Recent Posts

6526

General Software Discussion / Re: Any XP users switching to Windows 7 yet?

« Last post by MilesAhead on December 01, 2009, 03:20 PM »

Hmmmmmm, whatever it is, it goes away when I disable the CDROM in device manager.  I have AutoRun set to 0.  That should fix it.  Apparently not in W7.

As soon as I enable the CDROM in device manager, the 1 second ticking starts right up again.

edit: I can tell it's going to be one of those deals where you put on the OS you want to run and there's no way to tell before hand if you'll get the dreaded blink or not.  Newer OS or SP may fix it, but it may also break it.  Guess the guy with the duct tape approach might have something after all.

6527

General Software Discussion / Re: Any XP users switching to Windows 7 yet?

« Last post by MilesAhead on December 01, 2009, 01:36 PM »

You know, I had this problem once a long time ago.  i don't remember what it was exactly, but I posted about it in these forums and it was fixed.  perhaps it is similar.  if I remember I'll let you know for sure.

-superboyac (December 01, 2009, 01:32 PM)

Thank you.  I posted on HP business support forum.  If it's an HPism somebody there has probably seen it. I've seen posts by people with a similar issue with auto-insert notification where they say XP SP1 won't do it, but putting SP2 on did, or SP2 didn't do it, but putting SP3 on did, etc..  It's got to be something to do with the HD controller and those memory stick slots.  If it ain't then I'll really be surprised.  Just the fact that almost nobody is seeing it makes me think it's brand specific weirdy.

6528

General Software Discussion / Re: Any XP users switching to Windows 7 yet?

« Last post by MilesAhead on December 01, 2009, 01:04 PM »

Simply "polling" a harddrive (which I can't imagine being done) shouldn't cause the LED to light - only if you're reading or writing the drive... but that can happen for a lot of reasons. I don't see that happening on my install, but I've stripped off windows search/indexing and defragger.

What other software do you have running in the background?

-f0dder (December 01, 2009, 01:38 AM)

Of course it "shouldn't".  That's why I'm trying to fix it.  Sheesh!!

6529

General Software Discussion / Re: Any XP users switching to Windows 7 yet?

« Last post by MilesAhead on December 01, 2009, 01:02 PM »

Defrag-when-idle doesn't just access your hard drive steadily. It'll defrag a couple seconds, stop a couple seconds to see if any other program needs to perform any operations, defrag again a couple seconds, etc.

-Innuendo (December 01, 2009, 10:55 AM)

btw I appreciate you are trying to solve the problem but this is not what I'm seeing.  What I get is exactly like a metronome.  Every second or so the LED lights and immediately goes out.  There's no variable length staccato lighting of the LED as one would expect from background defragging.  It ticks is the only way I can describe it.  I've been using multi-tasking systems since around 1987.  It's not defrag.

6530

General Software Discussion / Re: Any XP users switching to Windows 7 yet?

« Last post by MilesAhead on December 01, 2009, 12:58 PM »

Simply "polling" a harddrive (which I can't imagine being done) shouldn't cause the LED to light - only if you're reading or writing the drive... but that can happen for a lot of reasons. I don't see that happening on my install, but I've stripped off windows search/indexing and defragger.

What other software do you have running in the background?

-f0dder (December 01, 2009, 01:38 AM)

It's not software running in the background.  If it was, it would not tick like a clock.  This is constant 24 hours a day/seven days a week.  If there is HD access it is in addition to the "ticking".  If you don't believe me Google "LED every second auto-insert notification" and see what you get.

6531

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 — first impressions

« Last post by MilesAhead on December 01, 2009, 12:55 PM »

All those people annoyed by uAC should give linux a try. sudo su is all it takes to have a shell in which to be admin, while the rest of the system is user-owned. I couldn't find a way to do this the time I was on windows.

-urlwolf (December 01, 2009, 12:27 PM)

There was a user-written port of it that I used on NT 4 Server.  I don't know if the author kept up with it.  Could be the same version would work.  It used sockets and the listening part of the code would only accept connection from 127.0.0.1(the local machine.)  The fellow even had a way to create elevated shortcuts for a particular task by encrypting the password similar to how Linux login does it.

Google and ye may find.

6532

General Software Discussion / Re: Any XP users switching to Windows 7 yet?

« Last post by MilesAhead on December 01, 2009, 12:51 PM »

If it was defrag it would run on.  I'm talking about a ticking like a clock every one or two seconds. The LED just lights, then goes out.

-MilesAhead (December 01, 2009, 12:02 AM)

Last time I saw something like that was when Windows 95 was out. A driver update and a new BIOS fixed it.

It doesn't stay on like when the HD is being accessed steadily such as during defrag.

Defrag-when-idle doesn't just access your hard drive steadily. It'll defrag a couple seconds, stop a couple seconds to see if any other program needs to perform any operations, defrag again a couple seconds, etc.

-Innuendo (December 01, 2009, 10:55 AM)

I think we are mixing issues.  One is if you get excessive HD access that interferes with using your own machine(as in Vista pre SP1.)  The other is a ticking LED.  The ticking LED will not go away no matter if your HD is fragged, defragged, the defragger is not running, you boot to safe mode with no network support, windows search on off, superfetch on off.  In short, it's a hardware polling that's likely some defect in a driver.

The people who have HD access that interferes with them using their own machine don't have my issue.  If you google you'll see that over the years there has been a steady complaint with a small number of people with HD LED ticking like a clock.  If it was common there would be more posts about it. That's why I deem it a hardware polling issue.

All these other suggestions about turning this or that service off, eliminating scheduled tasks, yadda yadda, been there, done that.  It's not it.

6533

Living Room / Re: The End of the CrunchPad

« Last post by MilesAhead on December 01, 2009, 12:24 AM »

I seem to remember something about DesqView having a patent on storing the screen memory contents in a buffer so that when you pop down your pop up window, you can replace the memory from the buffer and all is as it should be.  Maybe it's specious since that's the only way you could do it.  I don't remember if this was yet another Dvorak-ism or if it was fact.

Weird. I knew a welder who spent thousands on lawyers trying to patent welding bicycle hand-brakes onto wheel chairs.  I asked why he just didn't spend all that money to open a shop and just weld them on as a cash and carry business.  He was obsessed that people shouldn't steal his idea.  A nice guy but had some strange "inventions" that could not be protected by patents.

6534

General Software Discussion / Re: looking for an easy way to convert vhs tapes to dvd

« Last post by MilesAhead on December 01, 2009, 12:14 AM »

I've purchased at least 4 HP "media center" PCs and I've never used the video card yet.  My dual core didn't have a free 32 bit slot and a fast network was much more important so I pulled the video card to use the slot for a Gb wired card. I don't think it was digital HD anyway.  I toyed with the idea of getting a Sima capture gizmo that bypasses the distortion so you can back up store-bought tapes.  But 2 hours to back up a 2 hour movie is just not appealing. I have much better luck with disc than tape generally speaking.

It's a shame some of these videos are pretty much lost. I have a pretty nice copy of the first version of Lathe of Heaven if the PBS begging and interviews were edited out.  The one you see if you get the DVD looks like it's on a TV with a rabit ears.  Total snow and distortion.  Likewise I got a very clean copy of Battle in Outer Space. Pan & Scan but was much better looking than any copy sold until the most recent 16x9 releases on DVD.  Got it off Action Channel on digital cable.  But I don't really have enough of those collector type videos to make it worth it.

6535

General Software Discussion / Re: Any XP users switching to Windows 7 yet?

« Last post by MilesAhead on December 01, 2009, 12:02 AM »

For those of you experiencing the HD LED flashing thing....what might be going on is that Windows 7 will defrag your hard drives while idle if Windows deems it's needed. You can turn this behavior off in the Defrag app if you desire.

-Innuendo (November 30, 2009, 10:20 PM)

If it was defrag it would run on.  I'm talking about a ticking like a clock every one or two seconds. The LED just lights, then goes out. It doesn't stay on like when the HD is being accessed steadily such as during defrag.  I'm pretty certain it's polling the hardware.  It may stop and start depending on the OS and service pack.  Must be some driver interaction. I went through all this with Vista before SP1.  Believe me, it's not defrag.

6536

General Software Discussion / Re: looking for an easy way to convert vhs tapes to dvd

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 30, 2009, 07:12 PM »

I use this baby: EasyCAP USB Dongle Affiliate Link (non-aff link). $11.81 and really easy to use.
Here's a YouTube review: http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=7EfkfyFRcN4

-scancode (November 27, 2009, 09:50 PM)

Hmmm, that looks interesting.  I have a bunch of VHS I recorded from digital cable.  A few are either not out on DVD or the DVD quality is even worse than the VHS.  For $15 and the cost of a VCR it might be worth transferring some of them.

Is it strictly real-time capture?

6537

General Software Discussion / Re: VirtualProtect

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 30, 2009, 06:56 PM »

You might take a look here to see if you can get an impression:
http://www.wildersse...rumdisplay.php?f=100

It's hard to say because naturally that's where problems collect.  I did note that they came out with a couple of fix builds, then it seems activity died down.  That may indicate it has stabilized.

I haven't tried it myself since I don't really want to install something that gets in the middle of my bootup sequence, esp. since I have an AMD Raid controller that I don't see mentioned much.  I don't want to experiment on my primary machine.  The other is running 32 bit so experimenting on it won't mean much.

6538

General Software Discussion / Re: Any XP users switching to Windows 7 yet?

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 30, 2009, 03:42 PM »

Just curious.  Is it a multi-core PC?  I'm wondering if 7 does a better job of distributing processes among the cores at startup?

-MilesAhead (November 30, 2009, 01:28 PM)

Well... Dual Core  

I've noticed the disk activity light flashing fairly frequently as well since moving to Win7 but there's not audible disk thrashing going on and performance doesn't appear to be affected so I'm not sweating it.

-Darwin (November 30, 2009, 02:16 PM)

I think it must be some interaction with drivers or something.  When I was searching I noticed a lot of people saying XP SP1 didn't give the blink but XP SP2 did.  It seemed like the consensus was disabling auto-insert notification sometimes fixed it.  When I had Vista 32 bit on the machine I was getting so much disk activity and it took so long to tame it that I don't remember if I got the regular pulse with Vista or not.  I was definitely getting performance killing drive hogging. But I think the pulsing is just some controller polling issue. CrystalDisk benchmark is giving good numbers. I'm not worried about the LED wearing out before the machine dies.

6539

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 — first impressions

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 30, 2009, 03:37 PM »

I put a shortcut to the control panel on the desktop. "System" in control panel is where youwill find 'device manager'., among other places I suppose.

-cmpm (November 29, 2009, 05:23 PM)

One thing I like about RocketDock is by default it has buttons for Computer, Network, Documents, Control Panel and Recycle Bin. It seems like the settings get shuffled around every few Windows releases.  RocketDock makes a nice common denominator across XP, Vista, Windows7.

6540

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 — first impressions

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 30, 2009, 01:37 PM »

Jump Lists:
http://windows.micro.../features/jump-lists
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=16143

Another "Ooo, shiny and new, only available in Win7!" feature that was actually available all the way back to WinXP and maybe even Win2k, although at that time it required more work on the part of the developer (see Winamp for example). Still a cool feature though, and much more powerful and flexible in Win7 in any case.

- Oshyan

-JavaJones (November 30, 2009, 12:46 PM)

I like 7stacks.  But after using it for awhile I seemed to remember these little gizmos for the OS/2 Taskbar where you click it and a whole "drawer" full of icons extends(kind of like how the equalizer pops out on a Winamp skin.) Of course 7stacks using glass which makes it more fun.  But it's essentially the same salt shaker only transparent.

6541

Living Room / Re: New scamsites!

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 30, 2009, 01:31 PM »

I wonder how many people actually fall for those scam sites?

(Probably a lot. I don't have much faith in human intelligence.)

-f0dder (January 31, 2009, 04:57 AM)

I think dolphins were smart enough to see what evolution was up to, and stayed in the water. 

6542

General Software Discussion / Re: Any XP users switching to Windows 7 yet?

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 30, 2009, 01:28 PM »

For me the nice thing about the startup is that you get control of your system much earlier (even if it hasn't fully finished the startup process).

-Carol Haynes (November 30, 2009, 05:44 AM)

Yes - my experience is that Vista 64 and Win7 64 boot to the login prompt in about the same amount of time. The big difference, however, is that Win7 loads to a useable desktop in a few seconds whereas Vista and XP take quite a bit longer to do the same. The Vista/Win7 comparison are on the same machine.

-Darwin (November 30, 2009, 11:28 AM)

Just curious.  Is it a multi-core PC?  I'm wondering if 7 does a better job of distributing processes among the cores at startup?

6543

General Software Discussion / Re: Any XP users switching to Windows 7 yet?

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 30, 2009, 01:19 PM »

For me the nice thing about the startup is that you get control of your system much earlier (even if it hasn't fully finished the startup process).

-Carol Haynes (November 30, 2009, 05:44 AM)

Yes - my experience is that Vista 64 and Win7 64 boot to the login prompt in about the same amount of time. The big difference, however, is that Win7 loads to a useable desktop in a few seconds whereas Vista and XP take quite a bit longer to do the same. The Vista/Win7 comparison are on the same machine.

-Darwin (November 30, 2009, 11:28 AM)

One thing a bit annoying I notice in Vista64.. I have a USB drive that I leave hooked up all the time.  It adds about 14 seconds to the boot cycle. The machine gets to the initial boot options screen, the USB drive lights up, then it shuts it down, then spins it up again.  My solution is to turn the machine on then make my coffee. Using BootSpeed .vbs script the best I can get seems to be about 78 seconds for a warm boot.  With the drive unplugged it shaves 12 to 14 seconds off the time.  Cleaning all my little hotkey gizmos out of auto startup only shaves off about 2 seconds, unlike most advice you see posted for speeding up your boot times.

One of these days I'll have to try unplugging my docking station from the W7 machine to see the difference.  I think W7 32 bit warm boot cycle is around 68 seconds, which is comparable to Vista 32 bit.  Must take more time to load up that WOW stuff.

edit: just tried it for grins.  W7 7077 32 bit warm boot cycle using BootSpeed with docking station powered up is 54 seconds.

6544

General Software Discussion / Re: Any XP users switching to Windows 7 yet?

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 30, 2009, 01:14 PM »

afa Superfetch goes, running locate32 was likely the culprit for most of the drive run-on.  I switched to Everything Search and turned as much indexing off as I could.  I don't cache or shadow network shares, don't index for faster searching, etc.. I tried Superfetch fully enabled, then with the setting I use.

-MilesAhead (November 20, 2009, 06:45 PM)

btw although these tweaks, along with tuning some services, quieted down the HD on both Vista 32 bit and Vista64 SP1, they seem to have no benefit on W7 32 bit afaict.  Something is pulsing my HD every 2 seconds.  I'm damned if I can find it.  Unlike Vista, it doesn't seem to hurt performance.  I guess it's one of those "Windows Annoyances" someone will find a cure for in 2 years.

-MilesAhead (November 29, 2009, 12:45 PM)

In case anyone else is wondering why the metronome won't stop even though the disk is idle for hours, in my case at least, I think it's an HPism.  The LED flicks every 2 seconds like a clock.  On my quad core, the HD LED doesn't act like this but at the top of the case near the memory stick ports I can see a red LED come on every now and then.  I think they hooked the memory stick polling to the HD LED for some stupid reason in the old model.

Superfetch on/off; Windows Search on/off; seems not to slow it down so I'm leaving them on.  Seems like they've been optimized since Vista. I saw some other posts since Win2k that some machines if you have auto-insert for the optical drive enabled, people would get this clock tick action on the LED. Made me think it's likely the memory stick ports since I have all that auto-insert disabled.

6545

General Software Discussion / Re: Any XP users switching to Windows 7 yet?

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 29, 2009, 12:45 PM »

afa Superfetch goes, running locate32 was likely the culprit for most of the drive run-on.  I switched to Everything Search and turned as much indexing off as I could.  I don't cache or shadow network shares, don't index for faster searching, etc.. I tried Superfetch fully enabled, then with the setting I use.

-MilesAhead (November 20, 2009, 06:45 PM)

btw although these tweaks, along with tuning some services, quieted down the HD on both Vista 32 bit and Vista64 SP1, they seem to have no benefit on W7 32 bit afaict.  Something is pulsing my HD every 2 seconds.  I'm damned if I can find it.  Unlike Vista, it doesn't seem to hurt performance.  I guess it's one of those "Windows Annoyances" someone will find a cure for in 2 years.

6546

Living Room / Re: Divx 7 help requested

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 29, 2009, 12:52 AM »

Do you have a link and does this provide native directshow decoding in WMP12?

-Josh (November 28, 2009, 07:03 PM)

Here's the link to Shark's site:
http://shark007.net/

He has his own forum and also you can usually find him on these sites:

http://www.vistax64.com/
http://www.sevenforums.com/

I can't really answer your questions about the particular divx features but I'm sure there's info on the site what you can expect.  The software is updated frequently and if you have either Vista or W7 most of the video sites where I hang everyone recommends it(people much more into media center, video cam and all kinds of capture stuff I don't get into etc.. you know hard core video people.)

6547

Living Room / Re: Recommend to me the BEST USB stick to get

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 29, 2009, 12:45 AM »

I was considering using the USB stick for playing videos but it turns out the WD player box I got supports USB docking stations.  For the price of a 16GB USB stick I ordered a 2nd one identical to the model I have on one of my PCs.  I already tried it and it plays the videos flawlessly.  Should cut down on video conversions quite a bit.

Eventually I'll probably get a 16GB stick because 8GB really is kind of small these days.  I'll wait a bit and see if the prices fall.

Thanks for the info.

6548

Living Room / Re: looking for an old science-fiction movie

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 29, 2009, 12:24 AM »

I've never seen it on DVD though.  It was actually a pretty good flick.  Don't know why it never made it past VHS.

-MilesAhead (November 28, 2009, 07:15 PM)

If you mean Lifeforce, it is available on DVD - see Amazon.

-4wd (November 28, 2009, 09:49 PM)

No, I mean Becoming Colette. It's only available on VHS afaik. I managed to tape it from cable.  But I don't even own a VCR anymore.  The male lead in the movie is the same actor who played the heavy in Never Say Never Again.  I haven't watched it in quite a few years.  Lots of times they do the old body double switcheroo but I don't think Mathilda May objected to doing her own "stunts" as it were.

6549

Living Room / Re: looking for an old science-fiction movie

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 29, 2009, 12:19 AM »

You can see a lot more of Mathilda in the flick Becoming Colette or sometimes titled just Colette.

-MilesAhead (November 28, 2009, 07:15 PM)

How could there possibly be a way to see more of Mathilda May than in Lifeforce?

-mwb1100 (November 28, 2009, 10:19 PM)

If you watch Becoming Colette you won't have to ask.

6550

Living Room / Re: looking for an old science-fiction movie

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 28, 2009, 07:15 PM »

Lifeforce is another good SciFi from that era starring Steve Railsback but made more memorable by the appearances of Mathilda May au naturale.

-4wd (November 28, 2009, 03:17 AM)

I liked that flick too.  You can see a lot more of Mathilda in the flick Becoming Colette or sometimes titled just Colette.  I've never seen it on DVD though.  It was actually a pretty good flick.  Don't know why it never made it past VHS.