SAR,

A while ago, you had written about all the trouble you were having with DirecPC. Hubby was thinking about getting it where we are moving. I want him to read that thread before he makes up his mind, but I can't find it. Do you know which message here it is?

Thanks,

Sheeple

-- Anonymous, August 08, 2001

Answers

Sheeple...I don't know how in depth I went into it here..i wrote a mojor "bitch" thread on TB2k cause I had called on some on the "techies" over there ..sysman, ObO, and St Frances.

I will look for them...but understand that now matter what they did, it never worked for us...I will find the "e-comments" of 2 yrs worth of what peopl have to say about dirct pc...I suggest he reads it. also, I think it has to do with the size of your PC....and IF YOU have any way of getting a cable or dsl line...get it instead of any broadband.

We have starband and it works ..has not got "out" on us at all...BUT the lag time is sickening at times...when you have to pay $70-.80 .00 a month.

i WILL GO SEE IF i CAN FIND ANY OF THE POSTS.......

sorry for caps!

-- Anonymous, August 08, 2001

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=005qhS

this was in SHT archives...but I think the other post where I was HIGHLEY upset is too old to be on the board..I am still looking!!!

-- Anonymous, August 08, 2001

Sheeple....this is a mail dan shot off to one guy that was willing to help..this tell you what mobo we have...i THINK YOUR HUSBAND Can read this and also go to some of these opinion .coms on the different broad bands....on is e.commerce.com...and type in dirct PC than try starband, too.

let me know if you need more.

Hi, this is Dan ...Sues hubby ...she tells me you maybe able to diagnose this problem we're having ...well here's what I know:

We are running a AMD k6-450mghz chipset on a who knows what kind of mobo ...I do the board has everything built into it(video card, sound card, modem etc). This past April we had a hard drive crash ....I went out and bought two 30Gb Maxtor hard drives ...one for a primary and one to replace my secondary removeable drive. Use the 2nd one to save "shit" on from time to time. It was at this point in time I reinstalled windows from scratch ...reinstalled all the drivers and apps and then made a copy of the disk using Norton Ghost. So this has all been running(minus the satellite) since April.... with NO crashes or windows problems. The reason we looked into the satellite to begin with is we dont have access to cable or DSL ...just a slooooow dial up connection. Prior to Pegasus there were NO problems with this computer.

ENTER the PEGASUS Express software .....about 3 weeks ago now ....there were some immediate tweaks we made, one of them was the addition of more RAM ....went from 64mb to 128mb ....64 was the Pegasus minimum ......the expanded memory seemed to make a difference in speed .....when this thing is running correctly ...it screams ....the problem lately starts like this:

SCENARIO #1 -- You'll be cruisin along on the Internet or email (doesnt really matter where) and a Pegasus Dialog box(extremely repetative and annoying !) pops up saying that the satellite signal has been lost. There is a Pegasus Navigator icon in the Systray ....double click will display the satellte signal status dialog box. The signal strength is usually around 83 or 84(+- 3 or 4) and thats good ...very acceptable ....but when this signal loss dialog box appears the internet access is gone and the ONLY way to get it back is reboot ....9 times out of 100 this solves the problem ....at least for the moment.....

SCENARIO #2 -- The same as above EXCEPT .... that the signal strength is fine .....the annoying little dialog box keeps telling me that the signall is gone and during the reboot attempt the system hangs on shutdown ....you have to turn off the machine and turn it on again ...which we all know causes Windows to abnormally shutdown which means ScanDisk and sometimes even SafeMode. Took me 2 hours the other night to get it back ....it would boot up in SafeMode to the DeskTop ...I RESTART it and it goes from the splash screen to a black screen and never returns ...the disk light stops blinking and it just hangs ! I stumbled on to a fix by going to TweakUI and run a Repair for System Files ....Restart and everything is fine ! This scenario also sometimes produces the Blue Screen with an OPENHCI error ...sometime a VXD type of error ...anyway you look at it its a pain !! I do know this for sure ....this computer ran perfect before I installed this satellite software. I did a little research on the web today at work ....an OPENHCI error is a USB error caused by a device being removed ....seems to be unique to 98SE ....the satellite modems do connect to the USB port .....

Any attempt at Pegags TechSupport lands you talking to some Moron who wants to make sure everthing is plugged in ...all cables are attached and not loose ....Sue was on the phone yesterday with some lady who barely spoke English ...led her around deleting files and attempting to remove the Pegasus software and finally told her solution was ....you have a corrupted boot file ...reinstall Windows !! $$70 per month and they're best guess is reinstall the operating system!!!! I try to tell them ... I am a programmer by trade ....I know a few things about computers so dont treat me like an idiot !!! There is a problem with THEIR software NOT my machine.... So I try to get them to approach the problem from that angle ....but it falls on deaf ears ...thats not in the script they're reading so they get lost .......Morons !

Sorry about the "rant" there ....but when I pay alot of good $$$ for something and get "shit" in return...I get a little upset !

ANYWAY ......I realize its more difficult from a distance than being there, but any assistance you can provide would be greatly appreciated .....

Thanks

-- Anonymous, August 08, 2001

http://www.dslreports.com/comments/1678

he is a great link about the LIES been told !!!!

-- Anonymous, August 08, 2001

SAR,

Thanks! We won't have the option of getting the cable or DSL where we are moving, thus him wanting something than a dial-up.

I'll let him read what you have provided.

Thanks again,

Sheeple

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2001