[mphenterprises]

Hi SMax. Oh believe me, I agree with you wholeheartedly. I believe skicrazer is not intentionally trying to get over on anything. I think, at least for the sake of argument, it would be in his or her best interest to install the retail version of Windows XP Professional.

Now, I personally do not know if there is any difference between the student version of Windows XP and Windows XP Professional. If there is no functional difference between the two, then yes your suggestion to install with the student version and then activate with the Professional Certificate of Authenticity is right on point.

[skicrazer]

Regarding the student version, the friend got it in college when he was a student and knows that I have kids at home, for whom I sometimes show them stuff for school. That was why he felt it was OK to give it to me. I kind of felt like, since I am the primary user, I should have my own copy, but when that didn't install, I reverted back to the student version. And, yes, my kids to view it at times. I really didn't consider using the new XP Pro license when installing the student version, but would really prefer to not have to re-install the OS and all of my apps at this point. So, I guess the question is, "is a student version from college acceptable for a home user to have for their kids?"

As far as the system info goes, I accidentally cut it out of my reply (which I composed in Word - legal copy!! :-) ). Sorry 'bout that.



Systemax Venture - Systemax Intel P4M266 System 100952 SYX FOXCONN MATX Branding Pack.

SYX U8668D

Intel Celeron-D Processor 325 2.53GHz/533FSB/256K Cache

DDR333 PC2700 non-ECC memory



I also have 27GB out of 37 HD space free.



Thanks again! (and, for taking a solid stand on SW piracy)

[mphenterprises]

No problem at all. I can definitely understand how it is. I can only speak for myself but I believe that most regular members can get a sense when someone is trying to do something and get away with it. I did not get that sense here.

SMax is very knowledgeable regarding Windows Operating System legality and I respect his information. According to him, you should have no problem installing Windows within the student Windows XP CD and then activating it within the Certificate of Authenticity provided with the retail version of Windows XP Professional. If I understand it correctly, once activated, that student version of Windows XP will then become a legal Windows XP Professional version.

Now, since it is already installed (and I am assuming activated) under the student version of Windows XP, I am not sure what exactly is covered under the EULA (End User Licensing Agreement) with that version. There is not too much information online about it. I will do a bit of digging and come back with something.

I will also address the system specifications at that time.

[mphenterprises]

Okay, I really could not find any formal information about the student version of Windows XP. However, the only concrete "informal" information I did find sort of solidified something I figured...the student version of Windows XP is only available through the college or university where the student is attending.

The first information I found came from MIT. Students at MIT are allowed to download a CD image (.iso) which can then be installed on one personal computer used for educational purposes. Once the student graduates, he or she retains rights to that licensed version of Windows XP.

The second piece of information I found came from Yahoo Answers. Basically the chosen best answer indicated that Windows XP was only available from the college or university when the student is attending.

One piece of information I did find while writing this is the Windows XP Professional EULA. Within this EULA, I found this: (Click on the image to enlarge.)





Add this all up and I would believe that, in order to be safe, you may have to either:

- reactivate with the retail Windows XP Professional Certificate of Authenticity (if possible)

OR

- reinstall Windows using the student Windows XP CD and then activate using the retail Windows XP Professional Certificate of Authenticity





I'll touch on the hardware issue within my next post.

[mphenterprises]

skicrazer said:

Systemax Venture - Systemax Intel P4M266 System 100952 SYX FOXCONN MATX Branding Pack.

SYX U8668D

Intel Celeron-D Processor 325 2.53GHz/533FSB/256K Cache

DDR333 PC2700 non-ECC memory

Unfortunately, I could not find anything on about this computer based on the information provided. Even the Systemax website was pretty useless. What I would ask you to do is to download, install, and run an application called Belarc Advisor. Once it runs, you will get a readout that will appear within your default internet browser.

Within that readout, there will be information about your entire computer. What we would need is the information about the motherboard. In the upper right hand corner of the page, you will see a heading called, "Main Circuit Board." This will be right under the heading called, "System Model." Please provide all the information you see under Main Circuit Board.

[skicrazer]

Wow, that's more information than I ever thought I cared to know. Guess I could improve on the CIS Benchmark score...

Board: Biostar Group U8668D v5.B Via P4M266A/8235
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD 6.00 PG 04/28/2004



FWIW:

2.53 gigahertz Intel Celeron
16 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache

[mphenterprises]

Hi skicrazer. Okay, I think we have something. First, here is the link to the motherboard specifications:

http://www.biostar.c...t.php?S_ID=243#

Based on the information listed within this site, I believe the issue is your memory. Before we get into that, the integrated video card does share up to 32MBs of memory: "VIA S3 ProSavage, On Board Graphic Max. Memory Share Up to 32MB." So it is safe to say that the memory within your computer is not damaged. However, it may be rated higher than what the manufacturer recommends.

Currently, there are two memory chips in your computer. Both of which are DDR333 PC2700 (based on your previous response). According to Biostar, this motherboard only supports DDR266 PC2100. In theory, yes you can add any memory you see fit; however, deviating from what the manufacturer of the motherboard suggests is, in my opinion, a waste of money, of time, and in your case, it appears to be a waste of resources as well.

Since we now know that the manufacturer of the motherboard is Biostar, I was able to find information on crucial.com:

http://www.crucial.c...=U8668-D%20V4/5

Crucial.com recommends that each memory slot (DIMM) can support either PC2700 or PC3200. However, it also indicates that the maximum memory specification should not exceed the manufacturer supported memory. This would take it back to PC2100.

Based on everything that has been discussed so far, here is my recommendation for you: two-fold



Memory:
- Remove the currently installed memory chips and install memory chips that are compatible with your computer

Many within this Community highly recommend newegg.com. Since your computer supports up to 2GBs of memory, here are the memory chip configurations I would recommend:

# two (2) 512MB memory chips
# two (2) 1GB memory chips

Here are the compatible memory chips available from newegg.com sorted by best rating:

DDR266 PC 2100 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Sorted by Best Rated




Operating System:
- Reactivate the version of Windows XP installed with the retail Windows XP Professional Certificate of Authenticity

I could not find any clear indication that one has to reinstall the Operating System completely to then reactivate with a retail license once the initial activation is complete. I did find a Microsoft Knowledge Base article that details the steps one can take to activate a Windows installation. Please click on that link and see if you can activate Windows using the first method, "How to activate Windows XP by using the Internet."

If the activation is successful, you will not have to reinstall Windows or any programs. SMax is very good in this area and, if I have missed anything, he will provide some more information. I will also send a message to another Member Moderator who truly understands the licensing issue.



I believe that these two suggestions should correct the CPU Usage issue as well as increase the overall performance of the computer.

[coastie65]

I have contiuned to follow this although I have been dealing with some personal issues. The Celeron D has an FSB of 333 Mhz. I would recommend going over to www.crucial.com and do a scan and see what they recommend. The MBOBO in this thing came with a Pentium D ( 2.66 Ghz ; 533 Mhz FSB) with DDR2 PC4200 ( 533 Mhz) memory. I was told by both eMachines and Intel, that that was all this would support. After having gone to Crucial and running a scan as well as running a scan form Newegg, I am currently running DDR2 PC 5300 ( 667 Mhz ). and it is fine. I suspect that the PC 4200 ( 333 Mhz ) is fine. coastie

[smax013]

Not sure the memory speed is an issue or not...generally speaking, you can put faster memory in and it will "down speed" just fine. It is more of an issue the OTHER way...i.e. you put in memory that is slower than what is specified for your motherboard. In fact, many times you are kind of "forced" to use faster memory as "correct" memory is either hard to get or costs more as older (aka slower) memory is not going to stocked as much as faster memory.

[smax013]

mphenterprises said:

Operating System:
- Reactivate the version of Windows XP installed with the retail Windows XP Professional Certificate of Authenticity

I could not find any clear indication that one has to reinstall the Operating System completely to then reactivate with a retail license once the initial activation is complete. I did find a Microsoft Knowledge Base article that details the steps one can take to activate a Windows installation. Please click on that link and see if you can activate Windows using the first method, "How to activate Windows XP by using the Internet."

If the activation is successful, you will not have to reinstall Windows or any programs. SMax is very good in this area and, if I have missed anything, he will provide some more information. I will also send a message to another Member Moderator who truly understands the licensing issue.

I am not aware of any way to "reactivate" Windoze without reinstalling it first. Not saying it cannot be done, but if it can be done, I don't know how to go about doing it. The method in the link is mainly for if you have just installed (or reinstalled) Windoze and need to activate it, I believe.

[coastie65]

Hey smax, I have some doubts as to the memory speed being an issue. Everything I have bought to date has been off the shelf with identical System and memory bus speeds. In the case of this one, it would support up to 800 Mhz FSB, but was told no more than 533 Mhz memory bus. I was bound and determined that I could run faster memory. I could and it is doing fine and is showing as 667 Mhz in BioS. I had the same problem with Norton some years back. Ran fine for my sister on her computer, but I could never complete a scan as it took too long. Can't remember how I corrected it though, but eventually dumped Norton anyway. coastie

[rgreen4]

I watched this when the thread started, but you seemed to have plenty of knowledgable help, but one thing I did note was when you first listed the memory specs, you stated that it had 608MB of memory. That is an unusual amount. Then the fact that MPH mentioned about the integrated graphics taking 32MB of memory gives the answer - you have 640MB installed and the video reserves 32MB leaving 608MB for general use.

Now, modern memory likes to be balanced for proper dual channel. You apparently have a 512MB module and that means the second module is a 128MB. This has in addition to the speed miss match caused a dual channel situation. While the memory will run, it's just not as effective as two matched modules. A second thing is to look at the labels of the modules and ensure that both are the very same speed and timing. They may have a figure of CL and they MUST match.

As a quick experiment, remove the 128MB memory module and run only on the 512MB and see what the results are.

Another concern is the fact that the retail version of XP will not install but the "student" version will. I do not believe it is in reality a student edition, but the full retail that was sold in the bookstore at a student discount. I do know that currently MS sells the full retail and functional version of Office 2007 in College bookstores for a very hefty discount. This is different than the Home & Student edition which has only Word, Excel and Powerpoint and then adds One-Note. It is licensed for non-commercial use only and says it in the window frame. The full version with the student discount includes Access and Publisher but not One-Note.

[skicrazer]

rgreen4 - great idea! I tried that, but, alas, it didn't fix the problem. No faster than before. The info on the memory sticks are as follows:
128MB stick: DDR PC2700 CL2.5

512MB stick: Kingston KVR333 / 512R

99R0013 - 010.AOOLF

And some other numbers. Unfortunately, it doesn't say the CL number. I looked it up and found, on Amazon, the following:

Kingston 512MB 333MHz DDR Non-ECC CL2.5 DIMM RAM (KVR333/512R)

So, it looks like the CL number's match.



Crucial said they both are DDR2700 and the board can hold DDR2700 or DDR3200.



One question I have is that in the Advanced BIOS / CPU setting, it says L2 Cache ECC checking - Enabled. And,

Frequency control: CPU clock = 133MHz. Are these settings OK? I wondered about the 'ECC checking' verbiage and my non-ECC RAM. Could that cause issues?

thx

[rgreen4]

skicrazer said:

Frequency control: CPU clock = 133MHz. Are these settings OK? I wondered about the 'ECC checking' verbiage and my non-ECC RAM. Could that cause issues?

I don't know about the ECC setting with the non-ECC ram, I would wait until one of our techie friends joins in. But, I would absolutely NOT touch the CPU clock setting, everything in the machine would be affected.

[coastie65]

Hi, That Celeron D should be clocking at 333 Mhz. I had one of those things in a previous computer and it is a pretty decent processor. The system bus is 333 Mhz and so the that should be what the processor is clocking. coastie

[skicrazer]

So, I can change the clock speed......but what happens if the PC doesn't like it? Can I get back into the BIOS and change it back? I've already screwed up the BIOS once and had to do a jumper dance, I believe (hard to remember that much detail), to reset it. If that could solve my problems, though, I'm all over it! Thanks!

[coastie65]

Hey Ski, The "Normal" out of the box clock speed is 2.53 Ghz and the "Normal" FSB is 333 Mhz for that processor. Anything less, tells me that the processor is underclocked. coastie

[mphenterprises]

skicrazer said:

So, I can change the clock speed......but what happens if the PC doesn't like it? Can I get back into the BIOS and change it back? I've already screwed up the BIOS once and had to do a jumper dance, I believe (hard to remember that much detail), to reset it. If that could solve my problems, though, I'm all over it! Thanks!

Hi SkiCrazer. Okay, I am not one to pull any punches nor am I one to bite my tongue, especially when it comes to potentially damaging situations. What you are referring to is overclocking the processor. Overclocking is not to be taken lightly. It is a very hard process and can cripple your computer if not done properly.

This Community has many diverse members within it who know many different aspects of technology. However, the vast majority of us do not assist with overclocking issues. I cannot speak for anyone else but personally, I do not recommend considering overclocking the processor. One of my mottos is, "If you want faster, get faster."

Even though a long shot, I again refer back on the opinion laid out in post #86 - the computer is running an invalid (for lack of a better word) Operating System installation and is low on system resources. As SMax confirmed, there may not be a way to reactivate the current installation. To correct the this issue, you may have no choice but to reinstall Windows XP using the disc that was provided to you by your friend and then activate Windows XP using the retail Certificate of Authenticity.

This being said, I am not sure how old this computer is and whether or not the motherboard may be damaged in some way which could cause the computer to work harder. Ventilation could also be a major contributing factor.

It appears that we have troubleshooted all possible aspects of this issue. If you truly want to get to the bottom of this issue, my suggestion, at the very least, is to increase the physical memory of the computer. This step can do nothing but good for your current situation. If that corrects the issue, then it will be up to you to decide what you want to do with the Operating System issue. If it does not work, we can try to see what else may be able to correct this issue.

[coastie65]

One question I have is that in the Advanced BIOS / CPU setting, it says L2 Cache ECC checking - Enabled. And,

Frequency control: CPU clock = 133MHz. Are these settings OK?

Hey mph, His comment abut the CPU clock caught my attention. Those Celeron D's are 2.53 GHz with a 333 mhz FSB on the old 478 socket and 2.53 GHz and 533 Mhz on the 775 socket ( newer procesor ). At 133 Mhz, that is wat too low and seems as if it may have been underclocked for whatever reason. Best guess is someone playing in the BioS and changed the clock speed. coastie

[skicrazer]

Well, it could come down to living with it until I have the time to reinstall the OS. I guess the one last chance is looking at BIOS settings.


The Frequency Control / CPU Clock setting min and max values are (according to the on-screen instructions) decimal 133-165. I haven't tried changing it yet, though maybe I did back when I first got the system and that was why I had to reload the BIOS (using the jumpers). Can't remember. There is nothing that suggests a 333MHz clock speed.



I'll list some other values for your critique, if applicable, in this format - setting name: possible values] set value:


(updated: OK, I didn't know that using brackets would invoke a different function. Possible values are now in {color:#3366ff}blue, underline{color}. No need to click on the link, though.


MPS Ver Control per OS: [http://1.1, 1.4 1.4

DRAM Clock: By SPD, 133MHz] By SPD


DRAM Timing: [Manual, By SPD] By SPD


DRAM Burst Length: [4, 8] 4


CPU Read DRAM Mode: [Slow, Medium, Fast] Medium


AGP Aperature Size: [256M down to 4M] 64M


CPU, PCI Bus Control: all 3 settings Enabled


System BIOS Cacheable: Disabled


VGA Share Memory Size: 32M (the maximum setting)






Also, there is an option to upgrade the BIOS from a floppy. Since I did reload the default BIOS back when I first got the PC (messed with something I shouldn't have- CPU Clock?), could it be out of date? I found [www.updrivers.com - ever heard of them? Know if they're reputable / can I trust them? They have an option to check my BIOS version that I thought of using. And, I downloaded the latest BIOS from Biostar, just in case I'm out of date.

Oh yeah, and I'll go ahead and increase my RAM to 1GB, as has been recommended.
Message was edited by: skicrazer