Month: June 2011

Two months into the life of my new build has seen the CPU fan morph from quiet operation to an annoying buzz when under pressure. I noticed it because the case and fans were so quiet compared to what I have had before. There is no doubt that 120 and 140 mm fans are a godsend when having to sit in close proximity to a computer. Anyway, back to the CPU fan.  Rather than hop out and buy a 3rd party fan and heat-sink, I elected to contact AMD support for a new fan as it was under warranty. I … Continue reading CPU cooling

Computers don’t wake from sleep or hibernation for ‘no reason’. There is always a reason. Here are some of them. If the computer starts to go into sleep or hibernation, but immediately wakes up again, suspect a driver issue, especially with regard to video and network card  drivers. The general fix is to upgrade to the latest drivers. If the computer goes into sleep or hibernation, but wakes up at some period after, there is a device attached to the system which is set tot be able to wake the computer. How to find it.. You will need to access … Continue reading Disturbed sleep/hibernation

Raxco were nice enough to send me NFR’s for their latest incarnation, and I have been gracious enough to give it a try. So, out goes Diskeeper (my long time favourite) for now, and in comes PerfectDisk 12. Installation was a breeze, and I have left every setting as default because this is what most users would do. So far, there has been no negative impact on my machine. I can’t say that I have noticed any performance increase, but it is not about what I can see. It is all about keeping everything in good order as the machine … Continue reading PerfectDisk 12

As you will know from recent posts, I changed out almost my entire system. Out went the AMD/nVidia based system to make way for an AMD/ATI system. Except that not everything went out. I discovered by running SIW that there was a mass of nVidia driver code still kicking around, and I couldn’t upgrade the mouse and keyboard drivers at all. The solution – Find the hidden devices and uninstall them.  This is how you get them to show.. Right-click on My Computer Select Properties from the context menu Click Advanced tab Click Environment Variables Click New In the variable … Continue reading New motherboard.. old drivers..

Look up on a summer day and you will probably see one of these.. It is a white fluffy cloud, beneficial in that it will shade you from direct sunlight as it drifts across the face of the sun. White clouds have a friendly air about them, Dark clouds are not overly friendly. They rain on parades, make it difficult to get from your car to the grocery store entrance and back. They are beneficial too in as much as they bring water to plant life and fill up lakes etc. Truth is that both types can be really good … Continue reading Clouds..

The text in this blog post is taken from an article by Michael Horowitz. A link to the original is here.. http://blogs.computerworld.com/18387/why_the_bad_guys_are_winning but for those of you who are too scared to ever open a link, I have extracted the important part of the article, I agree with what he has to say, and I suggest that you read and digest all of it because you play your part sometimes too when security falls over, but you are just one cog in the machine. Start here: The game is rigged in favor of the bad guys: To avoid breaches, the … Continue reading Why the bad guys win..

There is no shortage of weather gadgets, and I have tried most of them.  Ultimately, the most accurate weather reports for Canada come from ‘The Weather Network, so I have had a tendency to use TWN’s own gadget. Now, this is all very good for me, but what if you live in a place where TNW is not so accurate or you do not like the look of the ‘weather’ station gadgets which gives you the most accurate reports? Enter the ‘Weather Center’.. As you can see from the graphic, it is night time here (hence the black background), 19°C, … Continue reading Weather Center gadget..