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Question to Greg Hess WinXP


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Hi Greg! Recently I bought a laptop with WinXP Pro. I did all the "optimizations", including disabling services according to your article at 3Dluvr "Trimming the fat" (great article BTW, thanks). My question: is everithing in that article applies to laptops as well? Or there is something different for portable computers? The laptop is going to be used for occasional 3D work and Photoshop.

BTW the memory usage after optimizations is only 68Mb, perfect I think. But there are 21 running processes...

Thanks in advance, any input is appreciated.

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Should be the same.

 

Each machine is slightly different as to how many processes are running by default.

 

Since its a laptop, it probably has a large number of OEM programs installed on it by default. These will be the ones taking up additional ram/processor power.

 

The article's ram #'s apply only to a system which was "freshly" installed. (As per a system wipe).

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Thanks for the reply, Greg!

 

RE: "Since its a laptop, it probably has a large number of OEM programs installed on it by default."

 

I reformatted my Hard Drive, and did a fresh install so there is no any OEM programs...

One more question. My laptop came with Veritas RecordNow CD burning software. I installed it and tried to format CD-RW to use it like a large floppy, but I got an error. Then I uninstalled RecordNow and installed Nero with InCD (I've been using Nero and InCD for more than 3 years on W2K with no problems including CD-RW formatting) I tried to format CD-RW with InCD, but got the same error - "unable to format..." I know that XP has some built-in CD writing capabilities including CD-RW formatting. May be there is a conflict... How can I disable this "capabilities" in XP? And how can I make Nero and InCD work with XP? I am stuck...

Please help.

Thanks.

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isa,

 

Try downloading the latest Nero patch from their website.

 

Sometimes newer burners require a app update to properly work.

 

As for the program that ships with it...I don't know. I'd try a normal CDR burn, then try a DIFFERENT CDRW disk with nero, and see if you encounter the same problem.

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I got the latest Nero, latest InCD, Latest udates and service packs for XP...

Still no luck. It doesn't format CD-RWs, CD-Rs are OK. And also everything works with W2K... I believe there is a conflict with XP... But how to fix it? I don't wanna lose that very useful function...

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Hi Greg!

Re: "You check to see if your burner had a firmware update?"

My burner is Toshiba SD-R2412 CD-R/DVD-ROM Combo Drive, and Toshiba doesn't have any firmware for download. In fact they say: "Toshiba's CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives do not require any unique device drivers for Windows '95/'98/2000/XP/NT.

After installing your drive and re-booting, your system should recognize your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM.

Win '95/'98/2000/XP/NT Operating Systems support all Toshiba ATAPI CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives natively"

 

Re: "How are you trying to erase the CDRW? Are you using the built in features of the applications? Or are you trying to do it within windows XP?"

I disabled XP's built-in recording capabilities (from drive->properties->recording) Then inserted blank CD-RW, opened InCD (or DirectCD - tried both) hit format. Format begins, reaches 70-75% then gives me an error... So frustrating...

 

Re: "Did you try another CDRW disk yet?"

No I didn't... May be I should. I have bunch of Memorex 700MB 4x discs...

Any more ideas?

Thanks for your time, Greg.

 

[ November 24, 2003, 10:45 AM: Message edited by: isagreg ]

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Try another disk first.

 

Sounds like you just have a bad piece of media.

 

Also try formatting in nero...there should be a pulldown that says "format rewritable".

 

Or

 

"erase rewritable"

 

Try with a new disk ONLY. Put the disk that isn't working on the side and perhaps even label it. (Or just throw it away).

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Thanks Greg for quick reply!

That "bad piece of media" works perfectly with the same versions of Nero and Roxio Easy CD creator with W2K. The problem is XP not the media... Also I've been reading Roxio's and Nero's forums and FAQ and it seems this problem is very common. The interesting thing is some people have this problem some don't. In fact I tried to format one of thise "bad" CD-RWs on friend's computer (Dell) with XP pro and Roxio easy CD creator 5 and it worked! Seems the problem is very random. But I haven't found the answer YET.

Thanks.

I understand that this is getting very annoying, but I don't wanna give up... And want this damn thing to work.

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Isa,

 

I've never encountered the problem myself...cause I don't think I've used a rewritable disk since CDR's dropped to less then a few cents each.

 

I'll sometimes burn a CD for a whopping 1.5 megs, then chuck it.

 

Ya I know, ultra wasteful...but hey, they are free usually :) . (On friday you could have gotten 200 CDR's for free from best buy)

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Hi Greg!

RE: "On friday you could have gotten 200 CDR's for free from best buy"

I missed that one...

Actually it turned out that my drive was defective and I returned my notebook to the store. It didn't even play audio CDs...

I'm gonna get a new one...

Thanks for your time, Greg!

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