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For those poor souls like me that are learning new and wonderful things about their PC for the "privilege" of actually trying to play this sack of crap you paid good money for - one warning:
Some people are suggesting an update of mobo (motherboard) drivers etc. So, I did this with my MSI mobo, which dates from 2002, and which came with Windows XP Home pre-packaged (what is sometimes called "OEM" vs. buying a standalone copy of XP).
Reason for doing so: (a) some people said it helped, (b) one friend thought my spanking new GeForce 6600GT might be somewhat incompatible with my old mobo (c) another friend said that's dubious, but I'll try anything once.
Anyway, the process was a little scary for someone who's not done it before. I had to first find MSI's site and read their poorly written instructions (including crappy english... sigh). I then ran a tool called "LiveUpdate3". This was relatively straightforward, and helped me update the drivers themselves without leaving Windows or doing much besides hitting "next".
However, to update the BIOS itself was more complex - it asks you to create a boot disk (via A: drive, ie. a floppy disk... luckily I still have some) and then restart.
First issue - my comp wasn't set to check A: as the first place on booting up, so I had to go to BIOS settings to change this (for the layman, during startup if you watch closely it gives an option to go into "Setup" by hitting the DELETE key. If you're quick!).
BIOS is an ugly old screen from the Amiga days, if you know what I mean, and you scroll around using arrows and ESC, but it's relatively clear how to change the boot order if you just look around a little and play with the +/- keys.
So eventually I got it done, rebooted, and was taken into a DOS-based program which updated my BIOS for me (complete with stern warnings to stop if I didn't know what I was doing... hehe, as if I had any clue).
On next startup, I saw the unpleasant message "CMOS/GPNV Checksum Bad. F1 to run setup, F2 to load defaults".
Sigh... went with F2, wondering if all my data would have disappeared like last time I reinstalled my O/S. Didn't get that far - the computer got to the login screen of Windows XP, then told me I couldn't log in, because my copy of XP wasn't "activated".
Well bugger me - I've never heard of such thing. It refused to validate online, telling me I'd got no connectivity to internet (yay... also cut off from my buddies on MSN who might have calmed me down at this point).
Eventually had to call the stated Microsoft support line, enter a 54-digit code the computer was showing, and be told this was "invalid".
OK - long and short of it. I eventually spoke to a guy at the support line who gave me a new code once I explained what I was trying to do. For those following this and interested - when you update the BIOS on your motherboard, and you had an OEM version of XP, Microsoft treats this as "suspicious" because you might be trying to install on new hardware (ie. on a second computer), which is not allowed for OEM licenses... obviously there's a fine line between changing some of your hardware vs. changing all of it, and MS treats a BIOS update as OK... but only if you call them up. Bloody hell.
So, just wanted to warn other laypersons like me - be aware this can happen. MS has no right to stop you getting a new activation key from them, but it's a pain in the behind anyway.
I also found a good site summarising the issue better than me:
Nb. Now my compy thinks it's 2002 again, heh.
Some people are suggesting an update of mobo (motherboard) drivers etc. So, I did this with my MSI mobo, which dates from 2002, and which came with Windows XP Home pre-packaged (what is sometimes called "OEM" vs. buying a standalone copy of XP).
Reason for doing so: (a) some people said it helped, (b) one friend thought my spanking new GeForce 6600GT might be somewhat incompatible with my old mobo (c) another friend said that's dubious, but I'll try anything once.
Anyway, the process was a little scary for someone who's not done it before. I had to first find MSI's site and read their poorly written instructions (including crappy english... sigh). I then ran a tool called "LiveUpdate3". This was relatively straightforward, and helped me update the drivers themselves without leaving Windows or doing much besides hitting "next".
However, to update the BIOS itself was more complex - it asks you to create a boot disk (via A: drive, ie. a floppy disk... luckily I still have some) and then restart.
First issue - my comp wasn't set to check A: as the first place on booting up, so I had to go to BIOS settings to change this (for the layman, during startup if you watch closely it gives an option to go into "Setup" by hitting the DELETE key. If you're quick!).
BIOS is an ugly old screen from the Amiga days, if you know what I mean, and you scroll around using arrows and ESC, but it's relatively clear how to change the boot order if you just look around a little and play with the +/- keys.
So eventually I got it done, rebooted, and was taken into a DOS-based program which updated my BIOS for me (complete with stern warnings to stop if I didn't know what I was doing... hehe, as if I had any clue).
On next startup, I saw the unpleasant message "CMOS/GPNV Checksum Bad. F1 to run setup, F2 to load defaults".
Sigh... went with F2, wondering if all my data would have disappeared like last time I reinstalled my O/S. Didn't get that far - the computer got to the login screen of Windows XP, then told me I couldn't log in, because my copy of XP wasn't "activated".
Well bugger me - I've never heard of such thing. It refused to validate online, telling me I'd got no connectivity to internet (yay... also cut off from my buddies on MSN who might have calmed me down at this point).
Eventually had to call the stated Microsoft support line, enter a 54-digit code the computer was showing, and be told this was "invalid".
OK - long and short of it. I eventually spoke to a guy at the support line who gave me a new code once I explained what I was trying to do. For those following this and interested - when you update the BIOS on your motherboard, and you had an OEM version of XP, Microsoft treats this as "suspicious" because you might be trying to install on new hardware (ie. on a second computer), which is not allowed for OEM licenses... obviously there's a fine line between changing some of your hardware vs. changing all of it, and MS treats a BIOS update as OK... but only if you call them up. Bloody hell.
So, just wanted to warn other laypersons like me - be aware this can happen. MS has no right to stop you getting a new activation key from them, but it's a pain in the behind anyway.
I also found a good site summarising the issue better than me:
Nb. Now my compy thinks it's 2002 again, heh.
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