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Topics - Carol Haynes [ switch to compact view ]

Pages: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 ... 19next
1
Living Room / Samsung SSD 860 EVO woes - workaround
« on: October 30, 2018, 06:22 AM »
I have jsut added a 1Tb Samsung SSD 860 EVO to my aging system (and upgraded to a Radeon RX580 at the same time). Motherboard i a Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 with and 8 coure CPU and 36Gb RAM.

Windows 7 Pro installed in AHCI mode happily enough (I hate windows 10 and am sticking to Windows 7 as long as I can) but seemed to take longer than I expected and then I started suffereing 30 second freezes every few seconds - the system logs confirmed the devie was being reset each time. I used Samsung Magician to see if I could get a sense of what was happening and the speeds were terrible when I benchmarked the drive (it took 14 minutes to do the benchmark!!!)

After a bit of research there seems to be compatability essues with the SSD and AMD drivers - I updated the AMD Chipset drivers to the current version but it mad no difference. I also couldn't update the SSD firmware to see if the latest firware fixewd the issue (it just kept saying there was no firmware but couldn;t install it).

FWIW I seem to have found a workaround - I unstalled AMDs chipset drivers and then went into Control Panel and use the Standard AHCI driver from Microsoft. Now I have updated the SSD firmware and everything seems to be running stable.

Benchmark now runs in about 30 seconds and I seem to be getting reasonable speeds but RAPID Mode is still disabled and compatibility checker says:

VID 1002 Under the current system environment, some functions in Magician CANNOT be run.
If multiple iterations of Read and Write are performed, RAPID mode may become inactive due to system internal errors on some of the AMD / AsMedia Controller or Driver.

If you have an AMD/ATI system and have long freeze issues it is worth making a note.

Anyone else come across this and have a better solution???

2
I have spent most of the day on this and have tried everything I can think of - anyone got any other suggestions other than a lump hammer ...

Windows 7 did some updates the other day - now I am getting pop up reminders to restart

After numerous restarts the pops keep coming

I can't check for updates (I need to restart first).

I have run the Windows Update Trouble shooter numerous time --- comes up with an error unfixed every time but when I look at the detailed version it says it is fixed

img1.jpg

img2.jpg

I have run the MS FixIt Tool for Windows Update in non-aggressive and agressive mode --- says it is complete --- restart and back to square one. No no update history though.

I have manually reset Windows Update (renamed SoftwareDistribution and CatRoot2) --- makes no difference

I have deleted the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update\RebootRequired  --- it keeps reappearing and forcing the restart prompt

I have run SFC /SCANNOW - there are errors but they are not related directly to windows and have been there for ages without issue (they relate to 3rd party drivers)

I have restarted about 20 times through all this day and spent most of the day swearing when I should be doing something more useful.

Apart from wiping Windows and reinstalling anyone got any suggestions?

Thanks

3
Hi all

I have a customers Lenovo All in One and I am stumped.

It went through the April 10 upgrade and subsequent windows updates and ended up freezing on the Lenovo screen.

I have a windows 10 build 1083 USB drive and an earlier version on DVD - plus a recovery DVD. None of them will boot (I have disabled secure boot and set stuff back to legacy but still no joy).

I removed the hard disk and recovered her data and with her permission removed all partitions, plugged it in and then it booted from the USB drive and I installed a fresh copy of windows.

I heaved a sigh of relief and started updating. Cumpulative update for Windows 1803 (KB4100403)  said it need to restart to complete which I did and instantly it was back to square one.

System won't boot (shows Lenovo screen) - can't even boot the memtest CD.

Reseated RAM with hard disk out and ran mem test - no problems but as soon as the hard disk is present no joy.

I can only assume that KB4100403 is doing something to the hard disk that completely screws up the boot process.

Short of wiping the hard disk, starting again and disabling windows update I have no idea how to proceed?

Anyone got any ideas?

4
General Software Discussion / Autodesk Sketchbook is now free
« on: May 04, 2018, 07:09 AM »
I had some problems yesterday activating a license for my copy of Autodesk Sketchbook Pro 2011 so I contacted their technical support.

sketchbook.jpg

Autodesk have just decided in the last few days to make Sketchbook a free product.

For Windows desktop apps and Mac you can download it from here: https://www.sketchbook.com/

If you are on Windows 10 (and can face using their app store) you can get it here: https://www.microsof...tchbook/9nblggh4vzw5

There are also Android and iOS versions (though they seem to have some sort of subscription - I guess to to do with cloud sahring between all your devices).

Enjoy


5
Living Room / US Internet providers - suggestions needed
« on: March 08, 2018, 04:52 PM »
I have a friend in Gaithersburg, Maryland. She is really fed up with her ISP (Comcast I think) as the speed goes up and down like a yo-yo to the point where Skype won't work properly.

As I am in the UK I know little about American providers.

Anyone any suggestions for a reliable ISP she can move to?

6
Living Room / Peculiar windows problem
« on: February 14, 2018, 03:23 PM »
No idea what is going on - has anyone come across this before?

I was having some unpredictable problems with Windows 7 - like random restarts, sudden slow downs and freezes.

I did a full CHKDSK on my drives - as far as I can tell they completed without errors

Then I did an SFC /SCANNOW which reported unrepairable errors but when I look at CBS.LOG it shows up no errors at all.

Some weird things are happening - for example if I go to Facebook I cannot click on Friends, Photos etc. on any profile (including my own). I can post from my time line but not my own profile page.

I tried this is 3 browsers with the same effect

I am stumped and don;t know where to go from here - I really don't want to do a clean install of windows.

Anyone got any ideas?

7
Hi

Sorry not been around for ages - wonder if anyone has any ideas

Yesterday Windows got really slow, and ran out of system RAM (all 32Gb) and I have no idea why as I wasn't running anything unusual.

I tried to restart but it froze so I forced a restart and it got passed the usual Windows 7 start up screen but not to the desktop. I just ended up with a blank screen.

I have run CHKDSK and it comes up with no errors. I tried to start Windows in Safe Mode but it scrolls through the usual drivers, the hard disk is chuntering but it doesn't seem to go any further.

The problem is my system is dual booting Windows 10 and Windows 7 - when I try to boot from a windows 7 repair disk it says the wrong version of windows is installed.

Any ideas how to get in to repair the windows 7 installation? There is no 'Repair this computer" in the advanced startup screen for windows 7 in the dual boot menu.

I am currently seeing this from the Windows 10 installation. Files on the Windows 7 side appear to be fine

8
Living Room / Stumped - can anyone help? Laptop drive issue
« on: June 23, 2017, 07:49 AM »
Hi

I have been given a laptop to sort out. It was crashing out during windows 7 pro startup to a blue screen.

The drive had surface errors which chkdsk repaired, on restarting Windows Repair loaded and checked the hard disk again.

It then starts windows but gets to a black screen with a mouse pointer and no further (same in Safe Mode). I have also tried last good configuration.

I decided the best approach was to rip out the disk - plug it into another computer and backup the data before putting it back and doing a factory restore.

This is where the real fun starts:

On my desktop Disk Manager assigns a drive letter and marks the partition healthy but when I try to open the drive is says Access Denied. I expected this on the data folders but this is the whole partition and gives no option to go further.

I plugged it back in the laptop and went into the recovery console command prompt and can read the partition fine.

I ran Paragon's Disk Management tools from CD and the drive shows up - I can see and copy the files - so the drive isn't bitlockered.

OK I plugged numerous USB drives into the computer and none of them show up in the BIOS or in Paragon - reloading the disk tables doesn't find the USB drives either.

Anyone any idea how to get a USB drive to be recognised - the BIOS has USB legacy enabled, I have tried USB 2 and 3 sockets, it doesn't have secure boote enabled or any other security measures that I can see enabled.

Failing that any idea how to access the drive via a USB adapter on my desktop?

I don't like giving up but I am stumped!!!

9
I 'had' a dual boot system of Windows 7 Ultimate on hard disk and Windows 7 Pro on an SSD!

Windows 7 Ult is my main OS on a large hard disk and I used the free period to install upgrade to Windows 10 on an SSD in dual boot mode to get the free license for future upgrade.

I use Windows 10 on my laptop all the time so rarely on my desktop PC which usually boots into Windows 7.

Dual booting has worked fine and I could use the system properties to set the default operating system (worked fine).

Stupidly yesterday I booted Windows 10 and decided to run Windows update and leave it over night. Because it had a Windows version update to do I switched to automatically boot into Window 10 so it could get on with it while I was asleep.

Got up this morning to a blue screen"DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION"

I rebooted and on restart got missing/damage \Boot\BCD error with error code 0xc000014c

I thought - no big problem and bunged in Windows 10 Recovery CD and booted from that - it failed to find Windows 10 - instead it found Windows 7 Ult (phew) and the legacy Windows 7 Pro folder (Windows.old which is still there from the Windows 10 upgrade).

After a lot of faffing, swearing and stomping around, and in the end using a windows 7 recovery disk, I finally managed to get Windows 7 Ult running again.

Anyone any idea how to fix the Windows 10 installation to dual boot again so that I can try to get it running and updated properly?

I am stumped - almost all the info I can find on dual booting is a mix of Windows and Linux.

To give a bit more description:

When Windows 7 was set as default the 'Select operating system' screen during boot up was the Windows 7 version, but when I switched to Windows 10 default it swapped to the Windows 10 version.

Also no I can find a Boot folder on either drive (hidden or not)

10
Adventures of Baby Cody / Where is Baby Cody
« on: August 27, 2016, 06:35 PM »
Last post about Baby Cody seems to have been in 2014

Anyone any idea where the little guy is now?

11
Living Room / Email problem
« on: February 15, 2016, 04:37 AM »
I am a bit stumped by a problem for a client - anyone got any ideas

She uses MS Outlook from Office 365 to deal with email via IMAP

It sends and receives email fine everywhere EXCEPT in her own home. At home IMAP syncing appears to complete normally without error but nothing is actually synced.

I visited her home and deleted the IMAP account and set it up again from scratch  and it all worked fine while I was there but next day it wasn't working again.

She has satellite broadband (remote rural area) with a supplied modem and a bought router.

She is using Windows 8.1 with built in MS antivirus and firewall

Given that nothing else is behaving oddly at home I have no idea what is going on.

I have suggested rebooting all the network gear but she says she has done that.

Anyone any ideas? TIA

12
General Software Discussion / Microsoft - Windows 10 aggression
« on: February 04, 2016, 05:50 AM »
It is official - now Windows 10 is part of the recommended updates for Windows 7

http://www.theverge....e-recommended-update

If you have the default Windows Update settings it will download and start the installation. Ok you can stop it but I can see my life getting busier over the next few weeks.

Not sure if this isn't actually criminal - I have some programmes that are not Windows 10 compatible that I rely on for work - an automated update would really mess with my business!!! Wait for the law suits

If you want to block Windows 10 upgrades altogether create these registry keys (you can create a .reg file in notepad and cut and paste the following - then double click the file and add the entries automatically):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\OSUpgrade]
"AllowOSUpgrade"=dword:00000000
"ReservationsAllowed"=dword:00000000

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\OSUpgrade\State]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\GWX]
"DisableGWX"=dword:00000001

13
Living Room / Very slow internal network speed - any ideas
« on: January 22, 2016, 11:10 AM »
My main desktop computer has started accessing the internet slowly - other devices on the network don't seem to be affected.

My laptop gets 14Mbps via wireless but my desktop is getting 1.7Mbps via ethernet.

As far as I can see the driver for ethernet hasn't been updated (well there isn't a roll back option).

I did a bit googling and someone suggested disabling AMD QuickStream but I can't find that on my system (AMD processor, mobo and graphics though)

Anyone got any ideas what is going on or how to fix it?

System Windows 7 x64 - loads of memory and fast CPU graphics

14
Living Room / Website hacking - tools to help spot issues
« on: May 20, 2014, 10:35 AM »
I have been building websites for a few years now using Joomla but recently my server seems to be under regular attack.

The attacks seem to be of the form that a php script is injected into a folder and used to pour out spam.

The trouble is with a lot of websites it isn't practical to wade visually through dozens of folders regularly to look for scripts.

The data centre has scanned the server for malicious scripts but I have already spotted and deleted a few that were missed.

Life currently feels like a war of attrition - I am spending so much time dealing with issues I now either need to pack it all in and give up or find a way to monitor user accounts to ensure I catch scripts and deal with them efficiently.

I am not sure how these scripts are even getting there - it isn't the clients I have. Even websites that are running the latest build of Joomla and a few well known and trusted extensions seem to be plagued.

Has anyone any suggestion where I can start.

One simple solution is to find a way to get the server to report when files are added to user accounts (preferably by email so that I can constantly monitor what is happening - with a couple of a notable exceptions most of the websites only change occasionally) - does anyone know a way to do this?

Any help or suggestions would be gratefully received.

The server is running Apache and WHM/CPanel.

I am not particularly technically minded when it comes to Linux - I just want to set up and maintain a few small local business and individual websites and not be driven batty by constant annoyances.

15
Living Room / ImgBurn - full of OpenCandy and other crap
« on: April 24, 2014, 08:18 AM »
Really sad to say I won't be recommending ImgBurn any more - my go to app for disk burning.

Just downloaded the latest version and it is full of crap - and even if you take the long install route and deselect everything except ImgBurn it STILL install multiple crapware apps (including the very annoying Conduit SearchProtect).

Very sad development!

(PS that was the download direct from the ImgBurn server so no one else had added the crap)

16
Anyone else find this hilarious?

http://www.telegraph...itics/10423514/.html

17
Samsung kindly just upgraded my tablet.

In the process they cleared my Home Screen apart from the standard icins.

I can easily restore my apps but it is particularly annoying that I had a second screen of useful internet shortcuts (which weren't in the shorcuts in my browser). Some are relatively old and unlikeky to be in my browser history.

Anyone got any idea if it is possible to recover these webpage shortcuts?

18
Living Room / World's fastest WiFi @100Gbps
« on: October 24, 2013, 03:25 PM »
German researchers have combined photonics and electronics to create a world-record-breaking wireless network that can send and receive data at a heady 100 gigabits per second (Gbps). This beats the same team’s previous world record of 40Gbps. At 100Gbps, or a transfer rate of 12.5 gigabytes per second — ten times faster than Google Fiber — you could copy a complete Blu-ray disc in a couple of seconds.

http://www.extremete...an-scale-to-terabits

19
Living Room / Expanding WiFi coverage in difficult buildings
« on: September 27, 2013, 06:05 AM »
A couple of years ago I installed some wifi expanders in a local hotel. They worked but were not brilliant and only provided coverage for parts of the building.

The building is a ramshackle amalgam of very old buildings with thick stone walls internally and externally, on mutliple levels and multiple floors so lines of sight are difficult and wall are thick and difficult to drill.

The problems are the main telephone socket and router are situated away from most of the guests parts of the building on the ground floor.

They don't want the mess or to spend a fortune on having ethernet cables installed and because of the history of the wiring mains networking only works in parts of the building.

Anyone got any other ideas on how to expand wifi coverage to the whole building and get good quality in awkward buildings?

20
Living Room / iPhone 5S fingerprint system easy to fool
« on: September 23, 2013, 03:32 AM »
OK - not really a surprise but the iPhone 5S fingerprint reader is not proving tough to be cracked.

Who ever thought it would be - its a scanner for heavens sake so if you can find something to scan (like a residual finger print) and perform a pretty trivial photoshop operation you have something to unlock a phone and read your partners secret sexts.

Did anyone really think this was secure technology? I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone argued this technology was revolutionary (apart from Apple's usual marketing hype and the fanboys brain dead response) - it has been around for years on cheap domestic laptops from a number of manufacturers (not that I have EVER seen anyone actually use it),

Sheesh ...

Further details on Gizmodo - and probably half the internet by the time you see this.

21
Living Room / Nonplussed - Windows 7 random BSODS
« on: August 26, 2013, 11:02 AM »
Totally confused ... asked to fix a Dell computer which is constantly crashing with BSODS and pretty randomly.

It is a Dell desktop running Windows 7 x64.

Tried all the usual things and gave up and reinstalled the factory image. Everything seemed OK but next day the BSODS started again.

Had the computer in my house:

1) Reinstalled factory image again
2) Removed crapware/ Norton etc.
3) Updated from Windows update and all drivers/BIOS/software updates recommended by Dell
4) Installed MSE  and other common tools
5) Ran stress tests and memory tests for 48 hours.
6) Produced Image Backup of system

No logged errors and no BSODS throughout.

Took it back to owner and BSODS start again almost immediately.

Removed everything except screen keyboard and mouse and BSOS continue to appear at random.

Anyone got any ideas?

The commonest STOP codes are 0x1e, 0x7d and 0x3b but they all seem to be random. Most hint at driver issues but they are factory drivers and don't seem to cause issues in my house. All very odd!

22
Living Room / Build your own 3-D printer!
« on: July 22, 2013, 03:17 AM »
Wonder how log it will take prices to drop to inkjet proportions?

See
http://www.maplin.co...elleman-k8200-783902

Fun video at the bottom of the page.

Next stage will be to print your ow 3-D printer ;)

23
Living Room / Interesting Amazon MP3 development
« on: June 27, 2013, 10:21 AM »
Not sure if this is only new to the UK but I got a surprise today when I purchased a CD at Amazon.

They have added most of the CDs I have ever purchased from Amazon to my Cloud account and I can download the MP3 versions of those and also listen to them by streaming if I want.

This was new to me.

It is an interesting development because I have found it irritating that sort of things I like to purchase are often cheaper in CD format than MP3. Where is the incentive now to buy MP3s at all when purchasing CD gives you physical and digital copies?

Another question that is less obvious is what is the legal situation if you then sell the CD version you purchased? Since Amazon has added the digital content to your account presumably it belongs to you - there doesn't seem to be any way that Amazon can possibly police whether you still have the CD. Surely this will mean some people will buy the CD, download the MP3 files and then sell the CD and effectively get the music for free ???

It doesn't really affect me too much because I listen to classical music mostly and hate MP3 versions so I will be keeping all my CDs (hell I still have hundreds of vinyl records and cassette tapes that I can't bring myself to part with).

24
Just use the code 35THBDAY at the checkout until 28th May 2013

25
Living Room / MySQL hacked
« on: May 20, 2013, 03:36 AM »
Yesterday my server was hacked.

The behaviour was malicious and basically went through every database on the MySQL server and changed all user names to admin and all passwords to a single password.

This must have happened via the MySQL server directly because it affected all databases on the server for all client accounts.

As far as I can see no other damage was done.

Does anyone have any idea how this could have happened and how to prevent future attacks?

Currently a backup is being restored from before the incident but I don't want to have to go through this again if I can avoid it.

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