Doug Bob's PC Info

DougBobs Review on Motorola Xoom WiFi

DougBob — 2011-05-29T18:48:12Z

I've been using Motorola's Xoom tablet since April and I have to say I really like it.
   I just wanted to provide a little review of what I like and don't like on the Xoom.
Motorola's Xoom URL

The Xoom hardware: The Xoom is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to hardware. The power the Dual Core Tegra 2 CPU provides leaves no room for complaint. Well maybe a little for speed freaks like myself. God I remember the day when you called someone a speed freak and it was a bad thing
With a resolution of 1280x800 on a 10.1" screen, the video on the Xoom is the best I've seen on anything less than a full fledged HD laptop. The resolution is one thing, but it's packed at a 150 pixels per inch(ppi).
If you remember the old dot pitch measurement used before LCD screens, aka flat panels came around, that's a dot pitch of approx. .169(.17).   That's better than the iPad 2's 132 ppi, but still doesn't come anywhere close to the 326 ppi the iPhone 4 is packing. I have to give Jobs cudos on that one, he got some good hardware put together on that project.
I think the biggest disappointment on the Xoom is the disabled microSD slot.
I really for the life of me don't understand what hardware or software wise, could have prevented them from enabling this.
I do however have an idea on a management reason! It's entirely plausible it was decided a microSD card would negatively impact the Xoom's performance and ultimately impact sales. Let me explain! What I mean by this statement is, the use of a microSD card would enable users to move applications to the microSD card to free up space on the built in memory. With each app they do this with it would slow down any access to that data stored on the microSD card since they are a lot slower than the 32GB of memory built into the Xoom. So with that said, if there is any data daemons running that would be stored or accessed on the microSD it could and probably would slow down the entire Android system resulting in a noticeable performance hit.
While this idea makes a lot of sense to me, I believe the sales benefit of having it enabled would have, dollar wise, been better to have enabled it and take the criticism.
The bright side of the microSD issue is 32GB of built in memory is pretty darn good, so I'm sure not complaining.
The speakers on the Xoom do a pretty good job. I don't get the Bose quality sound I would like, but for a flat tablet they're a lot better than my laptops speakers.

The Xoom Software: Based off of Android Honeycomb 3.0, the system runs pretty darn well. The update to Honeycomb 3.1 has already been pushed out by the way, but I really couldn't point to what has changed. I believe I noticed a better performance, but it might just be me.
Now if you're use an Android based phone with a decent screen size to it, you really won't notice much difference on the Xoom operational wise. The main thing is you really feel more at home with all the real estate on the 10.1" screen.
Soft keyboard wise, the default is nice, but I found my self stretching my thumbs to the middle a little cumberson for trying to type at a decent.   I solved this issue with a great keyboard called "Thumb Keyboard" on the Android Market. This thing is well worth the $2.49 I paid for it. Great job Beansoft!
{CAUTION}: Keep in mind, installing apps like an addition keyboard can easily contain a key logger in the code, so be careful what you use and remember to check out the app by doing a little research first and see if anybody had any complaints or reviews. I'm not endorsing any program here OR saying it's malware free. I just like it! If they put a key logger in it, I'll take care of that when I meet the developers
One last honorable mention I should make on the software side, is a little app pre-installed on Honeycomb 3.0 called "Movie Studio". As the name implies, it's a little movie making app you can put your videos and picture together with and create a little movie. Now I haven't stressed this thing out to see how much MB wise it will put together, but I did a little 10 second video and it took about 13-15 seconds to create it. Not bad and that's kind of comparable with a PC app for the same thing.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention one addition item on charging. It is definitely worth mentioning the charging is NOT done using the mini USB connection. The mini USB is only used for syncing/accessing from the PC. The actual charging is a small round cable on a 12VDC 2.0amp adapter. They have it in a 12 Volt adapter for the car or the 120-220VAC house charger.

The Xoom Usability: Hmmm, usablility wise, the Xoom rocks. I've used it tethered while doing some sight seeing overseas and I have to say it sure beats the hell out of navigating with a 4" screen using Goggle Maps
Now concerning ports and such! They really could have placed the charging port in another place of than the place that is the bottom of the unit when you hold it.   The problem here is the Portfolio case Motorola designed sits the unit with the charging port (and ever other port except the head phones) at the bottom. This doesn't allow for charging while in the case, other than closed.
Now on the bright side, did I mention this thing has mini HDMI out

UPDATE: I forgot to mention the battery life. I have no complaints so far. I lives up to the projected 10 hours of wifi browsing.   I can tell after a month of heavy usage the battery may have lost a minor amount of battery life, but I also can contribute that to the way I've been using it. I'll know more after 6 months or so.

The Xoom pricetag: Well there's only one thing I can say on the price tag. I bought mine at Costco for for $589 and if the price tag would have been $100 less I wouldn't have to have thought about as long as I did. That's a lot of money for something other than a laptop or desktop PC.

Overall: Well, overall the Xoom rocks! It's definitely the rooster in the hen house as we used to say on the farm. Is it worth the money, well I can't really say, it was to me.
In my humble opinion or IMO as you texting freaks say, the combination of Honeycomb 3.0/1 and the Motorola hardware beats the iPad 2 hands down.
How can I say that, do I own an iPad2 you may say! Hell no! That's why I bought the Xoom! ROFLMAO!

Copyright 2007-Present: DougBob's PCINFO

Clear email addresses used in Internet Explorer 8 (IE 8).

DougBob — 2011-02-07T20:30:00Z

The following procedure will clear any used email addresses you have entered into fields in IE 8.
In other words, if you have used johndoe@farmit.com to log into facebook and do not want it to show up any as a previously used email address perform the following.

1. Open IE 8.
2. Click on the [Tools] button and select Internet Options. The Internet Options window will open.

3. In the Browsing History area, click on the [Delete...] button. The Delete Browsing History window will open.

4. Select the Form Data check-box and review the others selections that are checked.
NOTE: Normally the following options are checked for you already. You may want to un-check the History selection to retain the list of websites you have previously visited.

5. Once you have ensured only the options you want to delete (in addition to the form data option ) are selected, click on the [Delete] button. Window closes and returns to Internet Options window.

6. In the Internet Options window, click on the [OK] button.

YOUR ALL DONE!!!

Copyright 2007-Present: DougBob's PCINFO

How To Change FaceBook Security settings - Updated with latest FB privacy settings - Updated with customized privacy.

DougBob — 2011-02-07T19:46:00Z

This How-To will give you an idea of how to make your FaceBook account a little more secure.

{PCINFO TIP} It may be useful if you open this page in one browser window and your facebook account in another.

The following steps will show you how to get to the privacy area of you Facebook account and make a few changes so only the people you want can see your information.

1. Login to you face book account.

2. Left mouse click on Account shown on the right here:


3. Once the dropdown menu below appears, left click on Privacy Settings:


4. From the Choose Your Privacy Setting page {shown below} you can choose what information is available for people trying to connect with you on facebook by left clicking on View Settings under "Connecting on Facebook".

5. From the Choose Your Privacy Settings > Connecting on Facebook page {shown below}, set each area to the setting you want.

http://s811.photobucket.com/albums/zz35/thedougbob/FB_Settings/ConnectingOnFacebook.jpg

Selections available for each part of your Facebook show to the left.
NOTE: You'll notice the first three selections do not have the custom setting.

6. Once your finished with your settings, click on the [Back to Privacy] button and you'll return to "Choose Your Privacy Setting" page.

7. From the "Choose Your Privacy Setting" page {shown below} under "Sharing on Facebook", you can choose whom you wish to share information with on Facebook by left clicking on Everyone, Friends of Friends, Friends Only or Recommended. If you prefer you may customize each by left clicking on the Customize settings link.
http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/zz35/thedougbob/FB_Settings/FB_Privacy_new-1.jpg

8. From the Choose Your Privacy Settings > Customize settings page {shown below} you can edit in more detail who you wish to see each area of information.
{PCINFO TIP} I recommend for each of the fields you select Only Friends. Also while on this page you can see how someone else views you information by checking out the PCINFO TIP at the bottom of this page. Pay particular attention to the "Friends can check me in to Places" setting.

{PCINFO TIP:} Secure your photos using the "Edit Photo Albums Privacy Settings" too. This will display a similar screen with settings for each of your photo albums.

Selections available for each part of your Facebook show to the left.

{PCINFO TIP} I use a custom setting for all my settings. I have two restricted friend lists and also set to Only Friends as you can see in the picture below.   You MUST ensure the Friend Lists you use in the "Hide this from" are users ONLY listed in this list and no others. In my example I use it for gaming groups so they can remain as my friends but do not see any of my private information I want others to be able to view.


NOTE: Your changes are saved as you make them.

9. One you have finished making the changes you want, at the top left, click on the [Back to Privacy] button.

10. Now you are back at the "Choose Your Privacy Setting" page and you should have the hang of setting your privacy; There are two remaining areas I recommend you click on and  see if there is any settings you wish to update there. Those settings are Applications and Websites and Block Lists.
NOTE: Remember to click on the [Back to Privacy] button when you are finished to save your changes and return to the main Privacy Settings page.

11. Now go thru each section again just as a double check to ensure you have set your privacy settings the way you want them and to verify the changes are still in place.

{PCINFO TIP}
Want to know what your page looks like to someone else?  Periodically use the following button to show what your page may look like to someone else.

Copyright 2007-Present: DougBob's PCINFO

Windows Firewall gives the error "The class is configured to run as a security id different from the caller " error

DougBob — 2010-08-31T17:18:00Z

Problem Description:
While trying to troubleshoot network issues the windows firewall appeared to be blocking network traffic, but the firewall was not enabled. This can usually be resolved by the following article MS has posted in their Knowledge Base.

Again, remember all copyrights, etc. belong to the appropriate individuals, companies, etc.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/892199

Copyright 2007-Present: DougBob's PCINFO

Outlook 2003 will not completely close. Outlook 2003 remains running after I close it.

DougBob — 2010-01-19T05:40:00Z

Description: After using outlook to check my mail, I close Outlook 2003 the process keeps running and the icon remains on the task tray. If I have the option to "Use Microsoft Office Word 2003 to edit e-mail messages" selected the winword.exe also remains running. I have had this problem for a few months now and finally got tired of it and was determine to figure out what was going on.

Problem: After some checking of COM Add-Ins... and the Add-In Manager... I found the iTunes Outlook Addin was keeping Outlook from completely closing and allowing it to constantly check email after it was closed.

Resolution: To resolve this issue and stop the rogue Addin from keeping outlook open for it's own use perform the following procedure:

1. If not already, open Outlook.
2. Click on Tools and select Options
3. Select the Other tab and click on the [Advanced Options...] button.
4. Click on the [COMM Add-Ins...] button.
5. De-select the iTunes Outlook Addin and click on the [Ok] button.
6. Click on the [Ok] button to close the Advance Options window.
7. Click on the [Ok] button to close the Options window.
8. Close Outlook, by click on the X in the upper right of the outlook window or select File > Exit.
9. Reboot your computer or just logout and log back in again to ensure outlook.exe is completely closed.
10. Launch outlook and verify it actually closes when you tell it too.

{PC INFO Tip} If you are familiar with Task Manager, you can use it to ensure the outlook.exe process is closed instead of rebooting or logging off the machine.

Copyright 2007-Present: DougBob's PCINFO

Facebook with not display a friend I just added to a Friend List.

DougBob — 2010-01-16T05:00:00Z

FOLLOW UP: It appears the latest Firefox update 3.5.7 may have resolved this issue.

Problem: This is a very interesting problem that I had and it only existed in Firefox 3. I use list to organize friends from work, home town, etc. I recently added a friend to one of the list. When I went back to All Friends and selected the friend list that I added them to, they did not show up.

While checking the problem I was curious is IE 8 and Google Chome had the same problem and they did NOT. So now I had it isolated to a FireFox problem. I spent about an hour trying to figure out why it was not displaying. I out of curiousity figured it might be a caching problem so I tried deleting offline files and reducing the size to 1 MB. This made no difference and the problem still existed.

Out of frustration I uninstalled firefox and reinstalled it, which to my surprise the re-installing Firefox did NOT fix the problem.

I will post a resolution if I find it, but I just wanted to get this out there so you would know your are not crazy in case you have the same problem.

FOLLOW UP: This is very interesting. I didn't find a fix for firefox, but I did determine it is definetly a Firefox unique problem. IE 8 and Google Chrome to NOT have this problem. I have or at least tried submitting a trouble ticket to Firefox, but it was a pain. Seems they don't take problem reports very easily.

Anyway if you have this problem, use another browser to edit your lists.

Copyright 2007-Present: DougBob's PCINFO

Linux error: "Your session only lasted less than 10 seconds. If you have not logged out yourself, this could mean that there is some installation problem or you may be out of diskspace. Try logging in with one of the failsafe sessions to see if you can fi

DougBob — 2009-06-19T05:06:00Z

Description:

When a normal non-administrator user tries to logon to the linux machine they get the following error:
"Your session only lasted less than 10 seconds. If you have not logged out yourself, this could mean that there is some installation problem or you may be out of diskspace. Try logging in with one of the failsafe sessions to see if you can fix the problem."

Problem:
The /tmp directory lost it's correct persmissions.

Fix:
Open a terminal window and as root run the following command:
chmod 1777 /tmp

Calibrating a laptop Battery in Vista

DougBob — 2008-12-22T08:33:00Z

PROBLEM:
Unlike previous versions of Windows, Vista does not have a way to calibrate your battery for those laptops that do not have a BIOS option to do so.
In previous version you just set all the power options to NEVER and the laptop would run until the battery completely discharges.
In Vista the NEVER or Do Nothing option is not available for the "Critical battery action" > "On battery"
This means the only way to accomplish this is for the OS to run until all power is gone and it turns off. I don't mean windows turns it off, but it just turns off due to loss of power. It's not graceful and I highly do not recommend anyone performing this procedure unless you are an advanced admin that is willing to accept the potential consequences in case the OS is crashed and not recoverable.

Use following procedure to create a new power scheme for critical action on battery to "Do Nothing(0)".

{PCINFO CAUTION: This setting is only for running the battery completely down. It may cause loss of date and you need to make sure you are doing nothing when the batter runs out and the system turns off. This setting will not allow the computer to shutdown, hibernate or sleep. It will just turn off.}

Method One:
1. Create Start > Control Panel and double click Power Options
2. Click Create a power plan on the left side of window
3. Select the Power Saver radio button
4. In the Plan Name field, type the name you want to call the power plan, i.e. Battery Calibration
5. Click the [Next] button.
6. Click the [Create] button.
{PCINFO NOTE: At this point your new power plan is active and you can choose to change other settings in the plan, (i.e. "Put the computer to sleep" to "Never"), from the Select a power plan window that is active or just close the window and continue.}
7. Change the Critical battery action to Do Nothing by clicking Start > Run or Windows Key+R and
type powercfg -setdcvalueindex scheme_current sub_battery batactioncrit 0
8. Click on the [OK] button.
9. Use the laptop as normal and stop any work before the battery runs out.
{PCINFO NOTE: Remember to change back to your normal power scheme once you boot the laptop.}
10. After the laptop battery is completely discharge reconnect you powersupply and turn on the laptop.
11. Once the laptop boots, login and restore your previous Battery critical action by using Control Panel > Power Options and change you plan settings for your current power scheme back to the way you had it or use the same command in step 7 as follows:
Use the following command for Setting you critical battery action to Sleep
powercfg -setdcvalueindex scheme_current sub_battery batactioncrit 1

Use the following command for Setting you critical battery action to Hibernate
powercfg -setdcvalueindex scheme_current sub_battery batactioncrit 2

Use the following command for Setting you critical battery action to Shut down
powercfg -setdcvalueindex scheme_current sub_battery batactioncrit 3

Copyright 2007-Present: DougBob's PCINFO

How to turn on Windows Firewall in XP

DougBob — 2008-09-23T05:27:00Z

Use the following method to turn on windows firewall.

{PCINFO: Windows Firewall is the default firewall built into Windows XP Home and XP Pro. It blocks unwanted network traffic and aids in preventing users from hacking a computer or non-authorized programs i.e. trojans from connecting to the internet from your computer.}

Method One:
1. Click on Start > Control Panel.
2. Double click on the Windows Firewall icon and a Windows firewall window will open.
3. Select the On(recommended) radio button to turn the firewall on.
4. Click on the [OK] button in the Windows Firewall window and the selection will be saved and the window will close.

Copyright 2007-Present: DougBob's PCINFO

How To Fan Mod a MSI NX8800GT-T2D512E-OC

DougBob — 2008-08-07T22:38:00Z

Just wanted to share a little information with you in case you have a video card overheating due to poor engineering like I did. This is advanced information, so you novices, don't try this at home without someone experienced assisting you.

My SLI video card configuration of 2x8800GT had a very bad problem over heating when they were under a heavy graphics load like playing COD4 or Crysis. This resulted in a lot of lockup during game play which was really annoying.

Normal operating temps for the card were as follows:

Normal temps during idle conditions:

Normal room temp:	65 to 70 F 18.3 to 21.1 C
GPU1 avg idle temp:	140 F 60 C
GPU2 avg idle temp:	134.6 F 57 C

Normal temps during game play of COD4:

Normal room temp:	65 to 70 F 18.3 to 21.1 C
GPU1 avg idle temp:	194 90 C
GPU2 avg idle temp:	183.2 F 84 C

The temp that pushed me over the edge and I finally made my mind up to fix it was 96C/204.8C
So, with out further delay, let's get to it. A lot of pics and maybe some explaination to help in case anyone out there wants to give it a try.

So first here's what we're working with. This is the video card, single slot wide with a metal case and small fan.
The item below it is the excellent Thermaltake CL-G0102 DuOrb VGA Cooler

So, to begin, we have to get the metal side casing off in order to remove the old heat sink. So, as shown below in the 2 different pics, we find the slots holding the casing in place.

Once the fastening points are located you have to very carefully use a screw driver or similiar type tool to gently pry away the casing from around the metal tabs on holding it in place.
Here's a couple pics as an example. I can't stress enough how careful you need to be, these cards have surface mount micro components, resistor, capacitors, op-amps, etc, that you could snap off and not even realize it.

NOTE: The case isn't just going to fall off, all your trying to do here is get the slots away from the tabs so you can move it when ready. The next step is coming. Be patent and don't rush, knuckle head!

After you done a little losening of the case, it's not going to just fall off I said, stop it.
Now you have to use the screw driver to slowly pry the case away from the heat sink that is still firmly attached with a seal around the fan intake area. The seal needs to slowly give way as you move the case away from the heat sink.
Here's a pic showing where I started at.

I slowly lifted the casing away from the heat sink.

Now, here it is after I got pryed it away. You can see the ring where the seal was holding it in place.

Now there are 10 screws you have to remove in order to remove the heat sink from the card.

Once these screws are removed, you're going to lay the card down and slowly flip the entire, rather large, heat sink assembly over so you can disconnect the fan power cable as shown below.

Notice that high quality thermal coupling they had between the heat sink and components.
I'm joking in case you didn't get it. This design was terrible!

See the connector, slowly disconnect it and don't force it.

Once the fan power is disconnected, We can begin the fun part
That would be the cleaning of the memory, GPU and op-amps.
As shown below, I layed out the following supplies:

1. 91% medical grade alcohol
NOTE: Don't mess with that crappy rubbing stuff. There is too much water and it leaves residue. Take my word for it, I know from 22+ years experience.
2. Plenty of que tips
3. A paper plate
4. A shot glass (To put the some alcohol in, don't drink it knuckle head)
5. A couple paper towels(get the whole roll it you like)
6. Some Arctic Silver ASTA-7G (2-PC-SET) Premium Silver Thermal Adhesive (For use on the Memory and op-amp only)
7. Some Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
8. The heat sinks and other parts from the Tt coolers(Tt=Thermaltake)

Now that your prepared to clean. You're going to do the following:

1. Put about 1 inch of alcohol in the shot glass.
2. Use one que tip per memory chip, only wetting one end of the que tip with alcohol so you can use the other end to dry and wipe off the dirt and excess alcohol.
NOTE: Clean the chips using a circular motion while gently applying a little pressure. When you think the chip is clean, use the other end of the que tip to dry off the excess alcohol.
3. Use two que tips to clean the GPU (be careful here, there are 4 rows of micro resistors along each side of the GPU)
4. Use one que tip to clean the op-amps.
Reference the pic below to identify the components:

Now that should have taken you a little while, here are 2 pics, one it should NOT look like and the other what your cleaning should have resulted in. Yeah right!!!

This is NOT clean!!!!

This IS clean Notice the mirror look on the GPU.

Ok, folks, now you have a clean card or at least the places your mounting heat sinks should be clean. Remember you're going to use the adhesive compound on the memory and op-amps and the plain old Artic Silver Thermal compound on the GPU.

Don't mix the thermal adhesive yet, you still have a little more work to do I said that already didn't I
Oh well, I said it again

Now, you have to remove the backing from the heat sinks and clean off the sticky gunk they thought for some reason would work. Well it won't Gomer, so, get to work.

1. Remove the sticky back
2. Use your thumb or finger to remove the sticky stuff from each and every heat sink your going to use. It may hurt a little but I'm sure some of you won't have a problem, it's just like rolling a booger off your finger, keep pushing and pushing until you get it off the heat sink, AND DON"T FLICK IT.
3. Once you get all the sticky gunk off the heat sinks, back to the alcohol and que tip method to clean off the rest of the left over residue from the heat sinks. You want these things really clean and don't use a knife or something to cheat and try and get the sticky stuff off that way. All you're going to do it scratch the things up, so STOP IT.
4. Now, you have them clean, so you're ready to mount the first one. Pick one of the memory chips for a guinea pig and apply a little of the thermal adhesive to it. Not too much, all it has to be is just enough to cover it when you seat the heat sink on it. Remember, your putting the compound on the component, not the heat sink.
5. Once you have the right amount of thermal adhesive in place, carefully place the heat sink on the guinea pig and apply very light pressure while slowly moving the heatsink in a little circular motion. This is only to spread the adhesive around and ensure the top of the chip is covered and good thermal contact is made.
NOTE: If you got thermal adhesive oozing out of everywhere you messed up. Clean it and do it again, BEFORE it hardens
6. Once you get the first test one mounted, repeat for the rest.
NOTE: You'll notice in my pic below I used one of the long heat sinks for the bottom op-amps and two square heat sinks for the other 2 sets. Be careful not to let the heat sinks touch the contacts on any components before them. Plus be very careful when putting the compound on the tiny little op-amps. There not much surface space there and it only takes enough to cover them with a very thin coat and not ooze over the sides.

Once you have all the heat sinks mounted it should look like this:

Let them set for 5+ minutes before continuing on to mount the main Fan assembly.

Now once you're ready, follow the instructions for the DuOrbs and be careful when mounting it and ensure to use the right set of screws. The screws are the dual ended ones and there are 2 sets, one for more space between the fan base and the card, the other set a little shorter. You have to ensure you use the ones that will allow the fans copper base to come into good thermal contact with the top of the GPU.

When it's mounted it will look like this.

Now I want you to notice something in the pic of the back of the card. See the nuts and how much they stick out. Since I run in SLI mode, I had to grind off about 3/4 of the length so it would not contact the other card. Of course I used a bench grinder and vise grips since otherwise a dremel would have been a real pain to hold onto

Well that's pretty much it. Once you get the card(s) mounted back in the PC I think you'll enjoy the light show it gives off
Oh, I'm not covering how to mount the card back in the case and hooking up the fan power connector. I figure if you're doing this and you don't know how to do that, there better be an experience person helping you.

Cheers and enjoy the last few pics below and I put the temp results of the fantastic mod at the bottom, enjoy and have fun.

RESULTS OF MOD, Thank you Thermaltake DuOrbs, you rock.
These cards have NEVER ran this cool when idle and I should note the previous high temp during game play were with the factory fans running at 100%. These DuOrbs are much quiter and you can't beat the out come

Normal temps during idle conditions:

Normal room temp:	65 to 70 F 18.3 to 21.1 C
GPU1 avg idle temp:	114.8 F 46 C
GPU2 avg idle temp:	109.4 F 44 C

Normal temps during game play of COD4:

Normal room temp:	65 to 70 F 18.3 to 21.1 C
GPU1 avg idle temp:	156.2 69 C
GPU2 avg idle temp:	136.4 F 58 C

Video doesn't work with Solaris in Virtual PC 2007

DougBob — 2008-04-07T00:10:00Z

Ok, here's one I just stumbled across the fix on. Ever since I install Solaris in a Virtual PC environment I haven't been able to get video. It appeared it was a sync problem, but my experience hope it was something as simple as a color depth problem and that's what all the research pointed to. The resolution was actually simple and it was due to the way the Solaris 10 manages X11 now.

Problem: Video appears double scanned when running Solaris 10 in a Virtual PC 2007 environment.

Fix: Usually from the windows you can see well enough to start a command line boot. Boot into a command line interface and perform the following procedure to change video color depth to 8 instead of 24 which Virtual PC does not support:

# svccfg <ENTER>
svc:> select application/x11/x11-server <ENTER>
svc:/application/x11/x11-server> listprop options/default_depth <ENTER>
options/default_depth integer 24
 
svc:/application/x11/x11-server> setprop options/default_depth = 8 <ENTER>
svc:/application/x11/x11-server> listprop options/default_depth <ENTER>
options/default_depth integer 8
 
svc:/application/x11/x11-server> end <ENTER>
#

CREDIT: I want to give all credit to the site I found this on which of course was http://docs.sun.com and of course to Sun Microsystems. Thanks guys, great information.

Copyright 2007-Present: DougBob's PCINFO

Mouse doesn't work with Ubunto in Virtual PC 2007 environment

DougBob — 2008-02-15T00:40:00Z

Here's a problem I had a while back when setting up Ubunto in VPC 2007. I found the fix somewhere else, but I can't remember what site to give them credit. Who ever it was, thanks a hundred times for the info and I just wanted to break it down a little to add to the available sites the fix can be found at.

Problem: Installed Ubunto version 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic in a Virtual PC 2007 environment. Video was detected with no problem but the mouse recognized properly. Tried different mouse types in configuration files but none worked.

Fix:
To fix this problem, perform the following procedure to update the /boot/grub/menu.lst file as follows:

1. Boot the VPC 2007 Ubunto environment.
2. Log on as the user you created during the install.
3. Using the keyboard, since the mouse is not available, press ALT+F1 to open the Applications drop down menu.
4. Open a terminal window by using the arrow keys navigate to Accessories > Terminal and press the <ENTER> key.
5. In order to have permissions to write to the file, enter the following to switch user to root:
    su   -   <ENTER>
6. Backup the file by entering:
    cd /boot/grub <ENTER>
    cp -p menu.lst menu.lst.orig
7. Update the file as follows, I listed what my option looks like, yours will be slightly different. The actual edit you are performing is appending the 'i8042.noloop' option to the end of the kernel line for the main boot option. You'll see about 3 boot definitions at the end of the file. Find the main one, not the recovery mode line, unless you want to add it to that one also.

FROM:
title       Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic
root        (hd0,0)
kernel      /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=65dd91f8-72d7-4986-b714-c76324dbf61b ro quiet splash
initrd      /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
quiet

TO: (Added i8042.noloop to end of the kernel line)
title       Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic
root        (hd0,0)
kernel      /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=65dd91f8-72d7-4986-b714-c76324dbf61b ro quiet splash i8042.noloop
initrd      /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
quiet

Save the file and reboot your VPC using the reboot command. Hopefully you'll be good to go and have a working mouse in VPC for your Ubunto. I'm sure this will be fixed in later versions of Ubunto, but right now this fix works great. Happy Linux'ing

Copyright 2007-Present: DougBob's PCINFO

How to Defragment your Harddrive in XP

DougBob — 2007-02-12T01:36:00Z

Use one of the following methods to launch Disk Defragmenter, then follow the Defragment Procedure below to actually Start Defragmenting a volume.

{PCINFO: Disk Defragmenter scans you hard drive and attempts to put each file together in a contiguous space. A contiguous space means each part of the file is together instead of seperated across your drive. This can improve drive access performance.}

Method One:
1. Click on Start > Run and in the Open: field enter dfrg.msc, then click on the OK button.

Method Two:
1. Click on Start and select Control Panel.
2. Double click on Administrative Tools.
3. Double click on Computer Management.
4. In the left pane, if a is beside Storage, click the to expand Storage.
5. In the left pane, select Disk Defragmenter.

Method Three:
1. Click on Start and right click on My Computer and select Manage.
2. In the left pane, if a is beside Storage, click the to expand Storage.
3. In the left pane, select Disk Defragmenter.

Method Four:
1. Open My Computer and right click on the drive you want to defragment and select Properties.
2. Click on the Tools tab.
3. Click the Defragment Now... button.

Defragment Procedure:
1. Select the volume(C, D, etc.) you want to defrag.
2. Click on the Defragment button.

Copyright 2007-Present: DougBob's PCINFO

How to open the "Computer Management" Console in XP

DougBob — 2007-02-06T04:31:00Z

Here are 3 different way to open the Computer Management Console:

Method One:
1. Click on Start > Run and in the Open: field enter compmgmt.msc, then click on the OK button.

Method Two:
1. Click on Start and select Control Panel.
2. Double click on Administrative Tools.
3. Double click on Computer Management.

Method Three:
1. Click on Start and right click on My Computer and select Manage.

Copyright 2007-Present: DougBob's PCINFO

How to open the Event Viewer in XP

DougBob — 2007-02-03T21:58:00Z

There are a couple of different ways to do this.

Method One:
1. Click on Start > Run and in the Open: field enter eventvwr.msc, then click on the OK button.

Method Two:
1. Click on Start and select Control Panel.
2. Double click on Administrative Tools.
3. Double click on Event Viewer.

Having problems accessing that shared filesystem on your XP Home PC. Keep getting "don't have permission" error.

DougBob — 2007-02-03T20:51:00Z

{PCINFO TIP:} Recently found this error will occur on a Vista machine when trying to access an admin or manual share. Usually due to the XP machine has enough drives the IRPStack has ran out and needs increasing.

I recently had this problem and it was a simple fix actually.

Problem: You have a shared directory on a XP Home machine(1) and when you try and access it from one of your other computers, let's call it POS, you get an error. The funny thing is you can access XP Home machine(1) from POS.
Well what is actually happening is POS has the directory shared but he doesn't have enough resources to allow you to access it. Let's say POS is a single minded machine right now and it doesn't have enough attention span to do more than one thing.
Microsoft has an article explaining the problem you can read at, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/177078/en-us

Fix:
To verify the following procedure is what you need to do, go to the Event Viewer, on POS, and look for the following Error in System:
NOTE: To open the Event Viewer, click here to go to the How to Open the Event Viewer area of PCINFO:

Type: Error      Source: Srv     Event ID: 2011
Description: The server's configuration parameter "irpstacksize" is too small for the server ...

NOTE: You'll notice is use ... when I'm too lazy to finish the sentance and I've given you enough to find it.

To fix the problem do the following:

1. Select Start > Run and type regedit in the Open: field, then click the Ok button.
2. In the Registry Editor Window expand each of the following by click the + to the left of it.
+HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
   +SYSTEM
     +CurrentControlSet
       +Services
         +lanmanserver
3. In the left pane, select parameters
4. In the right pane, double click IRPStackSize.
5. In the Edit DWORD Value window, select the Decimal radio option
6. In the Value data: field the value needs to be increased, usually by increments of 5.
Example: If the value is 11 change it to 15. If the value is 14 or 15 change it to 20...
7. Click on the OK button, then close the Registry Editory window.
NOTE: Now the Server service needs to be restarted for the new setting to take effect.
8. Select Start > Run and type services.msc in the Open: field, then click the Ok button.
9. In the Services Window's right pane, scroll down to the item in the Name column called Server
10. Right click on Server and select Restart       {PCINFO TIP: You can also do this by selecting the button on the Services toolbar.}
11. If a Restart Other Services window appears, click on the Yes button.

Now the new IRPStackSize setting on POS should be ready. Make sure you close the Explorer window(s) on the XP Home machine(1) you were trying to access the share on POS with and try and access the share again. Yes you'll have to open the window I just had you close, but there was a reason for that.
If you still get the error, repeat the steps above and increase the IRPStackSize by 5 again. Usually from what I've seen in XP Home the size is 11 and on XP Pro it's 30.

Basic PC Hardware troubleshooting!

DougBob — 2007-01-30T00:30:00Z

This is a quick one, well maybe not, and not really technical, just suggestive.
I want to talk about troubleshooting hardware problems with your Computer(PC).

Say your computer all the sudden just stops working. Now before I continue, let me say the first thing to do, is determine if you problem is something to do with drivers or software by booting into safe mode. You can do this by turning on the computer and as soon as you see your screen start to show signs of life, start pressing the F8 key about once a second. The computer should come up with a screen to select Safe Mode as one of the options. If you can boot into safe mode then odds are there is a driver or some piece of software that is causing a problem. Have fun with that
   Mean while back at the ranch, your computer may have not rebooted correctly or just might have crashed while your were doing something or you sat down at it to browse your favorite web page and it was locked up.
First ask yourself the most important questions of all:
    What have I done lately?
    Have I installed new software? (not really applicable since were talking about hardware)
    Have I added new hardware?
  If you haven't added/installed anything new or you can't remember doing so, which is my case is most the time. This is why I have to keep a .txt file on my thumb drive documenting everytime I install or add hardware. It sucks to start getting old.
Also ask your self this question, have I done anything like deleting files and I didn't realize what they were, to clean up harddrive space.
If you answer yes to any of the above questions, it's time to start digging. First disconnect the new hardware and if possible deinstall the drivers for it.
  After removing/disconnecting the new hardware, reboot the computer and see if you have the same problem.
First make sure the computer is off, shut it down if possible and if you can't, do it the hard way, turn off the power. Of course turning off the power should be used as a last resort. Work you way from the computer to the wall socket. First try the power button on the front of the computer, if you have one. Some computers require you to hold the button for 5 to 10 seconds depending on it type. Some will require you to reach around the back of the computer to flip the switch on the power supply. That's usually as far as you should have to go.
I do not recommend using the power strip or unplugging it, do this only if you can't turn it off any other way.
There are reasons for this, let just say without getting technical that turning a computer off by unplugging the cord from the wall socket or using the power strip is like simulating a power surge and can cause even more damage to the computer.
Ok, after spouting that out, now that you have the power turned off, unplug ever thing from the computer except for the monitor, keyboard and mouse. This will eliminate any external device you may have as a possible cause for crashing or causing the computer to lock up. Once you have done this there should only be a cable plugged into the computer for the Power, keyboard(USB or PS2), mouse(USB or PS2) and the Monitor(DVI or VGA).
Now try booting the computer and see if it starts up like you would normally expect it to. If it does, don't start plugging stuff back into it yet. Give it a day or to and then plug in one item at a time and remember to reboot each time you do. Hopefully the troublesome device will cause the computer to not boot or crash. If you find it, get someone that knows how to check the suspected bad device or buy a new one. Sometimes buying a new one is easier said than done.
Now the interesting thing here is this doesn't really eliminate all possible hardware, peripherals, devices, or what ever you call them things in the box called a computer. There are probably still a lot of devices that could cause a problem, hmm, where could they be. Look inside the box! You may have a modem, network card(NIC), video card(which is kind of important), scanner interface card(possibly SCSI), etc. etc. The tough item here most people will not be able to troubleshoot due to the lack of having an extra one laying around the house. Some geeks like my self, will have to admit, we keep a couple cheap video cards laying around for just such an occasion.   Hell I have to admit, I even have a 17" monitor sitting by my feet right now for just that reason. Call me crazy
Anyway, if you can't resolve the problem by disconnecting external devices, it may be possible it's one of your internal devices. If you don't feel comfortable opening your computer case and removing cards and such, ask someone you may know to help or find you a book for beginners on PC hardware.

Hope this helps!
Cheers
DougBob

Copyright 2007-Present: DougBob's PCINFO

How many Task Manager Processes should I have?

DougBob — 2007-01-30T00:14:44Z

The answer to the question “How many Task Manager Process should I have?” has been pondered for centuries Based on my personal and professional experience I would say if you open your task manager and you have 60+ processes it’s time to start looking at how to reduce that number. I usually try to keep my processes below 60 and that in my opinion is still high. A good operating system should probably have around 45.

In case some of you as asking how do I see what processes are started when my computer boots or I log in, that’s easy?! There is a tool called msconfig.exe(XP) you can launch that will show you all the startup processes and BONUS, you can uncheck the ones you do not want to start. Of course this requires a little knowledge on what they are, but I suggest if you running this tool you should have that knowledge already.
You can also find this utility, depending on the computer you have, in the Start>Help and Support area. The reason I say, depending on your computer, some of the manufacturers like to customize this area with their own options and sometimes they accidentally hide the System Configuration Utility in the process, not on purpose mind you. That’s why its easier sometimes to just go Start>Run and enter msconfig and click Ok.

You’ll notice reading the PC Info site, most of our information is towards XP and up. That’s because, no offense, but if your running something older, you seriously need to look at upgrading or buying a new PC!

Cheers

DougBob

How to show hidden devices

DougBob — 2007-01-14T19:40:00Z

Want to see all the hidden devices you didn't know about in Windows XP?

The following link is to the Microsoft Site Knowledge Base and tells you how to view All the hidden devices in the Device Manager.

This is very useful when you want to see what device drivers have been loaded/installed but not currently present in the system. The device drivers exists, but are not being used since the related hardware is not plugged in.

You can use this information to do some cleanup, but I recommend being very careful when doing so. If you ask your self should I and will it break something, sounds like you shouldn't do it.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315539

Just in case the site is not available or the KB article changes heres a backup file of the article.

http://thepebkac.net/files/pdfs/show_hidden_devices.pdf

Copyright 2007-Present: DougBob's PCINFO

Outlook 2003 and AMD X2 Dual Core

DougBob — 2007-01-13T21:14:00Z

I finally discovered the cause to a problem I was having in Outlook 2003.

Problem: Everytime Outlook is closed the popup stating Outlook has encountered a problem displayed with the check box to restart Outlook. The only way I could keep outlook from generating the error was to pin the process to one of the cores on the CPU by opening task manager, right clicking on the outlook.exe process and select set affinity to pick one of the cpu settings.

Cause: I had kept logging turned on in Outlook. For some reason I have still yet to understand, the log files stored in the default path "C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\Temp\OPMLog.log". After turning off the logging option and deleting the files Outlook gave no further problem when closing it.

NOTE: To access Outlook 2003 option to turn on or off Logging: Tools>Options>(tab)Other>(button)Advanced Options and check or uncheck the Enable Logging (troubleshooting) option.

Copyright 2007-Present: DougBob's PCINFO