Computer ram prices are currently at an all time low, I have seen allot of Laptops and desktops advertised as coming with 2,3,4 GB of ram, boldly highlighted to take the attention away from its short comings.
In truth adding more ram will not make a PC faster, unless it’s actually running out of available ram to begin with.
For general (office/web) use 1GB and 2 GB is more than you need for windows XP and Vista respectively.
Don't be fooled into buying a 3 year old laptop because "it now comes with 4GB ram", Its a great ploy from the seller, but the average end user ends up getting old tech and never runs any software that needs to look past 2GB let alone 3GB.
Summary: extra ram does not make a computer faster, unless its actually running out of ram to begin with.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
Upgrade addiction, self regulation ?
I spent nearly 2 hours of "should be working" time, window (web) shopping for a new main board and Video card.
Thankfully common sense kicked in before I'd added a whole bunch of goodies to the virtual shopping cart. I'm not the only one suffering continual impulses to upgrade to the latest tech.
My primary rig is pimped up better than any of my mates, yet it’s never enough.
Striker X + Thermalright 120UX + E6850 + PC8500 OCZ Ram + 2x 320MB 8800GTS cards.
My proposed upgrade of a 780i mainboard and 8800 GTS 512 MB cards, would offer me little noiceable improvment other than an e-Penis boost, I caught myself this time but maybe not the next. Sometimes I wish I was still married so I'd have to ask permission before blowing money on the latest kit.
Thankfully common sense kicked in before I'd added a whole bunch of goodies to the virtual shopping cart. I'm not the only one suffering continual impulses to upgrade to the latest tech.
My primary rig is pimped up better than any of my mates, yet it’s never enough.
Striker X + Thermalright 120UX + E6850 + PC8500 OCZ Ram + 2x 320MB 8800GTS cards.
My proposed upgrade of a 780i mainboard and 8800 GTS 512 MB cards, would offer me little noiceable improvment other than an e-Penis boost, I caught myself this time but maybe not the next. Sometimes I wish I was still married so I'd have to ask permission before blowing money on the latest kit.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
TMS Award of the week (Tech made simple)
You’re not human if you haven’t accidentally deleted a file now and then, and if you skipped the recycle bin or emptied it, then its panic stations.
Windows offer no built in tool for un-deleting files, but luckily there are hundreds of 3rd party tools to do the job and many are free.
A nice simple util for recovering recently deleted files is Recuva, easy to understand and follow, its downside is its lack of advanced features but people would argue that is its upside, less options equals less complexity.
http://www.recuva.com/
Windows offer no built in tool for un-deleting files, but luckily there are hundreds of 3rd party tools to do the job and many are free.
A nice simple util for recovering recently deleted files is Recuva, easy to understand and follow, its downside is its lack of advanced features but people would argue that is its upside, less options equals less complexity.
http://www.recuva.com/
Friday, February 22, 2008
NSK 1300 Update
The NSK 1300 (little Cube PC), went well, it was near impossible to get the cables tidy, so i just gave up and made sure nothing was going to hit the CPU or case fans.
The new E4500 chips come with a half height Heat sink, so that helped with the installation somewhat.
All done it was very quiet looks nice on the desk with easy access to the DVD tray.
My daughter is very happy to have a working computer again.
Annoyances:
The spot where all the power supply cables come out is too low and butts into the main board.
The positioning of the stand offs were a bit off and I had to put allot of lateral force on the main board to get the screw thread to line up with the hole.
Only 1 SATA power connector, as had to dig up a Molex to sata adapter.
Blue ambience light in the front panel look lame unless you are looking at in front on.
Likes:
Build quality, noise reduction efforts, quality switches, single screw access.
Bundled slot mount fan, thermal transfer tape for HDD mounting.
Summary:
4.5 / 5 highly recommended, annoyances will be trivial to most .
The new E4500 chips come with a half height Heat sink, so that helped with the installation somewhat.
All done it was very quiet looks nice on the desk with easy access to the DVD tray.
My daughter is very happy to have a working computer again.
Annoyances:
The spot where all the power supply cables come out is too low and butts into the main board.
The positioning of the stand offs were a bit off and I had to put allot of lateral force on the main board to get the screw thread to line up with the hole.
Only 1 SATA power connector, as had to dig up a Molex to sata adapter.
Blue ambience light in the front panel look lame unless you are looking at in front on.
Likes:
Build quality, noise reduction efforts, quality switches, single screw access.
Bundled slot mount fan, thermal transfer tape for HDD mounting.
Summary:
4.5 / 5 highly recommended, annoyances will be trivial to most .
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Plans for my daughters PC, lamenting a monitor loss.
Not much news for today, had a long drive for my first job, basic email issues, printer mayhem and user confusion, later I bought a mini PC case for my youngest daughters PC.
I haven’t built a PC with this style case before.
Antec NSK1300 http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=91300
She had been putting up with a Franken build broken laptop with a CRT monitor for 6 months, while her older sister has my redundancy PC (fairly high specs)
I was going to get a cheap Celeron for her, but the $80 more I got a Core2Duo E4500, the rest of the parts needed are laying around from upgrades and experiments, and I have decided 3 monitors was more show than productive, so she gets 1 of my 17” LCD’s.
While I miss the symmetrical layout of the triple screens, 2 monitors is really the point of diminishing returns.
no more 3 screen drooling
I haven’t built a PC with this style case before.
Antec NSK1300 http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=91300
She had been putting up with a Franken build broken laptop with a CRT monitor for 6 months, while her older sister has my redundancy PC (fairly high specs)
I was going to get a cheap Celeron for her, but the $80 more I got a Core2Duo E4500, the rest of the parts needed are laying around from upgrades and experiments, and I have decided 3 monitors was more show than productive, so she gets 1 of my 17” LCD’s.
While I miss the symmetrical layout of the triple screens, 2 monitors is really the point of diminishing returns.
no more 3 screen drooling
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Spam, it's relentless
A client with an older sbs2000 network rang today with a major spam outbreak.Turns out the GFI mail essentials expired yesterday; it’s both amazing how much spam is getting around and even more amazing how effective an antispam program can be.
I have a new client making the move from a 11 PC workgroup to a SBS2003 domain next month, and I'm in two minds about setting the pop3 pickup with the ISP spam filtering instead of setting the MX record to the Server.
It’s that damn 15min retrieval timer that make a pop3 pickup such a crappy option.
I have a new client making the move from a 11 PC workgroup to a SBS2003 domain next month, and I'm in two minds about setting the pop3 pickup with the ISP spam filtering instead of setting the MX record to the Server.
It’s that damn 15min retrieval timer that make a pop3 pickup such a crappy option.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Office relocation, need a checklist i think
On one my clients with a small SBS2003 network, 16 workstations is relocating to a new building up the street, they want to be operational within 12 days, with the physical moving of all equipment is in 10 days.
I know I should get a checklist going so I don’t overlook something, the whole “fail to plan is planning to fail” premise.
Pre-move planning
1> Follow-up with cable installers on completion date
2> Confirm new ADSL account is active with a static IP address
3> Make sure the fitters don’t block any RJ45 outlets
4> Check fitters hole saw appropriate spots for running cables
5> ??? more to add, will revisit.
I know I should get a checklist going so I don’t overlook something, the whole “fail to plan is planning to fail” premise.
Pre-move planning
1> Follow-up with cable installers on completion date
2> Confirm new ADSL account is active with a static IP address
3> Make sure the fitters don’t block any RJ45 outlets
4> Check fitters hole saw appropriate spots for running cables
5> ??? more to add, will revisit.
Monday, February 18, 2008
The Hidden (not really) Wifi Switch
After finishing off one job, I got a call from another client about their internet/Lan going offline.
the standard reset the access point and restart the laptop failed to fix the issue, so I went for a visit.
The laptop was a Lenovo of some sort 4:3 screen straight laced biz model that looked like it was only weeks away from having an IBM logo instead.
The little antenna LED on the lower left of the screen showed off, I used the WLan control software to turn it on, but even though it said on, exiting and restarting the Wlan app, showed it as off again.
I had already given the laptop the once over looking for a physical flight mode switch and found nothing.
After a restart I went straight to the Wlan control and a popup msg box appeared,
“wifi switch is off, or disabled in the bios”, that didn’t show up before.
So I gave the laptop another look over, and on the lower left base was the damn wifi kill switch, near invisible at a quick glance, 5 minutes to turn a wifi switch on was a bit embarrassing, but at least the client thought it was camouflaged to much, and they had NFI how it got switched to off.
So the moral is , if you can’t find a physicall wifi off switch, look harder :) .
the standard reset the access point and restart the laptop failed to fix the issue, so I went for a visit.
The laptop was a Lenovo of some sort 4:3 screen straight laced biz model that looked like it was only weeks away from having an IBM logo instead.
The little antenna LED on the lower left of the screen showed off, I used the WLan control software to turn it on, but even though it said on, exiting and restarting the Wlan app, showed it as off again.
I had already given the laptop the once over looking for a physical flight mode switch and found nothing.
After a restart I went straight to the Wlan control and a popup msg box appeared,
“wifi switch is off, or disabled in the bios”, that didn’t show up before.
So I gave the laptop another look over, and on the lower left base was the damn wifi kill switch, near invisible at a quick glance, 5 minutes to turn a wifi switch on was a bit embarrassing, but at least the client thought it was camouflaged to much, and they had NFI how it got switched to off.
So the moral is , if you can’t find a physicall wifi off switch, look harder :) .
Sunday, February 17, 2008
TMS Award of the week (Tech made simple)
CROSSLOOP
If you’ve ever had to remote fix a PC, odds are it was a gruelling affair with the end user clicking ahead when they shouldn’t have or the phone is not at the PC and they keep running back and forward to it or even worse relaying your instructions to another person.
If you’ve ever had to remote fix a PC, odds are it was a gruelling affair with the end user clicking ahead when they shouldn’t have or the phone is not at the PC and they keep running back and forward to it or even worse relaying your instructions to another person.
The saviour is remote desktop software, where you can tell the end user to go walk the dog while you fix the issue at hand, but the trouble with it has been reconfiguring the router to have the correct port forwarded, so if it’s a client/friend/relative you haven’t helped before it may be easier to just drive to the persons house.
Enter a new friendlier (non-propeller head) approach to the many remote desktop options out there. CrossLoop http://www.crossloop.com/
the end user downloads/installs the small client 2.33MB
It runs and has a simple, SHARE / ACCESS system, no router or firewall degree's required.
Click the Thumbnail for an animation.
TMS award of the week. (better get some sort of TMS award logo I suppose J )
the end user downloads/installs the small client 2.33MB
It runs and has a simple, SHARE / ACCESS system, no router or firewall degree's required.
Click the Thumbnail for an animation.
TMS award of the week. (better get some sort of TMS award logo I suppose J )
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Connecting to Networked printers in Vista
I had an onsite job today with 4 work grouped PC's (mum, dad and the kids setup)
2 x Vista Premium
1 x XP pro
1x XP Home
1 of the Vista PC's was the master (VHP1), connected to the Router and printer (canon MFC).
The XP machines both found the printer ok with the start run \\VHP1 command.
But the 2nd Vista PC would only show "printers" and this would not resolve to anything.
I tried the VHP1 IP address instead \\192.168.0.2 and bingo!, it showed the canon MFC available.
2 x Vista Premium
1 x XP pro
1x XP Home
1 of the Vista PC's was the master (VHP1), connected to the Router and printer (canon MFC).
The XP machines both found the printer ok with the start run \\VHP1 command.
But the 2nd Vista PC would only show "printers" and this would not resolve to anything.
I tried the VHP1 IP address instead \\192.168.0.2 and bingo!, it showed the canon MFC available.
A fix for Flash player when Youtube is a no show
run this
C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash \FlashUtil9e.exe
restart then install the offline flash9x installer
http://www.softwarepatch.com/network-security/flashplay-security.html
(virus scan it before running, I don't guarantee the source)
C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash \FlashUtil9e.exe
restart then install the offline flash9x installer
http://www.softwarepatch.com/network-security/flashplay-security.html
(virus scan it before running, I don't guarantee the source)
Friday, February 15, 2008
Vista Finder crashes Explorer when you type "V"
I had this problem on my own PC a few months back, and uninstalling Adobe CS3 made it go away. I just got through fixing a clients machine with the same issue, I decided to remove one component of Cs3 at a time, and by chance the first one I uninstalled was the culprit. That is "ADOBE Version CUE", It has its own control panel settings applet, and upon checking it, the service was supposedly not started. Yet it's clearly the cause of the Explorer crashing.
I didn’t have time to investigate the root cause, and as Version CUE was of no importance to the client, I just let it go at that.
I didn’t have time to investigate the root cause, and as Version CUE was of no importance to the client, I just let it go at that.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
iMATE Ultimate phones are really comming (better late then never)
http://www.telstra.com.au/abouttelstra/media/announcements_article.cfm?ObjectID=41758
Many have endured the long suffering wait, since this candy carrot was dangled in front of us last year, I'm still limping along on an unstable JasJam and hope to be first in line for it.
The ultimate 9502 will be my new baby, with enough Geek salivating specs to bring me to my knees.
http://www.imate.com/support/specs/SpecSheet_9502.pdf
The Ultimate 8502 while not my preferred option due to the smaller screen size, does have VGA output (via dongle) to 1024x768 res, for PowerPoint presentations etc: and as it includes the nVidia mobile video chipset, it’s a good bet it will actually work as promised.
Compared to the 9502 that only has a lowly composite TV output (useless for text based ppt shows), for some the 8502 will be a superior choice for less money.
http://www.imate.com/support/specs/SpecSheet_8502.pdf
Many have endured the long suffering wait, since this candy carrot was dangled in front of us last year, I'm still limping along on an unstable JasJam and hope to be first in line for it.
The ultimate 9502 will be my new baby, with enough Geek salivating specs to bring me to my knees.
http://www.imate.com/support/specs/SpecSheet_9502.pdf
The Ultimate 8502 while not my preferred option due to the smaller screen size, does have VGA output (via dongle) to 1024x768 res, for PowerPoint presentations etc: and as it includes the nVidia mobile video chipset, it’s a good bet it will actually work as promised.
Compared to the 9502 that only has a lowly composite TV output (useless for text based ppt shows), for some the 8502 will be a superior choice for less money.
http://www.imate.com/support/specs/SpecSheet_8502.pdf
Vista asks for USB drivers ? for a ext HDD WTF!!!
I'd heard and read about it, but due to the massive amount of anti Vista FUD getting around, I just put it down to a user issue.
Until after a fresh Vista install on a clients PC, I hooked up my external HDD to restore the clients backup, Vista asked for USB drivers :S, after letting it look for drivers both online and in a few windows folder locations where I know they like to hang out, nothing.
A look into the device manager showed a exclamation mark on “Generic USB Hub”
After a few minutes googling support forums, and trying fixes, I found one that worked
Locate the file %systemroot%/inf/INFCACHE.1
Right click on it and give your current user full access, then delete it.
No need to reboot, I reconnected my ext USB drive and bingo! it was back to normal.
Why it went bad in the first place and had to be deleted, I do not know.
Until after a fresh Vista install on a clients PC, I hooked up my external HDD to restore the clients backup, Vista asked for USB drivers :S, after letting it look for drivers both online and in a few windows folder locations where I know they like to hang out, nothing.
A look into the device manager showed a exclamation mark on “Generic USB Hub”
After a few minutes googling support forums, and trying fixes, I found one that worked
Locate the file %systemroot%/inf/INFCACHE.1
Right click on it and give your current user full access, then delete it.
No need to reboot, I reconnected my ext USB drive and bingo! it was back to normal.
Why it went bad in the first place and had to be deleted, I do not know.
When Good intentions go bad, Vista's receive window autotuning
While trying to remote desktop to some servers/workstations, I found that the Vista mstsc client would connect but run so laggy as to be unusable, and result in a frozen remote desktop window that had to be closed from task manager. Yet from an XP machine the remote desktop to the afflicted hosts were all good.
After trouble shooting and googling the issue as Vista related, I eventually found this information and the solution to fixing the problem.
From an Admin command prompt:
[ " netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled " ]
the good intentioned auto tuning network stack thingy in vista, seems to not be supported in quite a few routers and firewall products, and I’ve yet to see an explanation from MS as to why they did not foresee this problem.
It happened quite a while ago for me, when there was little information on the web about a solution to the crippled remote desktop issue, my forums posts went unanswered of just attracted the usual upgrade to XP comment.
After trouble shooting and googling the issue as Vista related, I eventually found this information and the solution to fixing the problem.
From an Admin command prompt:
[ " netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled " ]
the good intentioned auto tuning network stack thingy in vista, seems to not be supported in quite a few routers and firewall products, and I’ve yet to see an explanation from MS as to why they did not foresee this problem.
It happened quite a while ago for me, when there was little information on the web about a solution to the crippled remote desktop issue, my forums posts went unanswered of just attracted the usual upgrade to XP comment.
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