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Zootal <> wrote:

> Several years ago it was the other way around. About the time the
> ATI Rage Fury was being sold, Windows 2000 was still pretty new
> and hadn't had enough service packs to really be all that stable -
> remember the tcpip.sys bsods? And the disk caching problems that
> caused certain file types to be permantly wiped when it did BSOD?
> Pre-SP Win2000 was so bad I had to revert to Win98 just to get a
> semi-stable box.

Never had a BSOD on Win2000, it was rock solid from the first beta
version I ran.

> Another hard lesson learned back when was when building a box NEVER
> use off brand hardware.

My experiences have been different, I built a box for Vista years back,
went to Fry's and got the cheapest memory sticks they had, the box ran
for years w/o a hiccup. I've used a bunch of bargain basement hardware
and never had a problem.

Currently, I'm buying my PCs, it's no longer possible to save anything
by building a box, unfortunately.

--
XS11E, Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project:
http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/

vortch wrote:
>
> On Fri, 08 Jul 2011 22:46:09 -0500, John Turco <>
> wrote:
>
> >> >>
> >> >> I have never had a BSOD on Windows 3.0, Windows 3.1, Windows 95,
> >> >> Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows Vista or Windows 7.
>
> I've had blue screens on all of them, almost always device drivers
> causing it.
>
> Depends how much you use the computer, I guess. Used Vista for about
> a year about 2 years after it came out, never got one bsod. (Many at
> work though.) Haven't had one on Win 7 x86 yet.
>
> I Use Win 7 x64 most, get blue screened occasionally, usually pointing
> to Nvidia, but who knows - I change drivers too much. It's all research
> to me, the approved MS drivers are usually pretty stable, even if out
> of date.


Watch your attributions, please. I didn't write the sentence that you
replied to ("XS11E" <> did).

--
Cordially,
John Turco <>

Marie's Musings <http://fairiesandtails.blogspot.com>

XS11E wrote:
>
> > John Turco <> wrote:
> >
> > Okay, forget "sarcasm" and "credibility" -- how's "lucky" sound
> > to you?
>
> Sure, to some small extent. I guess this makes most Windows users
> "lucky"?


One could say so, I suppose. XP >is< far better that earlier Windows
versions (Millennium, especially), where BSOD activity is concerned.

Still, other mysteries eventually force me to reboot, after so many
days (I leave my PC on, all the time). It's damned frustrating and
suggests that Microsoft merely "masked" BSOD's in XP, perhaps.

--
Cordially,
John Turco <>

Marie's Musings <http://fairiesandtails.blogspot.com>

Zootal wrote:

<edited for brevity>

> About the time the ATI Rage Fury was being sold, Windows 2000 was still
> pretty new and hadn't had enough service packs to really be all that
> stable - remember the tcpip.sys bsods? And the disk caching problems
> that caused certain file types to be permantly wiped when it did BSOD?
> Pre-SP Win2000 was so bad I had to revert to Win98 just to get a
> semi-stable box. And Win98 was not all that great. And forget about
> using a sound blaster with Win2000.
>
> At that time, which was about ten years ago, ATI could not make a
> stable driver to save their lives. The Rage Fury was their latest
> and greatest, and while I think it could have been a great card,
> the drivers were the most unstable crud you ever had the misfortune
> to use.

<edited>

I used an ATI "Rage Fury" (32MB AGP video card) for 7+ years, and had
few (if any) problems. Windows 98 and Millennium were my operating
systems, during the period.

In February of 2007, it was replaced by another ATI device (64MB AGP),
when I upgraded to XP. Here's an excerpt from an article I'd posted
(on June 30, 2011), in a different newsgroup:

"My ATI 'All In Wonder Radeon 8500DV' (AGP video card) has a heat
sink/fan, mounted on its GPU. The crummy fan was always faulty
(nothing to do with dust), which means I can't enable 'hardware
acceleration' -- because, if I do so, the 8500DV will eventually
overheat and shut itself down.

"Then, I'm left with a blank monitor screen and need to reboot
my computer."

Hence, there's been little chance for me to experience those driver
issues, you've mentioned. The AIW Radeon 8500DV is just an ordinary
board, without hardware acceleration; none of its advanced features
are available, alas.

--
Cordially,
John Turco <>

Marie's Musings <http://fairiesandtails.blogspot.com>

XS11E wrote:
>
> > Zootal <> wrote:
> >
> > Several years ago it was the other way around. About the time the
> > ATI Rage Fury was being sold, Windows 2000 was still pretty new
> > and hadn't had enough service packs to really be all that stable -
> > remember the tcpip.sys bsods? And the disk caching problems that
> > caused certain file types to be permantly wiped when it did BSOD?
> > Pre-SP Win2000 was so bad I had to revert to Win98 just to get a
> > semi-stable box.
>
> Never had a BSOD on Win2000, it was rock solid from the first beta
> version I ran.
>
> > Another hard lesson learned back when was when building a box NEVER
> > use off brand hardware.
>
> My experiences have been different, I built a box for Vista years back,
> went to Fry's and got the cheapest memory sticks they had, the box ran
> for years w/o a hiccup. I've used a bunch of bargain basement hardware
> and never had a problem.
>
> Currently, I'm buying my PCs, it's no longer possible to save anything
> by building a box, unfortunately.


I take a different approach, personally. Assembling a computer allows
me to pick the best components I can afford, rather than relying upon
whatever hardware/software the PC manufacturer may happen to choose.

It's more expensive, but, my machine will be easier to work on and
likelier to survive longer. In fact, my present Pentium III system
has served me well, since May of 2000!

--
Cordially,
John Turco <>

Marie's Musings <http://fairiesandtails.blogspot.com>