Just Received An "acer" Laptop Hand-me-down

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11-24-2003, 08:00 AM
Roosh

Ok, so I don't know too much about it - I'll mention the few specs that I am aware of, and basically let you know that I'm interested in finding out what I can do with this thing (which currently doesn't have an internet connection!).

-It's an Acer "AcerNote Light", equipped with Windows '95.
I believe the notebook itself is circa '97 or '98.

-From System Properties:
Microsoft Windows 95, 4.00.950, IE 5 5.00.2314.1003
16 MB RAM (I believe there is the capacity for more...[where do I go to determine exactly how much more?])

->I'm considering getting a pcmcia ethernet card to use w/ my dsl connection at home but don't think it's wise to invest much in it... and for now, I've got to deal with not being able to connect to the web.
I'm wondering if this is the issue I'm having with not being able to view video cd-r's I've created in the past (I am, thankfully, able to listen to cd-r's. How, by the way, do I determine whether this cd-rom can currently or can be made to play cd-rw's?). I've got various players installed: winamp 2, the very latest bsplayer (tried installing the latest video lan client, but it wouldn't open because it said it was missing a file...) The Laptop OS only supports Windows Media Player 6.4 and I downloaded some updates for that player to install. I've also got gspot installed which lets me know which codecs I'll need to install to play the video files. I went and got the latest k-lite codec pack (I think: 210f) and for on video for example, it tells me I've got everything I need except Divx 5. So I install Divx Pro 5.1 from the codec Pack with other stuff, with nos stuff, all kinds of differnt configurations you can imagine, installing, uninstalling, reinstalling: it's a nightmare. basically, the results I get are either good sound, and a super slow-mo slide show (no moving video), frozen completely with audio, or illegal operation errors - the latter I believe come from the fact I believe that some codecs couldn't be registered during the installation process bec. I don't have web access. You agree?

Any other ideas? K-lite pack not the way to go?
Basically, I just want to be able to view these cd-r's & cd-rw's on my laptop - please help. Thanks a lot! ;)
11-24-2003, 10:31 AM
ZaZu

Quote:

Originally posted by Roosh@24 November 2003 - 01:00
-From System Properties:
Microsoft Windows 95, 4.00.950, IE 5 5.00.2314.1003
16 MB RAM (I believe there is the capacity for more...[where do I go to determine exactly how much more?])

SisoftSandra ;)
11-25-2003, 05:44 AM
Roosh

Thanks for getting things going, Zazu. http://www.lindorez.com/fasttracker/...s/thumbsup.gif

I'm relatively familiar w/ the Sisoft Sandra utility. I was able to download the 2001se Standard version for Win '95 zip file and burn it to cd-r elsewhere, to in turn install onto my laptop. It successfully installed, but was met with a familiar error when I tried to open the program:

"Error Starting Program - A required .DLL file, WS2_32.DLL, was not found"

I get the identical error when trying to open the already installed Video Lan Client v0.6.2, unfortunately.

Anyone know what this is the result of and what to do about it?

*The 2 OS's I am most familiar with are ME & XP. It's not that 95 is all that bad, but I do notice little things lacking here & there that become nuisances. I learned that ME requires at least 150 mhz to run, & my little laptop here only has 120 mhz (I think - a functioning Si Soft Sandra would probably confirm a lot of these questions for me...). Anyone know how much 98 requires or an idea as how/where to find out? -- or, some experience/wisdom to back up why it would actually be a bad idea to upgrade in the 1st place?

-> And, again,

Quote:

for now, I've got to deal with not being able to connect to the web.
I'm wondering if this is the issue I'm having with not being able to view video cd-r's I've created in the past (I am, thankfully, able to listen to cd-r's. How, by the way, do I determine whether this cd-rom can currently or can be made to play cd-rw's?). I've got various players installed: winamp 2, the very latest bsplayer (tried installing the latest video lan client, but it wouldn't open because it said it was missing a file...) The Laptop OS only supports Windows Media Player 6.4 and I downloaded some updates for that player to install. I've also got gspot installed which lets me know which codecs I'll need to install to play the video files. I went and got the latest k-lite codec pack (I think: 210f) and for on video for example, it tells me I've got everything I need except Divx 5. So I install Divx Pro 5.1 from the codec Pack with other stuff, with nos stuff, all kinds of differnt configurations you can imagine, installing, uninstalling, reinstalling: it's a nightmare. basically, the results I get are either good sound, and a super slow-mo slide show (no moving video), frozen completely with audio, or illegal operation errors - the latter I believe come from the fact I believe that some codecs couldn't be registered during the installation process bec. I don't have web access. You agree?

Any other ideas? K-lite pack not the way to go?
Basically, I just want to be able to view these cd-r's & cd-rw's on my laptop - please help. Thanks a lot!

:)
11-25-2003, 12:00 PM
lynx

That processor speed is fine for win98, but you would be desperately short on memory.

Min recommended memory for Win95 is 16MB.
Min recommended memory for Win98 is 32MB.

Doubtful if you would be able to install WinME because of other hardware restrictions.
Absolutely no chance of installing Win2k or WinXP.
11-25-2003, 12:24 PM
cwctv

Quote:

"Error Starting Program - A required .DLL file, WS2_32.DLL, was not found"

Go here for the file :- http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dl...s.shtml?ws2_32
It should be in your Windows\System folder.
I don't think you will get video's to play because your video cards memory will be too slow,adding more system memory won't sort this out.

Do a Google heres a quick find :-

Processor : Pentium 133 MMX.
Memory : 48 MB.
Harddisk : 1.3 GB.
Video : Chips & Technologies ct65550.
Sound : ESS1688 PnP AudioDrive.
PCMCIA : TI 1131 Cardbus controller.
Ethernet : 40 BC (NE2000 clone) 10MB ethernet (Twisted pair or Thinwire).
CD : 10x, internal.
Floppy disk : 1.4 MB external.

Pentium 150 MMX
32 Mb RAM
CD Rom Matshita IDE (internal)
Hard Disk 2 GB
Chips and Tech. 65550 PCI video adapter 1 MB vram
Dual scan LCD screen 800x600 (65K colors) 11.3"
Full size 84 key keyboard (recognized as Standard 101 US keyboard)
PC card (PCMCIA) Motorola Mariner 33.6K (Fax/Data/Celular/Network) (modem: IRQ12, COM 2, I/O 02f8-02ff)
Synaptics PS/2 touchpad IRQ 12
Texas Instrument PCI 1131 CardBus controller IRQ 9
Yamaha OPL3-SAx Sound System and Game port
APM compatible BIOS
External floppy drive

AcerNote Light 370
intel Pentium 133MHz
32MB RAM
Graphic: Chips & Technologies ct65550
Harddisk: HITACHI_DK225A-14, 1374MB
10x CD-ROM, UJDCD8730
3Com EtherLink III PCMCIA 3C589D Combo
2 PCMCIA Slots using the TI 1131 controller and i82365 chipset

So it must be like one of these that video card is u/s good for typing thats all, if you look there is plenty on how to put Linux on might be better overall.
11-26-2003, 02:33 AM
Roosh

These replies keep on impressin'. http://members.shaw.ca/wenpigsfly/smileys/notworthy.gif

-I've downloaded the .dll, will burn it to cd-r (!!! - the laptop doesn't have a floppy drive installed <_<) & see what happens. Do you think even a functioning VLC will be able to play these files, or again, does it have less to do with players & codecs & more to do with system capabilities?

- Points well taken about upgrading to 98 & other Windows OS's (I wasn't that delusional about considering the others, though :D. )
- However, regarding Linux, I have absolutely no familiarity with it other than the fact that it's a Windows alternative/competitor. Why exactly, cwctv, were you suggesting that I try it on my laptop? Was it just on a whim or was it in direct reference to my situation? -> Would it somehow permit me to play media because it uses less resources than Windows does?

-> An interesting development, I installed tmpgenc pro (downloaded from the k-lite downloads site), and it turns out that I'm able to view mpegs perfectly (albeit excrutiatingly small) in the mpeg tools edit area. That's something to go off of, right? I suppose I could get an avi-to-mpg converter & watch these clips that way...Better yet, I'd prefer to find an mpeg viewer as powerful/resourceful as tmpgenc to play these clips on the full screen (know of any?) -> Wait, isn't Tmpgenc supposed to do that in the first place? (Will just a google seach on doing such a conversion in tmpgenc suffice, or does anyone know a better source to consult for the step-by-step breakdown?)

-> Back to playing these divx & xvid codec-using avi cd-rs and my uneducated theories on why things aren't working. I've got gspot. I got rid of the complicated full k-lite codec pack and simply installed the divx pro codec and the 7, 8, & 9 series WM data from the basic k-lite pack. I also installed the "Bgpop Codec Pack", which is highly regarded by divx digest & includes the following:

Quote:

Bgpop Codec Pack - a collection of most of the codecs and filters that you'll ever need. Includes :

      [Codecs]
          o DivX 3.11 Alpha (not VKI because of some problems on Nandub)
          o DivX audio (from original divX redistribution)
          o Mp3 Audio Codec professional with panel
          o DivX 4.0 Final (OpendivX) dual pass
          o HuffYUV 2.1.1 Video Codec (for capture)
          o Ogg Vorbis VBR audio Codec - raccomandated - best audio quality
          o Lame Directshow Filter codec
          o Microsoft MPEG4-VKI codec (v1,2,3)

      [Filters]
          o Ac3 audio decoder filter 2.2.0.0
          o Avi Renderer Filter (required from graphedit)
          o Cyberlink Audio Decoder filter
          o Dedynamic 1.0.2.0 (Normalize audio on-the-fly - require the use of graphedit - not work directly on wmp)
          o File Dumper (graphedit)
          o Intervideo Audio Decoder 1.0.0.1
          o Intervideo Video Decoder 1.0.0.1
          o Ligos MPEG splitter 3.0.0.17
          o I-Media Multiple-MPEG audio Sources (for videos with multiple audio)
          o I-Media Video Resizer (Resize the video)
          o WAV Dest (for graphedit use)

Additional Information

Required software :

Microsoft DirectX and DXMedia
Microsoft Media Player 6.4

-> You'll notice at the end that I already have that version of WMP & I followed their suggestions by installing the Windows 95 compatible DirectX stuff...

Still, not much progress.
-When all that stuff including "3ivx" (which supposedly supports x-vid, but hasn't been able to so far) from either k-lite pack is installed, and I have g-spot render it's results, it gives me a "black box" error and basically crashes, warning me that my media player will most likely do the same. When I make these codec installs and uncheck 3ivx, I never get the black box errors. Mind you, I was getting those errors w/ 3ivx prior to installing "Bgpop" & directx & any other recent additions.

- Even when g-spot tells me that divx is installed, multiple audio codecs are present, rendering is successful and therefore it believes these files should be able to be played, they don't; they are choppy & unresposive.
-> Why this response from avi, divx & xvid encoded files, and the success of the mpeg?

-Lastly, what about my theory about the lack of web connection hindering the registration process of these codecs while the installation is going on, creating issues later down the line? I vaguely recall seeing an error message with a details tab that mentioned the term registration -- I could be reaching here...

Anyway, thanks again for the help. ;)

__________________________________________

-> Furthermore, cwctv, which Linux OS would you recommend? I see a Redhat 9 & a "Lindows" available on K++ right now...
11-26-2003, 03:00 AM
Roosh

I guess the simple follow-up is, are these divx 5-encoded video files compatible with Win 95?
11-27-2003, 08:09 AM
Roosh

If anyone's still paying attention to this thread...

The .dll situation is starting to get comical: I downloaded "WS2_32.DLL", burned it to cd-r (because again, there's no floppy installed, cd-rw doesn't work, & cd-r's the only kind of removable media I can use with the notebook at the moment -- also, it's of a Radio Shack dude's opinion that as long as I've got Win 95 installed, I can't transfer data via USB, either, which is fantastic :rolleyes:), installed it to the system foled in the notebook, which was a good thing & then started the applications that previously couldn't start without it. Both, along w/ some other programs I later installed all gave me error windows saying the u now were missing "WS2HELP.DLL".

At this point, someone reading all of this this, or maybe myself might say, 'Alright face it, you're trying to operate programs/function that just aren't compatible w/ your system...', but the fact remains, at least w/ sisoft sandra, that the version I've installed was designed to operate on 95 - so what the heck's going on here?

I wonder if this is going to be a vicious cycle of .dll-downloading, burning, installing, finding out if I need another one & then starting over again. It would be nice if I could find out what .dll's are required for it to run right off the bat...
11-27-2003, 08:19 AM
_John_Lennon_

Looks like you dont have any of Win Socks 2

Go download it here,

http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/downloa...ts2/default.asp
11-27-2003, 11:04 AM
cwctv

Sorry Roosh never used linux but this search for your laptop seems to bring up plenty about it.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=AcerNote+...le+Search&meta=

Looking at the h/drive sizes they seem to be at least 1.5 gig I'd go for Win98 or Me I still say the video card is the main problem here

Quote:

Chips and Tech. 65550 PCI video adapter 1 MB vram

There is just not enough memory to run a movie smoothly and well the Windows player is too hungary on resources anyways go for VideoLan plays anything.
Next in your list of codecs you say no dvix5 get it you will need it I also recall codecs of certain video/audio had problems running with '95 and in some cases with '98.
http://www.videolan.org
11-30-2003, 12:18 AM
Roosh

Great idea on that win socks download! I'll give taht a try. I'll also go for the original win 95 service pack update...Hopefully, they'll contain all these .dll's I'm missing, and by the way, cwctv, if you go back in my thread, I mention that it was my early intention to use vlc, but it was these friggin missing dll's that weren't allowing me to play them...
I'll be back w/ updates.

A strange thing: it turns out that burned cd-r's that have been encoded with mpeg, play nearly flawlessly on windows media player 6.4. Can anyone explain that?
And again, I do have divx 5 installed...it's just that it, along with any kind of avi, don't play. And again, it''s my unsupported thinking that, along with the lack of memory and the lesser quality video card, perhaps, that it has to do with the codecs not being registered during the install process as a result of no we connection...