july 2007 MAXIMUMPC 6
only, not a clean install. Was I
supposed to reformat, install XP,
then install Vista?
—Patrick Ignaczak
The Doctor would like to wel-
come you to the ever-confus-
ing world of product activation
and OS versions. In this case,
you have clearly purchased an
upgrade copy of Vista. In the-
ory, you’re supposed to install
that overtop your XP installa-
tion, as the disc will prevent
you from installing Vista on a
wiped—or “clean”—drive.
That said, there is an ingenious
workaround to the issue.
Install Vista, but don’t enter a
product key when prompted.
This will get you a 30-day trial
version of the OS. Once it is
up and running, fire up your
upgrade disc and install Vista
once again, entering your prod-
uct key when asked. You’ll get
a fresh, clean installation of the OS without ever
having to touch XP.
A DUSTY DVD COLLECTION
I recently removed my DVD drive from my PC to
reinstall Windows on my son’s PC, as his CD-ROM
drive was too slow. When I put the drive back in my
PC, the BIOS was able to see the drive, but I could
not get it to work (it doesn’t show up in Windows
Explorer, and bootable CDs won’t boot on my
computer). I bought a new DVD drive, but it doesn’t
work on this computer. And, yes, I reinstalled the
drivers from both manufacturers.
I had another hard drive and was able to rein-
stall Windows (using the same DVD drive on the
same computer), and everything is working fine
now. I would like to put the old hard drive back and
put the whole system back the way it was, but I still
do not understand why Windows refuses to recog-
nize the DVD drive.
—Roy Bellon
It’s a little tough to diagnose your problem with-
out knowing which motherboard and OS you’re
running and the make and model of the optical
drives. Still, the Doc will take a stab at it. The fact
that you were able to reinstall Windows on your
PC using a different hard drive indicates that your
problem is with Windows and not a hardware
problem. If you are running Windows XP, you do
not need drivers for the optical device. You should
uninstall any drivers that you installed, as they
are for older operating systems. If you recently
installed a game that uses StarForce protection,
that may also be an issue, as it is notorious for
wreaking havoc on optical drives.
Finally, your problem could be as simple as a
bad cable or a bent pin on the drive. You should
also double-check the jumpers on both drives on
the chain and try both cable select and slave and
master to see if that solves your problem.SPLINTER CELL: PAINFUL SCREECH
I am running two 8800 GTX cards in SLI on an Asus
P5N32-SLI Premium mobo with two gigs of RAM
and an Intel Core 2 E6700 overclocked to 2.93GHZ. I
have a Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music soundcard.
After I load Splinter Cell: Double Agent the sound
dies after a few minutes and is replaced by a loud,
high-pitched squeal. I have to reboot to get rid of
the noise. Interestingly, if I disable SLI, the game will
run without this sound occurring, but the frame rate
drops dramatically. I have tried reinstalling both the
game and the soundcard drivers many times, but
that has not fixed the problem. I have only one avail-
able PCI slot, so installing the card in a different slot
is not an option. I do not have this problem with any
other games.
—Daniel GuerandDaniel, you’re running into a problem that’s
often reported to the Doctor but that he has
never been able to reproduce. According to
Creative, the problem occurs because certain
motherboard
BIOSes incorrectly
enumerate add-
in cards. Some
people describe
the sound as
a “screech ofdeath” while others call it a
“snap, crackle, pop.” The majority
of problems have occurred with
nForce chipsets, but the issue
is not limited to that part. Back
in the Voodoo2 SLI days, many
soundcards were blamed for
screeching and popping sounds
as well. The problem, called bus
hogging, happened because the
graphics card would hog the PCI
bus and not release it (remember,
it’s a shared roadway) within
industry-standard specs.
The Doctor suspects a simi-
lar problem is happening in this
case, but as he said, he has
never experienced it using X-Fi
cards and nForce or Intel chip-
sets. That doesn’t mean you’re
totally hosed. Some people
have reported that updating
the board’s BIOS corrects the
problem, while others say that
the latest drivers from Creative
will do the trick. The Doc recom-
mends that you grab the latest BIOS for your
Asus board and run the auto-update program
from the support section of Soundblaster.com.EXTERNALLY CURIOUS
I am buying an external hard drive and will install
Windows XP on it. I plan on using it as a portable
OS when I use other PCs. Will the external drive
have conflicts with other PCs when I use it?
—Alfred BraxtonWell, provided you don’t mind a bit of a speed
choke, you’ll be perfectly fine installing XP on
an external drive. The Doctor is assuming, of
course, that you’re using a standard USB con-
nection to hook the drive to a computer. If your
external device uses an eSATA connection, you’ll
see no performance difference whatsoever—it
would be as if you were using a drive nestled in
your machine to boot XP.
That said, you won’t be able to use said
external drive as a “local” copy of XP for
machines you connect it to. Remember, XP
installs a ton of files based on the detected hard-
ware of the machine it’s attached to. Unless you
plan on using your OS on machines that are all
identical, you’re going to run into a nightmare of
compatibility issues that will prevent XP from
running in the first place.The Doctor jokes around a lot, he realizes. But there’s one thing he’s 100
percent serious about: bears. If you’re sitting there gaming away and you
see a bear looking into your basement window, just stop. Stop what you’re
doing. Don’t email the Doctor via [email protected] ; definitely
don’t send him anything about the computer-related issues you’re having.
Grab your can of bear spray and prepare for the inevitable. It’s coming.If you’re using alternate drivers for your optical drive, don’t.
Windows XP should automatically be able to configure any disc
reader you have.