Rob00GT

Well, just as mysteriously as it went away it just returned. So I guess it's working ok after all.

Here's an odd problem after updating my computer running Windows XP Pro to Service Pack 3. Before the update, my pc was set to download updates automatically and let me choose when to install them. When a new update was ready a yellow "yield sign" would appear as a tray icon. Now that tray icon no longer appears but when I reboot or power down I get the message saying updates are ready to install. I don't want to update my PC when rebooting, I'd like my yellow icon back. Any suggestions?

I just built a new Home Theater PC using the following components. Asus M3A78-EMH HDMI motherboard (AMD 780G chipset) AMD Athlon64 X2 5000+ Black Edition XBOX360 external HD-DVD player Windows XP Pro SP3 (with all patches and updates) Playback software: Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra 7.3 Nero Showtime 3.10.1.0 (part of Nero 7 Ultra Edition) So I've got it all put together and it works great. I'm using the HDMI connector for both picture and sound. The HDMI cable is connected first to my Sony STR-DG910 home theater receiver which pulls out the audio portion then passes the video to my Samsung DLP HDTV. I get a great picture in 1920x1080 but the sound through my receiver only comes out in stereo. I've tried adjusting every setting I can find but can only get stereo sound. The same for both Cyberlink and Nero playback software so it must be a Windows problem, right? How do I get dolby digital output? I've got everything setup for 5.1 goodness but no joy.

I use a Samsung DLP with a 61" screen and 1080p. Because it's a "projection" style it has tons of inputs on the back. I've pretty much gone to HDMI connections for everything (fewer cables) but there's plenty of room for the stuff you'll be using. The biggest deciding factor for me when I laid my cash down was screen size. I wanted the biggest possible screen with 1080p for my dollar. To buy a 1080p plasma with a 61 inch screen would have cost more than my motorcycle... and it's a BMW.

Dude, nothing against you or anything but.... did anyone else just choke on something when you read that?

I've had decent results with a box of Philips +R media. Not sure of the specific model, but the closest I can find says it's a DR4S8B25F/17 made in Taiwan.

Just to throw in my 2 cents worth, I have a Samsung 61" DLP set (just over a year old when they still had lamps in them) that has 1080p with 2 HDMI inputs and a VGA input for my pc. I love it. My dad just bought the new model of the same set with LED instead of the lamp. I think the color is even better on the LED set, plus it adds an extra HDMI slot. My advice is to insist on 1080p resolution regardless of what you buy and try to get as many HDMI ports as you can. I had to upgrade my surround sound receiver to get one with HDMI switching because I ran out of HDMI ports. DirecTV HD-DVR, Playstation 3, and a Toshiba HD-DVD player ($99 special from Walmart) with only two ports on TV. I would certainly buy another Samsung DLP.

I'm using the free trial of AnyDVD HD and it does allow playback using Nero Showtime. It does NOT allow PowerDVD Ultra to work, I still get the same error message. One additional benefit I've noticed is that AnyDVD HD allows me to rip DVD's using DVD Shrink that are normally unrippable using that software. Not bad.

I've recently added an Xbox360 external HD-DVD player to my computer with the hope of playing HD movies. This just has not worked out. With Cyberlink PowerDVD I get the "incompatible video driver" error when I try to play HD-DVD's. With Nero Showtime I get "Unable to read part of a file on the DVD. Playback may be affected." Here's my setup: ATI Athlon X2 4800+ Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe 2GB of Corsair DDR400 Windows XP Pro SP2 (with all the latest patches) Xbox360 HD-DVD external drive Video Card Info: ATI All-In-Wonder X800XL ATI Catalyst v7.11 Driver v8.432 HD Playback Software: Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra 7.3.3516 Nero Showtime 3.10.1.0 Monitor: Dell 2407WFP As nearly as I can tell my only component that holding me back is my non-HDCP video card. All drivers and software are up to date, including both software players. Neither one will allow me to actually play an HD-DVD movie. Is there any way to get the playback to work without upgrading my video card? I really don't want to have to buy yet another video card just for the ability to watch movies.

Well I picked up a replacement power switch from Frys last night. Was only $3 and I could always use a spare. It didn't work. So I pulled out all my extra stuff and got it down to just the motherboard, video card, and a single hard drive. Still nothing. I pulled out the one month old Enermax power supply (that I paid $100 for to avoid this type of problem) and put in a spare one I picked up last year at a swap meet for $10 and it booted right up with no problems. So I'm now running on an "X-Power 550W" power supply with all accessories now plugged back in. Needless to say I'll be looking for a refund or replacement on my Enermax. I'm pretty disappointed since my last PSU was also an Enermax and 6 years later it still runs great. Thanks for your help. Rob

OK, here are my specs because it's a complex machine. Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe AMD Athlon X2 4800+ 2GB of Corsair DDR400 (2x1GB) ATI All In Wonder X800XL PCI-E Enermax Liberty 500W (Model ELT500AWT) Power comes from an APC UPS rated at over 800 watts. SATA Drives: C: drive is a Maxtor 200GB SATA Also have 4 Western Digital 250GB SATA drives in a RAID 5 array using the SiI 3114 onboard controller IDE Drives: Samsung dual layer DVD burner Seagate 400GB Two generic IDE removable drive trays (currently empty) Now the problem. Over the last week I've been converting a lot of DVD files into the DivX mpeg4 format. This means that one core of my cpu has been at 100% for about a week solid. Divx Converter only uses one cpu regardless of how many are present. Well I finished today and my plan was to power down the pc to add a drive to one of the removable drive trays to make a copy of all my new Divx videos. I powered off the pc normally and everything seemed fine. Now when I press the power switch absolutely nothing happens. It's like it's unplugged. I tried unplugging it. Switching the Enermax off and on. Resetting the CMOS jumper (I'm not overclocked, cpu is at factory settings.) did nothing. The only thing I can think of is maybe the power switch in my case is bad. The case is the oldest part of the whole machine. The cpu, Western Digital drives, and Enermax are all less than 2 months old. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Not sure if it's normal for WindowsXP or not but I just upgraded my pc from two 1GB DIMMS to four 1GB DIMMS and when I go into the control panel and click system it reads only 3GB of memory. When I open task manager and look over my avaialable memory it shows only 3GB. I know the motherboard recognizes all four because it displays all 4GB during POST. Is this normal behavior for XP? Am I not getting full benefit of my investment in additional memory?

I've rebuilt my pc and want to take advantage of my motherboard's built in Silicon Image 3114 SATA RAID controller. I've attached 4 identical SATA hard drives and used the SiI BIOS setup to create a RAID5 array. The RAID array looks good. Now I'm trying to load Windows XP using my unattended install DVD. When loading Windows I press F6 to load my RAID drivers from a floppy disk. I'm not sure if that works or not because it keeps going and asks to press F2 for the recovery console. A few seconds later Windows prompts me for the drivers to access the hard drives. The drivers I'm using are right off the Asus web site. They load successfully and I make it to the setup screen where it asks how big my primary partition should be. I select all available drive space as my primary partition and then choose a quick NTFS format. Windows formats the RAID drive and just when it's about to start loading the Windows files it takes an error and says it can't find the RAID drivers. I hit enter to retry and the light comes on on the floppy drive but it craps out again. None of the driver files on the floppy will load at this point. If I choose to ignore it loads all Windows files from the DVD but when it reboots to begin installation I get a BSOD that says I have a drive problem. I really want to install WindowsXP on the RAID5 array, especially after spending so much money of 4 identical hard drives. My unattended install DVD has worked literally dozens of times on "normal" Windows installations so I know it's good, this is just the first time I've tried to load it on a RAID array. I'm stumped. Please help! Here's my hardware: Mobo: Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe Drives: 4 Western Digial WD2500KS SATA RAID controller: Silicon Image 3114 built into mobo. CPU: AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ (Socket 939) Memory: 4GB Corsair DDR400 (1GB x 4) Optical: Samsung IDE dual layer DVD burner Video: ATI All-In-Wonder X800XL Power Supply: Enermax Liberty 500W

Any suggestions? Anyone?

OK, I maybe should ask this question in the Hardware forum but I'm hoping that users of HDTV's around here can share their experience. I'm looking to hook a small form factor pc up to a 1080P HDTV to use for playing movies, DVR, etc. (all the normal stuff) but also want to use it for gaming in the living room. So the real question is, is a high end (translation = expensive) graphics card needed to display modern games in HD resolution at acceptable frame rates? The PC will be plugged directly into the HDTV's VGA port (D-sub 15 pin) and resolution in Windows set at 1920x1080. The HDTV is a Samsung HL-R6178W if it makes any difference.