Recent Posts

4776

Living Room / Re: install win7 32 or 64 bit on a 4 gig ram machine - opinions, please.

« Last post by 4wd on June 20, 2010, 02:44 PM »

Hm, 64bit Vista allowed unsigned kernel mode drivers? Not unless running in driver signing test mode

-f0dder (June 02, 2010, 04:28 AM)

If it's only for use on your machine then you can apparently sign the unsigned driver as per here.

Haven't tried it, but if you really need that one piece of hardware running, you only have an unsigned driver and it's only for your machine - it could be a viable alternative.

4777

Living Room / Re: Buy / build new system (from CCLOnline) - opinion sought

« Last post by 4wd on June 20, 2010, 02:04 PM »

I may one day return to the Asus fold, but they'll need to get on the solid-state capacitor bandwagon first.

-Innuendo (June 20, 2010, 09:05 AM)

I haven't bought a AsRock board for two years or so, (haven't needed too ), so I don't know what capacitors they now use on them, (they were normal electrolytics).

The thing I liked about AsRock at the time was the "extras" they added to their boards, (eg. eSATA before anyone else IIRC),  plus their use of other than the "big" name chipsets, (last board had ULi - since bought by nvidia - and it worked great, very stable compared to the nvidia chipsets I had).

4778

Living Room / Re: Buy / build new system (from CCLOnline) - opinion sought

« Last post by 4wd on June 20, 2010, 06:15 AM »

... Asrock is Asus's budget line so you may be stepping down in quality going from an Asus board to an Asrock one even if you are going to be increasing your ability to add RAM. That's not a big deal, but something you should be aware of when making that choice.

-Innuendo (June 13, 2010, 05:27 PM)

Personally, I've had a better experience with board reliability/compatibility with AsRock than with ASUS.

I've had, (and they are still in use with other family members), two AsRock boards and they haven't given any trouble, (apart from things I've caused myself).
Whereas, both people at my PC group and I avoid ASUS because of troubles with their boards in the past, (generally use Gigabyte only these days).

My 

4779

Living Room / Re: GPS Unit Recommendations?

« Last post by 4wd on May 20, 2010, 02:57 PM »

This is a strange question but:

Why didn't/don't you just buy a Korean Sat Nav unit, (distinct from GPS unit AFAIAC), and load the maps for wherever you want in it?

4780

General Software Discussion / Re: What's your preferred File Manager

« Last post by 4wd on May 10, 2010, 03:25 AM »

@ cyberdiva & CWuestefeld,
have you tried the Dopus forum to see what the problem is with reading the respective folders ?
I get the impression they are fairly responsive with bugs and that sounds like a bug to me...
__________________________

I havent noticed any slow-down in Dopus from v.8 to v.9 myself

-tomos (May 06, 2010, 05:40 PM)

Same here, no problem with directories loading slow - sounds like a possible 'interaction with another program' issue.

Have you tried booting into Safe Mode, running DOpus and then opening the relevant directories?

4781

General Software Discussion / Re: Video Editing software - Any recommendations?

« Last post by 4wd on April 26, 2010, 03:31 PM »

_______________________________________
Australia: The worlds newest dictatorship.

-4wd (April 26, 2010, 02:42 AM)

My expectation is that implementation of mandatory ISP filtering will be more and more political correct all over the world.

-Curt (April 26, 2010, 05:10 AM)

It is never politically correct when what is being filtered is not subject to public review of any kind - you know, the people who supposedly elected this bunch of cretins.

As to merging video with mp3, if it's an AVI then you can simply use AVIMux-GUI, otherwise AVIDemux will do AVI, MPEG1/2, MP4 and possibly MKV by setting the Video and Audio encode to Copy and setting the output file format.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Video Editing software - Any recommendations?

« Last post by 4wd on April 26, 2010, 02:42 AM »

>Video editing software< ? Don't "google it" - just ask Wikipedia!

http://en.wikipedia....deo_editing_software

-Curt (April 25, 2010, 01:12 PM)

Ecxept that AviDemux falls under the category of a Non Linear Editor not just a video encoding/conversion and is also what I use for more simplified video editing that doesn't require a lot of filter work.

4783

General Software Discussion / Re: Video Editing software - Any recommendations?

« Last post by 4wd on April 23, 2010, 05:06 AM »

At $89, EditStudio PRO

-NigelH (April 20, 2010, 09:29 PM)

Agh!  When it was with the original developers, PureMotion, (v2.15 is what I had), I found it easy/intuitive and used it all the time for my DV editing.

I tried EditStudio v6 after MediaChance took it over and, IMHO, I found Sony Vegas 5, (which is what I now use even though it's rather old), streets ahead regarding ease-of-use and the ability to just do some really simple things without resorting to a manual.

Nothing against MediaChance, their DVDLab range is the dog's gonads for consumer/prosumer authoring.  Maybe it's just me but EditStudio went from being really easy to use to just....strange, (I can't think of a suitable word to describe how unintuitive it became), after they took it over.

+1 for Vegas AFAIAC ATM, but I'm going to see what the VideoLAN Movie Creator is like - v0.1.0 has been recently released.

Please keep in mind that this is an early release, and that it will (probably) crash many times eat your dog.

4784

Living Room / Re: Should I swtich from w7 32 bit to w7 64 bit?

« Last post by 4wd on April 18, 2010, 11:01 AM »

I've done exactly the same thing, moved from Win7 32bit to Win7 64bit for one reason only - MS' arbitrary decision to not allow full use of the installed 4GB under 32bit.

-4wd (April 04, 2010, 08:11 AM)

Nothing arbitrary about it, and it wasn't Microsoft's decision. 4GB is the maximum address space possible with a 32bit system. Your memory takes up that address space starting from the bottom, and all the devices that have memory mapped ROM or RAM takes it up starting from the top. For instance, the memory on your video card, the ROM on your motherboard, hard drives, etc. At some point they overlap, and that varies from system to system, depending upon the hardware. Once they overlap that ends the top of your accessible RAM.

-Tekzel (April 18, 2010, 08:57 AM)

If we were talking purely about hardware then I would agree with you...but we're not.
We're talking about the Windows OS.

This topic has been done to death previously here and here - the decision to not support the full 4GB by a 32bit OS is purely an arbitrary one.  The 32bit server editions of 2000/2003/2008 all support the use of more than 4GB of physical RAM and as f0dder has mentioned, XP SP0 supported the full 4GB.

EDIT: Dang it!  f0dder's done it again!  Dear f0dder, could you please set your timezone 1 hour behind mine so I have a chance of sneaking in a reply before you do?

4785

General Software Discussion / Re: Comodo Dragon browser

« Last post by 4wd on April 16, 2010, 04:28 PM »

I've only ever used the portable version which you can get with adblock addon, here.

I don't remember whether I was on W7x64 when I tried it but it did work.

4786

General Software Discussion / Re: How to watch folders and perform certain actions automatically?

« Last post by 4wd on April 12, 2010, 02:57 PM »

Perhaps FileNotify ?

As I mentioned in this thread.

It installs a service and you set up the actions using an interface to it, IIRC.

4787

Living Room / Re: File Size vs. Size on Disk: Why such a difference?

« Last post by 4wd on April 07, 2010, 05:56 PM »

More relevant questions are:

How may files are on your USB drive?
What is the cluster size?

For cluster size, the quickest way to find out is to do a Properties on a file whose size is between 1 and 511 bytes and look at the Size on Disk value.

Then multiply the number of files by the cluster size which should give the approximate wasted space due to non-filled clusters.

With flash based devices though, I would have thought you could format with a 512 byte cluster size and experience no noticeable performance hit.  This would minimise space lost.

Edit: Dang that f0dder!  He jumped through a temporal rift and beat me again!

4788

Living Room / Re: Should I swtich from w7 32 bit to w7 64 bit?

« Last post by 4wd on April 04, 2010, 08:11 AM »

In that case it is relatively easy by dumping the registry keys from the installed software in Win7 32bit, install the customized 64 bit version of Win7 (here is a link on how to do that), import the earlier created registry dump and that should be it.

-Shades (April 03, 2010, 09:53 PM)

I don't think that would work, the 'Program Files (x86)' directory doesn't exist under 32bit Windows and generally programs installed under 32bit Windows don't write registry entries under the wow3264, (or is it wow6432?), key.

So, how would you know whether there were any extra registry entries required and whether or not extra or some components were required to be moved from 'Program Files' to/from 'Program Files (x86)' ?

I've done exactly the same thing, moved from Win7 32bit to Win7 64bit for one reason only - MS' arbitrary decision to not allow full use of the installed 4GB under 32bit.  This coupled with the higher RAM usage of Win7 made it impossible to task switch from a game to the Desktop without the game locking up, (games don't like to be swapped in and out of RAM, disabling the page file fixes it but cripples the system even more), something that XP could do all day long without a problem.

The only sure way to migrate is to backup your program settings, install Win7 64 from scratch, then restore program settings.

FWIW, the only thing that didn't work under 64bit was my old Canon FB630U scanner because there's no driver available under Vista/W7.

4789

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 8 Requests

« Last post by 4wd on April 02, 2010, 07:25 AM »

If you like (some) of the look and feel from XP in Win7, visit this link for ClassicShell, which I am using myself.

-Shades (April 02, 2010, 07:12 AM)

Since I'm in the UK and don't have access to W7 on my netbook can you please tell me if it passes this one simple test:

Does it work correctly with the Taskbar located on the sides of the Desktop as XP does?

Last time I tried it, it opened the menus from the bottom left no matter where the Taskbar was located which was extremely annoying.

4790

Living Room / Re: Low energy use always on pc -- what's better, a laptop or a mini (htpc) pc?

« Last post by 4wd on April 01, 2010, 06:09 AM »

My old Acer Travelmate 2201 ran 24/7 for several months, (7+), without a problem until I put together my EPIA Mini-ITX system to replace it, (power usage is <18W under load).

I have to say I have a preference for the Mini-ITX(DTX) boards over mATX now that I've built a couple of systems using them and their capabilities have come a fairly long way since the early days of the EPIA.

The fit-PC reminds me of the Dell Optiplex SX260, IIRC, which used laptop components and was user non-upgradeable - I guess I must be a hardware wonk since I don't imagine me buying a 'sealed' unit over constructing my own, (except for (net|note)book of course)

For your experiment, why not jump onto ebay and see if you can pick up a used working Atom based netbook for under $100 - that'll get you a complete system including monitor and battery backup.
Asus EeePCs and Acer AAOs are rather plentiful and I have to say that I haven't actually used my old Travelmate 15" laptop since I got the AAO.

4791

Living Room / Re: Low energy use always on pc -- what's better, a laptop or a mini (htpc) pc?

« Last post by 4wd on March 30, 2010, 04:57 PM »

ok so f0dder is one vote for a tiny pc instead of a laptop, e.g.: http://www.mini-itx.com/

-mouser (March 30, 2010, 01:50 PM)

+1 for an Atom based Mini-ITX machine - the newer D410 and D510 will also let you choose an x64 OS.

4792

Living Room / Re: Bluetooth PAN Network Adapter driver.

« Last post by 4wd on March 26, 2010, 06:55 PM »

Broadcom Corporation / MICRO SYSTEMS, INC.                                 ES-388
Broadcom Corporation / ShenZhen Kang Hui Technology Co.,ltd           BCM2045a

Try Bluetooth Driver Installer.

4793

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Windows 7

« Last post by 4wd on March 25, 2010, 12:51 PM »

True, but there are those who don't have the skills to find such things. There's also a group of people who are capable, but they'd rather spend a little money to be assured of having a genuine key that will stay validated through any changes in protection (constant WGA updates, for example.).

-Innuendo (March 22, 2010, 08:33 PM)

Then again, IIRC, Microsoft gave you a legit copy if you could provide the name/details of the "store" from which you bought your not-quite-kosher Windows - so you could still end up with a cheap legit Windows product

4794

Living Room / Re: Bluetooth PAN Network Adapter driver.

« Last post by 4wd on March 25, 2010, 12:35 PM »

Re: #1

What's the Hardware ID ?

Device Properties->Details->Hardware Ids

eg. Mine reports: {f12d3cf8-b11d-457e-8641-be2af2d6d204} which is IVT Corp. hardware which uses their BlueSoleil driver.

4795

Living Room / Re: Yay, Upgrade time! - Inspire me with hardware I can buy =-D

« Last post by 4wd on March 20, 2010, 05:11 AM »

Yeah, but I've had a bad experience with stock fans/pads... so I'm waffling on which to use.

-wraith808 (March 18, 2010, 08:22 PM)

I've always just used the stock gunk that comes on the heatsink.  The only times I've used something different is when I've removed the heatsink to put a different one on or move the CPU to another board.

In those cases I've used some silicon based heatsink compound I got from Tandy approximately 25-30 years ago for electronics.....and it finally ran out a couple of months ago......Damn it!  Anyway, never noticed any difference between it and the stock gunk.

Still, 25-30 years - not bad for a 15g tube

And now it's on to the silicon based compound I got with an electronic kit only 15 years ago

4796

Living Room / Re: Windows doesn't recognize HDD.

« Last post by 4wd on March 15, 2010, 08:43 AM »

I was linking to the page for purely the program as an easy method of implementing what passes for LLF these days - not for any info that might be on the page.

LLF is just the convenience term for what you describe.

If you prefer please amend all my LLF references to ZSFwSR - please note I have Pat. Pend. on that acronym.

 

PS. It did 'fix' the problem I was having, (ie. OS freezes), even if it has not 'fixed' the specific cause of the problem.

4797

Living Room / Re: Using XP System Restore Offline

« Last post by 4wd on March 15, 2010, 08:33 AM »

I didn't know how far you were willing to delve into the directories in the system but here's a link that might help.

How to fix corrupt Windows XP systems


Note: Where he mentions booting to Safe Mode, you could boot to Recovery Console using a CD or boot a PE environment instead to copy/move files around.

4798

Living Room / Re: Windows doesn't recognize HDD.

« Last post by 4wd on March 15, 2010, 05:10 AM »

You could try a Low Level Format like I did with my badly behaving WD a few months ago, which seemed to 'repair' it, (or at least fixed the problem I was having).

4799

Living Room / Re: Using XP System Restore Offline

« Last post by 4wd on March 15, 2010, 04:45 AM »

It sounds like some of the base system files have been munged beyond repair so an Install in Place might be the only way to go if you really want to recover the existing system.

However, if some or parts of the registry were affected, (or installed program dependencies have also been affected), it may not be possible to recover to the point where all the previously installed programs will work correctly.

In that case a full reinstall might be the only option after recovering any important data via BartPE/WinPE.

It should also be noted that an Install in Place will also wipe any Service Packs or Hotfixes that were done after the initial system installation - at least, it always has here.

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Living Room / Re: Using XP System Restore Offline

« Last post by 4wd on March 13, 2010, 12:35 PM »

I thought 'repair' didnt work with XP home (well I read that somewhere - after an unsuccessful repair attempt)

-tomos (March 13, 2010, 09:10 AM)

AFAIK, it will work for both Home and Pro - admittedly I've only ever done it with Pro and it's always worked.

Just to make it clear, this is the second 'Repair' option you're offered, (the first takes you to CLI based command repair), once it's detected there's a previous XP installation on the HDD.

You do have to make sure you're using the same version, (Pro/Home), SP revision and distribution, Retail/OEM.

ie. The install CD you're using to repair has to exactly match what's already installed.

More info here for XP in-place Upgrade as MS call it.

Or the main page for all their versions.

Given the extra info the method I would use to restore the system, (which, personally, I never had any luck with on XP so I removed it from all subsequent installs), would be:

-4wd (March 13, 2010, 04:28 AM)

It meant to read that I never had any success with XP's System Restore so that is what I removed from subsequent installs.

My tenuous grasp of English grammar deserted me at that point.   

'Install in place' has always worked for me except where I had severely nobbled the existing installation.