Sunday, May 1, 2011

Repairing Dan's PC

Dan had a custom Built PC put together that ended up not able to boot into windows or auto-repair and wanted me to take a look. I do have extra memory, extra drives, extra video cards etc lying around and those come in handy when trying to diagnose these types of errors. However, as it turned out, there was nothing wrong with the hardware.
So first I just hooked it up and said meh it might just work... Stranger things have happened. It didn't...

So I tried the auto-repair. It of course didn't work. 

CHKDSK - no issues

Chkdsk takes a while so I had to clean the case. I get OCD about dirty filters on computers and on central air units. ;)
I swapped out the video cards. There was an odd display issue in windows repair... One part of the screen was blurry warped. Seemed to be odd... but swapping video cards didn't help.

I swapped the memory locations... I booted once with no ram and then played musical chairs. No difference. (Make sure the Power cord is OUT and the motherboard LED is off before you putz with ram... I would recommend grounding yourself too.)

I changed all the sata cables to be in physically different places. No effect.

So I tried some other things too... system restore wouldn't work, none of the repair points were available. So I was resigned to reinstall from scratch just so it would be fixed but since I have all these cool pictures I though I would try some google-fu.

That led me almost immediately to here: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-system/windows-7-64-bit-bsod-stop-error-0x0f4-fixed/f4a12a56-30d9-492e-9ed1-3a2504feb5a7

Pegasus [MVP] wrote: It seems you fell into the "Registry Cleaner" trap. Lots of boastful promises, in most cases no measurable improvement, in some cases fatally damaged installations. There is a chance that an undamaged backup copy of the registry files is still around. Try this:
1. Keep tapping F8 during the early boot phase.
2. Select Safe Mode Command Prompt from the menu.
3. Log on as Administrator if prompted.
4. Select Repair when prompted.
5. Select the Command Prompt.
6. Identify the correct drive letter for your Windows installation. It could be drive E: or F:. You do it by typing the commands
    dir C:\Win*
    dir D:\Win*
    dir E:\Win*
    until you find the Windows folder.
    I will call that drive "Q:".
7. Type these commands:
    cd /d Q:\windows\System32\config
    xcopy *.* Q:\RegBack\
    cd RegBack
    dir
8. Examine the dates of the Software, System and SAM files. Were the files created before or after your problem became apparent?
9. If they were made before the problem became apparent then you can type these commands:
    copy /y software  ..
    copy /y System  ..
    copy /y Sam ..
    (the two dots are part of each command)
10. Reboot normally. If things do not work out then you can backtrack by copying the original registry files from Q:\Regback to Q:\Windows\System32\config.
_________________________
ID#0223. If this response was helpful, please vote by clicking the green triangle. If it solves the issue, click "Propose as answer". Thanks.


So I was a bit elated to attempt this. I wanted to do a system restore and this looked like a system restore for just the registry. At the same time... copy three files and problem solved... yeah... I was a bit apprehensive.

So I rebooted and wala into windows. So I figured I would log in just to see if all is well and just take a look at what pops up:


Root cause FTW.
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Friday, March 18, 2011

HDMI Cables


A few people have been asking me questions about HDMI recently and it occurred to me I don't use anything HDMI in my house. :)

I don't even own a HDMI Cable. However it interests me since I do want to mirror my display to a Flatscreen and will likely use HDMI to accomplish that. (Almost exclusively for Hulu) 

In order to do that what needs to be done?
  • Well first off I will have to replace my ancient TV with something that has a HDMI Port or DVI.
  • If said device has a HDMI port and not a DVI port I will need a DVI 2 HDMI Adaptor.
  • I will have to run HDMI cable to other end of the family room so my PC can connect to my new device.

So that is pretty much it really but it brings up the two questions people have been asking me.

Is HDMI 100% compatible with DVI?

Yes.

What is the maximum length of a HDMI cable and does using a HDMI Adaptor matter? 

About 35-50 feet depending on the device with an unpowered cable. That said depending on the device if you look at new egg comments some people have done 100 foot unpowered cables with no issues. (But that seems to be rare and depends a lot on the monitor and the video card)

Using an adapter does seem to matter. Surprisingly it seems to help? I am not sure why since I have never personally had the opportunity to try this yet but from what I can see online the signal coming off the DVI is weaker then the signal produced by a straight HDMI port. (So why people have more success with 75' runs doesn't make a lot of sense to me based on the data I have but I will try the pictured adapter and a 50' run and will update this later.)


The 50' Run works fine btw even with audio. I hooked it up for testing purposes. I still need to run the cable but its really a lot of fun. The sound options are bit hokey for my taste but I haven't exactly figured out how I want to deal with that yet.


Does HDMI carry audio too?


Absolutely. My BFG 285 GTX has a special S/PIDF audio in... I guess in our quest to standardize everything no one told the audiophiles designing video cards, sound cards and motherboards. Its not all that bad... I think I have personally encountered four formats. (Special 2, regular 2, 3 and 4 pin connections) The one on my video card though requires a special cable that came with the card. Surprising I still have that cable. (It was in the original box) The sound works great though.


The cable in the box is a normal 2 connecting to a special 2. The audio out on the motherboard is a normal 3. 1X34. To hook the 2 up you need to hook only to the 34 and you can ignore the 1X. But it matters how you hook it up. (If its backwards it won't work)


Once you set it up windows 7 will give you a new set of output options.... I have speakers and spidf out... If I set the spidf out as default then the sound goes over hdmi and not the speakers. Just speakers is just speakers.... not sure if I can do both yet.... but I haven't had a lot of time to play. (Work etc...) I will play some more later.
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Sunday, March 6, 2011

Built another PC today (Custom Build: AMD System)


Same Case as mine. I love this case, an absolute breeze to build a system with and it looks great. 


Mitch needed a new PC due to his old PC dying after many years. It was a very old intel build and when I popped it open and saw the nest of IDE cables I was taken back to the olden days. His old system had a fax modem, the capacitors were not sealed etc etc. The new system he got is fantastic. Here are the basics:

If you add it up it is well under $700 and a great mix. Gamers might go with a better video card (or 2) and hence a much bigger power supply but other than that this is a straight forward system to build. You can run almost all the wires behind the mobo and keep the overall look clean and empty. If you did buy this system you will need an extra SATA cable. The mobo only came with one and neither the DVD player or the HD came with one. (Luckily his old system had one we were able to re-purpose)

The Power supply cables were long enough to run behind the motherboard for all devices including the motherboard. What I like about this system is its very basic and if you run into a performance issue its very easy to upgrade. You could pop in another 4 gigs of ram, 3 more hard drives, 2 more video cards etc etc... The case will last for many years while the pieces inside may change a lot. The entire job including the power supply requires no tools. I did screw in the mobo with regular screws rather then the included thumbscrews and I also screwed in the DVD Burner and the power supply but it wasn't necessary.


Not a particularly expensive or high end video card as this isn't a gaming rig. This card didn't even require extra power. But you can game with this card and it does support CrossfireX. Plug and play and looks great.



2 2GB Chips with room for more. (Win 7 64 Bit installed as well)



Up and running. First time too.

-Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
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Saturday, March 5, 2011

Cleaning my PC: Added the Aerocool Touch 1000 temperature sensors

Gaming Setup
I usually clean my PC once a month. This case has two quick release air filters so it only takes a few minutes. However I like to do a serious cleaning about once a year. Its a good idea to keep a clean case, many years ago I had a fire inside a case which may or may not have been because of dust and people occasionally find mice and other odd things in their case. (I did have a moth in the case today) In any event I had some time today to do a real thorough cleaning with air cans and a vacuum.

While I had the case open I noticed I never added my temperature sensors so I took the time to add them. It will be interesting to see what they report when I start gaming. I attached some pictures of where I put them in the case. This first picture has the rats nest of wires that run underneath the motherboard. I snaked the system temperature behind the motherboard as well.


At the bottom you can see the yellow tape where I taped the system sensor. (73°F currently)
I didn't put this one right on the CPU but taped it down just inside the heat sink. (83°F currently)
This is the GTX 285 BFG sent me. I just taped a sensor onto the card (94°F currently)
This is taped just above the hard drives inside the tray. (71°F currently)
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