Question: I enjoy your articles in the RG. The 6 Aug issue was of great interest to me since I am upgrading now (first timer); (M/B, CPU, PS, and Memory).

Although I'm up and running and can use my programs and the Internet, I can't use my printer or scanner, nor can I get windows ME to locate the drivers I need on the new M/B cd. Plus I believe I have problems with the registry judging from some of the messages popping up.

My questions - (1) Should I have reformatted the hard drive? (2) In Bios setup under AGP & P2P Bridge Control the AGP Aperture size is defaulted 64mb. I don't quite understand what AGP Aperture size is a measure of?

Answer: Let's work through most of your questions;

A clean install is always best

Definitely re-format your HDD if you are comfortable doing it.

One caution though, if your Win ME cd is OEM, that is it came with a new computer in which Windows Millennium Edition (ME) was factory installed, it might not work as a fresh install on a newly formatted drive. The upgrade version will - but in that case you'll need a genuine Win98 cd to prove eligibility.

You can reformat your hard drive from your Win ME or any Win 98SE startup floppy BUT save yourself a lot of heartache (time=money) and go the whole hog and upgrade to Win XP. While Win98SE has a fair (but diminishing) number of supporters, Win ME has even less.

Never a crowd pleaser it is viewed as a stopgap hybrid bridge between Win98 and NT/Win2000/XP.

Also, if you do go for XP get the upgrade version, you will only have to pop in your ME cd for a brief painless compliance check at the beginning of the process.

XP will format your HDD for you and go for NTFS as the file system when asked.

With a fresh install from ME or Win XP you will get a newly written system registry without all the old scraps of code from previous program installations and incomplete uninstalls. With either of these operating systems be sure to create Restore Points before and after every program you add to the system. No, I'm not kidding.

Installing scanners and printers

As each successive Microsoft operating system comes with more device drivers incorporated into it, XP will be more likely than ME to recognise your peripheral components and install them for you.

In any case as a rule when re-doing an operating system and particularly when problems occur re-installing existing peripherals such as scanners and printers (which are the worst) you should always go online to the peripheral manufacturers support site and download and install the latest drivers intended for your equipment with your operating system.

I don't know why ME can't find the mobo drivers from the provided cd.

What drivers off the motherboard cd are you looking for, in particular?

Have you examined the contents of the cd using Windows Explorer (Explorer.exe)?

Some motherboard driver cd's offer different menus depending on the operating system they detect.

It could be, depending on the motherboard model and intended use, that the guys who made it didn't cater for anyone using an operating system such as ME which hasn't been for sale for a while now.

You haven't told me the brand and model number of motherboard you're working with?

Hot, performance oriented motherboards will made with gamers or power users in mind who set them up all the time.

The idea seems to be; get them out on the shelves while they're still leading edge and, initially at least, the support material is often lacking.

They expect you to go to their support site and get what you need.

Setting up your video card

Now to your second question; AGP Aperture Size (AAS) which is generally measured in megabytes, is the amount of system memory (RAM) shared with an AGP graphics card in order for it to have more memory to process textures and other visual data.

It seems to be generally believed that the more RAM you share with the graphics card, the larger the video performance boost.

In some cases, this might be true but in others, it might result in an overall performance drop.

There are two common outcomes from setting the AAS too high; If you share too much RAM with your graphics card and an application takes advantage of that, you will have less RAM for other functions of the software, and possibly for background applications.

The second result is less dire in that if the graphics card does not utilise the memory, it is not taken from system memory.

In this case, there are not likely to be any problems with AAS using all of your system RAM, despite its setting in the BIOS configuration utility.

Let me know what you decide to do about the clean install and the choice of operating system in the end.

James W. Lapsley is the founder of ComputerWorks, specialising in PC repairs, upgrades and advice for the home and small office user. ComputerWorks welcomes your questions and comments Send your PC questions by e-mail to computerworkslogic.bm