S.C.G

Thanks for the feedback gaggle64, I've downloaded and run that tool, and I got the following info relating to the motherboard... Board: Hewleet-Packard Asterope 1.0 Bus Clock: 133 megahertz BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 3.11 04/10/2006 I googled the "Hewleet-Packard Asterope 1.0" bit but I'm still trying to accertain if it's AGP or PCI-E... not having much luck though, maybe I'm googling the wrong bit? anyways I'll keep searching for now. *Update* Searched a bit more and found a HP site which listed specs for Asterope motherboards and all of them have PCI and PCI-E slots so that seems to confirm that I have PCI-E and not AGP, which is good but means I will now have to wait for Play.com to replace it with the PCI-E version which I originally ordered T.T still though, will be worth it in the long run as it is supposed to be better than AGP and easier to install, oh well I guess I won't need to be opening my PC today then soon though, very soon...

Ok, so I'm planning on installing a new GFX card in my PC, it's something I've never had to do before but I've heard it's a relatively straighforward process but wanted to get some feedback before opening up my PC. My PC's current specs are... HP Pavillion Dual Core Pentium (1st gen not 2nd) CPU 1 speed : 2.66ghz CPU 2 speed: 2.67ghz 1024MB of RAM (approixmately 1 Gig) Existing GFX card : ATI Radeon EXpress 200 series 256MB (onboard) And the card I want to upgrade to is... ATI Radeon Sapphire X 1600 Pro 512MB (8X AGP version) I actually was initially planning on going for the PCI-E version as the PC I'm using is about 1 or 2 years old as far as I know, so I was thinking there might be a good chance that it has a PCI E slot but I can't be certain, anyways long story short I ordered the PCI E version from Play.com and they sent me the AGP version T.T However I'm not sure if my PC has a PCI E slot or a spare AGP as I haven't opened it up yet so I'm guessing obviously that should be the first thing to do... I haven't opened one up in a while though but I think I still remember the basics, make sure pc is turned off at unit and at mains but still plugged in so as to make sure it's earthed, unscrew the main security screw to gain access to the machine (and void the warranty >.<) touch the outside of the case just to make extra sure of being earthed so as not to damage any components... I think those are the basics anyways, if anyone has any other tips or words of caution there please post them as I'm not 100% confident about this when I know that I should be as it's meant to be a simple task as far as upgrading is concerned so I hear... Also the upgrade process as I understand it should go like this... 1. install card 2. disable onboard GFX card in BIOS 3. download latest driver from relevant site Now, the thing is, am I right in thinking that I don't need to remove the onboard card or anything like that and all I'm looking for is a spare AGP slot if I have one in which to install the card? Disabling the existing GFX card in the BIOS is something I'm also not 100% on but from what I understand is because it's AGP that once the new card is installed and I Disable the onboard GFX card in the BIOS the new card should be automatically detected and also that I shouldn't need to use the CD that comes with card? Which leads me nicely onto... do I need the drivers etc on the CD? or is it better to just go to the site and get the latest driver from there and bypass using the CD? unless it's necessary of course, again I'm unsure. Anyways, I realise that I may be just making a mountain out of a molehill here as like I said I have heard it's meant to be a relatively simple process... but lol in my experience with PC's even what is supposed to be a simple task can easilly turn into an epic technological quest of sorts just to get things to work :P so yeah, thats why I posted here first so erm, any help / advice is greatly appreicated. Thanks for reading.

This might seem like a stupid question but I'll ask it anyway... :P Do any virtual console games (specifically Mario kart 64) support widescreen format or at least give you the option of stretching the image to fit the screen for widescreen TV's? Ty.

Alternative Solution : Use a wired controller :p might sound pointless I know but if you had the problems that I had with those damn wireless controllers then you'd do the same, tbh using a wired controller with the 360 doesn't bother me, plus it doubles up as a PC pad which is nice, each to their own though.

*I know that technically this shouldn't be posted in here but I've allready posted in the relevant topic a while ago and want to see if I can get an answer to a PSU releated question* question about the PC version of PSU : - Under the Saving section in the options menu there is a tick box which reads "Do not save game data on server" and it's checked by default, does anyone know what it's for? / if I need to uncheck it or not before I go online? / if I even have to worry about it at all? Thanks.

question about the PC version of PSU : - Under the Saving section in the options menu there is a tick box which reads "Do not save game data on server" and it's checked by default, does anyone know what it's for? / if I need to uncheck it or not before I go online? / if I even have to worry about it at all? Thanks.

The tune is fine, the lyrics are fine (face it, there are lots of other songs that have by far worse lyrics) overall it's good because it suits the game, mind you, it's still not a patch on "can still see the light" or "world with me" / "Whole new world" (songs from the original PSO) :wink: I still await this game with anticipation though, I am a long time player of the original PSO (DC versions 1 and 2 and GC ep1&2 + 3) and have only recently stopped playing the GC versions. Needless to say I wan't this game, damn you Sonic Team! give us a proper release date! Now! (please)

It's metal and erm shiny... beyond that I'm not even sure myself, probably comes with an extra disc with hardly any extra content or something, either way it's just down to preference really if you want to pay an extra £5 for a metal case that may or may not last longer than a lurid green plastic case and may or may not be more collectable in the future (probably not as there will be a lot of them produced) then the option is there.

Voted, dk why though anyways good luck etc etc.

The sound of me typing this sentence on my keyboard. :p

Happy Birthday! :horse: :shock: I'll be quiet now... >>

I'd say no more than £300 because Play.com recently had / still have? a bundle featuring a 360, Oblivion and a couple of extras for £279.99 and DOA4 is only really worth about £20 (maybe a bit more) now anyways, up to you how much though.

Thats BS, IMO the characters in TOS for the most part have brilliant personalities, the game itself is original, ok so it had cliches but name me an RPG that doesn't? exactly... the tried and tested battle system is implemented superbly and actually makes the battles fun and enjoyable. The scale of the game is also immense, loads of side quests and secrets and theres plenty to love about it, anyone who didn't like it is probably an RPG afficianado thats played so many RPG's that their judgement has become jaded over the years or has just found lots of small reasons to have a dig at it for no good reason IMO. Tales of Symphonia is a great RPG and of the best in recent years and a direct Nintendo home console sequel or prequel would be most welcome.

Has anyone else had any problems with disc read errors on Perfect Dark Zero after downloading the new map pack? it seems that ever since I downloaded those maps that when I try and play on live on any map half the time it will give me a disc read error on the loading screen after the lobby, but there is nothing wrong with the disc, I'm pretty sure of that as it has no real scratches. Just wondered if a lot of people were having the same problem, as if so then it's most likely a bug or a glitch in the map pack or at least one that comes into play after downloading it, in which case it will probably be patched, but if it's just me then that means it's probably my console, and if it is that will be the Second xbox 360 that I will have to send back, so I'm hoping it's just a glitch, anyways, anyone else had similar disc read error problems upon downloading those maps?

I have tried them, and I don't like them, I prefer Nintendo games, always have, still do and probably will do so indefinately. It's purely down to preference but as for philosophy etc Sony are just so full of lies, bs and hardly have an original bone in their entire collective body IMO. Sure the PS2 might have some "decent" games but they are few and far between and generally not worth my time when I have so many other games on other plaforms that I both enjoy and have earned my respect over the years, if Sony had given me a reason through either hardware and or software over the years as to why they deserve my respect then they would have earned it by now. But they haven't, and thus they don't deserve my respect and never will IMO and paying $599 so I can enjoy such "features" as non existent real time weapon change, tired franchises such as Riiiidggge Racccerrrr! (as it is now known) and attacking Giant Enemy Crabs in their weak spot for massive damage, seems to be more of a collective insult to me rather than something that commands respect. If Sony want my respect I can only give them one simple piece of advice... "Don't hold your breath... because if you do, you'll die"

It's not like they don't deserve it, they are arrogant, this arrogance will hopefully lead to their long overdue downfall IMO. *Edit* as for the whole Nintendo ripping off Xbox arcade / live thing, check this out, just found it, http://uk.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=24710303&sid=6152716 Personally I would find it amusing if Nintendo were to take M$ to court over this and win, mind you I would also find it amusing if they found a way to take $ony to court also, but meh *shrugs* ultimately all this is pointless though, I just can't wait for the Wii to come out as the PS3 is a joke IMO and while the 360 is decent, any good experiences I have had with the console have been made moreorless redundant due to faults (I am on my 2nd console now which I suspect might be faulty) and glitches. All I can think of now is roll on the release of the Wii, Nintendo / Zelda FTW

Happy Birthday Moria! don't get too drunk, seeing as you can't legally drink for another year and if you do, have fun.

It's most definately not a problem with the Hard Drive, just the wireless receiving mechanism inside the console. Anyways even if I did send the hard drive and if it did reach them, they would wipe it anyways, screw around with it and probably still send the same console and HDD back but I wouldnt be suprised if they did that and I got it back that the hard drive would have been screwed up by them somehow, at least at the moment I have a working hard drive and a power supply that doesnt overheat. Anyways, it's definately just the console thats faulty, and as the old saying goes "if it aint broke, dont fix it" hence I dont want to send them my working HDD which has 2 non transferable saves and about 44 music albums on it. *sigh* I hope it gets picked up soon as I'm getting bored of waiting now.

Am packing up my 360 now, tried to copy everything onto a card but it wont let me copy my PDZ or DOA4 files, wondering if I should send the hard drive with it now... I want them to send me a new one so I'm wondering if I should include it or not, anyone else sent theirs back without the HDD and got a new premium with an extra HDD sent to them in return? I'm packing it up now so if anyone thinks I should keep it or not post now, within the next 5 mins, otherwise I'm just gonna pack it up with the HDD ready for UPS to pick it up tomorow and will just have to take the loss of all my progress for those 2 games, which I am pissed off about btw. **Update** I packed it all up last night / early morning without the HDD and I attached a note the same as Owen did which reads: "New Xbox 360 and Hard Drive required as agreed on phone, yours sincerley" hopefully they shouldn't question it and will send me a new premium with a hard drive or at the very least a new core, definately don't want a refurb, besides M$ should send me the extra drive with the premium for all the shit and hassle it has caused me, I just hope the repair centre don't phone me up asking where the HDD is, if they do I will just have to say "I sent it with the console, isn't it with the console now?" and they will probably just assume it was stolen in transit. they havent picked it up yet, I still could put the Hard Drive in with the console, but I really don't want to as I don't see why I should have to start again on PDZ especially, just got another achievment for that online last night as well for 1000 team killcount kills. That alone will be an annoyance for me to get back, let alone everything for the whole game. Anyways, UPS should be along soonish (they said between 9am and 6pm) so I'll most likely just send it as it is. Plus who's to say that even if I did put the detachable HDD in with it that it wouldn't get stolen anyway then that would be ultimately pointless. Meh, I hate M$ for putting me through all this shit unecessarilly. I can't wait for the Wii, at least I can buy that from a company that I trust.

I packed it all up last night / early morning without the HDD and I attached a note the same as Owen did which reads: "New Xbox 360 and Hard Drive required as agreed on phone, yours sincerley" hopefully they shouldn't question it and will send me a new premium with a hard drive or at the very least a new core, definately don't want a refurb, besides M$ should send me the extra drive with the premium for all the shit and hassle it has caused me, I just hope the repair centre don't phone me up asking where the HDD is, if they do I will just have to say "I sent it with the console, isn't it with the console now?" and they will probably just assume it was stolen in transit. they havent picked it up yet, I still could put the Hard Drive in with the console, but I really don't want to as I don't see why I should have to start again on PDZ especially, just got another achievment for that online last night as well for 1000 team killcount kills. That alone will be an annoyance for me to get back, let alone everything for the whole game. Anyways, UPS should be along soonish (they said between 9am and 6pm) so I'll most likely just send it as it is. Plus who's to say that even if I did put the detachable HDD in with it that it wouldn't get stolen anyway then that would be ultimately pointless. Meh, I hate M$ for putting me through all this shit unecessarilly. I can't wait for the Wii, at least I can buy that from a company that I trust.

posted this in my thread in general but need some quick responces -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Am packing up my 360 now, tried to copy everything onto a card but it wont let me copy my PDZ or DOA4 files, wondering if I should send the hard drive with it now... I want them to send me a new one so I'm wondering if I should include it or not, anyone else sent theirs back without the HDD and got a new premium with an extra HDD sent to them in return? I'm packing it up now so if anyone thinks I should keep it or not post now, within the next 5 mins or so, otherwise I'm just gonna pack it up with the HDD ready for UPS to pick it up tomorow and will just have to take the loss of all my progress for those 2 games, which I am pissed off about btw.

If you buy a surround sound system you will be able to connect the 360 to it and get good sound, but you might be better off getting the sound system seperately for which I would recomend this... http://www.play.com/Games/Xbox360/GENBRW/3-/857240/Spherex_5_1_Surround_Sound_Speaker_System/Product.html out of stock on play.com atm but you could find it elsewhere, it's a great system anyways and you can use it for everything not just xbox / 360 I've had mine for a couple of months now and I've had no problems with it. also if your buying a TV seperately, you could get a HDTV or you could go for the cheaper and more versatile option of buying a new decent monitor and buying a VGA cable and getting HD resolution via that, just make sure that the monitor has a reasonably high native resolution, hmm as for the DVD part of your "home cinema system" why bother? the 360 can play DVD's in progressive scan. anyways, thats my advice up to you what you buy though, hope that helps anyways.

Allready posted this message in general but I really need answers to these questions so I'm posting in here also, thanks... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ok, after days of anguish cause by the Xbox customer service helpline, I finally got through to them and have set the ball rolling, bad news is that I have to send the console and the HDD, so all that music will have to be re-ripped Anyways, Owen, would you say that you writing a letter might have increased your chance of getting a new one sent to you? if so what did you put, did you type or hand-write it and did you address it to anyone, presumably you stuck it to the console also? as the guy on the phone, when I enquired about the possibilty of keeping the HDD he said that I had to send it because they (the service centre) would most likely be sending me a brand new machine, so obviously I want to do all that I can now to get a brand new machine if possible. Also, another question, to Owen or to anyone who had to back up their files to a memory unit, I bought a memory unit a while ago incase something like this happened, I havent used it yet but I noticed that there is a format option in the 360 menu, do I need to format the already blank but unused memory card before I use it? or shouldnt I do that / don't need to do that and can just save straight onto it? also to backup my save files, when I move my gamertag to the memory unit, does that automatically copy across all my save files too? or do I need to copy those as well seperately? If anyone could answer these questions for me as soon as possible it'd be greatly appreciated, as I just want to get it all sorted quickly, still got to sort of the business of finding a box (they dont supply you with the box anymore just a DHL label that you print off yourself) I also have to contact DHL I think, so yeah anyways, any help / advice is appreciated.

Ok, after days of anguish cause by the Xbox customer service helpline, I finally got through to them and have set the ball rolling, bad news is that I have to send the console and the HDD, so all that music will have to be re-ripped Anyways, Owen, would you say that you writing a letter might have increased your chance of getting a new one sent to you? if so what did you put, did you type or hand-write it and did you address it to anyone, presumably you stuck it to the console also? as the guy on the phone, when I enquired about the possibilty of keeping the HDD he said that I had to send it because they (the service centre) would most likely be sending me a brand new machine, so obviously I want to do all that I can now to get a brand new machine if possible. Also, another question, to Owen or to anyone who had to back up their files to a memory unit, I bought a memory unti a while ago incase something like this happened, I havent used it yet but I noticed that there is a format option in the 360 menu, do I need to format the already blank but unused memory card before I use it? or shouldnt I do that / don't need to do that and can just save straight onto it? also to backup my save files, when I move my gamertag to the memory unit, does that automatically copy across all my save files too? or do I need to copy those as well seperately? If anyone could answer these questions for me as soon as possible it'd be greatly appreciated, as I just want to get it all sorted quickly, still got to sort of the business of finding a box (they dont supply you with the box anymore just a DHL label that you print off yourself) I also have to contact DHL I think, so yeah anyways, any help / advice is appreciated.

*Pats demonmike04 on the head* happy now?