Wayne Chirnside wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:



WC>  98 isn't as stable as 3.1 was, I'm doing power off resets :-(

RJT> No,  it's not.  Though I haven't had *any* signs of instability on the
RJT> 98 box here,  not at all that I can remember.  I loaded it up with just
RJT> about all of the games I could find,  for the grandkids.  There were
RJT> one or two that just wouldn't behave,  and I ended up taking them off.

RJT> Is there anything in particular you can see as being related to the
RJT> instability?

WC> Looking more like hardware all the time :-(
WC> Mouse and everything else would freeze up solid.

I've had some of that with the one box here.  I'm thinking either ram or
MB. There were 4 4Ms in the test fixture before,  now there are 2 of them
and 2 8s, I need to stick the 2 4s back in there and see if it still locks
up.

WC> Sometimes the hard drive light stays on but it's not accessing.

Stuck in swapping?

WC> ATX warm boot or shutdown doesn't work, I have to hold power off 
WC> for 5 seconds.

I like the ATX cases I've seen where the PS had a regular on-off switch on
the back,  too,  in addition to the button on the front.

WC> I can either be working or the machine can just be stting there 
WC> when it locks. Modem - sound card is there sometimes, sometimes not.
WC> I've reloaded all the software 5 times now, no joy :-( One time the 
WC> CMOS ddn't even recognise the C drive nor would it autotype it. 
WC> Looks like the H.P. machine was a bust after all. Looked good for 
WC> several days but now it requires a hard shutdown to unfreeze it :-(

Does it come back right away and work?  If so,  it strikes me as RAM being
a bit more likely.

WC> Loaded all the original software, Microsofts "fixpack" packages at 
WC> some 13 Meg which is as big as Win 3.1! Both CMOS and software 
WC> power saver features are off and I woke up to a locked machine this 
WC> morning. I can't see a pattern at all.

WC> 13 Meg of "fixpacks" later and it still locks up :-(

RJT> For what,  98?  I'm not running any fixes with mine,  just the original
RJT> distribution cdrom.  But then,  I'm not trying for any net connection
RJT> with that box either,  or worrying about any security holes.

WC> That's the biggie, most of the packs refer to security holes.

Sure,  because of all of the negative publicity they get every time some
cracker messes up a whole mess of machines out there.

WC> However you can download them enmass as one big honking file and it
WC> self installs. Microsoft even scans your machine to select 
WC> recommended packages and that's no an indication to me my machine 
WC> is secure!

Nope!

WC> Not being able to archive software upgrades is a royal PITA too. I 
WC> don't lke this magical upgrade on the fly while online crap, If you 
WC> can access the machine to upgrade on the fly what's to keep others 
WC> from messing with your machine?

Yeah,  but billy boy wants to just "rent" his OS and application
software, you'll just have to boot on to the 'net,  and run stuff that's
sitting on their servers,  somewhere.  Along with your data.  Forget to
make a payement and you don't get at your data...   At least that's what I
hear he *wants* to do.

RJT> When I do get around to getting net-connected,  it ain't gonna be 
RJT> 98 that has a modem hooked up to the box,  no way.

WC> I've got Ad-Aware and the freeware version of Zone Labs firewall 
WC> installed. Ad-Aware snags and isolates cookies galore as well as 
WC> added registry keys but you can isolate the to file and examine 
WC> them.

The registry being pretty central to things,  I don't see how it makes any
sense whatsoever to allow just any old program to go and put stuff in
there...

WC> Oh yeah on one hard boot my registry.dat had completely 
WC> disappeared! Wow did that make the system act weird and required me 
WC> to retrieve and setup all those apps for which there are still 
WC> archivable installs, still need to snag Adobie reader. After that 
WC> one I formatted the drive.

Yikes.

WC> Zone Alarm's notification shows up so often I've got it set to 
WC> operate hidden. Alarm notifies on about half legitimate operations 
WC> such as streaming video but it also reveals I'm being pinged on a 
WC> regular basis and access is being attempted when none should be. 

Yeah,  I'll bet there's all kinds of nasty critters out there looking to
take whatever advantage they can of unsuspecting windoze users...   I'll
bet it gets worse with DSL.

WC> Next couple of days I think this machine is going to be swapped for 
WC> the NEC. First I'll likely try just moving the drive.

With 98?  You'll see it go through all sorts of nonsense with regard to
"finding new hardware" and such stuff.

WC> Why don't ISP's burn anti-virus and worm software into a PROM and 
WC> screen traffic for this malicious code? For the price they charge
WC> you'd think they could offer a clean product.

RJT> A typical windoze user might want a provider to look at content and
RJT> filter out binary information containing viruses.  A firm that was
RJT> writing anti-virus software and who was getting "samples" mailed to
RJT> them (I've seen that happen) would not find such a service particularly
RJT> useful,  or desirable.

And as somebody else pointed out this stuff changes too much too often.

WC> I see no problem archiving it amd sending in a nonexecutable format.

RJT> True.

RJT> And having anybody upstream of the end user having any control 
RJT> whatsoever over content opens a whole big legal can of worms,  one 
RJT> that I'd rather not see opened,  because we don't have a big 
RJT> enough can to put them back into.  There'd be no stopping it,  as 
RJT> is amply evidenced by the government's behavior in other areas.  
RJT> They've been chomping at the bit for a long time to gain some sort 
RJT> of control over "the 'net", and I suspect that the big push to get 
RJT> all the schools wired up has some connection with this.  I guess 
RJT> we'll see.

WC> I see you're not familiar with the "office of Information 
WC> Awareness".

RJT> I'm not sure about that one,  I know that a whole lot of things have
RJT> come into play fairly recently,  and haven't kept up with it.  But this
RJT> is tending to be more topical elsewhere,  maybe we oughta take it up
RJT> over there...?

WC> Yeah, Tampa airport now color codes passengers after having 
WC> checked  your bank transactions and credit history and recent 
WC> activity :-(  Green you can fly, yellow you and your stuff gets 
WC> thouroughly examined, red and you stay on the ground.

The way things are these days I'd rather not fly anyhow.

WC> The Office of Information Awareness want extensive information on 
WC> every U.S. citizen right down to their medical, travel and 
WC> financial records.

Da guvamint wants all it can get,  all the time...

WC> Viruses and trojans I could do without much as the WHO wiped out
WC> smallpox.

RJT> There do seem to be more agressive responses to some of that stuff,
RJT> people getting nailed for sending stuff like that out,  when they can
RJT> track them down.

WC> The laws are on the books, it's tracking them down that's the bear.
WC> Look how long Mitnick operated and they _knew_ about him. Well it 
WC> froze again this time saving this post. Hard drive light on perhaps 
WC> electronics or cable there?

Nah,  something in the system board,  ram or maybe the MB itself,  more likely.

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