DON'T UPGRADE FROM XP TO WINDOWS 7, YOU WILL REGRET IT IN THE LONG RUN.

Instead, you can use the disc that you have to install Windows 7 in 'trial' mode, and then re-install a full version on top of it. See here for instructions: http://www.winsupersite.com/article/windows-7/clean-install-windows-7-with-upgrade-media.aspx

I would recommend method 3 as I have used that myself without any problems. Click on the link to where it says the Vista instructions, and just follow that but use your windows 7 upgrade DVD instead.

Doing it this way should resolve whatever weird DVD drive problem you're having now, which isn't entirely clear - it sounds like you're putting the DVD in with XP and choosing the install option (from auto-play menu?) but when it attempts to actually install it, it magically can't find the DVD drive even though it was already running from the DVD drive. The method I am advocating doesn't involve XP at all, so it should avoid your weird drive problems.

The upgrade disc doesn't boot if you don't have an OS already installed on the computer.

What kind of upgrade did you buy, exactly? Link to it please.

It's the one that rockz had posted earlier. The student upgrade from digitalriver. It comes with exe and iso files, and then you can buy a bootable dvd as well (which I did). I got it from this.

So you bootable DVD is not bootable when you attempt to boot from it?

I think there's something seriously fucked up with your DVD drive, if that's the case.

As stated earlier there's evidence the dvd drive itself is damaged. Get another one before you try anything else. It's terrible reading of all these problems when the solution is really simple.

Memory issues can also cause symptoms like that in some cases.

You should first try booting directly from the disc, since there is still the possibility that XP was messed up in some way. Windows 7 doesn't support doing an in-place upgrade from XP anyway. (though you can import your stuff afterward)

this thread is proof.

ATi Tray Tools is an alternative to Catalyst Control Center. Both are 3d control panels which hold the various 3d settings which influence how a game runs.

The most basic of these settings is Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering. Anti-Aliasing essentially blurs the image intuitively by rendering the same image twice in slightly different ways (not exactly, but performance is hit pretty significantly at higher levels). This way you can remove the "jaggies" as they are called on lines you see. It's essentially a way to make low resolutions look better, but it's not worth as much on higher resolutions.

Anisotropic Filtering is a method for clearing up stuff a long ways away which is viewed at an extreme angle, such as looking down a road. With low AF, the dotted line lane markers will quickly blur out. With high AF, it will keep its crispness longer.

You can google these terms and find images of each. SC2, the AF doesn't do much. AA is rendered almost useless at large dimensions (though 6x AA will always look better than 4xAA).

There are also programs such as catalyst AI which are shortcuts designed to reduce image quality and increase performance at a very good exchange ratio (compared to brute forcing techniques such as AA and AF). Most of these settings can be configured within the game itself, but a number of them can only be changed with a control panel tool. How necessary is it? Not really, unless you are a power user like me. There's a number of quirks and nuances to each program which you won't understand until you use the program for a while.

IT WORKS! I got a new SATA dvd drive and it autoruns perfectly! Also, windows 7 is installed!

Too bad I don't know how to do anything on here though.

Hopefully you can send the IDE back and not cost too much.

lul, I took the IDE cable out of a computer that was like 15 years old. I'll probably just throw it away. ;o

Send it to me. I love taking things apart.

And that could be why it didn't work very well... Didn't your motherboard come with an IDE cable?

No, it did not. I think it only had SATA cables... or maybe those came with something else. Regardless, there weren't any IDE calbes that came with my order. Yeah, maybe that was the reason it wasn't working well, but whatever. SATA is better. ;o

Okay, I have one more thing that's bugging me. I have a xigmatek asgard case and an ATI Radeon HD 4830 graphics card. I put the card into my motherboard, but I can't find any spot to screw it into the case. Because of that, it's not stable, so when I try to plug my monitor into it, it keeps moving around. The only thing that I can find on the case to keep it still are orange lever things that you move up and down, but they don't really do anything.

Here's a picture of the case. I couldn't really find a pic of just the spot where the video card goes. Obviously it goes in the bottom left corner though. ;o



And here's my graphics card.



Also, another thing is that the fan on that's attached to the case never does anything. Is it just a backup fan for if the computer gets too hot, or did I plug the cable into the wrong spot?

I can't really tell the exact mechanism from this low resolution picture, but these orange things on the left are there for fixating your gfx. You just have to figure out how to do it. Ask your manual.

On "classic" cases you have to put the notch on the right of your gfx picture in a gap between your case and your mobo and then fix it on the other side with a screw through the groove (where the bent part is). Don't know maybe it's the same for your case? Doesn't look that way though. Those orange things are probably levers that lock the gfx.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jan 24 2011, 12:19 am by NudeRaider.

The fan is supposed to be on when plugged in and your computer is on.

Well, the fan never moves, so maybe I did something wrong.

EDIT: So I opened my case and it turns out the cable wasn't plugged in. It must've fallen out at some point because I know for a fact that I had plugged it in at first. Whoops.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jan 23 2011, 11:12 pm by Dem0nS1ayer.