I have a problem installing Windows XP Pro. I started with an Intel D975XBX motherboard and could not get XP to install. It would BSOD every time at 38 percent completed and then just stop. I tried every conceivable hardware configuration possible with no success. I purchased another Intel board, a DP43TF, with the same results loading XP Pro. In exasperation I purchased an MSI motherboard and XP loaded without a hitch and is working fine. I wanted to build another computer and purchased a new Intel quad-core CPU. I tried both motherboards with the same results. I contacted Intel tech support and was told that to load XP Pro with an Intel motherboard you need an install disc with at least SP2. This provides the drivers for the PCI Express ports, which SP1 does not have, and that is why it’s blue-screening. Is this true? If it is, how do I get a copy of XP Pro with SP2 on it? I have five versions of the OS, all with SP1 or earlier. I do not want to pay a $59 service fee to obtain a copy of SP2 when you can download it for free. Can you give me some help in getting the right disc? I am tired of giving money to either Intel or Microsoft.

The Kindle is pretty, and sleek, and invitingly Linux-based. But underneath that alluring exterior, right alongside that hackable code, is a body of laws: terms of service, DMCA, and DRM, saying “Oh no, don’t touch me!”

To keep providers like the Author’s Guild happy, Amazon has restricted features and talked about uses being prohibited, as with its famous update taking away much text-to-speech functionality. But in a world where everything gets hacked, Amazon doesn’t have to do much more than make a reasonable effort at DRM—the legal burden is on the user. The Kindle is not very well-locked-down, and often hackers take that as winking permission.

Jesse Vincent is among the Kindle customers to create a “user-generated update.” His native ebook converter for the Kindle, called Savory, lets you convert ebooks from open formats (EPUB and PDF) to the Kindle’s format. He did it because, he says, “I’m in love with my Kindle.”

Continue reading after the jump. 

The fact that Gefen’s wireless HDMI extender works at all is remarkable enough; the fact that it works better than the manufacturer claims borders on the miraculous. So why aren’t we giving it a higher score? First, it would be cheaper to hire an electrician to install a hardwired HDMI connection; second, the extender is limited to HDMI 1.2a.

You can use HDMI 1.3 sources and cables, but the Ultra Wideband technology Gefen relies on just doesn’t have the bandwidth to accommodate losslessly compressed multitrack audio (Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio); it falls back instead to either Dolby Digital or DTS surround sound or simple stereo, depending on the source. The system can’t accommodate Deep Color (video with 30-, 36-, or 48-bit color depth) either, but it does support HDMI 1.3’s lip-sync feature.

If your home has masonry walls and ceilings, on the other hand, it might not be possible to create a new cable run. And if your A/V receiver and home-theater PC or Blu-ray player are on the same side of the room, and what you need is a means of getting video to your projector on the opposite side of the room, the audio issue won’t matter (neither will Deep Color, for that matter, if your projector or display doesn’t support it). In short, Gefen’s product is amazing, but its appeal is limited to a small circle of consumers, which is why the company has to charge so much for each unit.

Continue reading this review after the jump.

Many people still think of Apple as a relatively small computer company, even though it’s a large consumer-electronics company. Those folks were surprised by recent reports that Apple is hiring more chip designers. They question the wisdom of plunging deeper into the risky and costly venture of designing custom chips.

But Apple’s moves are a logical response to current events. We are witnessing a fundamental shift in computing, as important as the debut of personal computers in the 1970s.

Desktop PCs—and to a lesser extent, notebook PCs—are the old wave. The new wave integrates mobile computing and communications with ubiquitous Internet access. Although notebook PCs can ride this wave, they are the largest species of new personal computers. Netbooks are better examples. Best of the new breed are the Apple iPhone, RIM Blackberry, and Palm Pre. More are coming.

Continue reading after the jump. 

Doc, I recently built a new computer with the following specs: an EVGA Intel X58 motherboard, a Core i7 920 2.66GHz CPU, three sticks of 2GB OCZ Gold DDR3/1600 RAM, an EVGA GeForce GTX 280 SSC Edition 1GB GPU, and a Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium soundcard.

When I installed the memory, the motherboard ran it at 1,066MHz, far below what my memory is supposed to do. I’m aware that memory sticks generally report the JEDEC speeds to the mobo, so I wasn’t surprised by this. I just went into the BIOS and set it to what’s written on the sticker on my RAM: 1,600MHz, 8-8-8-24, and 1.65V.

However, I just read your “Pushing Core i7” article and now I’m wondering. Even though the startup screen for my mobo now says the memory clock is at 1,600MHz, is it really running at that speed? According to the article, I’d have to change the uncore speed to double the desired memory speed, which I believe on a 920 would require changing the base speed. I didn’t do anything other than change the memory settings in the BIOS. So what’s my memory really doing?

This week, the podcast team goes over a the long backlog of listener questions, answering questions about Windows 7 upgrades and best DVD ripping practices. Readers also quizzed us about gaming mice technologies and the best cases for building budget PCs. Nathan makes his triumphant return to the show after a 15 episode hiatus, and shares his thoughts on upgrading netbooks. Gordon chimes in with his rant of the week to close up the show. 

Do you have a tech question? A comment? A tale of technological triumph? Just need to get something off your chest? A secret to share? Email us at maximumpcpodcast@gmail.com or call our 24-hour No BS Podcast hotline at 877.404.1337 x1337--operators are standing by.

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In the PDF archive of the September 2009 issue you can find:

• Three Dream Machines -- One for every budget!
• Build Your Own Dream Machine
• Geek Quiz '09
• Awesome Product Reviews, including TriGem's Averatec 22-inch All-in-One PC
• Ask the Doctor
• Best of the Best
• How-to wire your case like a pro
• And a whole lot more!

Click the "read more" link to download the PDF issue today!

In the PDF archive of the May 2009 issue you can find:

• 9 Ways to Disaster-Proof Your PC
• Ultraportable Notebook Roundup
• 25 Most influential machines in PC history
• Awesome Product Reviews, including Seagate's BlackArmor NAS 440
• Ask the Doctor
• Best of the Best
• How-to Hack the Windows file system
• And a whole lot more!

Click the "read more" link to download the PDF issue today!

In the PDF archive of the July 2009 issue you can find:

• Make your PC Bigger, Faster, and Stronger.
• Low-cost Videocard Roundup
• The state of PC gaming
• Awesome Product Reviews, including Polywell's X5800A-Extreme
• Ask the Doctor
• Best of the Best
• Step-by-step guides to improve your PC
• And a whole lot more!

Click the "read more" link to download the PDF issue today!

In the PDF archive of the June 2009 issue you can find:

• Must-Have Software
• Build Your Own Hackintosh
• Web Browser Showdown
• Awesome Product Reviews, including Asus' Eee PC 1000HE
• Ask the Doctor
• Best of the Best
• How-To Install Linux on your PS3
• And a whole lot more!

Click the "read more" link to download the PDF issue today!

Outlook is driving me crazy. Instead of the pointer, my cursor is the little grabby-hand thing. I can’t get it to select text or do anything other than scroll the page. Help me before I kill again.

Will comes back from QuakeCon relatively unscathed and shares his hands-on experiences with id's Rage. The gang also ponders the limits of anonymity on the internet, as well as the proper classification of skankiness. Gordon is on hand to reveal cryptic bits of information about a new piece of hardware, and then lets loose on his Rant of the Week. Plus, we answer a whole bunch of listener questions!

Do you have a tech question? A comment? A tale of technological triumph? Just need to get something off your chest? A secret to share? Email us at maximumpcpodcast@gmail.com or call our 24-hour No BS Podcast hotline at 877.404.1337 x1337--operators are standing by.

Subscribe: http://feeds.feedburner.com/maximumpc/1337

I bought an E6850 because I’d read how easy it is to overclock. I followed the instructions in your article about overclocking Intel CPUs and I can’t get an extra 10MHz out of mine before it locks up! I’m running the CPU on an Asus Striker Extreme, with 2GB of Corsair Dominator RAM, a Raptor 150GB HD, an 8800 GTX, an Enermax 850W PSU, Win XP SP3, etc. The CPU and GPU are water cooled and run at about 40 C under load.

Each time I raise the front-side bus speed in the BIOS it boots fine and runs for about two minutes before locking up. I tried unlinking the RAM; still no luck. Everything is running at stock settings, but I want to be able to OC the proc.

Any ideas on what the problem might be?

—Andy Saint

Read on to see the answer to Andy's question.

The surge suppressor is one of the unsung heroes of the computer world. Often valued more for its ability to multiply one electrical receptacle into many than for its role as protector of all things electronic, the surge suppressor is your first line of defense against transient power surges that can damage or destroy sensitive components inside your PC. Let’s take a look at how they work.

Before we tackle the concept of surge suppression, we should first understand what exactly a surge is. In the United States, electrical energy flows through standard household wiring at an average rate of 120 volts. Because the system used is alternating current, the voltage level of every AC cycle reaches a peak value that’s roughly 1.414 times higher than 120 volts. A surge occurs when the voltage level suddenly rises significantly higher than that. A lightning strike on a power line, for instance, will cause a transient spike in the electrical power entering your house. Problems with your utility company’s equipment (anything from a downed power line to a defective transformer) can also cause power surges.
 
Appliances and other electrically powered devices inside your home, however, are much more common causes of power surges. Any device that requires a large amount of energy to switch on or off—examples include refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, and air conditioners—can disrupt the flow of voltage through your home’s electrical wiring. Surges such as these don’t pack as much destructive power as a lightning strike, but they can cause as much damage, instantly or over time.

Continue reading after the jump!

Some gamers treat the mere idea of microtransactions with contempt.

“Pshaw!” they snort, “like I’d pay real money to buy horse armor in Oblivion….” And then they usually trail off into a semi-coherent rant about their rights as gamers and greedy corporate pigs.

But microtransactions—which allow you to spend a few dollars on things to enhance a game, such as extra weapons or spells—are here to stay, and gamers just need to come to terms with that.

My little epiphany came when I took my son to the local Games Workshop store for some Warhammer love. There, spread out before me on shelves crammed with figures, books, paints, and all the rest of the paraphernalia of the hobby, was the world of microtransactions writ large.

Continue reading after the jump.

Trademark has been a way for creators to indicate the source of their work for hundreds of years. It makes sense—one of the reasons I don’t buy that email-pitched V1agra is that I’m not sure I can trust Pf1zer. Trademark is in the same class of property rights that give us copyrights and patents.

No one else can call their drug Viagra, it’s Pfizer’s property. Recently, trademark law has been used to get domain squatters off common brand names, which I like when it really pertains to domain squatters and feel weird about when it targets the unfortunately named Viagra family’s website.

Colleen Bell is an Austin roller derby girl who skates under the name Crackerjack, a word that means expert, but is more fun to say. She’s trying to trademark her handle for inclusion in an upcoming video game featuring roller derby girls, presumably beating the crap out of each other. Fun!

Continue reading after the jump.

In a rare example of limb-crawling, Intel’s technical marketing manager recently made 10 predictions for the next 10 years. But he didn’t crawl very far. Most predictions were boring references to long-standing development projects at Intel and elsewhere.

“Realistic computer-generated images.” (Hey, Intel, we’ve already got that.) “New classes of portable devices with 10 times more battery life.” (Who else saw that coming?) “Personal Internet devices will be truly personal.” (Like I’ve been saying for years.) “Low-cost silicon photonics for faster, more reliable data transmission.” (Intel and many others have been working on that technology forever.)

Nevertheless, two predictions are interesting. The boldest was “Malware will become a thing of the past.” The idea is that microprocessors will incorporate security features to stop malicious software from attacking the operating system and application software. It’ll be like a Roach Motel for malware—bugs crawl in, but they won’t crawl out.

Continue reading after the jump! 

It is said that a great game is easy to learn but difficult to master. Demigod has the latter part down—the former, not so much. Veterans of the Warcraft III mod Defense of the Ancients, from which this game draws much of its inspiration, will have an easy time grasping the excellent concept, but to most other players it’s a very new form of multiplayer role-playing game, and the lack of tutorials makes learning the ropes a challenge.

To make a long, superfluous story short, portals on both sides of a symmetrical map spew out waves of AI-controlled troops that clash in the middle. Controlling a single powerful character, your goal is to push the tide of battle back at the enemy and topple their citadel. It sounds fairly simple, but thanks to a blizzard of game elements such as eight character classes, structure and minion upgrades, item purchasing, and flag capturing, Demigod becomes extremely complex.

Continue reading after the jump!

For the second week in a row, the gang returns with another news-packed podcast. This week, we talk about our first hands-on with the ZuneHD, the RTM of Windows 7, Logitech's new G500 laser mouse, oh yeah, and the rumors about Intel's new Core i5 CPU. Listener questions are answered, technical difficulties get resolved, and everyone involved has a great time. Most importantly, Gordon makes a triumphant return to the Rant of the Week!

Do you have a tech question? A comment? A tale of technological triumph? Just need to get something off your chest? A secret to share? Email us at maximumpcpodcast@gmail.com or call our 24-hour No BS Podcast hotline at 877.404.1337 x1337--operators are standing by.

Subscribe: http://feeds.feedburner.com/maximumpc/1337

Although the various Linux distributions have a wide variety of software available, you may have a few Windows programs that you may not be willing or able to part with. Although many people dual-boot or use virtual machines to get around this problem, there is yet another potential option that many people new to Linux may not have considered--- Wine. Wine stands out from the other options because it does not require a separate Windows license. 

 Wine is a program that allows you to run Microsoft Windows programs on Linux. Although it is emulator-like in appearance and by observation, Wine is not an emulator; in fact, the very name of Wine is an acronym for Wine is not an Emulator. A true emulator can emulate CPU architecture in addition to the actual software it is running. For instance, a program that could execute Intel x86-based Windows software on SPARC-based systems running the Solaris operating system would be a true emulator. However, Wine is actually a compatibility layer since both Windows and Wine run natively on x86 and no hardware emulation is required.

Read on to find out how to acquire and configure Wine to play Half-Life 2!