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Pastimes : Dream Machine ( Build your own PC ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Howard R. Hansen who wrote (11422)	11/4/2000 10:36:01 AM
From: Dave Bissett	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14778

You're probably right, and I'll have to work this out with the phone co...some of my favorite folks. (g) dave

To: Howard R. Hansen who wrote (11422)	11/4/2000 4:24:37 PM
From: Moving Sphere	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 14778

My latest update.... For those of you who have read my prior posts regarding my problems with Windows 98SE, where after opening too many different windows across 5 different monitors (1 Matrox G400 Max dualhead, 3 Diamond Stealth PCI graphic cards), my system seemed to crash (or hang) especially when the Windows 98 resource meter registered a precarious below 10% reading. Because many of you have contributed tremendously to my knowledge of Windows 98SE's limitation, I was able to work around these limitation and minimized the frequency of "hanging" of my system (like keeping a watchful eye on the resource meter and closed certain windows before problem began). Unfortunately, understanding these limitation and keeping a watchful eye on the resource meter did not really help me to relieve my concern about my system crashing during market trading hours. The need to close certain windows before I could load another was a frustration exercises at best. So, what did I do? Aha! Like some of you have suggested, I took the plunge and bought Windows 2000 Professional. Knowing full well the "uphill climbing" effort of trying to make this new OS work on my existing hardwares (AMD 700mhz), I figured the effort should be worth it if I don't have to worry about my computer during trading hours. Guess what? It took me two days before I could even get pass loading the new OS into my harddrive. Turned out that the format and partition of my IBM Deskstar harddrive (27 gig)by Windows 98 was not compatible with Windows 2000 (I suspected it must be due to my motherboard BIOS). So, after many trials and errors (with the purchase of another harddrive), I got it to work. I did manage to repartition and reformat my IBM harddrive using Windows 2000 and made it useful again! After loading Windows 2000 Professional and all the related trading softwares, I was and is still very impressed with how well the new OS work! Nowhere can I find the resource meter on Windows 2000! I guess it isn't needed because Windows 2000 just won't work with any legacy softwares that require the use of separate resource management that eventually "hanged" the Windows 98 system regardless of your abundance of surplus physical memory. As of now while I'm typing this post, I've opened about 10 browser windows, loaded my online quote softwares with about 8 charts windows opened, have 4 streaming quote windows opened, loaded my commodity broker's proprietary online software (this particular one always crashed my Windows 98 'cause it took up so much memory), and loaded my other trading utility softwares. With this similar setup, the Windows 98 would have crashed or hanged long ago! However, Windows 2000 just don't care about all these programs and windows opened, it just keep running like nothing has happened! My free physical memory still show a whopping 127K out of 256K! Whereas, in Windows 98SE, it didn't matter how much free physical memory you still have, it will crash if the resource meter go to 10% or lower. So, what is my point in all these rambling???? Well, I just want to share my feeling and opinion that after experiencing the power of Windows 2000, I don't think I will ever go back to Windows 98 anymore. IMHO, if you're serious about trading, or that you're a very active trader, it is important to have a solid hardware and software support so you can be worry free about your computer and can focus on trading itself. My only regret is that it took me so long to take the plunge into Windows 2000 because of my lack of understanding. Btw, Windows 2000 has Plug and Play capability, and will support multiple monitors as well. The only drawback is that the new OS is very picky about the hardwares. I've to pulled out my 3 Diamond Stealth PCI graphic cards because they were no longer compatible with Windows 2000 (even though it worked well in Windows 98). Well, in conclusion, I just want to thank all those in the past whose responses helped nudge me into taking the plunge for Windows 2000. Ps. FWIW, I first setup up a dual boot for both Windows 98 and Windows 2000, after using Windows 2000 for a few days, I just don't see myself going back to Windows 98 anymore, so I reformatted and set up my system to be strictly Windows 2000 to avoid the hassle of having to pick an OS during bootup... of course, it helps that I'm not an active PC gamer. My only favorite PC game is MSFT Combat flight simulator and it works with Win2K!