"Windows 7? No I'll stick with XP"

We computer users have been using Windows XP now for nearly 10 years now this month.  In this 10 years computing has made significant strides in the small ways that computing makes strides.  And by that I mean that we are still using the same basic computers we used back in the Windows 3.1 days and little things change every year but we are basically still using some rather old technology.  So my point is that all the big changes in the world of computing are still rather small in the big scheme of things.  But in the world of computing, these changes are huge.  And if we are using computers, then we are somehow involved in the world of computing.  So therefore, we must try to stay on top of things lest we get left behind.  And being left behind in the world of computing can be the difference between getting a job and not getting it.  This can have huge ramifications in your everyday life outside of computing. 

Interviewer: "We need people top notch people who are experienced with using Windows 7 and Office 2007."
Job Applicant: "Well I have experience using Windows XP and have been using Office 2000 for years."
Interviewer: "I'm sorry but we really need someone experienced with Windows 7 and the Ribbon interface on Office 2007/2010."
Job Applicant: "Ribbon interface?  What is that?"
Interviewer: "Thank you for your time.  We will let you know."

So when presented with a brand new computer with a decent Dual core processor, a nice Graphics card, 4 GB RAM, a 1 TB SATA drive, 64-bit Windows 7 and the fact that it is now 2011, why would anyone in their right mind decide they do not want to use Windows 7 on their brand new computer and opt for old ass Windows XP?  Some people are just not up for change and cannot deal with it and must stick with their old ways.  Maybe some program they rely on only works on XP.  There are likely comparable and even better or different programs that will do the same thing, but they are too afraid to change the way they do things.  Too afraid to make even a small leap.  These people obviously would not take the jump for Vista, which is not a bad operating system at all.  I have two computers using Vista and I still think they are both excellent and they both make XP look like a sad ugly sack of shit in comparison.  Yeah a lot of things work just fine on XP but a lot of things don't work on XP too.  No I will not get into comparative lists here.  I do not have the time for that.  But I will never understand why people would choose to remain so far behind in the world of computing.  At some point you will be exponentially farther behind everyone else that you will be forced to move ahead or forever remain left behind.  So get your shit together and get ready for the world of Windows 7 you lazy scared bastard.

Gateway FX P-7805U Laptop

This post is more for posterity sake so that in the future I do not have to search too far to find the spec's for my laptop.  This was the first laptop computer I ever bought.  So many people who think they just know it all about computers would always frown and make bad remarks when I told them my laptop is a Gateway.  These people can shut the EFF up because having owned three Gateway's now, I have had nothing but great results from all three machines.  Now when it comes to the computers I have fixed for others, its always Dell, Compaq, and HP's that I'm working on.  That could be saying something bad about those companies, or it could just be saying that the people who are computer illiterate and quite honestly PEBKAC's always tend to go with the name brands they are somehow familiar with aka Dell, Compaq, and HP.  And let's make it understood that Dell and HP are common in the workplace, and Compaq is just the cheap version of HP.  So this probably has a lot to do with why everyone is so familiar with those brands.

Well enough about all that.  Let's get to the specs of very first Laptop.  The model is the Gateway P-7805u FX Series, a Best Buy exclusive.

Processor Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor1 P8400 (2.26GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 3MB L2 Cache)
Operating System Genuine Microsoft® Windows Vista® Home Premium (64-bit) with SP12
Color FX Premium Design with brushed metal keyboard surround and high-impact composite finish
Memory 4096MB 1066MHz DDR3 Dual Channel Memory (2-2048MB modules)
Hard Drive 320GB 7200RPM SATA hard drive5
Chassis Chassis with NVIDIA® GeForce® 9800M GTS Graphics with 1GB of GDDR3 Discrete Video Memory and Intel® PM45 Chipset
Adapter AC Adapter
Application Software Microsoft® Works 9.0SE, Microsoft® Money Essentials & Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007 (60-day complimentary trial period)4
Battery 9-Cell Lithium Ion 86.58 Whr (2.6AHr)
Digital Media Software Microsoft® Windows Media Player 11, Cyberlink® Power2 Go™, & Cyberlink® LabelPrint™
Dimensions (Box) 15.5" (H) x 19" (W) x 6.5" (D) or 394mm (H) x 485mm (W) x 165mm (D)
Dimensions (System) 1.3"-1.70" (H) x 15.75" (W) x 11.75" (D) or 33-43mm (H) x 400mm (W) x 298mm (D)
Display 17" High-Definition Widescreen WXGA+ Display (1440 x 900)
Expansion Slots ExpressCard™ Type 54
External Ports (3) USB 2.0, VGA Connector, IEEE 1394b, eSATA Port, V1.2 HDMI Connector
Keyboard and Mouse Full-Size Keyboard, Synaptics Touchpad with Vertical Scroll
Media Card Reader 5-in-1 Digital Media Card Reader (Memory Stick™, Memory Stick™ Pro, Multi Media Card™, Secure Digital™, xD-Picture Card™)
Memory Capacity Maximum 4GB
Modem 56K ITU V.92 ready Fax/Modem (RJ-11 port)
Multimedia Buttons Illuminated Metal Precision-Touch Multimedia Buttons
Network 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 port)
Optical Drive 8x Multi-Format Dual Layer DVDRW and DVD-RAM featuring Labelflash™ Technology7
Security Software Symantec Norton 360™ 2008 (60-day trial)6
Sound High-Definition Audio- 2 Channel, Built-In speakers, microphone, headphone/SPDIF Audio Out
Warranty 1 Year Parts and Labor + Toll Free8
Web Camera 1.3 Megapixel Integrated Webcam
Weight 9.05 lbs. (4.11 kg) system unit only / 12.64 lbs. (5.73 kg.) box
Wireless Network Intel® WiFi Link 5100AGN 802.11a/g/Draft-N Wireless LAN

One of the oddities about this model is that the monitor is listed as a WXGA (1440x900 resolution) when in fact the monitor is actually a WUXGA with a resolution of 1920x1200.  That is to say, it is a Widescreen Ultra eXtended Graphics Array.  Although, I have heard that some models actually shipped with a WXGA monitor but lucky for me, mine came with the WUXGA.  The only unlucky thing for me is that this laptop has three USB ports and only one of the ports works on my laptop.  I was afraid to send it in for service because I didn't want to lose the luxury of the higher-res monitor somehow if they decided to send me a refurbished model.  So I have dealt with it being how it is.

It really doesn't bother me that two of the ports don't work because I mostly only use this laptop to take with me here and there.  It's actually not as easy and portable as my other laptop because it is so large and heavy to carry around and just a little too large to sit in my lap.  But it's okay, I still make it work.

It seems that the main thing I do from the laptop now is remotely connect to my home PC.  Either that or when I'm connected to the WiFi at my friend's house, it always seems to be time to run Windows Update and also update everything else so I let all that stuff run.  Makes me feel like my computer is healthy and running well, but seems to be one of the few things I even use it for anymore.  Even though I tend to like doing things from my smartphone rather than lugging around this large laptop, sometimes I just get so tired of my slow little phone and of having to use the touchscreen to do everything, that I just want to switch over to using a wireless mouse and having a real keyboard, so I go out to my car and get the laptop out.  I guess its just nice having the convenience of the laptop even if I dont use it much.  But I'm glad I don't need to rely on a laptop.  That might feel depressing to me.  I love desktops.

Starforce "Protection"

I wonder why it is that a company would market something as "protection" that digs its way so deep into the OS that it can actually completely disable a computer.  The other day, a friend of mine asked me to try out a game he had been playing called Blitzkrieg II.  It looked like a decent game and figured it should easily install on Windows 7 as everything else I have tried has worked without a single problem.  Well it certainly appeared to install with no issue.  However, upon trying to run the game for the first time, this Starforce Protection software pops up in the middle and because the protection software itself is incompatible with Windows 7, it had an error and would not properly run.  So the natural inclination from myself is to uninstall this piece of shit which I did with the quickness.  I also looked up Starforce to see what it was and come to find many many search hits all saying how problematic this software is and even links to uninstall utilities.  Oh shit this is not looking good.  Well I looked to see if I could find any remnants of Starforce on the computer and nothing showed so I figured all should be well.

That was not the case though, but it took almost a week to find out.  See I hardly ever turn off the computer and I so happened to need to reboot for a virus scanner upgrade so upon rebooting, Windows 7 went into a Startup Repair Loop of trying to fix a startup error which stemmed from a corrupt file, sfhelp02.sys.  A quick Google search turns up the culprit, Starforce.  Well shit this program didn't ever work and still fucked up my computer.  Not cool.  Well I seemed to be helpless in getting into Windows in anyway shape or form, not even SafeMode would work, so here is what I had to do.

Run a Knoppix Live CD, mount the hard drive where the offending files were, and then find them under the Windows/System32/drivers folder.  sfhlp02.sys, sfdrv01.sys, and sfsync02.sys  DELETE ALL three files.

With the offending files removed, I was able to restart Windows 7 again without any further problems.

Fresh Start

Let's make a fresh start here today and talk about what the King is using for his main computing needs, meaning a computer that actually works.  What we have before us, is the King of the Computers in this realm.  It is the Gateway FX 6840-15e.  This machine runs on an Intel Core i7 [870 / 2.93 GHz] (3.6 GHz @ Max Turbo speed) Quad-core processor.  This is one of the first generation of Core i7 processors so it is not deemed to be as fast and as good as the newer 2nd gen processors.  But that is besides the point.  Remember, I'm not on the cutting edge here.  I just want things to work and work well for me.

This machine is already extremely fast and does everything I need it to do.  Running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OS along with having 8GB RAM DDR3 SDRAM, a 1 TB 7200 RPM HDD, a 1GB ATI Radeon HD 5750 Graphics Card, a Gigabit Ethernet card, 10 USB 2.0 ports, two quick load front side drive trays, and a Dual Layer DVD burner, there is not much else that I need to add to this computer to upgrade it or make it better.  However, it is not perfect and there a couple things I needed to add for my own personal computing needs such as a need for Firewire ports so I installed a Dynex PCI 3-port Firewire card as well as a 2-port PCI-e (1x) eSATA card.  My only reason for needing those is for my many external harddrives which connect via Firewire or eSATA.  This PC is now perfectly suited for my needs.

However, some critics have some really stupid things to say about this computer as if to say that it is bad or something.  Well part of the problem with that may be the fact that this computer is marketed as a gaming PC.  When I purchase a computer, I look at the overall specs to see if it will suit my needs, I don't care if its marketed as business, gaming, student, media, etc whatever, as long as spec wise it meets my needs.  In fact, I was really annoyed when purchasing this particular computer because the girl at Best Buy kept making a big deal about how good this computer is for gaming.  I said "Really??  Shut up, I don't care, just get the computer for me so I can buy it and get out of here already."  Then as we waited longer she brings up gaming again.  I said, "Look, I play games sometimes but its not the ONLY fucking reason to buy a computer, there are many other uses and the reason I am buying this one is because it is THE ONLY computer you sell in this store that has an i7 Processor which I already have on my laptop (Sony VAIO VPCF115FM/B) and this computer just so happens to be a gaming computer, woopty-fucking-doo-i-don't-fucking-care, can I just purchase the computer without all this bullshit from you?  Stop trying to sell me on all this other crap, I did my research before I came here and I just wanted to walk in, pick out the model I want, pay for it and leave, without having to deal with one of you know nothing sales people." (Can you tell I hate Best Buy with a passion?)

Well since its marketed as a gaming PC, critics hate on it because they feel they must compare it to other gaming machines.  They compare it to something side by side and for the most part the Gateway FX outperforms the computers they compare it to until they do the gaming benchmarks which means they compare it to the games Crysis and Far Cry 2.  These are two games I never play and never have any intention of playing.  Don't get me wrong.  I love playing games and I play games all the time but these benchmark tests are stupid and really only aimed at people who do not know how to use a computer for anything else but to play games.  Here is why I really do not care about that, This computer is a Quad-core i7 processor, 8GB RAM, and a decent 1 GB Graphics Card, I can pretty much run any game I want and it will work just fine, and I know that everything else is going to work very fast on this computer as well so I don't care that this won't beat other gaming PCs on benchmarks, it beats most other PC's on just about everything else anyways.  One of the things I find so funny is how so many critics fault this computer for not having a Blu Ray drive.  Yet they compare it to a computer which has a Blu Ray drive, runs a Core i5 processor, half the RAM, a lower performing Graphics card and to top it off, my computer beats it spec-wise in every single department except for gaming performance.  This is why I do not care what critics say and I make my own decisions.

Sorry, I was just reading a few reviews about my computer this morning so I felt a need to rant about it.

The Dinosaur Is Extinct

The dinosaur in this case is a Compaq Presario 2286.  It was not my first computer by any means, but it was the first computer that I bought and paid for with my own money.  There was a stretch from 1998 to 2004 where it was the ONLY computer that I owned.  Yes I was pretty much poor during those years and could not afford to buy a new computer so it had to do the trick for those 6 years.  During that time, I believe that I did pretty much everything I could possibly do to upgrade it to make it remain a usable machine.  But many times those flat little desktops are hardly upgradeable mainly since there is very little room inside to add parts.  But I made this computer work for me and work for me it did.

The computer initially came with Windows 98 installed.  The week that Windows ME was released, I went to Best Buy and purchased the upgrade CD.  I installed it and loved that operating system even though it was the OS that everyone hated, that is...before Vista.  The only thing that I did not like was that most of my computer hardware would not work with this new OS at all.  So for instance, my printer, scanner, soundcard, modem, and joysticks would not work with this new OS at all and I waited nearly 6 months for updated drivers for everything to appear.  But nevertheless I still liked using the OS despite the problems I had with it initially.

However, before I upgraded the OS, I started with upgrading smaller parts first.  The first two upgrades came in the form of a proper soundcard with a line-in port and a Voice/Data/Fax modem.  For these upgrades I chose the Creative Labs SoundBlaster PCI512 (a low cost version of the SoundBlaster Live! series of soundcards) and the Creative Labs Modem Blaster 56k v.92 Voice/Data/Fax modem.  With this I was able to play games and hear the sounds with much better sound as well as that I could now connect a joystick to the soundcard.  So that was the next purchase, a flight stick for playing Microsoft Flight Simulator.  Next came a 27 GB hard drive to add to the space that was running out on the 4 GB hard drive the computer came with.  Around this same time, I also replaced the stock CD ROM with a HP CD Burner.  Aside from upgrading the RAM, this was about the extent of what I could do for this little beast of a computer that worked so well for me over the years.

But alas, it was too slow and around 2004 I replaced it with a Compaq Presario S4100N which was running Windows XP.  Finding that I liked XP a great deal, and having done some experimenting with the 2286 with trying to install Linux on it, I ended up being unable to reinstall the factory image.  However, finding that Ubuntu was too much OS for this little PC to handle, I tried to go back to Windows, and decided on Windows XP Professional.  However, it was just a version of the disc I happened to come upon over the Internet somewhere.  It installed with no problems though I was unable to ever update it but that was not too big of a deal.  Though my first experiments with Linux failed, I was going to once again attempt to run a Linux OS on this old machine in hopes that I could get better performance out of it.  It was around 2006 that I began PROJECT XUBUNTU.  However, before the project built up any steam, the computer became unusable in that the onboard video no longer worked.  PROJECT XUBUNTU was put on hold indefinitely and the 2286 has sat in shambles ever since.  Maybe one day I will be able to find a use for this piece of equipment.  Until then, I have moved onto bigger and better projects.

PROJECT SEED BOX (PSU)

Today's project involves a Dell Dimension 4700 that was considered a total loss and given to the King as  a gift for trying to work his magic on it.  That is, work his magic without investing any money into said project.  However, it just could not be done.  There appears to be an issue with either the Power Supply, the RAM, or possibly the Motherboard.  My intuition tells me that the problem is with the Power Supply and so that is where we will start investing into this project.  In searching for a proper, but hopefully cheap Power supply I came across many very cheap power supplies from makers such as GenMax, A-Power, Logisys, and Blue Star, just to name a few.  I do not know from experience whether any of these are truly bad power supplies or not.

This is what a basic Dell Dimension 4700 looks like.

So due to my lack of experience with these sub $20 PSU's, I decided it may be best to read some reviews of some of these things because in restrospect, I recall someone saying that there are many bad power supply manufacturer's out there.  So in my research I found that many people found these to be crappy and not last long at all.  In fact, it soon made me worried, that if I were to put one of these cheapy PSUs into one of my computers it might end up killing the computer or possibly burning down the house.

So after some more reading I came to the conclusion that the best option for me is to get a Corsair PSU.  The exact model that I am considering getting runs at about $45.  It is the Corsair Builder Series CX430 V2 430W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply.  That sure is a mouthful isn't it?  It is probably a little more PSU than I need, but it is relatively cheap and should be sufficient for powering this computer which I really only plan on using as a SEED BOX or possibly a computer for anyone else to use aside from myself.

As part of my initial project which was to fix this computer for a friend, I ended up dismantling the computer down to basically a motherboard sitting inside a case.  So I am considering reassembling everything so I can dismantle it again and take pictures in the process to help show those of you who are afraid to take on a task like this.  Once you know how to take everything apart, it is very easy.  But when you don't know, it can take a bit of fiddling with to figure out how to remove some parts.  When we return to this project I will show you how to easily take each part out with ease.  You see our next step is to replace the PSU and in order to do that, the heatsink over the processor had to be removed first. So why not just take pretty much everything out and get it all clean and start over as if this machine is brand new once again!

Now mind you, if this PSU that I am considering purchasing does not fix the problems, we may need to replace the motherboard, but I am going with my gut instinct first which tells me that the source of the problems is the power supply.  Next time, I will elaborate on the problems that this particular machine was having.

This is what my Dell Dimension looked like inside before I removed most of the internals.