viahduaa.sys is a driver for your sound. Since I'm guessing its onboard, your best bet is to go to your PC (if prebuilt) or motherboard manufacturer's website and look for a sound driver update and/or a BIOS update.

I think you're stuck with it. If memory serves me right, Final Fantasy 7 and 8's PC ports only did up to 640x480. GTA4 may have been poorly optimized for the PC, but I still hold those 2 games as two of the *****iest PC port jobs I ever saw.

If you're looking for speed, you're looking at Intel Core 2 duos - they offer both the best speed and battery life. If you're looking for cheap, you're looking at AMD Turion X2 or Pentium Dual-cores. Beyond that, it's a matter of how much you are willing to spend.

If no...I think I must open my chassis....Keith-L

You're going to have to do it sooner or later - how do you expect to upgrade the video card otherwise?

I did a quick search on the x3810 and looks like it is a small form-factor (SFF) system. You are going to have to find a "low-profile" or "low-profile ready" PCI-express video card. Newegg can help you by allowing you to specify low-pro or low-pro ready video cards.

Make sure 1) your processor is 64-bit capable and 2) 64-bit hardware drivers are available for your system - especially the network card.

Thanks. Didn't think of that solution. I bet I don't have much choice.

hamelkarl

I don't know what the deal is with the Vista partition manager and how it decides to allow/not allow you to shrink a partition, so I stopped bothering with it and just use Gparted. I'll just reiterate that you need to boot up a Vista installation disk to repair your system afterward - for me Vista has never had a problem detecting and repairing itself.

Use Linux/Gparted to shrink it. Just be ready with a Vista Installation disk, you're going to have to let it repair its boot configuration afterward.

Although some suggest it can be done without reformatting your system, my own opinion is it will save you a lot of headaches in the long run to just start fresh.

Is this for a second system or your primary system? I wouldn't replace your SSD with it as the OS drive, but it couldn't hurt to put it in as a second drive for application/game installs - unless case space prevents you from using 3 hard drives.

Another question, if I do upgrade to Windows 7, should I also add in another couple of gigs of ram? kieranb2000

Since it sounds like you don't have a lot of money to spare, try it with your 2GB first - that's a decent starting point for Win 7. RAM is certainly easy enough to upgrade later if you feel it necessary.