MOBO make and model is? are all 3 of the sticks the same as in PC3200 (DDR400) or PC8500 (1066 DDR2) If for example you had 2x PC3200 and then 1x PC2700 then all 3 sticks would run at the lowest speed and some MOBOs cannot handle it. With more RAM you sometimes need to up the voltage supplied to them too. Try the sticks one at a time in each port to check that they are all ok, sometimes its not the RAM, but the DIMM slot (what the RAM inserts into) I have had a few DIMM slots go bad on boards before now.

Yeah thats fine with me :)

The space you are referring to is the HDD (Hard drive) space, the OS deoending on which it is will be around 8GB of the space used and the rest will mostly be old files and programs, some of which can probably be removed, have a look in control panel and add/remove games and then remove anything that you are unlikely to use such as Games, and whatever else. MAKE SURE you know what you are removing before you actually remove it as it could cause you problems if you remove some of the MS built in stuff :)

Before you even think about reformatting you need to make sure that you have all the drivers you need beforehand. As you are going back in terms of technology the MOST important driver is for the SATA controller if you have SATA drives as you have to manually install these on XP via floppy drive. (which 99% of people no longer use)

Well if you can physically 'see' the devices in device manager then thats a start. If you goto start and then network where it shows you the network adapters are they enabled or disabled? When you look in device manager and double click on one of the adapters it will tell you if the devices are ok or not running usually followed by an error code. Do you have any drivers that came with the PC incase we need you to reinstall them?

No worries, any issues in the future you know where we are