Windows 7 ISO CD Creator
Using this utility you can create Windows 7 ISO CDs and Bootable Thumbdrive.
Download it here.
Using this utility you can create Windows 7 ISO CDs and Bootable Thumbdrive.
Download it here.
Sunday, 25 October 2009
Thursday, 22 October 2009
If you play around with Windows System Files sometimes it is not possible to delte them off after you had your fun.
The following commands will make it possible to force their removal:
The following commands will make it possible to force their removal:
Of Course you need admin permission as always.For Files:
takeown /f file_name /d y
icacls file_name /grant administrators:FFor Directories (will perform action recursively):
takeown /f directory_name /r /d y
icacls directory_name /grant administrators:F /t
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
I wish to share with you guys this tool ThaiPhoon Burner, I was introduced to recently by der_mali of Notebookreview.
Quite a guy as he had quite a few tip and tricks up his sleeve.
I will not reinvent the wheel instruction of how to use here.
BEFORE I FORGOT, YOU NEED A SUPPORTED CHIPSET TO READ THE RAM CORRECTLY!
THE SOFTWARE WILL NOT RUN CORRECTLY ON CERTAIN CHIPSET.
I did as instructed and flashed both my RAM to PC2-6400 from PC2-5300 but Aspire 4530 only reads 667MHZ as shown in CPU-Z.
But the RAM timings improved and performance improvement for free is considered great.
Only thing I have to warn you is like flashing BIOS it can kill your RAM, so try to flash settings as close to your original RAMs as possible.
Take a look at my upgraded RAM originally it was PC2-5300 at 333MHZ
I even got in an EPP Profile!
In other words this Tool is a must have!
Simple Step by Step Guide:
1)You must run this software on a Compatible Chipset.
Certain NForce Chipset like the one on the Aspire 4530 WILL NOT work.
2)First extract this program to a location you find comfortable to run it in.
Right Click and Run as Administrator.
Agree to the EULA.
3)Click on EPROM, Read SPD at 50H or 52H if you have 2 RAM SLOTS occupied.
If you have 1 RAM SLOTS only either 50H or 52H will be available.
If it is read correctly you should see the Module Specification read correctly as shown above.
An example of incompatible Chipset is shown below.
First notice the numerous SPD displayed.
Next the Module Specification is incorrectly displayed.
Do not proceed if you encountered the above.
4)Next Click on Browser button.
Then Click on Download button.
It will proceed to download all the RAM dumps from the server as shown above.
5)Using the search parameter find the next closest update in RAM Specification
For Example you have a Kingston DDR2-667MHZ find the next closest DDR2-800 based on the
Module Code Number and Parameters.
Click Save Dump and save it to a location on your Harddisk
7)Next Exit the Browser Back to the Main Menu.
Select Open and Choose the Dump File you saved previously.
8)It should open up the Dump File details.
Choose EEPROM Select Full Rewrite.
9)You should see the Full SPD Rewrite Windows as shown below.
Select the correct SPD Device Address and click on write.
Wait for the process to complete and you are done!
Quite a guy as he had quite a few tip and tricks up his sleeve.
I will not reinvent the wheel instruction of how to use here.
BEFORE I FORGOT, YOU NEED A SUPPORTED CHIPSET TO READ THE RAM CORRECTLY!
THE SOFTWARE WILL NOT RUN CORRECTLY ON CERTAIN CHIPSET.
I did as instructed and flashed both my RAM to PC2-6400 from PC2-5300 but Aspire 4530 only reads 667MHZ as shown in CPU-Z.
But the RAM timings improved and performance improvement for free is considered great.
Only thing I have to warn you is like flashing BIOS it can kill your RAM, so try to flash settings as close to your original RAMs as possible.
Take a look at my upgraded RAM originally it was PC2-5300 at 333MHZ
I even got in an EPP Profile!
In other words this Tool is a must have!Simple Step by Step Guide:
1)You must run this software on a Compatible Chipset.
Certain NForce Chipset like the one on the Aspire 4530 WILL NOT work.
2)First extract this program to a location you find comfortable to run it in.
Right Click and Run as Administrator.
Agree to the EULA.
3)Click on EPROM, Read SPD at 50H or 52H if you have 2 RAM SLOTS occupied.
If you have 1 RAM SLOTS only either 50H or 52H will be available.
If it is read correctly you should see the Module Specification read correctly as shown above.An example of incompatible Chipset is shown below.
First notice the numerous SPD displayed.
Next the Module Specification is incorrectly displayed.
Do not proceed if you encountered the above.
4)Next Click on Browser button.
Then Click on Download button.
It will proceed to download all the RAM dumps from the server as shown above.5)Using the search parameter find the next closest update in RAM Specification
For Example you have a Kingston DDR2-667MHZ find the next closest DDR2-800 based on the
Module Code Number and Parameters.
Click Save Dump and save it to a location on your Harddisk7)Next Exit the Browser Back to the Main Menu.
Select Open and Choose the Dump File you saved previously.8)It should open up the Dump File details.
Choose EEPROM Select Full Rewrite.
9)You should see the Full SPD Rewrite Windows as shown below.
Select the correct SPD Device Address and click on write.
Wait for the process to complete and you are done!
Friday, 9 October 2009
Please take note when installing NForce Drivers
Make sure your Add/Remove Nvidia Driver has the entries below:
Use the 15.45 NForce Drivers I advised (Can be downloaded on Guru3d.com) DO NOT USE 15.37 NForce Drivers from Nvidia except for the AHCI Storage Driver from 15.37.
Note you get SMU Driver and PCI System Management Drivers, otherwise you get a Fatal Machine Check error occasionally in Windows 7 Event Log, you won't see any BSOD but the error log will be there .
In conclusion use the Storage Drivers from 15.37 and SMU and PCI System drivers from 15.45.
Update:
Please update the Storage Driver from 15.51 (from Guru3D) the driver from 15.37 causes occasional freezing issue.
Make sure your Add/Remove Nvidia Driver has the entries below:
Use the 15.45 NForce Drivers I advised (Can be downloaded on Guru3d.com) DO NOT USE 15.37 NForce Drivers from Nvidia except for the AHCI Storage Driver from 15.37.Note you get SMU Driver and PCI System Management Drivers, otherwise you get a Fatal Machine Check error occasionally in Windows 7 Event Log, you won't see any BSOD but the error log will be there .
In conclusion use the Storage Drivers from 15.37 and SMU and PCI System drivers from 15.45.
Update:
Please update the Storage Driver from 15.51 (from Guru3D) the driver from 15.37 causes occasional freezing issue.
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
Western Digital Scorpio WD3200BEVT
Go Device Manager, under IDE controller you should see a Nvidia NForce SATA controller if you didn't then you did not install the SATA driver.
Go Nvidia website to download and install their Storage Controller Driver.
Test 1
Test 2
You can roughly gauge the performance by looking at the scores.
Next we run the WinSAT Detailed Test for more information how to run it see this post.
Note that I am running on Windows 7
So do the same on your machine to compare the results.
Unfortunately my drive has failed so no direct comparison will be available. However I will run pretty commonly available tools (No Downloads required), to get the benchmark score so you can compare it to the BEVT in your laptop.
- 5400 RPM
- SATA 3 Gb/sec
- 12 millisecond seek time
- 8-megabyte buffer
Western Digital Scorpio WD3200BEKT
- 7200 RPM
- SATA 3 Gb/sec
- 12 millisecond seek time
- 16-megabyte buffer
Go Device Manager, under IDE controller you should see a Nvidia NForce SATA controller if you didn't then you did not install the SATA driver.
Go Nvidia website to download and install their Storage Controller Driver.
Test 1
Test 2Next we run the WinSAT Detailed Test for more information how to run it see this post.
Note that I am running on Windows 7
> CPU LZW Compression 100.80 MB/sThe values in red is what we are interested in.
> CPU AES256 Encryption 41.59 MB/s
> CPU Vista Compression 297.90 MB/s
> CPU SHA1 Hash 459.58 MB/s
> Uniproc CPU LZW Compression 49.88 MB/s
> Uniproc CPU AES256 Encryption 20.91 MB/s
> Uniproc CPU Vista Compression 148.67 MB/s
> Uniproc CPU SHA1 Hash 230.29 MB/s
> Memory Performance 5024.46 MB/s
> Direct3D Batch Performance 53.83 F/s
> Direct3D Alpha Blend Performance 48.67 F/s
> Direct3D ALU Performance 31.23 F/s
> Direct3D Texture Load Performance 25.06 F/s
> Direct3D Batch Performance 54.56 F/s
> Direct3D Alpha Blend Performance 56.36 F/s
> Direct3D ALU Performance 31.81 F/s
> Direct3D Texture Load Performance 22.06 F/s
> Direct3D Geometry Performance 41.83 F/s
> Direct3D Geometry Performance 19.16 F/s
> Direct3D Constant Buffer Performance 19.80 F/s
> Video Memory Throughput 2831.65 MB/s
> Dshow Video Encode Time 8.18464 s
> Media Foundation Decode Time 1.24666 s
> Disk Sequential 64.0 Read 67.82 MB/s 5.9
> Disk Random 16.0 Read 1.58 MB/s 4.0
> Responsiveness: Average IO Rate 3.65 ms/IO 5.9
> Responsiveness: Grouped IOs 10.44 units 7.1
> Responsiveness: Long IOs 15.29 units 6.9
> Responsiveness: Overall 159.52 units 6.6
> Responsiveness: PenaltyFactor 0.0
So do the same on your machine to compare the results.
I am not sure if you guys know you can manually invoke Windows 7 defragmentation Tool to do boot optimization by using the /b flag.
When you run defrag.exe, you get the following
Notice there is no /B flag but it is there.
However on a fresh Windows 7 installation when you try to do this with Administrative Permission in a Command Prompt Window.
How to resolve this?
The issue is the idle tasks Windows is scheduled to run hasn't run once yet hence it cannot initialize boot optimization.
So to resolve simply open a Command Prompt Windows with Administrative Permission again and run the following commands to invoke the idle task.
When you run defrag.exe, you get the following
Microsoft Disk Defragmenter
Copyright (c) 2007 Microsoft Corp.
The parameter is incorrect. (0x80070057)
Description:
Locates and consolidates fragmented files on local volumes to
improve system performance.
Syntax:
defrag| /C | /E [/H] [/M | [/U] [/V]]
defrag| /C | /E /A [/H] [/M | [/U] [/V]]
defrag| /C | /E /X [/H] [/M | [/U] [/V]]
defrag/T [/H] [/U] [/V]
Parameters:
Value Description
/A Perform analysis on the specified volumes.
/C Perform the operation on all volumes.
/E Perform the operation on all volumes except those specified.
/H Run the operation at normal priority (default is low).
/M Run the operation on each volume in parallel in the background.
/T Track an operation already in progress on the specified volume.
/U Print the progress of the operation on the screen.
/V Print verbose output containing the fragmentation statistics.
/X Perform free space consolidation on the specified volumes.
Examples:
defrag C: /U /V
defrag C: D: /M
defrag C:\mountpoint /A /U
defrag /C /H /V
Notice there is no /B flag but it is there.
However on a fresh Windows 7 installation when you try to do this with Administrative Permission in a Command Prompt Window.
C:\Windows\system32>defrag C: /BYou get some message saying it cannot be done like the following:
Microsoft Disk Defragmenter
Copyright (c) 2007 Microsoft Corp.
Invoking boot optimization on (C:)...
Analysis: 100% complete.
Some registry entries were missing from the boot optimization section of the reg
istry. (0x89000017)
How to resolve this?
The issue is the idle tasks Windows is scheduled to run hasn't run once yet hence it cannot initialize boot optimization.
So to resolve simply open a Command Prompt Windows with Administrative Permission again and run the following commands to invoke the idle task.
C:\Windows\system32>Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasksAfter that the error message will be gone and you can run boot optimization manually.
Why doesn't this happen sometimes?
Because RunIdle task is scheduled to run eventually after sometime of idle usage
if you do boot defrag immmediately after installation,
RunIdle task hasn't got a chance to run at all so you have to invoke it manually
if you want to start the operation immediately.
Monday, 5 October 2009
Firstly, if the Harddisk came from an integrated OEM System, the warranty is honored by the OEM.
The warranty is not going to be the responsibility of the Disk Manufacturer unless the Harddisk is bought separately in a retail store, so if you run out of warranty you will have to buy a separate harddisk replacement by yourself.
Symptoms of Harddisk Failure:
WD 320GB BEKT
Symptoms of Harddisk Failure:
- Windows hangs while Booting or takes a unusually long time.
- Windows hangs while shutting down.
- BIOS hangs while booting. (To restore normal booting from a normal harddrive simply enter BIOS and set Clear NVRAM to yes, Save and exit)
- Windows Event log report S.M.A.R.T(Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) Failure. (A S.M.A.R.T Failure report definitely predicts a drive failure while not all drive failure will definitely be detected by S.M.A.R.T)
- Linux Desktop suddenly colour corrupts and doesn't respond at all.
How to resolve:
- Boot from a Linux Live CD and copy all your important data to an external harddisk. (Do not attempt to boot from the failing harddisk, it only makes thing worse)
- If you have a desktop and the notebook harddrive uses a SATA connector you can simply plug your notebook harddrive to a connector, boot from the desktop harddrive and copy the data off the notebook harddrive.
- If the notebook harddrive uses a PATA connector then you need a bridge.
- If the harddisk has failed totally it is impossible to retrieve any data unless you go to a specialized data retrieval centre which usually cost a bomb.
- Do not go to those small computer shops that claims they can retrieve data, because they do not have the actually tools to do a platter swap to retrieve the data or recondition the harddisk, they are only out to cheat your money)
Yes I was unlucky enough to encounter a harddisk failure however I managed to salvage all the data I needed to a new Laptop Harddisk.
The new harddisk is considered a upgrade from WD BEVT Scorpio Blue to WD BEKT Scorpio Black.
The new harddisk spins at 7200RPM instead of 5400RPM and has a 16MB Disk Buffer instead of a 8MB disk buffer.
It also comes with a 5year warranty instead of a 3 year warranty.
The slight price difference justified the upgrade purchase.
Oh, and by the way the BEKT reports a 5.9 score in Windows Experience Index.
The new harddisk is considered a upgrade from WD BEVT Scorpio Blue to WD BEKT Scorpio Black.
The new harddisk spins at 7200RPM instead of 5400RPM and has a 16MB Disk Buffer instead of a 8MB disk buffer.
It also comes with a 5year warranty instead of a 3 year warranty.
The slight price difference justified the upgrade purchase.
Oh, and by the way the BEKT reports a 5.9 score in Windows Experience Index.
WD 320GB BEVT
WD 320GB BEKT
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
