BeeCeeBee

The 169 leads me to believe that you have no internet address assigned at all by BT. Do you have any software from BT? Did you attempt tp reinstall the network at all? BT should have assigned you a key (WEP probably) which needs to be entered before you can connect with the internet. It seems that you should be able to connect to your router (192.168.1.254 - try typing it in your address bar) but not the internet. Have you entered the key?

I understand your reluctance but, as I said, I have read that Bullguard has had the very effect that you are complaining of and that uninstalling it solved the problem. A similar problem was also encountered with some versions of AVG. I would find the forum again but the information was nothing more than a few postings by members. As for disabling, while I do not know why you cannot (if I read that properly), disabling AV programs that are causing problems does not always make it go away. Sometimes a full uninstall is necessary. It is certainly your right to rule it out as a cause but you have had only limited success in solving this to date. To be clear, I am not suggesting that Bullguard is the cause only that it may be.

I think I have found the answer but not a solution. Directx 10 can emulate shading in software where the hardware does not otherwise support it. (I think I got that right.) HOWEVER, (and it is a big however) it seems that you are out of luck if, like me, you use XP. It appears that directX 10 is available only for Vista. Of course, if I upgraded my laptop I would already have a card that would support shading and would not need it to do that. I am interested if anyone has heard otherwise but if Microsoft does not make it compatible with XP I would be dubious of anyone who says they have a work around. They are always out there somewhere.

The directx that I have was the latest at the time that the game was published. Graphics card was known not to support vertex shading but the Intel link above says it does or can. I doubt that Intel redesigned the chipset and kept the same model designation. What I do not know is whether vertex shading can somehow be accomodated simply by updating drivers or a combination of updating drivers and directx? OR am I reading the information on the link incorrectly?

How did you determine that it set that address? Did these numbers show up in the TCP/IP boxes after you set to automatic or was some other method used to determine the assigned address? (ipconfig for example)

When you live by the email you die by the email (or was that a sword? I forget.) Doug you have made yourself very public and put a target on your back. We all get it to some extent or another. Blanket spam is very ordinary they get a list of email address on an isp or other sources and just add them to spam email. I'll bet that most of the recipients are near you in the alphabet. With that many active accounts you are bound to get spammed. You just have to get used to it.

For the record I get Zero spam on gmail so I can't agree that it is a gmail issue. I use gmail primarily for business as it provides good access from any computer and works well with Outlook Express as well. I suspect because I use it for very little general use I get very little spam in return.

Ok it is time to display the limits to my knowledge. I just finished a reply to a thread started by a member concerning a graphics card upgrade. http://extremetechsupport.com/forum/graphics-cards/6260-graphics-cards-new-post.html That got me to thinking and from thinking I went to Google. Some time ago I purchased a game that required vertex shading. I could not run it on my Toshiba Equium M40X-189. (Mobile intel 915GM/GMS, 910GML Express Family Chipset) and have simply considered myself out of luck because it does not support vertex shading at all. Research indicates that the chipset (onboard graphics) should support vertex shader 2.0. I assume that came sometime after mine was built and drivers added. My question is: Am I still out of luck or is it just a matter of drivers and/or an upgrade from directx 9 to 10. Graphics - Pixel shader and vertex shader support Not being a gamer I have no familarity with these concepts and do not even know if vertex shading is a hardware or software issue although I did note that the intel site had the following footnote: So what am I missing folks?

Reading your attachment it is clear that the reason that you are unable to play the game properly has nothing to do with the capacity of the card. It is the lack vertex shader support or compatibility. This is just a fact of life with some older onboard cards and there is no alternative but an upgrade. You are fortunate that it isn't a laptop (as I am painfully aware.)

Let us know Dougie, I know we have one member who swears by mailwasher. I use email for business and am always afraid that I will miss something.

Welcome to the wonderful world of spam! Other than play with your settings there is little you can do. I will tell you what NOT to do although I suspect you already know. DO NOT open the mail and follow any link that tells you that it will remove you from a mailing list. If you do you will be branded as someone who opens this crap and it will only increase. You can probably block the address but you will find that they rarely use the same email address twice. I know there is software out there that is supposed to help. I am always leery of that stuff but maybe someone know as good one.

It would appear that you have your IE security settings very high. Go to tools and then internet options. Under the security tab make certain that your settings are no higher than medium high and that the setting is for Internet. (The globe, not trusted sites or restricted sites.)

Hopefully the disinfection process will cure the problem. I am, however, in the dark over the disk issue. What concerns me is your raising the possibility that the 2 different XP versions may be the problem. If the computer came with XP home and you installed XP pro from some source other than a legitimate windows disk, you may have caused yourself all sorts of problems. I am not suggesting that this is the case but you have raised the issue so it may need to be addressed.

Disable McAfee, I can see no reason to disable your firewall unless it is blocking any of the proscribed programs from running.

What did you have to do to get the proxy address that you were using? Did you have top subscribe to or download anything?

Flashing a bios is not to be taken lightly or without knowing just what you are doing. Dalo or others will be able to tell you whether flashing an incorrect bios will do permanent damage but you certainly cannot expect the PC to actually work properly if you have. Did you in fact flash the bios with the wrong information?

I noticed that you may have interrupted the program while you were running it . That is not a good idea. I would suggest that you rerun it without the proxy and see if that helps. Immediately set a restore point if it does. Sometimes these infections are apparently removed only to reinstate themselves when you reboot. It is quite possible that something came along with the proxy download. Try uninstalling it first and then run the program from your digiweb IP.

The address you gave is for a server located in Maryland. Were you on the proxy when you ran the steps above? Also where did you find that particular proxy service and did things ever work properly when you were logged on?

We have had a discussion running about IE8 and the consensus seems to be that there are a number of problems with running in with XP in particular. I would suggest you uninstall for the time being. You should roll back to 7. http://extremetechsupport.com/forum/computing-news/6192-ie8-realease.html

Lets start with the basics Chrissie, what kind of beeping and when does it first start? You really need to be a bit more specific, for example is the sound coming from the speakers or from inside the case? Is it steady and predictable or random? Do you know what MOBO (motherboard ) beeps sound like?

This is 62 posts long mtav so it is easier to ask than look,:) but have you mentioned BullGuard before? I have seen a forum run by bullguard where the same problem was noted and cured by uninstalling. Again, if that has not come up before you may want to try that. A similar problem was also noted by AVG users. Perhaps you may want to give Avira or Avast a try, making sure that the update time is well away from the overnight period. Again if this was mentioned before please feel free to ignore this. :D

I am not that familiar with Vista but you apparently did not apply the O2 setup to all accounts. You may have to look into the settings on your network and duplicate them in the other account. There may be a way to do that automatically but I am not aware of it. A vista user may.

Have you checked your page file settings? Page file controls how the memory that you have added is used. To find your settings right click on My Computer then Properties > Advanced > Performance > Advanced > Virtual Memory. Your page file settings should be 1.5 times your RAM as the initial setting and twice that for the maximum.

What is the proxy server you selected and why do you feel you needed one? What is your ISP? Eircom or some other?

Run as administrator is a Vista requirement. In XP you need only be logged on using an account that has been set for computer administrator. Check your status in Control Panel>Users and make sure it hasn't been changed. Did you get an activeX warning (yellow bar across the top ot the eset IE window) when you tried to run the scan? If so, did you allow the activex?)