tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81239524179983785872024-03-05T12:15:23.451-08:00Lee's Knowledge BaseMostly tech hints and tips or unique case studies. And whatever else!LVGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03093750355631706508noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123952417998378587.post-48366892350320913982017-12-17T14:33:00.000-08:002017-12-17T14:33:53.368-08:00I'm finally retiring my floppy disk drive.<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">December 16th, 2017 marks the last day my Mitsumi <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333;">D359M3 3.5 floppy disk drive was installed in my aging desktop computer. I want to think that even when I purchased it in the early 2000s I was still having some use for it, but I probably wasn't except for the occasional testing of some sort of disk controller driver used during Windows XP setup. The floppy drive has been <a href="https://www.wired.com/2010/04/sony-announces-the-death-of-the-floppy-disk/" target="_blank">officially discontinued</a> as of 2010, but hardware like this has been a staple of my early computing memories so I've been hesitant to let it go- "just in case". </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333;">In the late 90s and early 2000s, floppy drives actually had transfer speed differences but most people never seemed to pay attention to that. And I'm not referring to the SuperDisk models that appeared in the latter years. Some had higher transfer rates than others and I'd like to think I had that in mind when I bought that specific model. But what did it matter when your maximum theoretical transfer rate was about 120KB/sec?</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333;">To further justify my urge to keep this drive around, I vaguely remember using it in 2009 or so needing it do a BIOS update on my P45 motherboard or some older laptop. But possibly since before 2009, it had not been in use. I held on to my Win95/98SE boot disk drives and MSCDEX drivers out of nostalgia, but those aren't necessary any longer. But couldn't I have just used an external USB floppy if needed? No, that's cheating! </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333;">Unfortunately the hand-me-down motherboard (made in 2011) given to me by my brother does not have a floppy header. It must go. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333;">No more buzzing and whirring as next to the hard disk drive and DVD/BR optical drive, it's one of the last pieces from the mechanical era of computing. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></span>LVGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03093750355631706508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123952417998378587.post-15323166133071061282017-12-11T00:42:00.002-08:002017-12-11T21:42:19.474-08:00120Hz / 144Hz over HDMI 1.4 @ 720p? Yes, it's possible. HP ENVY 17t CTO-j000 Laptop & ASUS MG279Q<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It's been just over 4 years since I purchased my HP ENVY 17t CTO-J000 laptop. It's mostly held up well but it's had it's fair <span id="goog_470646216"></span>share of problems<span id="goog_470646217"></span>. Since then, the fingerprint reader has ceased to function, the <a href="http://professorjunkdrawer.blogspot.com/2017/01/design-flaw-on-hp-envy-17t-j000.html" target="_blank">upper palm case has cracked</a> from heat failure causing a cascade of problems including splitting the left side of the case intermittently cutting power to the NIC, and has seen LCD monitor failure that has painted a white line down the center of the screen (perfect for FPS gaming...).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">However, the HDMI port still works. And playing FPS games on a 60Hz 17" LCD monitor with a line down the center is no fun. While my severely outdated desktop (2008 C2D E-8400 / 4GB RAM) remains dead with a failed motherboard my only choice is this laptop for general use and gaming. I don't really have the option to replace the desktop or the laptop with something modern so getting a new monitor is a step-gap. My monitor of choice ended up being the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ZOO348C/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00ZOO348C&linkCode=as2&tag=professorjd-20&linkId=8aa3e21202d26c979f8b71b4e87782b5" target="_blank">ASUS MG279Q</a>. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It's been asked <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=144hz+over+hdmi&oq=144hz+over+hdmi" target="_blank">numerous times</a> on various hardware and gaming sites whether or not you can use a 120Hz / 144Hz monitor at those speeds over HDMI (but which version?). Most of the time there's an ambiguous answer leaning towards "no", but since you sometimes see "yes" it might work, right? </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "times new roman" , serif;">HDMI 1.4 supports a maximum resolution of 4K or 4096x2160 pixels, most of the time at 30hz, but some have managed to get an image working at 60hz with NVIDIA's <a href="http://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-kepler-4k-hdmi-1.4,27117.html" target="_blank">compression technology</a>. So why wouldn't we get a 720p image over the rate of 60Hz? It seems there's arbitrary information stating that HDMI has strict caps on the refresh rate for each resolution, but there are multiple revisions of the standard.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "times new roman" , serif;">In my case, I obtained an ASUS MG279Q monitor with a maximum specified refresh rate of 144Hz, with connections for HDMI (2), DisplayPort (DP) and Mini-DP. It's generally known that DP supports most ranges of configurations these days and is recommended for higher refresh rate support. This laptop only has HDMI output, and is specifically version 1.4.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOG3JJFmgqiq9S25O2mako_vu-5O8t9TZh9itrCPn-eKCBYpiOsDvX3oS7DIFciqj0rKjNmWRY-9rGe5QQJCQPkwJoZqKItJUyqWmhRR9CtWM8HZaWaqU6zVRqlMK6KmpThOwcWgdJcNI/s1600/hpenvyspec.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="144" data-original-width="562" height="101" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOG3JJFmgqiq9S25O2mako_vu-5O8t9TZh9itrCPn-eKCBYpiOsDvX3oS7DIFciqj0rKjNmWRY-9rGe5QQJCQPkwJoZqKItJUyqWmhRR9CtWM8HZaWaqU6zVRqlMK6KmpThOwcWgdJcNI/s400/hpenvyspec.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">From the HP Maintenance and Service Guide</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "times new roman" , serif;">Upon plugging this monitor into the laptop, I was presented with a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz at 1080p in the Windows 10 Intel HD Graphics Control Panel. I was very content seeing this as I had a strong feeling it would allow me to use the 120Hz setting at a lower resolution (something I could get most games to play at with a consistent frame rate) and a possibly higher refresh rate if I wanted to do some more tinkering.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1K0VJKw97vJwC84hIYWTWLg-c9M4diU-xxHLAATIiRHZUs_sarzQwRknwCn6HJ_kXNmGe9V_xJpgT9YZRQ2pxBHw5jM45K0pKXnsBoIcpuIDfbek8ju5jc9FJ0klEWS7L1W_iYQkVyME/s1600/intelhp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="571" data-original-width="509" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1K0VJKw97vJwC84hIYWTWLg-c9M4diU-xxHLAATIiRHZUs_sarzQwRknwCn6HJ_kXNmGe9V_xJpgT9YZRQ2pxBHw5jM45K0pKXnsBoIcpuIDfbek8ju5jc9FJ0klEWS7L1W_iYQkVyME/s320/intelhp.jpg" width="285" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The laptop supports a hybrid display adapter containing an Intel HD 4600 video adapter and a Geforce 740M. Most 3D acceleration is handled by the 740M.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "times new roman" , serif;">By default, the monitor only reports a maximum of 120Hz at 1080p (at 1440p I am limited to 60Hz.) I do not have a way to test if the reported information is the same over DP at the moment. Setting the display to 1280x720, I was still limited to 60Hz so there's a mismatch of supported refresh rates being reported. In order to do further testing, I needed to use the Custom Resolution Utility (CRU) to add entries to the resolution and refresh rate lists that don't normally appear. After configuring CRU to add a new entry for 720p @ 120Hz, I restarted the graphics driver using the CRU utility and I had a new entry in the display options. I was able to play Quake Live on this setting and reached a consistent 120FPS. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "times new roman" , serif;">Next, I created another custom entry with CRU for 1280x720 @ 144Hz. </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv8hkrYy81mXPcNB5X5yTt_J7K6EDTtE1E9zFgirfWErctItGMqvthcGntKo5X9fOEPz75JVl4VLaIUrfOxolua8tkoY_12o9BR_XLbV4QtP-fKCFN2-mW_32_mqOspvN_nBHymaWXJ9g/s1600/cruhp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="483" data-original-width="498" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv8hkrYy81mXPcNB5X5yTt_J7K6EDTtE1E9zFgirfWErctItGMqvthcGntKo5X9fOEPz75JVl4VLaIUrfOxolua8tkoY_12o9BR_XLbV4QtP-fKCFN2-mW_32_mqOspvN_nBHymaWXJ9g/s320/cruhp.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Again, after restarting, I was able to select this new resolution and refresh rate. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLTT_C91Gp2HHL7cjaElF-ygDIG5vDtMzZj0Aq2ypUc-62w-kfvbjZNobnUdxW0EDclSENbp4earTxldh3EDklqzBbCgPXxdPNo44AggSiSt40yzQmnxXihGnsmo-Y9CYV1Ua8mK9pmP8/s1600/20171210_225219.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLTT_C91Gp2HHL7cjaElF-ygDIG5vDtMzZj0Aq2ypUc-62w-kfvbjZNobnUdxW0EDclSENbp4earTxldh3EDklqzBbCgPXxdPNo44AggSiSt40yzQmnxXihGnsmo-Y9CYV1Ua8mK9pmP8/s320/20171210_225219.jpg" width="180" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">720P @ 144Hz over HDMI 1.4</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Unfortunately, I do not have any games immediately available that I can play with a consistent 144+FPS rate. Quake Champions only supports the default maximum resolution at 60Hz in fullscreen mode, but does allow borderless windowed mode to match the Windows desktop refresh rate (with and without V-SYNC) so in specific situations, I was able to see very smooth game play. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">At this point, we can see that there's likely a few things going on here that allow 120Hz / 144Hz refresh rates on older hardware. My only variable that is available to test would be the cable itself. Could older HDMI cables that do not support the 1.4-2.0 standard cause issues? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "times new roman" , serif;">For the sake of testing, I used two different HDMI cables, one is a generic cable manufactured around 2009 and the other is a cable by BlueRigger which is specifically labeled to support HDMI 2.0 (and prior versions). The <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00316263Y/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00316263Y&linkCode=as2&tag=professorjd-20&linkId=9face68cc7af3ead6a6f2116037f2dea" target="_blank">BlueRigger Basic</a> cable is linked through my Amazon affiliate program. </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCDSsrH4UmzpGQC1rZWWSbY7aleVcckzR-n43_9pjuuaC-LcWV-8R78K1DSGR3gVdMEBQ2oaI2o8Mq3xuZogHg66T7LIjKIBPwby7onE3mYFtAKwwJWnjzx-f5xlgPq5Ys2xUDNtrNktc/s1600/20171211_003113.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCDSsrH4UmzpGQC1rZWWSbY7aleVcckzR-n43_9pjuuaC-LcWV-8R78K1DSGR3gVdMEBQ2oaI2o8Mq3xuZogHg66T7LIjKIBPwby7onE3mYFtAKwwJWnjzx-f5xlgPq5Ys2xUDNtrNktc/s320/20171211_003113.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">BlueRigger Basic HDMI 2.0 Cable</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "times new roman" , serif;">The older generic cable would not work at 120Hz or higher. Cable standard certifications do matter. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "times new roman" , serif;">In order to get 720p resolution at 144Hz (or 1080p @ 120Hz), we need a few things working together: </span></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A display adapter with a minimum version of 1.4</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A monitor supporting HDMI 1.4 and a 120Hz / 144HZ / + panel</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">An HDMI cable certified for 1.4 and above. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Custom Resolution Software (CRU - Windows) and manual entries for these resolutions</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "times new roman" , serif;">Out of curiosity, I attempted to create custom refresh rates of 100Hz, and 120Hz at 1440p. Unfortunately, neither worked, so there is some point in this process (possibly the Intel HD4600) limiting the maximum resolution and rates. To push things a little further I configured 1440p at 65Hz and this was successful.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , "times new roman" , serif;">In the end, the answer is yes, 120Hz / 144Hz works with an HDMI cable (depending on your hardware.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ac&ref=tf_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=professorjd-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B00316263Y&asins=B00316263Y&linkId=04b055797d6383fa2592bee1888e69fe&show_border=false&link_opens_in_new_window=true&price_color=333333&title_color=0066c0&bg_color=ffffff" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>-<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ac&ref=tf_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=professorjd-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B00ZOO348C&asins=B00ZOO348C&linkId=b8311a77b815312da43918931b0509b6&show_border=false&link_opens_in_new_window=true&price_color=333333&title_color=0066c0&bg_color=ffffff" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe></span></div>
LVGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03093750355631706508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123952417998378587.post-59524363641154406912017-01-25T22:11:00.006-08:002017-12-11T00:59:17.671-08:00Design flaw on HP ENVY 17t-j000 (possibly other models including 15 and TouchSmart)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It's been about 4 years since I purchased my CTO (custom to order?) HP ENVY 17t-j000 laptop. Ownership has not been without hiccups, but it still functions mostly as intended. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This post is meant to highlight a design and manufacturing error in the base and top cover which I'm sure HP is well aware of. There are 5 mounting screws that have brass nuts which are set into plastic on the top cover (not the screen, but the palm rest surface) to keep them in place. 4 are for the lid & arm, and the other is for the base cover which keeps the unit from separating when opening the lid. This problem appears to be caused by long exposure to heat from the CPU fan and heatsink. Over time the plastic hardens becoming brittle and physical damage (like a drop or hard setting on a table) cracks the plastic. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In my experience, this could have been a much bigger problem if I had not taken quick action and disassembled the laptop to try and resolve the issue. In short, the pieces of plastic became scattered around the board and one ended up in the exhaust fan. I didn't allow this to continue very long, but it's not a stretch to see that it could have jammed up the fan causing a potentially catastrophic failure. You could hear the fan banging around the plastic when tilting the laptop. </span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjogHNZxZu2AFhmAP032pX9FOQ5lnEIuxrakb0LCl1uAFIPBP6iCP7dgrn1io5Yv8HehDxY1Fl4k7NMFA4iQldvdH04p2V2lfjim9XSyE3Wnsrizfg-CgGpQ9zHtJQBbY71nqryuCd-p-I/s1600/20170125_201426.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjogHNZxZu2AFhmAP032pX9FOQ5lnEIuxrakb0LCl1uAFIPBP6iCP7dgrn1io5Yv8HehDxY1Fl4k7NMFA4iQldvdH04p2V2lfjim9XSyE3Wnsrizfg-CgGpQ9zHtJQBbY71nqryuCd-p-I/s400/20170125_201426.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In this photo, all of the plastic screw assemblies have cracked from heat. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In my search to resolve this I ended up on HPs PartSurfer catalog and went through each part number trying to see if the plastic mount itself was available for purchase. Unfortunately it is not, and is part of the "Other PCA Assems" category. The part is called "SPS-TOP COVER CURVE" which is the entire palm rest cover. The part number is <b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00G2FYS7I/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00G2FYS7I&linkCode=as2&tag=professorjd-20&linkId=5ea5a04a696fd1b9cfacd4c3be811e99">720271-001</a></b> and is priced over $100 from HP. I decided to check eBay and Amazon- prices were similar there. Of course, there were some used pieces and they were marked as "for parts or not working" - what was wrong with them? Of course, busted plastic screw mounts. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I was able to fish out all the broken pieces and reassemble the laptop and took a few pictures to visualize the issue. A word of advice: you do need to unplug the CMOS battery to disassemble the laptop so check your BIOS settings if (customized) applicable and record them. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm no engineer, but my suggestion would be to create a wall with a thin metal shielding around the plastic screw area to prevent heat from getting in there, and also make sure that it is complete from the base to the top so that if plastic does break off, it cannot be scattered around the chassis. </span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Plastic fragments</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Another angle.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Without the screw the laptop separates</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1QzA7qYnQQVw6mkC9dN1lOc553sTO3QRLrQ5Atw75p-sFvazD1I6TDHCkjg6o_ZrhKUVVDUs2YyLXkhTINT5BtanJOZxpar6cMX5IbtKgP3xJtOc-4lyp_mUE7qYBBYtDfJI8Ai4Lht0/s1600/20170125_200301.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1QzA7qYnQQVw6mkC9dN1lOc553sTO3QRLrQ5Atw75p-sFvazD1I6TDHCkjg6o_ZrhKUVVDUs2YyLXkhTINT5BtanJOZxpar6cMX5IbtKgP3xJtOc-4lyp_mUE7qYBBYtDfJI8Ai4Lht0/s400/20170125_200301.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Unscrewed fan and blew out dust.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Tip: </b>remove screws one by one and create a "chart" of where each screw goes. </span></span></div>
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LVGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03093750355631706508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123952417998378587.post-53349442114994675952013-10-04T09:57:00.001-07:002017-12-12T11:38:12.685-08:00HP Envy 17 CTO j000 additional hard drive kit review newmodeUS.com <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I recently purchased HP's Envy 17t Quad CTO (custom to order) j000 (Haswell) model. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">During the purchase process you have a choice of a primary 1TB HDD and a secondary 32GB SSD (solid state drive) performance booster. There was no option to use a single SSD - I suspect this is a way for HP's suppliers to reduce inventory of HDDs and SSD caching devices since they are going the way of the dinosaur. The 32GB SSD is some sort of caching device that works with the Intel chipset and or Windows 8 and stores the frequently accessed files to reduce Windows' start-up times etc. It is affordable, but there's just no substitute for having your primary boot device with all your programs and games on an SSD. The performance gain cannot be emphasized enough. Most computer users are migrating to SSD drives these days since the cost per gigabyte has decreased, even with the higher price compared to a regular mechanical HDD for the massive improvements in speed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I declined the SSD booster drive and just went with the single 1TB HDD but being aware of the wild increase in performance an SSD offers, I ordered the Samsung 840 EVO 250GB ($190 at time of purchase) (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LMXBOP4/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00LMXBOP4&linkCode=as2&tag=professorjd-20&linkId=2db75dab45452d2519d85d9f6a23848f" target="_blank">now updated to Samsung 850 Pro</a>) and sat the 1TB aside. My boot time went from nearly 35 seconds to 12. The factory 1TB HDD has a max transfer rate of about 70MB. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I do a little video editing and casually play games so I knew that 250GB wouldn't suffice, but the 500GB model was out of my price range. I then went on a search for the hard drive caddy and SATA cable to connect two hard drives so I could use the 1TB as a storage location. This wasn't an easy feat and required some patience.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Because the Envy 17 j000 model is new (introduced in Q3 2013) there is a lack of documentation of part catalogs. It would seem I could just buy the cable that would have come with the unit if I had got it with the secondary booster SSD but after searching through the entire HP PartSurfer list I found nothing. Many of the items had vague descriptions and my model number actually wasn't even in the catalog so I was searching by Envy 17 - which is a completely different model from the j000 variant. Some of the other weirdness I saw in the catalog was a plain ol' power cable for $30+!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After Googling around I found a company, <a href="http://www.newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=542" target="_blank">newmodeUS</a>, that specialized in laptop drive caddies and cables. They had one for the older Envy 17, <strike>but not the j000 model</strike> (** is in stock now**). I contacted them last month and production for the new HP series was on schedule for an early October 2013 release. I received prompt answers and they even wrote me when the product was ready to ship. The kit was a bit pricey at $29.85 (+ tax and shipping) considering that it's a wire and 2 rubber strips but there aren't really any other choices. I will acknowledge that the connector to the board side is very specialized with a very small T shaped press down clip and small wires, so there's some R&D that went into this for the cost. It is designed properly for the most part with the correct length to reach the hard drive and not intrude. I'm sure it's based on the HP OEM wire for the 32GB booster SSD. Because of the quick responses I got a good feeling from newmodeUS.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My kit arrived in a nice box. Included were the two rubber sides for the drive, and the SATA cable. The rubber strips actually don't fit properly so I had to cut about a 1/16th of an inch off the ends. See the video for more details.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Installation - </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Begin by powering off the laptop. Flip it over and remove the battery by sliding the release lever and lifting it out. Take a small properly sized phillips screwdriver and loosen the screw. Note that it does not come out completely, it's designed that way so it doesn't get lost. Pull up from the edge near the screw and go around the cover and use some force to lift it off. You will hear some snaps- don't worry. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At the time of this writing the rubber caddy strips are too long to fit in the bay at least with the Samsung SSD. I took a X-Acto knife and trimmed off 1/8 to 1/16th of an inch from the end. I've reported this to newmodeUS.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Connect the motherboard side of the cable. Please be careful and move slowly. The connector must be inserted precisely. The first time I thought I had it in it didn't work. Use some pressure to push it so the T shape plastic goes behind the matching key. Reference the #1 connector if needed. Flip the lock lid down and reverse the disassemble process. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE1yxjE06WTJllFohGUgnKANXJMwSO3_MdbIigmsReEekdxcnSlZahjs1YXOrTTgJO1Pk7n20SHlJ9qTwcAU7QgR0-QOm3RWQFK5IHfNz1dFJLoHJ6VqbH9GEHt7UP6IaTXd7v3gp1g6E/s1600/20131004_061905.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE1yxjE06WTJllFohGUgnKANXJMwSO3_MdbIigmsReEekdxcnSlZahjs1YXOrTTgJO1Pk7n20SHlJ9qTwcAU7QgR0-QOm3RWQFK5IHfNz1dFJLoHJ6VqbH9GEHt7UP6IaTXd7v3gp1g6E/s1600/20131004_061905.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Envy UEFI BIOS has no option to disable/enable the SATA ports. They are always powered on. It also does not see the hard drives as separate boot devices in the boot selection area of the BIOS, however the F9 boot menu will see 2 if there is an OS on both. If it's a blank drive as an addition there should be no issue besides initializing and formatting it in Windows. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thanks to newmodeUS for a product that works great. I just hope they can make a slight change in production for the caddy strips.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here is a short video I took during the process. </span></div>
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LVGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03093750355631706508noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123952417998378587.post-3304937753327289952013-10-03T13:08:00.001-07:002017-12-11T21:42:55.234-08:00Galaxy Note 3 transition animation bug<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Please note this appears to have been fixed in the 4.4 Kitkat update released by T-Mobile today, 3/5/2014. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There's a bug in the developer options. Is that ironic? Turning off the transition animation only lasts an unknown amount of time (haven't tried to figure it out yet) before it reverts back to 1x. The other animation settings are not affected. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here are two threads about it</span><br />
<a href="http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2466397"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2466397</span></a><br />
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<a href="http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-note-3/319728-help-note-3-developer-options-bug-transition-animation-scale.html"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-note-3/319728-help-note-3-developer-options-bug-transition-animation-scale.html</span></a><br />
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<br />LVGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03093750355631706508noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123952417998378587.post-77819537033369405302013-08-26T21:15:00.003-07:002013-10-03T13:10:34.639-07:00HP Envy 17t j000 quad core laptop (Q3 3013) review and notesFor the first time in my 13+ years of computing, I purchased a new laptop. All my previous ones had been end of life company laptops for little cost or hand me downs. Often I would then hand those down to family as I upgraded to the newer one I acquired. My last laptop was a Latitude D630 which I was using casually for capturing audio/video for my drumming practice. The problem was that a Core2Duo just didn't have the juice to record 720p footage without dropped frames. Of course real time CPU compression wasn't possible so there was a significant time allotted to rendering post capture. Not knowing at the time that a C2D wasn't strong enough and not having the exposure to newer processors like the Core series I thought I could get away with upgrading the CPU and adding a faster 7200RPM drive. Yes, that's right- I actually purchased a used mobile CPU and took the laptop apart to get another 200mhz or something silly. But I like doing that stuff. Then there was the $50 for the hard drive...which made my technical brain happy for the accomplishment but had little impact on the video editing. <br />
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Earlier this year my Grandparent's laptop crashed (one I handed down from years ago) and they were out of commission for a few weeks. Realizing how much they relied on it got them even thinking about buying a new one which was a big step for the non-computer generation. After increasing complaints about not being able to check e-mail I gave them my precious D630, with an extra 200mhz boost for checking Hotmail. At that point I had been tired of lugging the laptop back and forth to the studio and trying all these editing tricks without luck anyway so I went without. <br />
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Fast forward 6 months and I moved out of my apartment and don't have space for my desktop PC in the current location. Like my grandparents having gone without my own computer for several weeks and being tolerant but anxious, I decided to look for a laptop. It would become my primary computer that I could use at home and at the studio etc. So much for being tired of lugging stuff around-more like being tired of nothing!<br />
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The search for the perfect laptop went on for weeks. Eventually I arrived at the conclusion that there are many models out right now which share the same "frames" so to speak and have very little performance gains over each other but have significantly varying price points. I won't go into much detail but you could spend $1,900 for an Alienware with a i7-4800MQ or $1,100 for an HP Envy (like mine) for around $1,100. You can't just compare CPU models and brag about the price difference though, there are a few other things like the option (on only a select few manufacturers) for the top tier mobile video cards. Mine came with a NVIDIA 740M while I believe the top at the moment is a GTX780M (single.) Other options like SSD drives have a very significant change on performance. I'm not here to compare brands and say one is better than the other. I did a lot of research in one case I was turned off by one manufacturer because a user on YT said the laptop had great performance but the had the worst screen with terrible backlight bleed. Sorry- I'm out! My point in the rambling is that if you're even slightly technically minded and are looking for something, please do your homework. Spread it out over multiple days to soak things in, take notes, look at YT and forum posts on individual components like an upgraded CPU option etc. And don't forget to look for discount codes. I saved over $180 by waiting a week and looking for new codes. I had started to build the laptop out with one code, got distracted, came back a few days later an found a new code that was just posted for a larger discount! <br />
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And now onto the review...<br />
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...which I haven't written yet. However-I will say that the 17" 1080p display on the Envy 17t needs some tweaking with the Intel display color options. The reds are lacking and off balance. The viewing angles are just OK and colors don't have much pop. Fortunately with some tweaking we can trick our eyes into seeing the screen as if it had been sourced with better components. <br />
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My best results were as follows : <br />
All colors option Brightness -4, contrast 50, gamma 0.9. <br />
Red channel same as above. <br />
Advanced : saturation 3<br />
Play with the settings for your personal taste. LVGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03093750355631706508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123952417998378587.post-82017636086765643732013-07-01T07:59:00.001-07:002017-02-22T10:44:10.035-08:00Capture Image Dell Precision T1650 WDS<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As part of our continuing upgrade process to T1650s with Windows 7, I needed to create a WDS Capture Image. This allows a computer that has been sysprepped to be uploaded to a WDS server for rapid deployment. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The problem here is that the WDS Capture Image (6.0.6002) we had been using for XP, Vista and Server 2008 (I think) does not <i>appear</i> to work with Windows 7 (6.1.7600). Also to mention the SATA/RAID/NIC drivers for the T1650 for WinPE are not easy to locate on Dell's website as they are not in the usual driver download list. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I didn't take the time to step through each scenario and try to test whether or not I could get the 6.0.6002 capture image to grab a sysprepped Win7 installation, all I know is that it did not work the first time I tried, so I went forward with using a 6.1.7601 capture image with the correct SATA/RAID/NIC drivers. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">First, the drivers need to be located. Normally on the <a href="http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04?c=us&l=en&s=bsd" target="_blank">Dell Support site</a>, by entering the service tag you get a list of drivers for that system by category. In that list is the SATA/RAID section. In this case, the drivers are bundled in a .CAB file under the "<a href="http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/555/DriverDetails/Product/precision-t1650?driverId=MY2XM&osCode=W764&fileId=3194315215&languageCode=EN&categoryId=SM" target="_blank">WinPE 3.0 Driver Cab Pack"</a> You need these so WinPE can read the hard drive when the controller is in RAID mode (which it is by default on the T1650, although not configured in a RAID array unless done by the factory.) This file set includes a driver pack readme which details the folder structure and the associated drivers. The Serial ATA 54R22_A00-00 and Intel 825xx NIC 615P2_A00-00 drivers were needed in our configuration so I extracted the folders from the .CAB file and added them to the WDS Console's drivers section and gave them a grouping.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Next, I needed to create the capture WIM from the Windows 7 boot.wim (Win 7 media folder - sources\boot.wim) using the WDS Console. Right click in the boot section and select Add Boot Image. Choose boot.wim and add the description to "Source WIM" or something. When it's finished being added, right click on it and choose Create Capture Image. Name this Win7 Capture Image" or something appropriate. When that's done, right click on it again and choose Add Driver Package to Image. Click Search, then select the RAID/NIC drivers and finish the Wizard. Now, when you PXE (or USB) boot you can select your Win7 Capture image and hopefully read the sysprepped disk. </span></div>
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LVGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03093750355631706508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123952417998378587.post-14929112331801423792013-01-18T13:04:00.000-08:002013-01-18T13:04:49.867-08:00Dell Precision T1650 and Microsoft MDT WDS LTI ZTI<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At work we use Microsoft MDT 2010 to install Windows over the network instead of using CD/DVDs. MDT is a collection of tools like LiteTouch (LTI) and Windows Deployment Services (WDS) to deploy preconfigured installations of Windows to different hardware. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We recently started to plan for desktop PC upgrades using Dell Precision T1650s. During the ordering process for hardware configuration there are two choices for NIC cards. One is integrated and the other is PCIe. We opted for the integrated which is an Intel 82579LM (DEV_1502).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As part of the LTI installation sequence, a NIC driver is needed to communicate with the server that distributes the files to install Windows. Unfortunately none of our prior Intel drivers worked with this device so I need to add them to the LTI boot image for WDS. The next logical step would be to go to Dell's support site and get the drivers. The odd thing is that what's listed in the driver category is an Intel Diagnostic Utility which contains some unknown .INF files that aren't NIC drivers. Thinking that these were the right ones at the time I added them to LTI and couldn't connect to the network shares. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It turns out that I needed to go to Intel directly and get their generic 825xx PRO1000 driver. Once I removed Dell's diagnostic "drivers" and added these it worked. The tricky part was without diving into looking for the command line options for the self extracting executable (PROWinx64.exe) was that by default it extracts to your user profile's temp directory as so: %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Temp\RarSFX0. Once these are extracted, you can add them to the MDT distributuion driver share using the "PRO1000" folder.</span><br />
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<a href="http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=3299&DwnldID=18713&ProductFamily=Ethernet+Components&ProductLine=Ethernet+Controllers&ProductProduct=Intel%c2%ae+82579+Gigabit+Ethernet+Controller&lang=eng"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=3299&DwnldID=18713&ProductFamily=Ethernet+Components&ProductLine=Ethernet+Controllers&ProductProduct=Intel%c2%ae+82579+Gigabit+Ethernet+Controller&lang=eng</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In summary, anyone having trouble with Dell Precision T1650 and WDS or LTI (or even ZTI, possibly even Ghost?) use the Intel generic drivers. </span><br />
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<br />LVGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03093750355631706508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123952417998378587.post-43215868531167201892012-10-24T09:55:00.001-07:002013-07-01T08:05:30.440-07:00MicroSD HD Tune benchmarks<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I recently picked up a Sandisk 64 GB MicroSDXC card for my Atrix HD phone. The reason for the purchase is that I've always wanted my entire music library on my phone. I struggled through this over the years with various devices because my library is about 35GB. My first gen 16GB iPod Touch wasn't enough and then my third gen 32GB iPod Touch almost cut it. I got my first Android phone the Atrix 2 and wanted to get everything on it but 64GB cards were barely on the market and very expensive. So I was then limited to 8GB (32GB cards were still pricey too) and because of this had spent less time listening to stuff in the car. The Atrix HD came out this year and I purchased a 32GB MicroSD card hoping to get back into the tunes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Google Music popped up and I decided to store everything there and stream to my phone. But then came the whole problem with having a data plan. 200MB a month wasn't going to work and I quickly found out that 300MB wouldn't work either even without streaming music (maybe a song or two) , just e-mail, navigation data and random browsing put me over the limit twice. I had to upgrade to a 3GB plan this month and having just signed a contract in July I couldn't go over to Sprint for unlimited data (and at the time none of their Android phones had a MicroSD slot). I'm finding in the last couple weeks that for the amount of music I listen to 3GB probably won't work either. So here comes the 64GB card and I can go back to 300MB to save some money.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Noticing the advertising on the box of the new Class 10 MicroSDXC card I wanted to benchmark with HD Tune to see how it compared to my old generic 32GB and a stock 2GB card that came with a Blackberry Bold 9650. I also used the BB to do some of the speed tests because the BB formatted card would not work in the Atrix.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Devices:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BB Bold 9650</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Motorola Atrix HD MB886</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">C2D on Windows Vista x64</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">USB 2.0 connection</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cards:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">SanDisk Ultra 64 GB microSDXC Class 10 UHS-1</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">RH Data 32GB HX Class 6</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">SD-C02G Taiwan MicroSD</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Results</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The short summary is that the 2GB and 32GB cards have basically the same performance, while the Sandisk nearly doubles the performance. But we do see a difference in speed with the same card between the two phones, so the phone performance does have noticeable effect. The odd thing is the high CPU usage with the 64GB card.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cards<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BB
Bold 9650<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 307.85pt;" valign="top" width="410"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Atrix
HD MB886<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2GB<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 119.95pt;" valign="top" width="160"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Min: 7.7</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Max: 12.4</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Avg: 10.0</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Access: 1.8</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Burst: -<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">CPU: 9.1%<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 307.85pt;" valign="top" width="410"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">*Card could not be read<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">32GB<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 119.95pt;" valign="top" width="160"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Min: 8.5</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Max: 10.6</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Avg: 9.5</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Access: 1.4</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Burst: 7.4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">CPU: 17.3%<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 307.85pt;" valign="top" width="410"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Min: 10.7<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Max: 17.2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Avg: 15.9<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Access: 1.5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Burst: 23.1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">CPU: 13.1%<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 51.0pt;" valign="top" width="68"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">64GB<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">*Card could not be read “Fatal error”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 307.85pt;" valign="top" width="410"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Min: 16.5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Max: 27.8</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Avg: 26.6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Access: 1.2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Burst: 22.3<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">CPU: 22.2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pictures</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivol_GVQtukXND8V3LY-kvf7VwrGFdHOpHP5kCedYarmCILA0EcV5nHJ7Gp1zh9AQSW1067J7yRO0xEZ2RCSISZYKow8JPxEPEWPmvWuN2jW4dfXddXPbkKH00tqVibrMBZOWoZgHUzGs/s1600/HDTune_Benchmark_RIM_____BlackBerry_SD2GB.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivol_GVQtukXND8V3LY-kvf7VwrGFdHOpHP5kCedYarmCILA0EcV5nHJ7Gp1zh9AQSW1067J7yRO0xEZ2RCSISZYKow8JPxEPEWPmvWuN2jW4dfXddXPbkKH00tqVibrMBZOWoZgHUzGs/s1600/HDTune_Benchmark_RIM_____BlackBerry_SD2GB.png" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSi2ynZBVG9yHT4v4WKnZjHPMRglRMRVUBlRw87OnwE1Bv0LuO8jtBfrzGP-zl5fwiEOM29IvLKq5lhaB2Mxb6GHZ21C8kJeFLwmw4Q86883F_Z6GWO3gAZagw4CBqernAnRGerBrX9EA/s1600/HDTune_Benchmark_motorolaMB88632gb.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSi2ynZBVG9yHT4v4WKnZjHPMRglRMRVUBlRw87OnwE1Bv0LuO8jtBfrzGP-zl5fwiEOM29IvLKq5lhaB2Mxb6GHZ21C8kJeFLwmw4Q86883F_Z6GWO3gAZagw4CBqernAnRGerBrX9EA/s1600/HDTune_Benchmark_motorolaMB88632gb.png" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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LVGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03093750355631706508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123952417998378587.post-10562522339684034222012-09-28T07:32:00.000-07:002013-10-04T07:07:43.815-07:00Bypassing the Start interface in Windows 8<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">*Note, 7/1/2013. T</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">he boot to Desktop mode has been included in Windows "Blue"8.1 (right click on Taskbar > properties > navigation>) so this post is no longer relevant. Also, I cannot stand Windows 8 (hah!)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strike>I'm currently attempting a migration to Windows 8 at home and at work and have discovered something that I hope will help the thousands of users who can't stand the changes to the interface. Microsoft has disabled the ability to boot straight to the Desktop. So here's a workaround. </strike></span><br />
<strike><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Put a couple shortcuts to programs in the "Startup" folder. </span></strike><br />
<strike><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The path is C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup</span></strike><br />
<strike><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">OR access the Run menu by pressing the Windows key and the R key at the same time then type %appdata% and browse to the folder above. Create shortcuts to Internet Explorer or a program in this folder. </span></strike><br />
<strike><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When Windows boots, you will <b>still see the Start menu for about 20 seconds</b> (depending on your computer speed) and once the items in the Startup folder are executed, the Start interface will close and go to the Desktop. </span></strike><br />
<strike><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is best suited for someone who logs in and then goes to get coffee or reads physical mail, goes to the bathroom etc after typing their password. If you're going to be at the computer you could just click the Desktop button and go straight to it, but this is probably the best option for passing the Start menu right now.</span></strike><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"bypass start windows 8"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"bypass Metro"</span>LVGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03093750355631706508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123952417998378587.post-47739976433472530812012-05-16T07:12:00.001-07:002012-09-24T21:40:44.697-07:00Dell PowerEdge 2850 RAID benchmark<div><div><div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In determining the RAID mode needed for a project I ran benchmarks using <a href="http://www.hdtune.com/" target="_blank">HDTune</a> on a Dell PowerEdge 2850 with the PERC 4 controller on U320 SCSI 10K RPM disks. Hopefully this can help someone out in making a decision on what mode to use. Unfortunately I didn't benchmark any other RAID modes besides 50 and 10.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I will not go into details on how RAID works in all it's incarnations here, there are tons of documents elsewhere on the web.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you cannot see the picture below I have typed out the details in a table. In short, RAID 10 offers superior performance in all areas except CPU usage, however with a 1% difference this is hardly a deciding factor. There is also a 146GB (1 disk) loss in a RAID10 configuration.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwHtma65oUzigDaq8q9b0lbjusZmfJAaSrhhUJTUQ40Sxfek16jnsafC28RHM4KORMltyOFlSVj9KuQWpzNhWn5M8raqJumfCU0sjKTQl2Whh1o7XWCwDOzoeBhCGpIKjJwPZMGjDmLYo/s1600/raid+compare+2850.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwHtma65oUzigDaq8q9b0lbjusZmfJAaSrhhUJTUQ40Sxfek16jnsafC28RHM4KORMltyOFlSVj9KuQWpzNhWn5M8raqJumfCU0sjKTQl2Whh1o7XWCwDOzoeBhCGpIKjJwPZMGjDmLYo/s400/raid+compare+2850.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
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<tr>
<td style="background: #F2F2F2; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-background-themecolor: background1; mso-background-themeshade: 242; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 164.45pt;" valign="top" width="219"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ultra
320SCSI 10K RPM<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #F2F2F2; border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-background-themecolor: background1; mso-background-themeshade: 242; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 161.25pt;" valign="top" width="215"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">RAID
50<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #F2F2F2; border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-background-themecolor: background1; mso-background-themeshade: 242; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 153.1pt;" valign="top" width="204"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">RAID
10<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background: #C6D9F1; border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-background-themecolor: text2; mso-background-themetint: 51; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 164.45pt;" valign="top" width="219"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Usable space<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background: # D6E3BC; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent2; mso-background-themetint: 102; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 161.25pt;" valign="top" width="215"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">586 GB<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background: # C6D9F1; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent3; mso-background-themetint: 102; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 153.1pt;" valign="top" width="204"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">440
GB<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background: #C6D9F1; border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-background-themecolor: text2; mso-background-themetint: 51; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 164.45pt;" valign="top" width="219"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Transfer minimum<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #E5B8B7; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent2; mso-background-themetint: 102; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 161.25pt;" valign="top" width="215"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">15.4 MB/sec<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #D6E3BC; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent3; mso-background-themetint: 102; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 153.1pt;" valign="top" width="204"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">94.6
MB/sec<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background: #C6D9F1; border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-background-themecolor: text2; mso-background-themetint: 51; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 164.45pt;" valign="top" width="219"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-Maximum<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #E5B8B7; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent2; mso-background-themetint: 102; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 161.25pt;" valign="top" width="215"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">73.8 MB/sec<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #D6E3BC; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent3; mso-background-themetint: 102; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 153.1pt;" valign="top" width="204"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">179.4
MB/sec<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background: #C6D9F1; border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-background-themecolor: text2; mso-background-themetint: 51; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 164.45pt;" valign="top" width="219"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-Average<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #E5B8B7; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent2; mso-background-themetint: 102; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 161.25pt;" valign="top" width="215"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">32.8 MB/sec<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #D6E3BC; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent3; mso-background-themetint: 102; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 153.1pt;" valign="top" width="204"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">123.1
MB/sec<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background: #C6D9F1; border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-background-themecolor: text2; mso-background-themetint: 51; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 164.45pt;" valign="top" width="219"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Access Time<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #E5B8B7; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent2; mso-background-themetint: 102; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 161.25pt;" valign="top" width="215"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8.7 ms<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #D6E3BC; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent3; mso-background-themetint: 102; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 153.1pt;" valign="top" width="204"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5.9
ms<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background: #C6D9F1; border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-background-themecolor: text2; mso-background-themetint: 51; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 164.45pt;" valign="top" width="219"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Burst rate<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #E5B8B7; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent2; mso-background-themetint: 102; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 161.25pt;" valign="top" width="215"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">256.3 MB/sec<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #D6E3BC; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent3; mso-background-themetint: 102; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 153.1pt;" valign="top" width="204"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">291.2
MB/sec<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background: #C6D9F1; border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-background-themecolor: text2; mso-background-themetint: 51; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 164.45pt;" valign="top" width="219"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">CPU Usage<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #D6E3BC; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent3; mso-background-themetint: 102; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 161.25pt;" valign="top" width="215"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">0.3%<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #E5B8B7; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent2; mso-background-themetint: 102; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 153.1pt;" valign="top" width="204"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1.3%</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table></div></div></div></div>LVGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03093750355631706508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123952417998378587.post-51342186229297631252012-04-25T11:15:00.001-07:002013-07-01T08:12:34.980-07:00Windows share redirection using a DNS aliasIn order to simplify this case, I've reduced the number of objects. In this example, there are 4 servers and 2 clients. The DNS/WINS system is Windows Server based and replicated between 1 other domain controller. The situation requires the retirement of one server and all of its shares migrated to another server. Specifically, the need for the DNS redirection is based on the requirement (the problem) that there are hundreds of files (Excel etc) that contain links to other documents using the full UNC path to the old server instead of a mapped drive.<br />
<br />
Server A ("SA.network.com" / 10.1.1.2 Server 2003) - Running DNS & WINS<br />
Server B ("SB.network.com" / 10.1.1.3 Server 2008) - Running DNS & WINS<br />
Server C ("SC.." / 10.1.1.4 - Server 2003) - Old (to be retired) file server<br />
Server D ("SD.." / 10.1.1.5 - Server 2008) - New file server<br />
Client A ("CA.." / 10.1.1.6 - WinXP x86) - any user workstation with mapped drives<br />
Client B ("CB.." / 10.1.1.7 - Vista x64) - any user workstation with mapped drives
<br />
<br />
SC is sharing \\SC\share1. In preparation, SB has the same share created and permissions assigned. DNS has dynamic forward lookup zone entries for each server (as does WINS-which is linked to DNS. I will explain this later).<br />
<br />
In our first attempt, the files were copied from SC to SD. As a side note Microsoft provides a utility for this called <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=10268" target="_blank">MS File Server Migration Tool</a> which is very easy to use and carries over the share and file permissions. In our case this worked fine on the first server and on the second move we used BackupExec to restore the full and incremental backups which was twice as fast as using FSMT. The DNS entry for SC.name.com was changed to a static entry to the IP of SD - 10.1.1.5. Once DNS replicated between SA and SB then updated on the clients (either by it's normal time schedule or by manual flush) the new server would respond to ping on the old server's name, but would not work by UNC browsing by name (I believe using the IP worked but what good is that in this case?) Windows would report the error "a duplicate name exists on the network". Microsoft and other forums have tons of questions and responses about this error.<br />
<br />
Our next step involved removing SC from the domain from the server by using System>Computer Name - NOT by deleting it from AD) This got us further, but not yet to a working state. Oddly, CB running Vista x64 was able to browse by share name. Why it worked there but not on CA I don't know. We then manually deleted SC's computer account from AD. It seemed that somehow the AD computer account was doing some sort of reverse lookup to the IP bypassing DNS but reflecting back on this case it was probably DNS to WINS. I'm no AD expert but this it what appeared to be the case.<br />
<br />
At this point CA and SA still could not browse by name. The next process involved discovering that DNS was referencing WINS for entries it wasn't aware of. This is a setting somewhere in the DNS server properties. I can't recall how this fit into our situation but we had to manually delete (graveyard) the WINS entries. If you don't have WINS this doesn't apply.<br />
<br />
After searching around this article (<a href="http://support.microsoft.com/?id=281308">http://support.microsoft.com/?id=281308</a>) came up which referencing share aliases and a registry entry for strict name checking. I don't have any technical details on what this function actually does but it ended up being the last step to resolve our problem. On SD, the registry change was made, restarted and browsing by name worked on all clients.<br />
<br />
1. Copy files from old to new server<br />
2. Disjoin old server from domain, then manually delete the computer account in AD.<br />
3. Set static DNS entry using old server's name to new server's IP<br />
4. Optionally ensure WINS isn't referencing any of the servers.<br />
5. Make the registry change on the new server, restart.<br />
6. Ensure DNS/WINS replication happens between any DCs or DNS server roles.<br />
7. Wait for DNS to update on clients, or manually flush.<br />
<br />
<br />LVGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03093750355631706508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123952417998378587.post-73581240134581921362012-04-24T14:17:00.002-07:002017-12-11T21:34:46.865-08:00Symantec Ghost 11 - General Protection Fault at eip=39edcfIn an attempt to reduce our VLAN count, we're attempting to merge one and all its devices into another. We've used Ghost countless times on the old VLAN but ran into an issue on the new VLAN.<br />
<br />
In this example we have 2 VLANs:<br />
1 - Router=192.1.1.1<br />
2 - Router=192.2.1.1<br />
<br />
The Ghostcast server (192.1.1.100) sits on VLAN 1 and the client is on VLAN 2. The client boots by CD into the PC-DOS Ghost application and is attempting to setup a unicast session to create a backup. When going to the Network>Unicast menu, Ghost immediately crashes when trying to get an IP address with:<br />
<br />
<b>General Protection Fault at eip=39edcf; flags=3016</b><br />
(see the screenshot for the trailing error codes)<br />
<br />
This error does not appear to be on Symantec's website and Google returned nothing (hopefully after this post it will).<br />
<br />
This is because there was a mistake in the DHCP scope options. The "Router" address (option 003) was set to the VLAN 1 router instead of it's local VLAN 2. I don't know exactly where in the programming the crash occurs because the Ghostcast session isn't initiated yet, this happens during the DHCP lease process. Again, oddly even after changing the DHCP scope options to the correct address then running Ghost again from the command line without rebooting the program still crashes. Windows computers on the same network have been given this incorrect route and have been working fine, so I don't fully understand this. Once the DHCP scope option was corrected Ghost worked (after a reboot).<br />
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I figure this is a niche error because there's no reference to it anywhere and our network is likely unique.<br />
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<br />LVGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03093750355631706508noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8123952417998378587.post-3476051902513563092012-04-24T13:42:00.001-07:002012-04-24T13:42:40.608-07:00WelcomeI've started this blog to post random tips and things that come to mind (usually technical subjects). I'm not a professor, but a friend of a friend saw me wearing a cardigan and said "Who's the professor?" One of those had to be there things.LVGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03093750355631706508noreply@blogger.com0