• Tag Archives Windows XP

  • PC World (August 2005)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: PC World – August 2005

    In 2005, PC World was already in decline. It was covering more computer adjacent things such as digital camcorders and phones by this point. It wasn’t terrible…yet, but you could see where it was headed. The August 2005 issue includes:

    Cover Story

    • Reinvent Your PC – Computer upgrade tips including adding a SATA drive, using a RAID, increasing RAM (to at least 512MB!), upgrading to a dual-core CPU (at least if you are already using an Athlon 64), adding USB 2.0, adding a faster wi-fi card, upgrading to a better graphics card, and more.

    Features

    • Wireless Networking: Faster! Farther! – A test of six new wi-fi products including the Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router and Wireless-G Notebook Adapter, the Belkin Wireless Pre-N Router and Wireless Pre-N Notebook Network Card, the Netgear Pre-N Wireless Router and Pre-N Wireless PC Card, the D-Link Super G MIMO Wireless Router, and more.
    • PC in a Browser – A look at various services that allow you to access your computer remotely including MyWebEx PC Pro, Citrix Online GoToMyPC 4.1, 3am Labs LogMeIn Pro, Laplink Everywhere 4, Pro Softnet RemotePC 3, and O1 Communique I’m InTouch 4.

    Top 100

    • Spotlight: DV Camcorders – A look at the latest in DV camcorders including the Sony DCR-DVD403 DVD Handycam ($840), Sony DCR-HC42 MiniDV HandyCam ($560), Panasonic PV-GS250 ($850), Canon Optura 60 ($730), Hitachi DZGX20A ($750), and the JVC GR-DF550US ($450). With the exception of optical zoom, the cheapest modern smartphone is far superior for recording video.
    • Top 15 Desktop PCs – The top “power system” this month is the Alienware Aurora 5500 featuring a 2.6 GHz Athlon 64 FX-55, 256MB ATI Radeon X800 Pro graphics, 320 GB hard drive, 19-inch NEC LCD monitor and more for $3500. At the top of the “value system” list is the IBM ThinkCentre A51p featuring a 3 GHz Pentium 4 530, 160GB hard drive, 64MB ATI Radeon X300 Pro graphics and 17-inch ThinkVision LCD monitor for $1592.
    • Top 15 Notebook PCs – The top “desktop replacement” laptop this month is the Acer TravelMate 8100 featuring a 2 GHz Pentium M 760 for $2299. The top “all-purpose” laptop is the HP Compaq Nc8230 featuring a 2 Ghz Pentium M 760 for $2244, and the top “ultraportable” is the Dell Inspiron 700m featuring a 1.8 GHz Pentium M 745 for $1567.
    • Top 10 DVD Drives – The top internal DVD drive this month is the Plextor PX-716A for $125 and the top external drive is the Plextor PX-716UF for $230.
    • More Reviews – The top PCI Express graphics board is the MSI RX850XT-VT2D256E with the top nVidia card coming in at number 4 with the PNY Verto GeForce 6800 GT. The top LCD monitor is the Sony SDM-HS95P.

    Departments

    • Up Front – Google’s index has reached 8 billion web pages and counting…back when an editor could say things like “To its credit, though, Google has a history of treating its users’ data with respect.” with a straight face.
    • Letters – Letters from readers about hardware torture tests, permission-based filtering, spyware, and more.
    • Hassle-Free PC – Tips for becoming invisible on instant messaging services, sending files through e-mail that get blocked, and making sure you have all the video codecs you need.
    • Full Disclosure – Strategies for making sure you have your important files backed up.

    News & Trends

    • Longhorn Roundup – A preview of what would ultimately become Windows 7.
    • Apple/Intel: The PC Perspective – News on Apple’s switch to Intel processors.
    • Low-Cost Broadband From Cities Blocked – Cable and DSL providers square off against cities that want to offer broadband access to residents.
    • GPS Phones: New Ways to Find Places – Modern smartphones still weren’t a thing yet but devices such as the BlackBerry, Motorola i830, and others were starting to include GPS capabilities and mapping services.
    • Plugged In – Info on what will be in Office 12 (Office 2007), the ECS PF88 Extreme motherboard which supports both Intel and AMD CPUs, new internet radio services, and more.

    New Products

    • Anti-Spyware Utilities – A look at the latest spyware protection including CounterSpy 1.5, Spy Sweeper 4, and ZeroSpyware 2005.
    • LCD Monitor – The Samsung Syncmaster 242mp, a 24-inch LCD monitor featuring a TV tuner for $1700.
    • HP’s First 64-Bit-Ready Business PC – A look at the HP DX5150 featuring a 2.2 GHz Athlon 64 3500+ CPU for $915.
    • Online Calendar – The OneCalendar online calendar from Trumba.
    • Photo Printer – Epson’s PictureMate Deluxe Viewer Edition photo printer.
    • Web Browser – Netscape 8.
    • Online Music Service – Yahoo Music Unlimited.

    Digital World

    • TV Recorders – Modern ways to record your favorite TV shows, including DirecTV DVR with TiVo, DVR from Comcast, the MOXI set-top DVR cable box, and more.
    • Digital Audio – New satellite radio devices such as the Sirius Starmate, Tivoli Audio Model Satellite, Pioneer AirWare, Tao XM2go, and more.
    • Gadget Freak – All about becoming a podcaster.

    Here’s How

    • Hardware Tips – Tips for making a backup of your hard drive.
    • Internet Tips – Creating a mobile internet suite on a flash drive.
    • Windows Tips – Fixing bad folder behavior in windows file explorer.
    • Photo Printer Tips – Tips for getting good photo prints cheaply and keeping your photo printer running smoothly.
    • Answer Line – Questions answered about preventing viruses from disabling your protection, reading CDs that have become unreadable, and more.

    …and more!


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  • Digital Archaeology: Averatec 3200

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    The Averatec 3200 was a low-end laptop model with an emphasis on DVD playback. While it seems to be reasonably well built, it does have quite a few limitations in order to cut costs. Having said that, if you were on a budget and it was sufficient for your needs at the time, it wasn’t a bad deal.

    The Averatec 3200 featured a mobile Athlon XP processor which was essentially just a regular Athlon XP that ran at a lower voltage. These were highly desired by desktop builders because they would typically run at “normal” voltages and be excellent overclockers. It’s most direct competitor would have been a mobile Pentium 4 but by the time the Averatec 3200 came out there were better choices, mainly in the form of the Pentium M. It looks like the Averatec 3200 became available some time in late 2004 and was available at least at Best Buy, Sam’s, Newegg, Circuit City and Amazon and probably from other retailers as well. It looks like the configurations probably varied slightly depending on the retailer. For instance, the one I am using has an Athlon XP 2000+ whereas it looks like Newegg had one with a 2200+.

    Some of the features of my particular model include:

    • CPU: Athlon XP-M 2000+
    • Video: VIA/S3 UniChrome with 32 MBytes of DDR SDRAM
    • Screen: 12.1″ @ 1024×768
    • Memory: 1 GB DDR PC2700 (This has likely been upgraded)
    • Hard Drive: Hitachi 40GB E-IDE (ATA-6)
    • Optical Drive: Slimtype COMBO SOSC-2483K DVD-ROM/CD-RW
    • WiFi: MSI 802.11g MiniPCI Wireless Network Adapter
    • Ethernet: VIA VT6102 Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter

    Plus VGA port, 3 USB ports, and a single cardbus slot. For more complete specs see the output of HWiNFO here.

    Limitations include the relatively limited number of ports plus the fact that there is only one memory slot so 1 GB is probably as far as the memory can be expanded in this laptop. Plus, the XP-M was kind of old tech at this point. As mentioned before the Pentium M was becoming the dominant mobile CPU at this time and in most cases they were as fast of faster than an XP-M would have been and they were certainly more energy efficient making for longer battery life.

    However, the big advantage of this laptop was price. Depending on where you got it and the exact configuration, it cost around $1000 which was pretty cheap for the time. And while the Athlon XP-M may not have been the latest tech or the most energy efficient mobile processor, it was still reasonably powerful. The S3 Unichrome graphics were a slight upgrade to the S3 ProSavage and were not very good. But then you weren’t going to find strong graphics capabilities in any budget laptop, regardless of brand. The only real (relatively minor) complaint I have with this laptop is the keyboard. It actually feels pretty good for the most part but some of the keys are smaller than others making typing a little awkward. Fortunately, it only affects lesser used keys like the arrow keys, the greater than/less than keys, slashes and punctuation. I find myself hitting the wrong arrow key or the slash instead of an arrow (or vice versa). But overall, it’s a pretty small issue.

    Drivers were somewhat problematic to find. I installed Windows XP and for the most part things worked fine. However, while the graphics were the proper resolution and color depth, screen draw was very slow until I tracked down the proper drivers which took a while. Also, Wi-Fi didn’t work out of the box either so I had to find those drivers as well. In addition, I had to track down sound and modem drivers (not that I really needed the modem). Most of these I had to track down by device ID as Averatec is no longer in business as far as I can tell and even if they were I doubt they would have drivers available to download for such old hardware. In theory, you should also be able to install a 32-bit version of Linux (but more RAM would be better).

    The Athlon XP and Windows XP are still capable of running a variety of BOINC projects. So far it has processed work for Einstein@home, Asteroids@home, World Community Grid and MilkyWay@home. One oddity I noticed was the the laptop would sometimes freeze while running the screensaver or fail to wake up. I thought at first it might be a thermal issue but I disabled the BOINC screensaver (not the crunching itself, just the screensaver) and the problem was solved. There’s probably some issue with the relatively obscure Unichrome graphics and whatever the screensaver is doing. Or it could just be a driver issue but I think I’m using the latest that were available. At any rate, it works fine if I disable the screensaver or use a non-BOINC screensaver so it turns out not to be a big deal. In addition to the individual project links above, you can also see how this laptop is doing overall via BOINCStats or FreeDC.


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  • PC World (June 2004)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: PC World – June 2004

    PC World was one of the longest running and most successful “PC” magazines. PC in this context generally referring to IBM PC compatibles, DOS, and Windows. In 2004, that meant mostly coverage of computers running Windows XP. The June 2004 issue includes:

    Ultimate PC Protection

    • Bigger Threats, Better Defense – A look at the latest in security software including the latest firewalls, antivirus, anti-spyware and antispam. According to PC World, the best such products at the time were Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security 2004, Zone Labs ZoneAlarm Pro 4.5, Lavasoft Ad-aware 6 Plus, Spybot Search & Destroy, and Cloudmark SpamNet.
    • Spam-Proof Your In-Box – A review of nine different antispam tools. Products included are Aladdin Systems SpamCatcher 3.01, Audiotrieve InBoxer 1.1, Cloudmark SpamNet, Lyris Technologies MailShield 3.11, Network Associates McAfee SpamKiller 5.0, Panda Software Platinum Internet Security, Sunbelt Software IHateSpam 4 for Outlook, Symantec Norton AntiSpam 2004, and Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security 2004.

    Features

    • Who Knew Your…{PC, Software, Camera, Printer, Network, Drive, Handheld}…Could Do That – Various hints and tips for your PC and peripheral gadgets. Hints include using a wireless printer server, plugging your digital camera into a slide show display, using your notebook screen as a desktop monitor, cataloging your CDs and DVDs automatically, and more.
    • DV Stars – A look at the latest digital camcorders. Most were MiniDV but there were also recordable DVD models. Units reviewed include the Canon ZR80, Canon ZR90, JVC GR-D72US, Panasonic PV-DV73, Panasonic PV-DV73, Panasonic PV-DV953 (Best Buy), Sharp VL-Z800U, Sony DCR-DVD300, Sony DCR-HC20 (Best Buy), and Sony DCR-IP1 MicroMV.
    • Is E-Voting Safe – Here they were referring to computerized voting machines vs. something like internet voting. Still a question being asked today.

    Top 100

    • Spotlight: Wireless Mice and Keyboards – A comparison of two top wireless keyboard and mouse combos including the DiNovo Media Desktop and the Microsoft Basic Wireless Optical Desktop. Plus a look at the Logitech Cordless Click Plus Optical Mouse and a bunch of other wireless input devices.
    • Top 15 Desktop PCs – The top “power system” PC was the ABS Ultimate M5-64 featuring a 2.2 GHz Athlon 64 3400+, 1 GB RAM, and a 256MB ATI Radeon 9800XT for $2319. The top “value system” was the Dell Dimension 4600 featuring a 2.8 GHz Pentium 4, 512 MB RAM, and a 128MB nVidia GeForce FX 5200 for $1089.
    • Top 15 Notebook PCs – The top “desktop replacement” was the HP Compaq Nc6000 featuring a 1.6 GHz Pentium M and 512 MB RAM. The top “all-purpose” notebook was the IBM ThinkPad R50 featuring a Pentium M 1.4 GHz and 512 MB. The Top “ultraportable” was the Toshiba Portege M100 featuring a 1.2 GHz Pentium M and 256 MB RAM.
    • Top 10 Inkjet Printers – At the top of the list month is the HP Deskjet 5150.
    • Top 10 DVD Drives – Optical drives used to be such a big deal, now it is hard to find pre-built PCs with them (though they are still around). The top DVD/RW drive listed here is the Plextor PX-708A.
    • Top 5 Graphics Boards – The top 5 from top to bottom are the MSI FX5900 XT-VTD128, Asus Radeon 9800XT, ATI All-In-Wonder 9600 XT, Crucial Technology Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB, and BFG Technologies Asylum GeForce FX 5950 Ultra.
    • Top 10 Digital Cameras – At the top of the list is the Olympus C-5060 Wide Zoom for $649 featuring 5.1 megapixel resolution and a 32MB XD-Picture Card (plus a CompactFlash slot).

    Departments

    • Up Front – On the advantages of using Windows and OS X based systems.
    • Letters – Letters from readers about offshore tech support, pop-ups, PC security, remembering passwords, printing on the cheap, how to fight spam and viruses, and more.
    • Plugged In – AMD starts a campaign providing free hotspots. It was common at this time to have to pay for hot spot access at, for example, a Starbucks.
    • Home Office – Fixes for common mistakes including tools for backing up your data and recovering deleted files.
    • Bugs and Fixes – Updates for Outlook and MSN Messenger primarily to fight viruses.
    • Full Disclosure – An early look at Microsoft’s next version of windows, code-named Longhorn which would eventually become Vista.

    News & Trends

    • Viruses Taret IM – Tips and tools to prevent the spread of viruses via IM clients.
    • Intel Plays Name Game – Intel changes its naming scheme dropping the MHz from model names.
    • New Cell Phones: Cool, Capable – Smartphones weren’t a thing yet. The latest and greatest cell phones included the Kyocera KOI, Siemens CX66, and the LG8000 among others.
    • Tools to Find PC Data Faster – A look at search tools for Windows XP including Bloomba, DTSearch Desktop and X1.
    • Laptop CPU for the Long Haul – A look at the Sharp Actius MM20, the first notebook to use the 1 GHz Efficeon TM8600 CPU from Transmeta.
    • Ultrafast Wireless – A look at a new wi-fi standard referred to as Ultra Wide Band (UWB) or 802.15.3a with speeds up to 480mbps.

    New Products

    • Video Instant Messaging Software – A look at video chat software including Sight-Speed Video Messenger, Clique Video Messenger and Logitech’s VideoCall.
    • Notebook – A review of the Inspiron XPS which includes a 3.4 GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition CPU, 128MB ATI Radeon 9700 graphics, 1GB RAM, a 60GB hard drive, and a 15.4-inch 1920 x 1200 screen for only $4349.
    • Digital Camera – Reviews of the Canon PowerShot S500 Digital Elph and the Nikon D70 DSLR.
    • Database Management Software – A review of FileMaker Pro 7.
    • Video Transfer Device – A review of the Plextor ConvertX PX-M402U. It is an external device that converts analog video to digital via RCA or S-Video input.

    Next Gear

    • Build a Media-Savvy PC – A how-to guide for building a computer designed to handle TV, music and other multi-media. Examples are provided for a high-end version and a value version. The value version includes a 1.83 GHz Athlon XP 1500+, ATI All-In Wonder 9200, and 256 MB PC2700 (333 MHz) RAM while the high-end version includes a 3.4 GHz Pentium 4, 1GB PC4000 (500 MHz) DDR RAM, and an ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro.
    • HDTV Recorder – A review of LG’s LST-3410A HDTV Digital Video Recorder/Receiver, designed mostly to record HD broadcasts.
    • Cellular GPS Service – Taken for granted today but if you wanted GPS navigation on your phone in 2004 it required special software and a subscription service/data plan and you had to make do with a tiny screen.
    • Gadget Freak – Tips for the perfect home theater setup.

    Here’s How

    • Windows Tips – How to customize startup and shutdown of windows, including starting applications automatically and running maintenance tasks on shutdown.
    • Hardware Tips – Tips on getting the right hard drive for your needs… Internal or external, SATA or PATA, size, etc.
    • Step-By-Step – A guide for tuning up your Windows XP installation.
    • Internet Tips – A guide for using America Online.
    • Answer Line – Questions answered about moving data, settings, and apps to a new PC.

    …and more!


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