[joseluis perez]

For some reason on my Win7 Pro x64 system I cannot install SP1. I tried it offline and through Windows Update and get the same error. I wen tand got the System Readiness Tool or whatever it is called to verify the system is ready for the update, it attempts to install an update then says complete but still no luck. Any ideas what could be wrong? On my laptop which is Win7 Pro x86 it installed fine at release via Windows Update.

[Miranda Taylor]

I've never used Steam before and I was just wondering, is a download speed of 700 KB/s normal?

Admittedly, this wouldn't be as bad if Shogun 2 wasn't 18 GB . . .

[Jonathan Windmon]

I've never used Steam before and I was just wondering, is a download speed of 700 KB/s normal?

Admittedly, this wouldn't be as bad if Shogun 2 wasn't 18 GB . . .

It depends on your Internet Service Provider and how fast your internet is. Steam will usually download games as fast as your Internet will allow. But 700KBps is an decent. I get about 1.4MB/s usually when downloading. Is 700KB/s what you normally get for downloading anything else?

[Cartoon]

I've never used Steam before and I was just wondering, is a download speed of 700 KB/s normal?

Admittedly, this wouldn't be as bad if Shogun 2 wasn't 18 GB . . .

Steam's DL speeds depend on server load, your own internet speeds, and anything else you're doing online at the time. Obviously if you're trying to DL from Steam, play World of Warcraft, and stream from Netflix at the same time, you're going to be having some problems. What's your typical download speed for non-Steam downloads?

You can try changing to a different download server if you suspect the problem is on Steam's end. Go to the Steam dropdown menu -> Settings -> Downloads + Cloud. There's an option there to change your download region. I've heard some people have good luck in picking regions where there's currently lower traffic (due to the time of day) or just a lower population on that server in general.

700KB/s is respectable to me at least, but again, it depends on what kind of speeds you get normally. Typically my Steam downloads are slower than that.

[+++CAZZY]

I've never had Steam download speeds above 2MB/second, even when I had internet capable of 10+MB/second. With 8mb internet, I would typically get line speed, but sometimes I'd get between 400 and 800KB.

[Sxc-Mary]

My download speeds always cap at 2mbps, though sometimes ill get slower than that. If I'm downloading two or more games it'll just break that up, like 1.5mbps down on one and 500kbps on the other.

[luis dejesus]

I've never had Steam download speeds above 2MB/second, even when I had internet capable of 10+MB/second. With 8mb internet, I would typically get line speed, but sometimes I'd get between 400 and 800KB.

My internet speed is usually around 35mb/s (lower case megabit) for downloads, but Steam usually downloads between 2MB/s (megaBYTE) - 3 MB/s

Keep in mind your ISP always tries to make it sound like your connection is faster by announcing it in megaBITS instead of megaBYTES

[Marquis deVille]

What is livemesh's privacy policy? Amazon's isn't so good:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/networking/no-privacy-on-amazon-8217s-cloud-drive/882

[Flash]

What is livemesh's privacy policy? Amazon's isn't so good:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/networking/no-privacy-on-amazon-8217s-cloud-drive/882

If you are syncing it to another computer it doesn't matter: the files never come in contact with a MS server (that's why it's called P2P). If you use it to sync to SkyDrive, it's the same as http://explore.live.com/microsoft-service-agreement?ref=none)

[Bethany Short]

My boyfriend is having a problem sending out emails from his new website in that they ALWAYS end up in spam folders. Is there any way he can stop this? There's not much point in him sending out anything if people aren't going to receive it. The domain its coming from chrisosullivan.co.uk and the hosting is by Easily.

Any suggestions?

[Syaza Ramali]

http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=54169708&f=188

What do you do about this problem?

[Gemma Woods Illustration]

My internet speed is usually around 35mb/s (lower case megabit) for downloads, but Steam usually downloads between 2MB/s (megaBYTE) - 3 MB/s

Keep in mind your ISP always tries to make it sound like your connection is faster by announcing it in megaBITS instead of megaBYTES

Yes, I'm aware of the difference between a bit and a byte. With a 100mb connection, that would get sustained, real-world download speeds of around 10MB, Steam would never give me above 2MB.

[xemmybx]

Yes, I'm aware of the difference between a bit and a byte. With a 100mb connection, that would get sustained, real-world download speeds of around 10MB, Steam would never give me above 2MB.

100Mbit/s equals 12.5MB/sec. Steam doesn't give you 100% of your total bandwidth, there is overhead and other limitations. I usually hover around 2MB/sec, but have downloaded at 3.7MB/sec (30Mbit/sec) before, though it usually doesn't last.

BTW: My ISP is Comcast on a 16Mbit/sec plan (20 with powerboost). Actual line-speeds around 42Mbit/sec in my area, so usually get around 23-32Mbit/sec if its not being capped or if network saturation isn't high.

Also, hopefully you aren't talking about an internal network speeds. Most internal networks operate at 100Mbit/sec or 1000Mbit/s (wired) or up to 360Mbit/sec (wireless). This isn't your Internet throughput.

[Multi Multi]

Can someone explain to me the benefit of 1600 MHz RAM vs 1333 MHz RAM?

Is it primarily to make it easier to overclock your CPU?

[JAY]

Can someone explain to me the benefit of 1600 MHz RAM vs 1333 MHz RAM?

Is it primarily to make it easier to overclock your CPU?

Faster speeds allow faster access to memory as well, but the difference is pretty small in real world. Your load times might be a bit faster, but it's a substantial increase by any means. For older CPUs, it played more of a factor in OCing. If we're talking about your potential SandyBridge based setup, then nothing much. Sandybridge overclocks differently from previous generation Intel processors with a simple change to the multiplier and voltage. RAM speed is not as important for OCing these chips...I've seen people take a 2500K up to 4.8GHz with value RAM DDR3 1333. Majority of the P67 and Z68 motherboards overclock the same even making motherboard choices easier. It mainly comes down to the chip...some overclock very well, while others are just average....just gotta get lucky.

[Kaylee Campbell]

Faster speeds allow faster access to memory as well, but the difference is pretty small in real world. Your load times might be a bit faster, but it's a substantial increase by any means. For older CPUs, it played more of a factor in OCing. If we're talking about your potential SandyBridge based setup, then nothing much. Sandybridge overclocks differently from previous generation Intel processors with a simple change to the multiplier and voltage. RAM speed is not as important for OCing these chips...I've seen people take a 2500K up to 4.8GHz with value RAM DDR3 1333. Majority of the P67 and Z68 motherboards overclock the same even making motherboard choices easier. It mainly comes down to the chip...some overclock very well, while others are just average....just gotta get lucky.

Interesting - so if I'm going with a SB CPU, then it is probably better to buy the cheaper, 1333MHz RAM, correct?

[scorpion972]

I seem to be having a pretty major problem with the new desktop I built yesterday. I have an AMD Radeon HD 6950 with the Catalyst 11.5a Hotfix drivers installed, and I can't play a demanding game for more than a few minutes. After just a few minutes of playing my monitor goes blank and says input not supported, often times the game will lockup completely. This happens every time I try to play The Witcher 2, Just Cause 2, or Metro 2033. I've been monitoring my temps and they seem to be very acceptable, so I don't believe it is an overheating issue.

Does anyone have any ideas on what might be causing this problem, or what I can do to fix it? I still have about 25 days or so to RMA the card for a replacement, but I want to do that only as a last resort.

[Svenja Hedrich]

I seem to be having a pretty major problem with the new desktop I built yesterday. I have an AMD Radeon HD 6950 with the Catalyst 11.5a Hotfix drivers installed, and I can't play a demanding game for more than a few minutes. After just a few minutes of playing my monitor goes blank and says input not supported, often times the game will lockup completely. This happens every time I try to play The Witcher 2, Just Cause 2, or Metro 2033. I've been monitoring my temps and they seem to be very acceptable, so I don't believe it is an overheating issue.

Does anyone have any ideas on what might be causing this problem, or what I can do to fix it? I still have about 25 days or so to RMA the card for a replacement, but I want to do that only as a last resort.

Have you tried underclocking the card?

[Bird]

Have you tried underclocking the card?

I just tried underclocking it by quite a bit, and still having the same problem. I also tried dropping down to the 11.1 Catalyst drivers and still nothing. I have no idea what the issue is.

[Bad News Rogers]

I seem to be having a pretty major problem with the new desktop I built yesterday. I have an AMD Radeon HD 6950 with the Catalyst 11.5a Hotfix drivers installed, and I can't play a demanding game for more than a few minutes. After just a few minutes of playing my monitor goes blank and says input not supported, often times the game will lockup completely. This happens every time I try to play The Witcher 2, Just Cause 2, or Metro 2033. I've been monitoring my temps and they seem to be very acceptable, so I don't believe it is an overheating issue.

Does anyone have any ideas on what might be causing this problem, or what I can do to fix it? I still have about 25 days or so to RMA the card for a replacement, but I want to do that only as a last resort.

I would second check that your graphics settings are set correctly to the monitor. Make sure the refresh rate is compatible with the monitor. Also it could be the graphics card not getting enough power (of course, I believe this would trigger a VPU error or a complete restart or a NO DISPLAY error). Also try another monitor, if available.

What monitor to do have? Did you use this monitor with any other system? What power supply do you have?

[Dan Wright]

I would second check that your graphics settings are set correctly to the monitor. Make sure the refresh rate is compatible with the monitor. Also it could be the graphics card not getting enough power (of course, I believe this would trigger a VPU error or a complete restart or a NO DISPLAY error). Also try another monitor, if available.

What monitor to do have? Did you use this monitor with any other system? What power supply do you have?

I've double and triple checked all of the settings, and everything looks fine. As far as I know the graphics card should be getting plenty of power and cooling. I have an Acer X213H monitor that I've had for around 3 years now, with no problems. My power supply is a Corsair Enthusiast TX650, 650 watt.

[Alexandra Louise Taylor]

I've double and triple checked all of the settings, and everything looks fine. As far as I know the graphics card should be getting plenty of power and cooling. I have an Acer X213H monitor that I've had for around 3 years now, with no problems. My power supply is a Corsair Enthusiast TX650, 650 watt.

Everything looks good. Have you tried uninstalling the graphics card driver completely? A simple upgrade/downgrade of the drivers doesn't seem to be helping. My guess is that the default resolution (set in CCC, or graphics driver manager) is set to one that is out of range. Some games will flicker between resolution when loading maps and/or cutscenes. It is possible that the graphics card cannot recover from the invalid resolution.

Also I would recommend running the problematic games in Windowed Mode, to see if they will run correctly.

edit: It could also be a problem with the video/input cable.

[DeeD]

I've uninstalled the driver and ran Driver Sweeper in Safe-Mode to completely remove the old one. I've also tried running it in windowed mode and I'm getting the same issue. I'm not really sure what else to try, I might as well just RMA the card and hope for the best with a new one. Thanks for all the suggestions guys, I really appreciate it.

[GLOW...]

Interesting - so if I'm going with a SB CPU, then it is probably better to buy the cheaper, 1333MHz RAM, correct?

Some good G Skill Ripjaws at that speed will be fine. Don't get value RAM if you can avoid it. DDR3 1600 is not that much more either.

[m Gardner]

So I am thinking about doing a complete overhaul of my gaming/encoding machine. (Sig) I am thinking about possibly making the jump to Intel. I do a ton of video encoding in 1280x720 or sometimes 1920x1080 on here using Handbrake, which will use all the cores/threads it can. I was thinking about something like this....
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070&cm_re=2600k-_-19-115-070-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128493
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231417
I would keep everything else from my current build. Also about Windows, since its a new motherboard will I have to buy a complete new serial key? I currently am using an upgrade version of 7 (on a clean install), would it be possible to just transfer the license from this machine to my new build? Another thing, I was originally waiting for the AMD Bulldozer class to be released, anything new about them that would make Bulldozer better then Sandybridge? Thanks