Problems? We've all got them, you know... Mistook your wardrobe for the toilet again? Local shop stopped stocking your favourite green-flavoured Pringles? Been playing WOW so long your partner's left you? We can't help with those (no, not even the Mighty Wandy), but we can solve all of your hardware hassles. Wandy knows everything and is willing to help if you email him at wandy@dearwandy.com, including as much info as you can and system specs where applicable.
IT'S THE BUSINESS Question: Last month you suggested a reader buy a Dell laptop with Vista Business installed, but warned that they wouldn't be getting any games.
Not so! There's a real easy way to add them. Simply open the Programs and Features control panel, click the 'Turn Windows features on or off' link on the left panel, then expand the Games node. You'll see that Vista Business does indeed have no games selected, but you simply need to check the ones you want to appear, and complete the process by pressing the OK. Hey presto, Windows installs them! Andrew Harding-Smith
Answer: Thanks for the tip. I'm pretty certain that employers all around the world will be delighted with the knowledge that any Vista Business user supposedly at work in a busy office can easily add back any missing games and spend the afternoon baking cakes in Purble Place.
STEAM CHEST Question: My two brothers and I all use Steam. The problem is that whenever there's an update, and there are updates every day now, the broadband line gets overcome trying to update all the PCs.
Is there any way to store the games centrally, and have the other machines use that one place instead of us all getting the same updates to apply to the same games?
When a new game is released, it puts us perilously close to our ISP's download limit! I've searched the Steam forums and the official answer is that you simply can't do it. I've tried creating a shortcut SteamApps directory but Steam doesn't want to recognise it. Any thoughts? Fran Buth
Answer: If you're using Windows 2000 or earlier, you can't have your SteamApps directory anywhere but your Steam folder without mucking about with undocumented features or third-party tools. This is despite many households now having multiple Steam users and the huge GCF game files taking an age to download when more than two people use one phone line.
In Vista you can use what are known as symbolic links. A symlink is more than a shortcut in that applications which read or write to it will behave as though working with the actual file or folder, even though it isn't actually there. In your case, you could use a network-attached storage (NAS) device or a folder on your PC to store everyone's games. You then need to share that folder and have everyone else create a symlink to it.
To do this, right-click your SteamApps folder, click Share, and choose Everyone from the drop-down list. Now go to the other PCs in turn and look in their network icons for the shared folder, right-click it, choose Map Network Drive and assign a letter such as 'S' for 'Steam'. Finally, log them all out of Steam, browse to their install directories and rename any existing SteamApps folder to SteamApps.old.
Now for the tricky part. Click Start, type cmd, and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter for a command prompt with admin privileges. Change directory to their Steam folder and type "mklink /d SteamApps S:\". A new linked directory will appear, and when you restart Steam, it'll use the shared folder as its repository rather than local files.
Assuming you each have unique Steam user names, and as long as you yourself keep Steam open and updated, nobody else will need to do the same. While this method is considerably slower, it will mean you only need to get Steam updates once.
Those using Windows 2000 or later, should search for Mark Russinovich's Junction which helps hack the same job.
BIOSHOCK SHOCK Question: I recently had problems playing Splinter Cell: Double Agent in that when certain graphics settings were used it would crash my Athlon 64 X2 4800+ system. I bought BioShock thinking as it was a new game and would be fine, but the same thing happened. I thought my card was overheating.
So I bought a GeForce 8800GTS which appeared to solve the problem, leaving me able to run my games on full settings with no problems and no lock-ups.
However, it's recently started doing it again, and I've had to lower detail settings to make it work. It can't be the card this time, can it? My whole system isn't stable at the moment. I've performed a complete reinstall of Windows and that seemed to help for a bit.
I managed to coax an error message which said "The NV4_display driver has stopped working normally". The Microsoft site says this is due to a lack of hard drive space, but I have 17GB spare. Andy Morris
Answer: My initial thought is that anyone dropping a current high-end video card into a PC that's probably getting on for a couple of years old is going to be stretching the capabilities of their power supply. The GTS you've just bought could really do with a 420W or larger PSU with 26A or more on the 12V rail. Any less than that and you'll start to experience odd behaviour and crashes.
If you have a supply that's man enough for the job, I'd double-check you did a clean install of the drivers - in simpler terms, that you've properly removed the existing ones - and that you keep a close eye on the temperatures inside your case. Heat build up is a likely culprit for lock-ups that occur after a certain period of time, and especially when you're running at higher detail levels than usual.
IS BIGGER BETTER? Question: I was going to update my graphics drivers from the DVD on the PC ZONE Christmas issue but noted from the NVIDIA site that the version was the American one. This is a significantly smaller file than the UK English download. Can you please tell me why they are different, and which one I should use? Jim Cowley
Answer: The UK English download (approx 56MB) is the International version. That means foreign language text not just for the installers but also for the driver panels, help files, and more besides. The US English download (approx. 30MB) contains no extra languages, and that's why it's almost half the size.
Those of you who don't mind seeing the odd 'z' where you'd expect an 's' should be happy with the US version as it's otherwise indistinguishable. It saves bandwidth and thus the planet, ozone layer and several protected species of mould.
I'm building a new rig over the next 6-8 weeks, and am seriously considering ATI's new HD3870 X2 grx card. I've seen this card in action playing Crysis and have to say I was impressed. I'm not interested in buying two sep cards for SLI or Crossfire either as I have always favoured low heat minimum power consumption and quiet rig, it will be built around the E8200 intel core 2 chip
but heres where I start scratching my bonnet, not sure if I should go for the Asus P35 mobo as not looking to hook two cards together so dont mind the lack of two 16 PCI-E lanes or should I be looking at an x38 board and then DDR3 Ram which is costly?
Lastly Monitor, what would be an ideal monitor to maximise the HD 3870 X2 the Samsung reviewed recently by PCZ for £260 looks ideal a little over budget but could stretch. Any feedback greatly received.
I would like to buy a new gaming laptop for approx £500 which will play the new Empire:Total War game due out soon. Any suggestions what to buy and where from? Many thanks, Dean.
I would like to buy a new gaming laptop for approx £500 which will play the new Empire:Total War game due out soon. Any suggestions what to buy and where from? Many thanks, Dean.
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