How do those compare to, say, liquid-state drives?

Let’s start as we mean to go on: There is no such thing as liquid-state  drives; except maybe in terminator movies. By “solid-state” I mean built from solid semiconductor material with no moving parts, rather than the normal types of hard-drive in use today that read magnetic data via a read/write head attached to a seek arm from a series of spinning platters.

Solid-state drives were first introduced to the public as recently as 2007 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. A solid state drive, or SSD, is the upcoming phase of computer hard drive technology and utilises the same kind of hardware-structure as USB flash drives use, made entirely of semiconductors; NAND Flash technology. The solid state drive uses almost 50% less energy than its regular equivalent, makes no noise, and is generally more stable. They could very well eventually replace the normal spinning-platter hard-drives when they are a lot less pricey and can store more data.

Whilst there are advantages to using a solid state drive with no moving parts; price, as already stated, is a factor currently preventing the SSD from taking over the hard drive market for laptop and desktop computers. Also involved in preventing this is a matter of storage capacity:

Some vendors offer 32 GB Solid State Drives for part of a small fortune. Solid state drives currently max out at 256GB; these drives are extremely highly expensive and beyond the budgetary reach of most geeks.

Having no moving parts means that SSDs are not affected by data corruption or operation failures caused by debris or movement. They are also largely unaffected by dust or by being dropped. Dropping a typical hard-drive can cause the heads to crash into the magnetic film on the platters; thus damaging certain sectors and rendering them unusable: if they have data already written to those sectors then that data becomes rendered unrecoverable.

Another advantage is that they can access data stored within them much faster, almost immediately, even if that data is fragmented. Added to this, the SSD has a longer lifespan than traditional HDDs, due once again to its having no moving parts: The expected lifespan is currently up to around 80% greater for SSDs. I’ve heard that some makers of solid state drives are claiming life expectancy of over 100 years; though I’m unsure how valid this claim is. Not many people, at today’s average lifespan, are going to live to find out.

No doubt, in time as the price comes down and the storage capacity begins to approach that of traditional hard-drives, the solid state hard drive will eventually replace traditional hard drives that consumers have been using for years. Currently, though, due to their lower price, manufacturers are sticking with the traditional spinning-platter hard-drives in the main for at least the time being.

Does your computer have a solid state hard drive? Do you find it faster? Please comment.

URGENT ANNOUNCEMENT:

Yaro Starak & Gideon Shalwick’ s Become A Blogger course is taking admissions; but the admission window is only open for 5 days starting today!

Yes you read that right: You have a 5 day window open; that’s today, Monday 29th June until midnight Friday 3rd July, to join the Become A Blogger course!

This amazing course covers every aspect of blogging; from preparing yourself properly to start up a blog, through setting it up, SEO optimisation, killer techniques for getting excellent search-engine rankings and producing top-quality content, to full monetisation and generating a major income from your efforts.

Personally I’m on Tutorial 55 at this point; and there’s more to come, although I haven’t been able to implement all I’ve learned yet as there is simply so much quality content and expert tuition from a pair of experienced professionals.

I honestly have to say that if you’re thinking of starting a blog, or even if you have recently started one; you’d be crazy to miss out on this sensational course. If you do miss this window then there won’t be another chance to enrol on the course until sometime in 2010 at the earliest: I have this on good authority from Yaro & Gideon themselves.

You have 5 days, and the clock is already ticking; so you may in fact have less time than 5 days by the time you read this.

Don’t delay: Click the banner below and enrol NOW. – Before it’s too late.

Here’s the official confirmation:

Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick have just given me official permission to tell you that their famous blogging course is now open…

http://www.becomeablogger.com/go.php?offer=kkomp&pid=4&u=http://www.becomeablogger.com/signup/

But they are keeping doors open for ONLY 5 days, and then they will shut it again for the rest of the year!

Crazy I know! But they said that they needed to limit the numbers somehow. Last time they opened doors, they were bombarded with a flood of new members signing up, and they had to close the program to the general public for a few months to take care of their new members.
But I just wanted to make sure you get in this time.

It’s one of the best, if not THE best blogging courses out there at the moment, and is recommended by dozens of professional bloggers around the world.

Don’t take my word for it, go see for yourself over here:

http://www.becomeablogger.com/go.php?offer=kkomp&pid=4&u=http://www.becomeablogger.com/signup/

Happy blogging!

Sharron

PS: Don’t forget that you only have 5 days to get in on this. When the clock strikes 11.59pm on Friday, June 3, 2009, they will shut the doors, and then you wont be able to get in until next year!

http://www.becomeablogger.com/go.php?offer=kkomp&pid=4&u=http://www.becomeablogger.com/signup/

Don’t let this opportunity slip away: Enrol now.

The Windows 7 Release Candidate program is to be pulled on 15th August 2009; according to Microsoft:

Although you’ll still be able to get activation keys for the RC after that date, you’ll no longer be able to download the software.

As I pointed out in a comment on another blog; from March 1st 2010, if you’re still running the Windows 7 RC on or after that date, it’ll shut down every 2 hours, regardless of what you’re working on. This is Microsoft’s way of saying “Buy the software, you freeloader.”

It’s probably best to buy an RTM copy of Windows 7 when it’s released on October 22nd 2009, as Microsoft will have made further developmental changes based on telemetry data harvested from many computers running the RC.

If you’re currently running any of the beta versions then my advice to you is to back up your important data and install the RC. – Otherwise you’ll be hit with 2-hourly restarts from July 1st 2009, after which the beta software will stop working altogether on August 1st 2009.

Rumour has it that Microsoft are soon to confirm UK pricing; if they haven’t done so already by the time that this article is published.

If you live in the UK and want to get in on the act and reserve a copy of Windows 7 E at a decent price; then I’ve just discovered; my thanks go to Chris, a reader who included this in a comment on a previous article, that between July 15th 2009 and 9th August 2009, you can get a copy from this location.

There’s no need to go here and buy a copy of Vista to get a “free” copy of Windows 7: It’s a con. Wait until July 15th and reserve your copy at a better price.

If you live in the USA then this program is already running at the time of writing, and you can reserve your copy of 7 here.

Everyone everywhere who knows what they’re talking about is saying that 7 is the best operating system from Microsoft yet. Personally I’m looking forwards to its launch with eager anticipation. – However there are bound to be bugs in the RTM, and it’ll no doubt require an SP1 to get it to run optimally: So don’t be too disheartened when your shiny new copy of Windows 7 doesn’t work flawlessly in every way imaginable. Remember, even XP required 2 service packs to make it almost perfect in its time. At the end of the day you have to remember that Microsoft are only human, despite having seemingly made a somewhat superhuman effort in this case. – No I’m not excusing shoddy workmanship; but it’s a rarity if not an impossibility to get it 101% right first time. It’s a great product; but don’t expect miracles.

The internet is probably the most useful place any American can go to for a bargain. In the UK the situation’s slightly different: Yes; UK people can find things at a decent price on the net most of the time and/or cheaper than in most High Street shops; but the way the cookie crumbles favours Americans. I’m not sure whether this is why Americans use the internet a lot more than the British; or whether it’s a result of the British using the internet less, possibly due to the comparative lack of education and abundance of negativity in UK culture when compared with the American equivalent. – ‘Sorry Brits; but honestly we’re going to end up a nation of half-witted moronic thugs and delinquents unless something radical happens, and soon. I’m not going into politics right now: But perhaps I should; as the stuck-up self-interested privileged “elite” currently in UK politics who have allowed this situation to deteriorate over the last few generations seem to hardly be able to run a bath; let alone a country.

The term “Americans” herein refers to those who are resident in the US and Canada. I found it rather, to all intents and purposes, racist, that an overwhelming number of sometimes crazy offers that appear on the internet are only available to US and Canadian residents.

One such offer concerns Microsoft’s up and coming operating system; Windows 7:

An article by Rich Menga on PCMech.com; which is run from Tampa, Florida, by David Risley and others, announces the headline: -

“Windows 7 Home Premium Pre-Order, $49.99 Upgrade, $199.99 Full”

Inside the article; Rich clearly states: -

“Starting today, if you pre-order Windows 7 as an upgrade, the Home Premium Edition (which is what most people would go for) is just a tick under $50. See below.”

Wow; that’s amazing! I can order my own copy at a massive discount!

(The three images below are copied directly from Rich’s article on PC Mech.)

“The full versions start with Home Premium at $199.99. That’s still steep, but it is cheaper than Vista. See below.”

“What versions of Windows qualify you for the upgrade?"

Windows Vista or Windows XP. Yes, XP qualifies be it Home or Pro Edition. Is says so right on the Office Depot sale page for this product. “

Brilliant! I run XP professional and Windows 7 RC. – I qualify!

“A near-60% discount on the purchase of Home Premium means this is the cheapest Windows upgrade we’ve seen in a very long time.

I use Windows 7 RC on a daily basis. It’s stable and solid. And now, thankfully, cheap (at least for the upgrade).

This upgrade offer lasts from today, June 26 to July 11.

Where to get it?

• Amazon
• Office Depot
• Microsoft Store

The links go directly to the Windows 7 pre-order page for the respective vendor.”

I attempted to order from Amazon.com: They are unable to ship this product to my address.

I looked at Office Depot… Office What? ‘Never heard of them. – An exclusively American company.#

I tried the Microsoft Store: The words “United States” were written in the banner at the top of the page. I was asked to  sign in with my Windows Live ID: No problem yet; but it wouldn’t allow me to leave the ‘state’ field blank, neither would it allow me to enter a British postcode in the ‘Zip’ field – So I’m stuffed there too.

I know; how about if I go back and select ‘United Kingdom’ from the drop-down list that appears when I click ‘United States’ in the banner bar?..

-  NO! <stifled scream> :-

I don’t want Vista. I hate Vista; Vista sucks. I’m definitely not buying it just to get 7! Even if you charged me for 7 and gave me Vista free I’d send Vista back.

Hang on a minute: How much?

Unless there’s been a massive devaluation of the UK pound against the US dollar that I missed, then I make that offer about 5 times the cost in the UK as it is in the USA! – + I’ll have a copy of Vista to use as a coaster on my coffee table.

If you’re in the UK and are thinking of going for this offer; my advice is don’t. Microsoft are fully aware that a lot of British people don’t have the brains they were born with, and are too lazy to even browse the internet: That’s why they’re offering you the chance to increase their Vista sales figures, so that they can say “We did well with Vista in the UK; the figures prove it.” In the meantime you’re in reality paying probably full price for Windows 7 and also jointly all buying a backlog of unsold Vista DVDs at a knock-down price just to make some room in Microsoft’s warehouse while saving on their recycling bill.

Yes it stinks: It’s a big con, and if you’ve already fallen for it then Microsoft saw you coming a while ago.

Well Brits: Don’t all just sit there with your stiff upper lip, tutting and murmuring “Terrible!”: Get your arse in gear and complain; to the EU bureaucrats you’ve just elected, (– Let’s see how helpful the BNP can be, eh?) to Parliament, to the European Court of Human Rights, to Microsoft themselves even.

You, me, and every Windows user in the UK who owns a computer and wants an operating system upgrade are being ripped off! Are you going to let them get away with it?

What did you say? – “What’s it worth to me?” – About £120 odd; that’s how much you’re being ripped off for. Are you just going to take it lying down? – No don’t answer that.

Is this an early Halloween / technical post?

Maybe?

This is Part 13 of the series. It should be part 5; but for the negatively superstitious amongst us I’ve named it part 13. Why? Well I tried to start to go into the whys and wherefores of that; but I just ended up opening up the subjects of religion and superstition, which I don’t want to do right now. – So we’ll just say OK – Part 13 it is.

In Part 1 we tried opening up the Windows Advanced Options pre-boot menu and selecting the option “Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked)”

In Part 2 we looked at removing a driver by booting into Safe Mode.

In Part 3 we looked at how corruption could be the cause of the problem, and how to get rid of it using chkdsk and sfc. This can be taken further by using a program by GRC Corp called “SpinRite”: See this article for more information.

In Part 4 we spoke about the awesome power of the Windows Recovery Console and how this might help as a last resort.

- On very rare occasions, though, none of this is accessible: The computer’s BIOS screen appears at or just after power up; and then another black screen with white text appears saying that the CPU was not found, or the RAM isn’t present, or something similar. This has happened to me just the once with an AsRock K7—-VSTA board with DDR RAM which had an AMD Sempron 2.2GHz CPU running on it. Exactly what happened, why did it happen, and what can be done about it?

Exactly what happened? : -

The machine started to crash with a frequent BSOD, which seemed to be for random reasons. I did almost everything suggested in Parts 1 to 3 to try to solve the problem. I didn’t get as far as the Windows Recovery Console, as the machine crashed with another BSOD and refused to start. It started with the usual BIOS screen and then went straight on to a screen telling me that it couldn’t find a processor.. I tried restarting it several times by using the reset button, but the same happened each time.

Why did it happen? : -

When the BIOS starts up it instantly asks all of the fundamental components to declare themselves present and identify themselves. The BIOS knows what basic components should always be present in a computer in order for it to be able to operate; such as a processor, RAM, hard-drive, etc, and it makes request of those components to register their presence and then identify themselves by type and serial number. One of the first components, if not the first component, it looks for to be present is a processor. For some reason the BIOS asked for a processor to identify itself and no reply registered with it. This could be for a number of reasons: -

   1) The processor is fried: It’s dead and can’t respond.

    2) The processor isn’t getting any power; therefore it’s effectively dead and can’t respond.

    3) The processor is alive but isn’t hearing the request from the BIOS because some component between the two is fried, dead, or faulty, and is not allowing communication between the BIOS and processor.

 

    4) The BIOS is faulty and isn’t issuing the request, or isn’t issuing the request properly, to the processor.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

    1) Is obviously a hardware fault: The processor has died, and probably so has any number of other components.

Remedy: Replace the processor and the motherboard.

    2) Might be due to a loose power plug, a PSU fault, or a motherboard fault.

Remedy: Diagnose the fault by checking all plugs on wires from the PSU; ensuring that they are all plugged in correctly and are secure. Check the PSU’s outputs (See this article.) and replace the PSU if it’s faulty.

    3) Is a motherboard fault.

Remedy: Replace the motherboard.

    4) Is a BIOS fault or failure.

Remedy: Replace the motherboard.

I checked the power plugs: They were all plugged in securely and tightly. I checked the PSU and it seemed OK. That was all I needed to know. A 32-bit single-cored Sempron CPU wasn’t worth replacing if it was dead, and if I was going to buy a new motherboard I’d have at least a dual-core Athlon 64 x 2 on it. I stripped out the motherboard, CPU, and RAM. (The DDR RAM still worked when I used it in an old PC.) The CPU I gave away marked as possibly faulty. The motherboard was binned and recycled.

I bought a new Gigabyte socket AM2 motherboard with a new Athlon 64 x 2 2.2GHz CPU and 2GB DDR2 667MHz RAM. The rebuilt computer is what I’m writing this post on.

In short, then, Part 13 is the Death Card: It indicates death of old substandard parts; and replacement with new, more functional and better components, bringing rebirth to a computer. (I bet you never thought of the concept of cyber-reincarnation before!?)

Part 13 is unlucky for some: Those who can’t or won’t learn how to rebuild or repair a computer. – But Part 13 is lucky for others – who end up with a similar or identical looking computer which has enhanced performance, having rebuilt it insdie using new companents.

In conclusion, then; if Windows XP crashes during boot and the BIOS says that it can’t find… then basically your box is dead. – But it can be reborn if you’re prepared to spend time and money on it.

Namaste’.

Hello, and welcome to another newsletter here on kkomp.com. In the last week I’ve produced some pretty good articles; although I say so myself. If you haven’t had a chance to read them yet I suggest that you click some links in the list below and have a look at anything that takes your fancy for a short to medium read: -

WordPress 2.8 Baker

The above post was more of a link than anything else. Quite obviously WP 2.8 has already been released, and it’s most likely that most WordPress-user-bloggers have already upgraded, even by the time the article was written,and sampled it for themselves. The thing is that not everyone will be aware of exactly what’s been changed straight away, unless it’s staring them straight in the face. – Therefore I thought it a good idea to do a little piece about it and link to the WordPress blog for further details; even if only to somewhat enhance the traffic to the WordPress blog as a thank you.

Something that carries a lot more weight is a computer’s PSU. It supplies quite a vast amount of wattage at low regulated voltages for its size. Only 30 years or so before it was invented and prototyped you’d have been looking at a box at least twice the size of your computer, if not bigger, just to perform the same function and supply the same output. That huge box would have also probably heated your entire house as a side product.

Due to significant advantages in manufacturing technology since then, a lot of miniaturisation has been made possible through component integration and also further advances in technology. Voltage regulators no longer require a set of differential amplifiers built from individual large aluminium-canned power-transistors. (2N3055 keeps appearing in my mind’s eye.) These days the differential amplifiers, multiple-output-stages, everything, is all integrated into a single hi-current regulator package about the size of a matchbox or thereabouts, making the unit cheaper, saving resources, producing less in the way of heat and outputting more in the way of power.

-But, despite higher tolerances and vastly better performance, things still fail eventually: Nothing lasts forever. – When a computer power supply fails the result can be quite catastrophic in some cases; with damage occurring to other sensitive CMOS-based parts.

If you know and understand the warning signs of impending PSU-failure then you can avoid this scenario happening in the case of your machine: Saving you you time, money, and resources. This article will give you some ideas about what to look for: -

‘Dodgy PSU? Replace it Before it Damages Anything Else

Perhaps I’m a bit intolerant, or maybe I just don’t have a high-threshold when it comes to the thoughtless acts of others. – Now when people are thoughtless towards others then that’s just plain wrong, and those people need an attitude adjustment along with having their brain switched on and their thought-processes enhanced in my opinion. However, when a person’s thoughtless actions are detrimental to themselves and/or to the company that they work for, then the expression “thoughtless” takes on an entire new meaning: Brain-dead might be a better description?

OK maybe that’s a bit harsh. I have to take into account that not everybody’s a geeky-type; but it should come as no surprise to anybody that if a computer remembers their data it must be stored somewhere. – When the power’s switched off and switched back on it still remembers the data that’s been inputted into it, so  it must be filed somewhere inside the computer; it’s just obvious logic.

- So when someone puts their old computer in a public place for disposal because they don’t want to use the dinosaur any more, you’d think that they’d remove their sensitive personal data from it wouldn’t you? …But no; many times people don’t bother: They just trust to luck or have too much faith in human nature and hand their identities over to all and sundry to do as they wish with. Likewise when someone sells their old hard-drive on eBay. – Do they bother to clean their data off of it? Do they even attempt to conceal it? In my experience not always, no. If I was a criminal I could now be operating under at least two identities other than my own and have some sort of racket going on with at least one business because of this. – All without even trying!

Read this article: -

Don’t Leave Sensitive Data on Your Old Hard-Drive

The following post was one that I pushed out in a bit of a hurry as an extra article, firstly to explain how I seemingly managed to miss the Summer Solstice; or at least I certainly missed posting about it, and secondly to warn about an unpatched security hole that Microsoft don’t appear to be that bothered about; even though exploit code has been written and released to the wild with regard to it.

Extra: Summer Solstice + Advisory

Is it Worth Running a RAID Array?

Above is a brief article in which I basically share my opinion, for what it’s worth, on the idea of using RAID on servers and also on workstations.

OH WOW! You Simply MUST See This: Is a post that, if I told you was an advert, might put you off reading it. – So what I did was give it an heir of mystery and allow those who are curious enough to drift towards it to do so. It’s not just any old advert though: Firstly, as my regulars will know by now, I don’t advertise crap on this blog. Secondly even I’m excited about this product, and I’m living proof that it’s worth getting excited about as I’m already part of it as a customer who’s benefitting greatly from the quality information-input from it.

In further marketing language; don’t just take my word for it: Read this: -

I’m just about to link you to a video that shows you, step-by-step, how to optimize your YouTube videos to help you drive an insane amount of traffic back to your website.Gideon, the guy who is not only a half of the Become A Blogger course that this article advertises, but who also created the video, tells me that he tried these exact same strategies on one of his own YouTube channels, and got like 67,400 views in just 8 weeks! At first I thought he was just kidding me but then I saw his channel, and my jaw dropped at the
results (He actually shows the same channel inside the video).

- So, yeah… if you want to get more traffic from YouTube, you’ll like this stuff…
http://www.becomeablogger.com/go.php?offer=kkomp&pid=4&u=http://www.becomeablogger.com/blog/youtube-x-factor/

But that’s only a part of it: Read the actual blog post itself for more links, on to an instructional video that actually features in the Become A Blogger course. – At absolutely no cost to yourself. – and another to a page where you can get another 10 instructional videos to do with the course.

Now that’s value in just the advertising alone…

Wednesday 24th June 2009 was this blog’s official first birthday: -

Happy Birthday Beyond

Lastly; when Microsoft launch Windows 7 on October 22nd 2009, they’ll be charging more for the Professional and Enterprise versions that have XP Mode included with them. – But why should you pay Microsoft more for the pleasure when there’s a way to scrub round it using free software? Read this article to find out how you could save yourself a few dollars more: -

How to Avoid Paying Extra for XP Mode(?)

That about sums up the week that was here on kkomp.com/Beyond since the last newsletter. Enjoy your weekend. ‘Next publication is scheduled for Monday; but you never can tell; I might get the bug like I did last weekend and publish something impromptu before then, and maybe I might not – ?

Namaste’

Peace.

What are botnets?

Botnets are a collection of thousands – sometimes millions – of mainly home and office computers that have been compromised by malicious software which allows then to be taken over and externally controlled in a mass distributed-computing criminal operation, giving the controllers masses of computing power and internet access. Botnet is short for robot network. The member computers of this network can be used by the controller(s) to accomplish almost any operation; including distributing and relaying spam, porn, stealing sensitive information, participating in DDoS attacks, etc.

How do botnets operate?

Malicious botnet software operates silently in the background, running with full privileges and utilising the computers’ resources. A Trojan horse may invisibly hold a port open so that the botnet controller can instruct the machine in what to do. Other rogue software may post millions of copies of spam emails, black-marketeering, fraudulent and illegitimate financial transactions, as well as reporting all the legitimate user’s personal details, including bank details, account passwords, as well as any business information – Even sensitive information from political organisations or Government officials, should their personal computers become compromised, to the controlling criminals.

A botnet will never inform you that your computer is a member; in fact a botnet will do its utmost to hide that fact. A recent estimated figure of 30 million computers; known as “zombies”, are unknowingly involved in a botnet network. Botnets spread by means of email, p2p, network-aware viral infections, and a number of other methods including directing a user to a malicious website where they are encouraged to click on a link that downloads the malicious code which will get them set up to run as part of the botnet. Once a computer is so compromised the botnet will almost instantly spread across any connected Local Area Network or LAN.

Basically all you need to do is be cynical about what you see online, practice safe computing, and use common sense. – If you do then you’ll be at far less risk of ever unknowingly joining a botnet.

- So how can I avoid becoming a part of a botnet?

Be careful. Don’t open any emails claiming to be from eBay, PayPal, banks or the government. Never click on email links to access suspect sites. If you feel compelled to take a look at the alleged website; Google for it and see if it is legitimate before typing the correct URL into your browser manually.

Always keep your computer up to date with genuine security patches issued by your operating system’s creator; especially if you use Microsoft Windows. It may help to use a spam filter to help in discerning malicious email. Keep your anti-malware programs updated and do not click on dubious links: If in doubt simply don’t click on it. Beware of offers that seem too good to be true: they probably are. Always suspect unexpected emails with subject tags related to holidays, celebrities or current events. Never buy anything from a spammer.

Normally a decent updated antivirus/antispyware program will protect your computer from most types of known botnet-associated malware. However, if your computer appears to be behaving strangely in some way then it’s always a sensible idea to run a scan, both from your regular antivirus software and other online sources. In the case of Windows, the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool supplied online every Patch Tuesday will also search for and eradicate the major forms of this type of threat when installed and run.

- A little helpful advice; prior to the release of Windows 7, which may save you some money: -

XP mode in Windows 7 is a free download of virtual PC software that emulates the XP hardware/software environment

There is a problem with XP Mode; several in fact: -

First, if you don’t have the Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate edition, then XP Mode just won’t work: It’s Microsoft’s way of getting you to pay more.

At this point you might be asking ”Why would I want XP Mode anyway?”: -

XP Mode will allow you to run a virtual Windows XP session, either or on the Win7 desktop or in a separate window. XP Mode is aimed people who have programs that ran fine on Windows XP, but won’t work on Vista or Windows 7 because of, mainly, the new system architecture, both software and hardware, and improved security associated with these operating systems.

- So if, say, you’re a business who wants to use Windows 7, but you regularly use programs that will only work in XP, and you don’t want to have to shell out for loads of new software on top of the operating system’s volume licence, you buy Enterprise Edition and use XP Mode where necessary. – I think that was the general idea.

BUT – What if you’re a home user and you’ve bought your shiny new machine complete with a preinstalled Home Premium version of Windows 7? You might be starting out in an online business, perhaps, and have software that you used to run on XP which makes Windows 7 cough and croak, or 7 simply refuses to run it in the first place. Oh dear; you’re screwed.

Oh; and just to rain even heavier on your fireworks, in the case that you did go out and buy Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate Edition, there’s something else that you should know:

There are also hardware requirements associated with XP Mode.

XP Mode requires your computer to have at least 2GB RAM, as well as to be running a processor that has Chip-Level Virtualisation built into its architecture: In other words you’ll need an AMD processor that supports AMD-V, or an Intel processor that supports Intel VT. Celeron, Pentium, and Sempron processors are a no-go due to this. Also, even if your processor does have this feature, it may not have been activated, so check your BIOS to make sure.

- Or perhaps maybe not: You see there may nevertheless be a way to scrub round it using a free download from Sun Microsystems called Virtual Box. Virtual box is exactly what it says on the tin; or should that read “exactly what it says on the box”? – It’s a virtual box that runs inside a physical box, and it allows you to run multiple operating systems on a single physical computer without having to dual-boot or partition the drive. You can in fact have both operating systems running at the same time, and you can switch between virtual operating systems too; whether they be Windows, Linux, …I’m not sure about OSX; possibly not. –?

- So in the case of our fictional business person above, we download and install Sun Virtual Box, and we then load XP Professional within the virtual environment.

Yes I’ve done it myself. Yes it worked without any problems on my 3-core AMD Phenom-powered box with 4GB DDR2 800MHz RAM installed at the time, running the 64-bit Windows 7 RC. (Incidentally I installed the 32-bit version of XP Pro inside the VM.) Do check that your box meets the minimum requirements before installing Virtual Box.

In conclusion, then, the way to avoid shelling out extra for a version of Windows 7 with XP Mode is to use something that’s free instead of XP Mode: -

Open Source – 1

Microsoft Proprietary – 0

Now I give no guarantees that this will work perfectly and flawlessly every time; so don’t try to sue me if it goes tits-up. Normally, however, it should, as far as I can see, provide a reasonable alternative to XP Mode. – What do you say? Over to you: Please comment.

It’s Wednesday 24th June 2009 and it’s kkomp.com’s first birthday today. It feels like I started this blog aeons ago, (Really, it does. It feels like I’ve been blogging for a number of years; yet it seems like only yesterday I had my 40th birthday.) and also only a few days ago too. In the year since this blog started I’ve made about 430 posts in 24 categories. – That’s not to mention the pages. My initial intention of enough content creation to place this blog on the blogosphere map has to all intents and purposes come to fruition, and some.

A year ago the world was facing the fact that we were in a global recession courtesy of the greedy international banking system. From what I hear lately, the UK appears to be pulling out of it: The economic growth report for March 2009 appears to indicate that GDP and growth returned to a positive figure in the case of UK. Although one leaf doesn’t make a summer; it appears that there are definite signs of a recovery on the way for Blighty.

- But; as some prominent bloggers have asked; where exactly is, or where exactly was, this massive economic downturn? More than not it appears to have been largely created within the minds of negatively-biased individuals by a media-led frenzy. The press will do anything to sell newspapers. A few businesses disappeared, true: That can and does even happen in times of economic prosperity though. Were there people claiming that the end of the world is nigh, that the commercial system as we knew it was going into meltdown? Of course there were: ‘Probably the same doom-mongers who did the same thing in the last recession, and the one before that too. – But the car-parks are still just as full at the shopping-malls as they always were, the traffic still flowed as per usual on the highways and byways, the world continued turning.

I accept that the world financial institutions made crazy speculative investments which lost them billions: perhaps they’ll now learn that putting spotty teenagers with a constant hangover and greedy out-of-control excuses for businesspeople in charge of the world monetary system is a definite recipe for its doom.

As we hopefully begin to emerge from this major economic turbulence we find that the world is still changing in our favour: By “our” I mean those of us who are building our world online. Social networking and global communication has, and will most likely continue to, cause the storm-clouds to depart and to build bridges of co-operation and opportunity for businesses globally. The remainder of the commercial entities will be forced to follow suit. Unfortunately for those of the old-school; opportunity and inter-corporate/interpersonal connectivity will continue to elude them, and they will fade away to be replaced by those who are operating under the new electronically-connected socio-commercial framework that has arisen from technological and societal advancement and the evolution of civilisation that has ensued as a result of that progress.

As I pointed out earlier, during the last year this blog has accrued around 430 posts, mainly of late technologically-orientated material dealing with basic practical and theoretical electronics and/or computer hardware and software, punctuated here and there by a news item or two which stood out to me, along with the odd mystical/Pagan-themed post.

Like a human child; this blog started without form, just a cell of an idea, fertilised and conceived a year ago on a whim, following a suggestion from someone who was already a blogger. Having no womb to mature within, it slowly took form in the wild, evolving with the mainly indirect assistance of a number of professionals who advised and directed with regard to its construction, renovation, changes, layout, and to a limited extent its content.

My naivety during the first couple of months of managing this blog was a little more prolific than I’d imagined it would be. I remember my first move as my brainchild came into existence was to announce on the social media channels, which I’d only recently become familiar with and had managed to pick up 1 or 2 followers, that I now have a blog: here’s the URL; please come visit. Well 1 or 2 people did visit, for about as long as it took to hit their back button on their browser.

I’d heard of people making fortunes on the internet; but somehow connected it with the dot com boom of the turn of the century, and regarded it as a thing of the past. Spring 2008 turned to Summer, my web 1.0 website at kustomkomputa.co.uk didn’t appear to be attracting much if any business, and I was starting to become extremely despondent. – Then a pro-blogger by the name of David Risley suggested I start a blog using WordPress. – Well what I was doing at the time wasn’t working; so in for a penny… Why the heck not?

I had been using Word 10 as an html editor to build kustomkomputa.com: It was difficult, cumbersome, and the resultant pages were full of so much unnecessary html that they took quite some time to load even with a broadband connection. Despite this I’d become used to Microsoft Word, and I even understood most of the crap html in it.

WordPress was a totally different kettle of fish though. I downloaded it, looked at the files and their contents, and screamed inside. .php – I’d never learned any php. .css – I had even less idea about css. Html: No problem; even Microsoft Word. – Especially Microsoft Word. Php and css, though, looked like Chinese to me.

By the time I’d installed WordPress on the server my head was so drenched in sweat I thought I’d just washed my hair! – But I’d done it. – And it didn’t work. Check: Had I done everything right? Yes. I’d triple checked everything before I started, and triple checked it again after every stage while I was doing it. having triple checked everything afterwards I eventually discovered that fasthosts.co.uk Windows servers were no good for running WordPress on. I’d specifically asked them beforehand: -

“Are your Windows servers able to run WordPress?”

Answer: “I don’t know. Nobody’s ever run WordPress from our servers before.”

- When pressed: “Well I can’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work on a Windows server. If you install it and it doesn’t work properly then we can always put you on a Linux server instead. The transfer won’t cost anything, our Linux servers cost exactly the same price to use as our Windows servers, and it’ll only take a few minutes to swap over.”

It didn’t work on their Windows server. – As promised they transferred me to a Linux server, and I installed WordPress again. This time it worked straight off and without problem.

Advice:

1) If using fasthosts.co.uk as your host for a self-hosted WordPress blog; always choose their Linux servers as your server.

     1a) Always use a Linux server wherever possible: Linux is a much better server platform than Windows.

2) Don’t use fasthosts.co.uk, unless you want to be wound up in red tape.

I hope you like reading; There’s more: -

To start with I didn’t really bother too much about presentation as far as the pages were concerned, which was my first mistake: After a false start earlier in June 2008, where it ended up that I took the entire blog down and restarted from scratch due to some kind of major problem. – I can’t remember what exactly, I downloaded and used a pre-built theme, threw up a Welcome page – almost literally by the previous look of it, and concentrated on turning out content.

I decided to break the mould of how most blogs were operating early on, by having a Welcome page initially, which visitors not linking from a link to an article would arrive at, rather than having the entire content of my posts appearing in chronological order on that initial page. Unfortunately the element that was missing was a contents listing, other than a table of the ten latest posts in the sidebar. This was a matter that wasn’t remedied until 2009, which was another major mistake I made. I agree that it would have been more sensible to attend to the matter earlier, but as things turned out it didn’t happen that way. We live and learn.

Although I’d written a number of papers over the past few years; I didn’t then classify myself as a writer, and maybe it showed. A few of my articles at the time were articles featuring content throughout that I’d created myself, but they were mainly seemingly less than quality content. In the main I concentrated upon relaying news items that I found to be of interest more than anything else.

Quite obviously, since there were an almost infinite number of alternative and better-known sources of the news that I was relaying; people stuck with what they knew, and other than a few visits sent by Google I didn’t get much traffic at all. Also, although I’d downloaded and installed the tools for search-engine-optimisation, I hadn’t configured them properly, (- As I actually wasn’t aware that they required further configuration in the early days, and I also didn’t know how to do it anyway, had I even been aware.) which didn’t help either.

During July 2008 I’d started to introduce advertising via advertisments that I’d created myself with links back to Clickbank. This however generated very little, if any, revenue.

By September 2008 I’d started to relay the news items whilst also including my personal take on them. Although this helped, it still didn’t have that much upwards-effect on my traffic figures. Despite having trained in electronics, as well as having a number of years of experience with computers, I felt at the time still very naive and vulnerable when it came to blogging, pretty much throughout 2008. Despite this though, I noticed that this blog was nevertheless ranked 5-million and-something-th at the time.

In October 2008, I think it was, I began to properly configure my SEO plugins, such as All-in-One-SEO-Pack, Google XML Sitemaps, etc. This did begin to have a positive effect, and the number of unique visitors began to increase somewhat. I also began utilising further free tips from David Risley, which also helped.

By December 2008 the blog was attracting a more realistic audience figure, and I set my attention upon the blog’s homepage, as well as the header and footer.php files, with the intention of tidying it up and making it look more attractive. Php still worried me, as although it was quite easy to understand, I was constantly having issues with the syntax of anything I wrote. Also most of what I wrote clashed with the style.css file of my theme. Although my effort eventually improved the page considerably, the resultant page was too crowded, not designed well, and the colour scheme failed to convey the theme of the blog. Many female readers liked it; but since the blog was attracting a mainly male, older, audience, I felt that it wasn’t a sensible option to allow things to continue that way.

I worked on and designed an entirely new home (Welcome) page, in addition the the header and footer, and implemented in during January and February 2009. I also edited and redesigned the theme to be more in tune with the central subject material of the blog.

Previous to this, although the subject matter had been mainly of a technical bent, I hadn’t really had a theme for the blog as such, nor had I used the blog’s design to clearly indicate the subject matter to my readers; which probably left some readers in somewhat of a quandary as to exactly what it was that I was trying to convey herein.

Also the footer, (footer.php) at one point during 2008 had a serious php error in it which caused a number of problems. These issues were rectified when I almost totally rewrote the header using a lot of html in addition to attending to the php already present – which was enhanced, and also in addition I repaired and enhanced the footer.

In doing so I introduced a header banner, which I enhanced over a number of weeks. I’ve since moved the RSS link into the header, and provided the mailing-list-subscription link high in the sidebar, above the fold, by writing its script into the sidebar.php file. I also introduced a contents page,clearly linked to from the header as well as the Welcome page.

A lot of the inspiration for the redesign came from Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick’s “Becomeablogger” course, which I bought into earlier this year, admittedly a little late. Whilst I haven’t yet implemented all of the suggestions within the course material by any means yet, it has nevertheless helped me out no end. The Becomeablogger course will be having its second run soon, and the enrolment window will be between 29th June and 3rd July 2009. As soon as the window opens I’ll be advertising it in the header of this blog, so if you’d like to join up you’ll have the opportunity to do so via this blog.

One of the biggest issues for me over this past year has been avoiding clutter, both in the sidebar and on the Welcome page. The sidebar is an area which I’ve particularly concentrated upon in this respect, along with its appearance, as the sidebar appears along with almost every page and post. My intention has been to not let it detract the reader’s attention overly from the main article. I hope I succeeded in that.

That’s summed up some of the main points of the blog’s evolution over the time since its creation. No doubt it will continue to evolve further with time; hopefully in a positive manner.

The Future

So what will I be doing on this blog in the future? For the immediate future nothing much is scheduled to change. I’ll be writing more free content fairly regularly, plus making the odd tweak to the theme perhaps. I’ll be adding further advertising of top-quality products from other bloggers and online businesspeople, plus also I will probably be writing more reviews of a number of them.

At some point I’m hoping to be adding podcasts to the mix – Maybe followed by video too. I don’t have a schedule for doing so planned out at this point, so I can’t be any more definite than that at this present moment.

A year has passed, and the blog is still up and running. I have the feeling that the following year will contain many profitable and beneficial additions; both for you the visitor as well as for me the blogger, plus any help in the form of people that I take on in the future.

That’s about it for this post then: A year older and wiser.

Enjoy the rest of the Summer if you live in the upper Northern hemisphere. If you live in the lower Southern hemisphere you can take heart in the fact that midwinter has passed. Wherever you are, enjoy the rest of the year, and don’t forget to return regularly to kkomp.com to see what’s new. If you happen to be in space or on another planet then enjoy the break, and if you aren’t part of the Human Race from Earth and you actually live on another planet then I invite you to make contact with the us Humans. – We’re a peculiar civilisation, but most of us still have some semblance of normality left I believe.

If you’re not on the mailing list then it would be a good idea to subscribe to it and get notified by email. You might also like to subscribe to the RSS feed for notification too.

Finally I invite comments/constructive criticisms/remarks… You know the drill.

This is totally awesome: In an earlier post; in fact the last Newsletter. – This one. – I promised you that I’d be advertising Yaro Starak & Gideon Shalwick ’s Becomeablogger course during the signup window from the 29th June to 3rd August… Well I still intend to stick to my word on that; but something came in an email this morning. – And I’ve only just read my email now.

‘No time to find pictures: I just must tell you.

____________________________________________________

STOP PRESS:

I interrupt this exciting news to bring you the following message:-

Hey

This is crazy…

CLICK THIS LINK

Inside the video, Yaro talks about what he calls "Impact Marketing Techniques" – the kind of tricks he’s used himself to drive hoards of new traffic to his own 6-figure income blog. Now, what makes this video so special? Well, normally you’d have to pay for it.

But not today…

You can watch it at no cost right now, without one of those silly optin forms – nice for a change, really:

CLICK THIS LINK

In any case, I just thought I’d let you know about this powerful video, because no matter what you do online, you can never know enough about how to drive crazy amounts of traffic to your blog.

Subject 1: how to rapidly grow your blog traffic

Subject 2: keen to try these blog traffic power tips

___________________________________________________________________

What I have for you here may be a kind of back door with which to get in on the Becomeablogger “reserved-place list” just a little in advance of the sign-up window: Let me explain a little further: -

World famous blogger Yaro Starak just sent me a note about a powerful report he released that caused an upheaval in the "blogosphere" (cost =zero)…

http://www.becomeablogger.com/go.php?offer=kkomp&pid=4&u=http://www.becomeablogger.com/roadmap/

If you are interested in starting your own blog and becoming a super successful blogger, this may be just the information you’ve been looking for.Check this: The report has now been downloaded over 20,000 times! That’s gotta tell you something about the quality of the report. I mean, heck, 20,000 downloads? That’s enough people to start a small city! The report reveals a step-by-step guide that takes you from absolute beginner to blogging pro in 5 easy milestones. Once you have it all set up, you’ll also learn some extremely powerful "X-Factor" strategies for driving truckloads of traffic to your blog using a range of multi-media tools and the latest social media tactics.
And of course, you know what that means right? The more traffic you get, the more bucks you can make online! But you should really check it out for yourself and see why so many other people around the world are raving about this report…Here is the page again:

http://www.becomeablogger.com/go.php?offer=kkomp&pid=4&u=http://www.becomeablogger.com/roadmap/

Oh,also, Gideon tells me that he’s also programmed in a powerful 7-part mini course (at zero cost) that accompanies the Roadmap Report… And he says that people have been lapping it up!
Better check it out here now:

http://www.becomeablogger.com/go.php?offer=kkomp&pid=4&u=http://www.becomeablogger.com/roadmap/

Well; you can imagine my instant surprise when I saw this email; so I just couldn’t stay quiet about it. Since you are either reading this article in my blog &/OR you’re subscribed to my mailing list I’m letting the cat out of the bag right now as a way of saying “thank you” to you.

These impromptu posts are becoming quite the norm of late eh? Don’t worry; I won’t as far as I can see be deluging you with any more of them. – But I just had to tell you about this. Now if you get the free report and course then I get a definite feeling from reading between the lines of Yaro’s email that there is a good chance that you’ll find yourself with an open invitation in due course to get one of those already limited places on the Becomeablogger course.

No it isn’t free in this case, but there’s no obligation involved to spend any loot if you don’t want to. having said that, this is an offer that’ll be too good to be true. I’ve already done a lot if not most of the course; I was in on the first run, and believe me it is hot!

Whether you decide to go all the way, or you just settle for the report and mini-course for free, it’s your choice. – But if you don’t click now you might miss out on something you’ll later regret not looking at. Here’s that link again. ‘Last time: -

http://www.becomeablogger.com/go.php?offer=kkomp&pid=4&u=http://www.becomeablogger.com/roadmap/

Go on; click it. – You’ll be glad you did.

Please please please do not miss out on this. – For your own sake.

Enjoy.

Happy Blogging.

Success to you.

You may or may not have heard of the term RAID when applied to hard-drives. RAID is an acronym for Redundant Array of Independent Disks, and is a system where a number of identical hard-drives can be utilised in a number of pre-defined configurations for the purposes of reinforcing data storage and/or extending the capacity of a single hard-drive across a number of drives while the operating system sees them all as one single drive. For more information on the types of RAID configuration available, see this article.

In my opinion; running a RAID array on your home system configured as a workstation isn’t really a viable idea. It can add a considerable amount of cost to your hardware budget; even with the falling cost of larger hard-drives, it is not much less prone to failure than a standard setup in such circumstances, and it can use considerably more wattage, putting extra strain on the PSU and spitting in the eye of environmental campaigners.

I won’t go into all the details of the various types of RAID array and their individual advantages and disadvantages at this point: Time and space constraints don’t allow me to write the eBook that I’d need to write in order to do the subject justice.

Server systems, however; particularly public servers, are a completely different kettle of fish with regard to using RAID; particularly in terms of backup:

As you may be aware, certain RAID configurations, such as RAID 1, automatically copy the data content of one disk to the other/another, in a technique known as “mirroring”. – Therefore, should one of the discs develop a data-error of some kind; the RAID-controller can instantly pick up the fact that the two discs have a data discrepancy, after which it can check the parity of the relevant areas of both discs individually, and discern which of the two has failed; then replace the data on the erroneous disc with the uncorrupted data on the non-erroneous disc. This saves the server system fro  having to call on a probably already busy technician to attend to the issue and run chkdsk or some similar tool to resolve the data error on a single drive.

In addition to this; should there be an error caused by irretrievable bad sectors on one of the drives, the original mirrored data is stored in its original form on another disc, and the server system signals a repair technician to replace the malfunctioning drive, after which the system restores the non-corrupted data to the new drive from the still-working mirrored drive.

The upshot of this is that the system can keep running with minimal if any interruption, and the workload on the technician is minimised. The last thing a server centre would wish for is avoidable downtime where a data error has to be manually repaired by the duty tech.

The above applies, not only to public internet servers, but to a slightly lesser extent to business and home servers; whether connected to serve a domain or as part of a Local Area Network or LAN.

In conclusion, then, a RAID array is a most useful thing to run on any type of server; particularly RAID 1 or similar. – However for a home or office computer used as a workstation I wouldn’t really consider setting up a RAID array as it just gives rise to unnecessary complications.

- Having said that; there may be circumstances where a RAID array on a terminal or workstation might be a good thing. Do you, the reader, have any ideas where this may be applicable? if so then please feel free to comment further to the above.

As a last minute addition, I’ll just add, as I’ve also said elsewhere, Linux is always a better operating system for servers in my opinion. Although I normally use Windows only on my desktop, with my Linux usage being so infrequent as to be negligible in that respect; I would nevertheless recommend Linux (Red Hat and others.) way more than I would recommend Windows for use with a server system.

In short; and you have every right to disagree if you wish, my preference is Windows for workstations, Linux for servers. – And yes it is possible to run RAID in Linux.

Advertisment: -

I want to cover two main issues with this impromptu post:

The first; a minor issue, is that a couple of people asked me why I didn’t cover the Summer Solstice in any way whatsoever on this blog; being a Pagan and this blog being of a Pagan disposition they assumed that I would be doing so. Maybe I should have done so; but I really didn’t have time what with one thing and another. I utilised what little spare time I did have this solstice to cleanse my home, office, and the area directly surrounding it of negative spirits and energies.

As you may or may not know; I have been, up to this last weekend, producing blog posts by writing and publishing them on the same day. – Sometimes within the same afternoon or evening. Whilst this method of posting always ensures a totally fresh distribution of published posts; I find that the posts I produce can at times be of better quality if I return to them a day or more later and re-edit them.

Bearing this in mind, I remembered this from some years back with regard to the papers I used to write when I pre-wrote the first draft of the kkomp.com birthday post on the 15th June 2009 in lieu of publication on the 24th: This blog’s first birthday. Between than and now I have somehow managed to put in a special effort to write almost an entire week’s worth of posts, all of which are scheduled for publication this week. (This may mean that the posts are published but not added to the Blog Contents page until a later time, as I am still using a system of manual activation in order to have new posts listed on the Blog Contents page. Eventually I will get round to writing a script that lists the new blog titles automatically as and when they are published, but for the time being I’m using the manual method.)

The upshot of pre-writing, editing, re-editing, and publishing post entries at a later date will hopefully be that the new posts as you the reader sees them will be of better quality, more informative, and containing less grammatical and spelling/punctuation errors; although I do strive to keep the latter to a minimum as things stand now. (This post has been typed in draft, edited, and published within a few hours on the same day, therefore,,, apollogeeze 4 any errorsx that wood otherwhyse hav bean editted out.) </font></p>

Next; a more major issue, in implications for the Windows world at least, and a return to the subject of computers and the internet. This section of this post from hereon is, basically, an advisory: -

Microsoft appear to be taking too long to produce some patches pertaining to various vulnerabilities in their operating systems: So long in fact that by the time the patches are released on Patch Tuesday, the exploit code used to exploit the security hole has been released into the wild and is finding its way into systems globally; despite on a more minor scale in comparison to some attacks.

One such still-unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft Windows XP and Server 2003 is reported by Symantec to have been added to an attack kit that lures people to use a phishing site, then the phishing site redirects visitors to another URL that hosts some DirectShow attack code, which exploits a security hole in Microsoft’s Direct X that Microsoft issued a security advisory for in May 2009, at the same time confirming evidence of “Limited attacks” even back then.

The code is in the form of a malicious .avi file. Multiple malformed .dll files are loaded onto the system under attack also. Those malicious .dll files load an .exe payload that downloads and installs a Trojan horse. The Trojan then adds the compromised PC to a growing botnet.

This attack code affects Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003. Windows Vista and Server 2008. are unaffected, as is the so-far-unreleased Windows 7 RTM. (I believe that the Release Candidate that is currently on many computers is also unaffected.)

Ben Greenbaum, a senior research manager with Symantec, is reported to have said that this attack is of limited distribution rather than a targeted attack.

Microsoft suggest that users disable QuickTime parsing on Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003 machines. Apple’s QuickTime itself is not flawed; however the QuickTime parser in DirectShow, a component of DirectX, is flawed. Microsoft have issued instructions for editing the Windows registry, as well as issuing a tool that automates the process. The effect of running this tool or editing the registry is to disable Quick Time content playback. Microsoft have also issued an antidote for the automated process tool which resets the registry back to how it was. These tools and instructions are downloadable from this link.

It would appear that Microsoft have no intention of issuing a proper patch until next Patch Tuesday on 14th July 2009. Until then we have to hope that the issue doesn’t escalate to crisis level.

If your computer won’t power up when you press the power button, the fault is probably one of three things:-

1) The power button itself is faulty.

2) The motherboard is faulty.

Or, more than likely;

3) The power supply unit ( PSU ) has failed.

Did you notice a burning smell last time you powered up your computer? Did you see smoke and/or flames at the back of it?

If so it’s likely that your PSU has burned out.

Is the power supply’s fan still working?

If not then it’s most likely that your PSU has burned out.

If this is the situation with your computer, then I’ll be 100% honest with you from square 1: Your computer may or may not be seriously damaged.

The PSU supplies power to each component part of your computer. Most of those component parts are very sensitive. There is a chance that a high-voltage spike from the PSU as it died has fried something critical inside your computer: The CPU, for example, or the RAM. Maybe the graphics processor on the graphics card.

- So it’s always a good idea, if you have definite suspicions that your power supply unit is playing up, to replace it, in order to prevent this situation from happening. Normally if you catch and replace a PSU before it fails there is a lot less chance of it damaging other components.

*I have to say it just to cover all the bases: -

If your computer appears dead; check the following before you do anything else: -

*Is the power cable plugged into both the wall socket and the power supply?

*Is the fuse in the UK 13 amp plug (BS1363) (If you’re in the UK.) working? 

*If you’re using a power strip or surge protector, is it turned on and working?

*Is the on/off switch on the rear of the power supply switched on?

*Is the 110/220 Volt switch set to the correct setting? In Europe it should always be set to 220 volts. If it’s set to 110 volts in Europe it’ll destroy your PSU and probably fry most of the other circuitry too in the process. In the USA, it should be set at the 110 volt setting. This is due to the Americans using 110 volt AC mains voltage; whereas most of the rest of the world uses approximately 220 volts AC.

What to look out for

Is the CPU fan extremely dusty/dirty/manked out with dust and/or making unusual noises? If so then, whilst it’s possible to remove the PSU, open it up, and clean it out + lubricate/replace the fan; I don’t recommend this for anyone not familiar with the innards of a PSU. Why? Because there are high voltages inside the PSU, even when it’s switched off and disconnected after operating. These charges are stored in the capacitors inside the unit, and can, in some instances, take days to discharge. Also it’s very fiddly precision work that could take up a lot of time. It’s always a better idea to replace the PSU completely.

If the fan fails to turn properly the PSU can and will eventually overheat and burn out. This could be anything between the same day and possibly next year; but you can rest assured that it’ll happen, and probably at the most inconvenient time.

Does your computer shut down unexpectedly at times? If so then there may be any of a number of issues affecting it. First check that the issue isn’t software-oriented: A file-system error may be the cause, or possibly data corruption, even a malware issue perhaps? (See this article for details of how to fix file system and data corruption issues.) If it’s not a software issue then quite probably the cheapest one of the hardware issues to rectify will be the PSU. Even if replacing it doesn’t solve the problem, at least you know that you now have a brand new PSU installed. If it does solve the problem then it probably cost you less than replacing the RAM and/or the motherboard would have done; which would have been the next steps.

How do I replace a PSU?

Fortunately doing so is not as difficult as you may imagine: Just be sure that the unit you replace it with is as good or better quality than the unit you replaced. Some cheap and nasty power supplies are not what they seem. See this article. I suggest that before you replace a PSU that appears to have already burned out, you check its output first, before replacing it, as the reason that your machine appears dead my not always mean that the PSU is the faulty component part.

You can see where the PSU sits inside the case before you open it: Look on the back of the case and you’ll see the electricity mains power input and the opening for the power supply fan in close proximity. Now open up the case and identify the PSU: – A metal box with coloured wires that connect to the motherboard and other components. Make a note of where each one is connected: It’ll make it easier to reconnect then efficiently later, when you’ve replaced the PSU unit.

Ensuring that the computer is disconnected from the mains electricity, remove all the plugs on the ends of the bunches of wires that issue from the PSU from their sockets on the computer’s components. Be gentle and don’t force anything: if it wont budge then there’s probably a clip holding it in, or it might need a bit of gentle coaxing. (It would be a good idea to connect your body to electrical earth with an antistatic earthed wrist strap before starting this entire operation; just to be on the safe side.)

The power supply is normally mounted in the case and secured with four screws on the back of the case. Remove the screws and gently urge the PSU out of the case, ensuring that any of the trailing coloured wires don’t catch on anything and damage it. You might in some cases find that the PSU’s removal is obstructed by (an)other component(s). if this is the case it may be necessary to remove those components also. Don’t freak here: if you don’t feel able to continue you’ll have to ask a geek for help. Don’t lose the screws; put them somewhere safe. (I have screws lurking in every corner of the room where I neglect to keep them safe at times.) Having got the old unit out, discard it. Recycle it if at all possible. (ROHS)

Most PSUs these days are ATX type. If you have an old AT type PSU fitted to your computer then I suggest that you simply bin the computer and get a new one due to its age, or you give or sell it to a museum if you can. (Remember to delete the data on the hard-drive first.)

You’ll need to buy a replacement PSU with identical or higher ratings than the old one. Higher ratings would be a good idea in case of future expansion. (Adding more components.) I suggest ordering online, as shops and department stores may add extra cost simply to help keep their plush showrooms running.

Installing the New PSU

Insert the new unit into the space from which the old unit came and screw it into place using the four screws you took from the old unit’s mountings. You’ll normally need a Phillips screwdriver to do this; just as you would have required to remove them in the first place.

Next; find the ATX (P1) power connector and firmly plug it into the motherboard’s ATX receptacle.

Plug the SATA or Molex power connectors into the hard drive, cdrom drive, and all other components, as appropriate, (See your notes that I advised you to take previously.) that were previously connected to the power supply’s outputs.

*If a component has both a SATA and a Molex power connector, only connect one or the other. Connecting both will destroy the component and probably your new PSU also when you power up.*

Make sure that there are no unused power connectors hanging around in the case where they could touching a fan or anything metal. Use twist-wires or cable-ties to secure any such connectors securely to the case without allowing them to electrically connect with the case. See this article.

Replace the case panel and reconnect the monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, etc.

Check the On/Off and 110/220 switches (if present) on the back of the power supply to make sure they are in the correct position – Remember: 220 volts in Europe; 110 if in the USA or anywhere else where the mains input voltage is 110 volts. *If in doubt; start with the switch set at 220 volts and if it doesn’t work, try 110 volts. – unless you’re in Europe, in which case something somewhere’s not connected if it doesn’t work. *I repeat: DO NOT attempt to set the switch to 110 volts in Europe. – Otherwise you will hear a bang and your computer will be toast.

Insert the power cable’s “kettle plug” into the socket on the back of the power supply, plug the other end into your wall socket or power strip, and power up as normal. Everything should work properly and your PSU is no longer dodgy.

Your comments are appreciated.

I was intending to take it easy this weekend; but I’ve got the bug, so here’s a supplemental post: -

- Just a quick post for those of you who haven’t yet upgraded or don’t yet use WordPress to run their blog; here’s a short video covering the latest developments.

Download WordPress 2.8 here. Over 790 bugs were fixed, and themes, widgets, taxonomies, and overall speed have been improved. This release is named in honour of noted trumpeter and vocalist Chet Baker.

If you’re thinking of starting a blog at some point then I do suggest that you use WordPress as a platform. Also if you’re going to start a blog the right way I suggest that you read my latest Newsletter. You could quite possibly find the content very helpful.

If you want even more detail about WordPress 2.8 then click here.

You’re going to start again with a new setup. Your old faithful machine is too old and is wearing out. Perhaps you’ve been running Windows XP on it for years. Maybe you tried to upgrade it to Vista a couple of years ago, but the hardware wouldn’t have it and something crashed; so you reinstalled XP and stuck with that. Now the machine’s showing intense signs of old age: It’s slow and it BSODs too much, the hard-drive is making funny noises, the PSU fan is so noisy it sounds like a prop-plane, the capacitors on the motherboard are bulging, the DVD drive stopped working months ago, the processor is an old 32-bit single-core chip… It’s just far too much hassle to renovate. There’s a new operating system coming out soon; Windows 7, which it won’t run but which you want to use.  It’s time for a whole new setup.

Out goes the old machine onto the driveway, ready for the trash collectors to take away… STOP!

You’ve just discarded your entire identity onto your driveway for anyone who wants to steal it to use. All the data on the hard-drive is accessible by anyone who knows how to get it. – And that’s a surprisingly large number of people, incidentally. All they need to do is remove the hard-drive from the computer, or, even easier than that, pick up the whole machine while nobody’s watching; take it back to their pad, remove the hard-drive, connect it up to another machine, and your identity is theirs.

“Oh no, I’m cleverer than you think: My user account is password-protected and I’m using the NTFS file system.”

Password protection? That’s an easy one to deal with: Here’s one way to get past it. Who was it that said that “A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing”?

You need to erase your hard-drive for your own security’s sake.

- Or maybe you’ve just been given a new setup for your birthday, so you’re going to sell your old one on eBay, or see if someone locally will buy it off you.

You need to erase your hard-drive for your own security’s sake.

Maybe you’re just replacing the hard-drive itself: Removing the old drive and replacing it with a larger drive, then selling the old hard-drive on eBay?

You need to erase your hard-drive for your own security’s sake.

-So how do I do that?

A reformat of the drive before you remove it, (Having first backed up any data you want to keep.) is the most basic way to do it; but you might not be entirely satisfied that this operation alone is secure enough. Often; although the drive can’t be instantly inserted into another computer and read as if you hadn’t bothered, it’s sometimes not that hard to recover at least some of the previous data using very basic freeware data recovery tools after a reformat.

There are a number of programs out there that will overwrite the data on your drive repeatedly with random characters. This can make the data virtually impossible to recover using even the most sophisticated data-recovery techniques. Personally I use Webroot System Eraser. This is a handy dos utility that I have a copy of on floppy disc as well as a copy burned to CD. It’s bootable, so you can simply boot from floppy or CD and set it to overwrite everything on as many discs as you like with random data which is generated by the program a number of times. There are many other similar programs; some free, which operate in a similar fashion.

Don’t deliver your sensitive data into the hands of criminals. Erase your hard-drive(s) before you dump or sell it / them.

I don’t steal people’s identities – fortunately for several people who’ve given or sold me their old hard-drive; neither do I blackmail companies or sell their sensitive data to scammers and spammers – fortunately for a company who sold me a batch of their old hard-drives on eBay.

I’m a tech; so I’m bound to have more opportunity to get hold of a hard-drive that somebody forgot to erase, surely? True, but I don’t generally use old hard-drives these days. I bought an old 10GB  IDE drive on eBay 3 years ago to replace the 1.2 GB IDE drive in someone’s ancient computer that was on its way out. (Surprisingly the computer, which was originally built for Windows 95 or 98 I believe, (It had had its AGP graphics card upgraded to 16MB and its PC133 RAM increased to 250MB at some point.) did run Windows XP Home, and fairly well too.) I also purchased a lot of redundant 40GB SATA hard-drives back in 2007 on the cheap to use in test-machines that I quickly knocked up for trialling software. I still have at least 1 of the SATA HDDs left; probably with an installation of Windows 2000 on it too, just like most of the others in that job lot I bought.

- What I’m saying is that if I get the odd live one now and again, then so, probably, does anyone else who’s bought secondhand hard-drives. …And people wonder why there’s so much crime! For some of the more unscrupulous types of people it would be like a red rag to a bull! – And there’s no bull in saying that either.

eBay has become a rather complex beast since it was founded in September 1995, by Pierre Omidyar, a French-born programmer who was previously an engineer at General Magic, a mobile communications company.

eBay owns Shopping.com,  PayPal; an online payment service, has acquired Skype, an Internet calling service; StubHub, a ticketing exchange, and several classified advertising sites around the world, including Kijiji.com.

Recently the company has had a number of challenges to its strategies. The overall growth has slowed in its core auctions business. Amazon.com has begun to pull independent sellers away from eBay; and Google has started its own payment system, called Checkout; which is treading on PayPal’s toes somewhat.

eBay now needs to encourage regrowth in the core auction business, which would then justify its 2005 acquisition of Skype, which cost a small fortune.

Click here for the original video by Weird Al Yankovic.

.

eBay Executive Officers

Pierre M. Omidyar
Chairman. since 1996

John J. Donahoe
CEO since 2005

Robert H. Swan
CFO since 2006

Lorrie M. Norrington
Corp.Exec. since 2008

Scott Thompson
Corp.Exec. since 2008

In today’s Newsletter I have two major things to announce: -

First is this blog’s first Birthday; which will be on 24th June 2009: the day before the next newsletter is scheduled to be published. This blog has almost made it through the first year; and I’ve learned a lot… But more on that in the Birthday post that’ll be published on the day.

The second, and most important thing I wanted to tell you about, is meant, in a way, to be a secret right at this moment in time. – But I’ve decided to give you advanced knowledge of it, so that you’ll be prepared when it happens:

Now for those of you who have just started, or are thinking of starting, your own blog, there is an amazing course which I myself have just been on. It’s a joint venture by two very prominent internet entrepreneurs; namely Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick. – Both from Australia.

Don’t go tying me kangaroo down just yet, – because this course, this time round, isn’t starting just yet. Oh no; you’ll have to wait until next week for the sign-up window. You see, last time the course launched, the take-up rate was so phenomenal that many expectant people had to be turned away and queued for the next launch, simply because the servers used in distributing the course material would have been unable to cope with the demand. – The load that would have been put on them had any more people joined.

As a result there is now a queue of people already waiting to join the program who have been promised a place; and therefore places are limited as it is, even before the launch starts. That leaves Yaro and Gideon with the dilemma of how to avoid the same type of rush this time round, and the best way of avoiding disappointing people again.

They have come up with a solution: -

Last time round the signup window, in terms of time, was fairly large, and the Becomeablogger course was well advertised on a number of prominent sites for a few weeks. People umm-ed and arr-ed, as they do, for a while; then they all suddenly rushed at the chance at the last minute. – Result: A crush at the turnstile, and many people didn’t get in. This time the number of available places are even more limited due to the waiting queues that have been waiting pretty much all year so far to get in and skyrocket their blog’s popularity, and therefore their chances of generating a proper income from it.

Whoever reads this newsletter, however, has a definite advantage: That of advanced notification, so that they can strike while the iron’s hot and get in there to reserve their place before all the remaining vacancies run out.

So when’s it all happening? What is the crucial time to strike?

Well; the Roadmap to Become a Blogger report is scheduled to be re-released on the 23rd June; but the critical time period, the sign-up window, starts on June 29th and ends on July 3rd. – That’s only allowing a 5-day window to join. – Which means places could be more limited, even, than I think.

Quite obviously you don’t want to miss out on this chance to advance your blog by learning the ways of the blogging – masters. I assume that you’ll want to try everything to get your blog as highly rated as you can, generate a decent amount of traffic, and start earning a profit from it in financial terms. – So by my publishing this advanced disclosure, and also by you reading my article, you’ve put yourself in with a significantly higher chance of being able to do so than many others who didn’t bother to read this, or haven’t heard of kkomp.com and/or “Beyond”.

What I’m going to do, then, is to start advertising in banner form in the page header on almost every page of this blog as soon as the sign-up window opens. The advert will be in place of the 3-Day-Money ad, so keep your eyes peeled for it; because it’ll only be there for 5 days. Even if I am a bit slow to take it down; the official window is only 5 days anyway; so it may transpire that even if you click late you could well be out of luck.

So please do keep your eyes on the top of most of the pages and posts on this blog; otherwise you’ll end up missing out on a course that is so packed with valuable information that I’ve only had time thus far to implement about a half of it all. I personally guarantee that you’ll be enthralled with it all; but only if you apply what you learn.

…Anyway; having covered that, it’s time for the more mundane matters; such as a review of the week here on kkomp.com. – But don’t stop reading just yet: There’s more news of an exciting course which is starting soon further down the page.

Monday. I posted about the sudden drop in the growth of Twitter’s traffic: It had to end sometime; but it appears to have tailed off rather abruptly: -

Twitter’s Recent Traffic Growth Begins to Flatline

Tuesday saw the publishing of another computer-help article: -

How to Recover from a Dying Hard-Drive

On Wednesday I published two differing articles: One being another hardware-related article on the theme of online business: -

Coping With Power Outages. – Maintaining Productivity.

The other being a minor news article dealing with Microsoft’s decision re. IE8 and Windows 7 in Europe: -

Europe Doesn’t Want IE8?

Thursday saw a rather quick post regarding eBay: –
 The Future For eBay

I decided to do this as I saw the video on YouTube earlier and liked the song.

Those are the 5 posts since the last Newsletter.

Don’t forget, if you want to join in on a sensationally-informative course that could lead to your making a considerable income from blogging, to keep your eyes open for the header advert to change. As I said; this’ll be happening on the 29th June 2009, but the sign-up window will only be open for 5 days due to the expected numbers showing an interest, combined with those already queued to join up this time round.

Also happening soon, although I haven’t received final details about it yet, is another course from another prominent internet entrepreneur called David Risley. – David is the man behind the 3-Day-Money course that is currently advertised in the header banner on almost every page and post. (If you haven’t yet seen it then you are seriously missing out!)

You may have noticed the following advertisment on my Welcome page: -

This course may be a little bit more advanced than Gideon and Yaro’s course, and then again it might not: To tell the truth I haven’t yet seen it. I believe that this course is so powerful that nobody gets a pre-launch viewing this time. I may indeed be wrong, but it appears this course is being carefully shielded until the light turns green and it’s released to the wild for customers to purchase.

…Yes it really does cost more than a coffee, and yes it will have you earning more than the cost of a coffee also. This is going to be a powerful make money online course. Interested? I believe there’s a free report somewhere behind the advert, as well as a free video in which David will tell you more about it. It’s got to be worth at least a click, don’t you agree? – And no I don’t get paid-per-click incidentally; so it makes no difference to my finances whether 1 or 1 million people click it; it’s just that you could miss out if you don’t do so.

And finally… Finally that’s it for this week. There is a chance I might post something this weekend if I feel like doing so. I might even post something else later today. – But I prefer to take it easy at weekends, unless I’m doing something like building a computer or similar. Are you doing anything special this weekend? You might like to tell us about it if so…

Have a great weekend.

Blessed Be.

>

In order to comply with European competition law, Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 will be removed from the European versions of Windows 7. Microsoft made the decision to drop the web browser in order to stay on the right side of the European Commission and avoid further possible fines. Versions of Windows 7 released in Europe will have an E suffix to show that they are European versions that don’t include Internet Explorer.

Despite this fiasco, computer manufacturers will still be able to pre-install any browser that they wish to install on computers that come with Windows 7 pre-installed; and the betting is that they’ll install IE8; which makes the whole exercise rather self-defeating. nevertheless, it keeps the Eurocrats happy, and it prevents Microsoft from getting fined further, so at the end of the day nobody loses, despite another bit of mindless bureaucracy from Brussels.

According to vice president and deputy general counsel at Microsoft, Dave Heiner. "The worldwide launch of Windows 7 is fast approaching, but a pending legal case raises concerns about the sufficiency of competition among the web browsers that are available to Windows users in Europe. In January the European Commission provided its preliminary view that Microsoft’s ‘bundling’ of Internet Explorer in Windows violated European competition law."

Every operating system needs a browser of some kind. It’ll be interesting to make a note of how many manufacturers include browsers such as FireFox instead or supplementally to Internet Explorer along with Windows 7: It’ll serve as an additional indication of who’s ahead in the browser wars.

When you run your system via a UPS there are a number of factors you might not initially consider until it’s too late; especially if, like me, you use your computer(s) a lot, and/or depend on it/them for a livelihood.

The basic idea of using a UPS is to negate data-loss and any resultant data corruption and/or damage to the hard-drive in the event of a power-failure by allowing the user enough time to be able to shut their system down properly in such an event of power-loss. However, a lot of UPS these days are able to hold a lot of charge, and also connect to the computer by a USB lead. Via installed software they are thus able to warn the user that they are running out of charge, before automatically shutting down the computer whilst on their last bit of battery power.

This can be used to the user’s advantage in a number of ways.

Firstly, a UPS that is able to handle a lot of throughput in terms of wattage, as well as to hold a decent charge, (Around 600VA +. – These might be a bit expensive, but well worth the investment nevertheless.) is able to run and protect not just the computer itself, but also the monitor, sound system, modem, printer, scanner, any other peripherals used, as well as a low-wattage desk light. (Somewhere around 5 to 12 watts.)

On the event of a power-failure, the UPS will ensure hassle-free operation of the entire system until either the power supply is restored, or the UPS gives a warning due to running out of charge, before shutting down the computer.

In the case of prolonged or extended power-loss, the UPS will put the computer and monitor into standby mode; therefore at least halving the wattage which they use. Although there won’t be much charge left in the UPS at this point, if the user switches off the computer, which is already shut down, as well as most of the peripherals such as monitor, scanner, etc, there will be enough charge left in the UPS to power the desk light and to run the router for quite a considerable period of time. Therefore, a laptop or netbook can be run on the charge of its battery whilst maintaining internet access via the router a while longer.

If, like me, you run more than a single system, it would be an idea to purchase 2 UPS units and run each system separately via an individual UPS. You may like to set the UPS that runs the secondary system to power down the system, in the event of a power-failure, after a couple of minutes. – In which case, after the primary UPS unit has almost run out of charge and shut down the primary system, you can then reactivate the secondary system if the power’s not back on by then, set the UPS to power down as it gets low, in the same way as with your primary system, and continue working, – using the secondary system as a backup and almost doubling the working time while the power from the power socket remains inoperative.

Shared peripherals such as a router should continue to operate well on the remaining charge of the first UPS as the charge in the second UPS unit is utilised.

Your personal tastes and setup may vary according to your needs and desires; but such a setup or similar should virtually negate any loss of productivity due to all but a prolonged power outage.

Quite obviously this will only provide a solution for a couple or three hours in all probability. – However around 49 out of 50 power-outages in rural areas and around 4 out of 5 outages in urban areas, in the UK at least, last only minutes. Many last literally seconds, a few less than that; probably causing a voltage-spike as the supplier’s equipment switches automatically to its backup circuit and calls the control centre for assistance. – The UPS protects all of your equipment from any voltage-spike too in this scenario.

Have you ever found that your computer won’t do what you tell it to do; at least not properly? Maybe it tells you that it is unable to do things that it’s always done before? Maybe it finds errors both on the hard-drive and also online which just don’t seem to make sense. When you run a program there may be certain aspects of that program that don’t run properly. Perhaps program icons and toolbars are missing, or possibly the program crashes for no sensible reason half-way through? More than likely you’re finding that the problem is worsening over time too?

This type of behaviour, along with others, could quite easily mean that your hard-drive is on its way out. If you don’t have a backup made by this point then it may be that it’s not possible to make one as the hard-disk-drive is too far gone. It’s worth a try though, if nothing else. – This is yet another reason why you should always have a recent backup on hand, which is updated regularly. If you don’t bother to back up your data then the question isn’t whether you’ll lose it or not; the question is when you’ll lose it.

The type of behaviour I stated above is only one type of behaviour resultant from a hard-drive starting to fail; and whatever the symptoms, they can creep up on you over hours, days, weeks or months – or they can happen suddenly.

All may be far from lost, however: There are a number of courses of action you can take. They may work, they may not, depending upon the state of your disc: -

There are different kinds of data error that can occur on a hard-drive:

1) Errors in the data written to the disk. The disk itself is fine: The data on it has somehow become corrupt.

2) Data errors caused by errors in the magnetic media of the hard disk itself. These errors can usually be repaired by software. These types of errors can manifest in exactly the same manner as the data errors described above and below.

3) Errors caused by physical failure of the magnetic coating on the disc platters, collapse of the platters and/or their bearings, or electrical failure of some sort. These errors would normally in most cases require you to replace the drive.

All three of these types of error can result in data corruption, an operating system that won’t boot, or a file that reports some kind of error(s). – So how do you know which kind of errors they are? Initially you don’t know one way or the other; but there are diagnostic processes you can run which might well fix the error(s); from which you can ascertain what sort of errors they were.

Use Windows Tools First

From Windows 2000 onwards, every Windows installation has the CHKDSK command line utility. – So open a command prompt, (Start>Run, and type “cmd” ¬) and type “chkdsk /r”

CHKDSK is verifying .…..

The primary function of chkdsk is to check for problems in the file system. – It checks for errors in the data on the disk. If there’s a problem in the file system then chkdsk /r will attempt to remedy it.

C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>chkdsk<drive letter>: /r
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is <volume label>.CHKDSK is verifying …

The "/r" parameter tells chkdsk to "Locate bad sectors and recover readable information". "Bad Sectors" can happen for a number of reasons, and chkdsk will attempt to identify them, mark them as bad so that they don’t get used again, and move any data that has not been corrupted to other sectors.

Chkdsk /r can take a while to complete. – Quite a long time in many cases.

If problems persist having run "chkdsk /r" then I suggest running a program called SpinRite.

SpinRite is a paid-for program by Gibson Research Corporation, owned and operated by Steve Gibson. It focuses upon all the areas of the disc’s magnetic surface that are able to be recovered by software processing, rather than the file system itself and any corresponding errors. SpinRite won’t fix file system errors; which is why we ran chkdsk first.

SpinRite isn’t interested in what type of file system is being used. It looks at the individual disc sectors and checks that each particular sector is readable. If it isn’t then there is a good chance that SpinRite can fix it. It runs intense data analytical routines in order to recover data from dodgy sectors, before attempting to repair that sector. It’s not infallible; and in some cases certain sectors are nevertheless irretrievable despite SpinRite’ s best efforts. – In which case that sector is doomed. – All the same, that’s only a single sector of an entire disk; so although the sector in question may be a write-off, the rest of the hard-disk may be still usable. – At least in parts, in a very worst-case scenario.

If SpinRite reports that a large number of sectors are unrecoverable; whether or not the drive appears to be otherwise working properly; it may be time to replace that hard-drive completely. If you’ve committed the carnal sin of not backing up beforehand then I pity you, but every source of computer information worth it’s salt, particularly on the internet, will have been nagging you to do so since time immemorial. – Therefore if you ignored that advice regardless then you only have yourself to blame. You’ll have to just recover what data you can and replace the drive.

It may be an idea, having recovered as much data as is possible, to ghost the drive image and replace the drive with a fresh one before restoring the image to the new drive.

Chkdsk and SpinRite in combination will greatly increase your chances of recovering data; but even then they’re not infallible – Which is why, and I’ll say it again, it’s always of paramount importance to have a recent backup to hand.

Statistics just in from compete.com indicate that microblogging service Twitter’s growth was vastly down during the month of May 2009. Twitter.com had been enjoying progressive cumulative traffic growth Since November 2008, with an exceptional growth-spurt during March of this year. However, the figures of traffic growth for May of this year indicate a growth of just 1% on the month, to 19.7 million unique visitors. (If 19.7 million unique visitors feel the urge to visit this site then I wouldn’t turn anyone away if they clicked on a link somewhere.)

During the month of May I reported on the statistics compiled by Quantcast ’s rival, compete.com, which showed a huge traffic growth trend with regard to Twitter; particularly for the months of March and April.

Despite the fact that Twitter has outgrown the New York Times in unique visitor numbers, and, although the figures dwarf in comparison to earlier records, it nevertheless continued to grow during May. But it appears that the good times may be at last coming to an end for Twitter; at least as far as traffic volume with regard to UVs is concerned.

What now? Well twitter still has enough traffic, even if not enough structure, to begin generating a lot of hard income for itself. If they were to use this opportunity wisely in the face of previous growth figures; notwithstanding a forthcoming possible slump in UVs, then they’d be well in the money.

Is this just an end to the previous unsustainable growth; or forewarnings and ominous signs of decline? Your thoughts please.

(Microsoft, on the other hand, have had a busy month: Having piled more of their bounteous supply of megabucks into the launch of Bing, as well as throwing money at a new version of their Zune player; it appears that their efforts have at least begun to pull it off, with traffic to zune.net increasing by a figure of 13% to 708,000 UVs, while Bing managed to pull 635,000 people in: Not bad for a newbie, eh?

Perhaps this will cause the UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, to take heart in the now proven fact that things can indeed start working if you throw enough money at them. Hopefully the UK’s financial institutions will follow suit.)

Normally I begin a newsletter by rattling on about the British weather: That’s just an English thing, as our weather is so changeable that on rare occasions we can have literally all four seasons in one day. If you look at that from a positive note; that’s not bad value: Spring, Summer, Autumn (Fall), and Winter – All in 24 hours.

A couple of the posts that I’ve made this last week also give you similarly good value: -

  WordPress on Crack

This post was a brief introduction to the product called “WordPress on Crack”. – A course in which you can learn to write your own WordPress plugins in php. I found this a bit difficult to write in a way, as I’m certainly no php expert; which is why I simply introduced the subject matter and sent the reader to a page where the main vendor describes their course.

This course is a bit similar to the British weather, in that you get not only the specified course itself, but also 4 complimentary bonus products in one package. – Once again, that’s not bad value at all.

The next article I wanted to talk about is a review of a course by problogger and internet entrepreneur David Risley: -

3-Day Money – Review

In a matter of just 72 hours you can learn powerful tried and tested marketing secrets, used by David Risley himself to generate a six-figure income, all for much less than a six-figure sum. I have purchased and studied this course myself: It is amazing value for money; but be prepared to spend a while downloading it, as there’s a lot of materials packed into it.

Moving on…

Apple, seemingly minus Steve Jobs (Jobsweh), appear to be at it again; in the United States at least: -

Apple Con Their Customers Again

This has browned off a number of geeky US people, and no doubt they’ll try something similar over here in the UK too.

That’s not the only thing that’s got my goat this week though. (Ooh I am a grumpy bitch at times. )

Something’s Bugging Me…

How on earth can this be? The plot thickens – Like my head.

- And finally it’s back to Apple again: -

Mac OS X Has A Severe Java Vulnerability: Not Yet Patched

I believe, from reports that I’ve heard, that Microsoft have at last patched the Mac version of PowerPoint; but as far as I am aware, this vulnerability still remains, and this is solely up to Apple to sort out.

There’s the usual Friday review of the reviews and posts for the week.

This is Sharron Field, for kkomp.com, wishing you, as usual, a great weekend.

Keep reading this blog for more revelations and facts about the technical world in which we live; geeks and non-geeks alike.

Namaste’

The blogging platform WordPress began its life in 2003 as a small script used by a handful of people. Since then it’s grown into an extremely popular, fully-customisable, and highly-utilised, open-source serverside application that is used by literally millions of bloggers, (Including myself.) worldwide.

2005 saw the release of WordPress 1.5, from which point WordPress really took off. For a brief development history see this link.

This very day I’ve just upgraded to version 2.8: The upgrade process has been automated in the last couple of years; and this particular upgrade went smoothly and efficiently. – In fact I was surprised at the ease of the entire process: It was literally just a couple of clicks!

The greatest thing about WordPress has got to be its adaptability. It can be customised in a great number of ways; virtually any number in fact. Part of that customisation has to do with plugins. – Which brings me on to WordPress on Crack: -

WordPress on Crack is a tutorial that shows you how to write WordPress plugins in php script format. Not only that; but it has 4 bonus items with it that are free. The page that the link leads to will tell you about that; so I’ll not repeat it all here.

- So you take this course, write all the plugins you need for your blog, and that’s that. – Very helpful. What now? Well; since you now know how to write, and have actually written, plugins; plugins that work that is, as evidenced from your own blog, you then carry on writing plugins: Plugins for other blogs. Write a few free plugins, then once your name is known you can write a few more and charge for them. You could also write plugins to order for a fee, maybe advertise the service on your blog why not?

Interested? – Good. Click on the link below to find out more: -

Get “WordPress on Crack”

- Build your own WordPress plugins.

Includes 4 FREE instant bonuses.
Click Here!

I used to be very disapproving of Apple under Steve Jobs, or “Jobsweh – the god of all things Apple.” as I referred to him in the past. I assumed that it was Jobsweh ’s greed that caused Apple to charge extortionate amounts for their products.

I do admit that Apple’s products are extremely well-made; which accounts for some of the extra cost. – That’s a fair point. But they seemed to be taking the real retail value of their products and doubling it before arriving at the actual RRP.

That was back in Jobsweh ‘s heyday. Eventually I came to the conclusion that if people were willing to pay a fortune for the Apple logo then that was their problem. I even considered buying a secondhand iPhone myself in time.

(I never did though. I still have my Samsung z750i, and I’ll be having it unlocked and transferred to Vodafone soon. Reason: 1) I can tweet on Vodafone in the UK. 2) 3 Networks, who I’m about to end contract with, are in short, crap. What’s more they operate a call-centre in India. – I’m not racial-prejudiced, but if I wanted to have a hard time in communicating with Indians over a bad-quality line then I’d invest in shares in the Bombay Telephone Exchange. Besides, I get enough of that bad shit with BT and their Indian call centre, who I spend hours in hell with getting nowhere every time I have a BT-related problem. I want to be able to escape from it using my mobile phone if need be, not have more of it!)

Back to Apple. I quote from the aforementioned article:

“Apple said today that the iPhone 3G S costs $199 (16GB) and $299 (32GB). But that’s the price only for new AT&T customers. The price if you’re already an AT&T customer and/or are upgrading from an iPhone 3G? Try $699 (32GB), $599 (16GB), and $499 (8GB). To quote Peter Ha: “HOLY SHIT.””

Yes; HOLY SHIT just about sums it up. I think Apple have shot themselves in the foot and blown their lower leg off. I now in a way look forward to watching Apple topple over. – And they thoroughly deserve it too. – Yes it might be the phone companies’ greed as much as Apple’s; but this is still inexcusable.

Can you imagine the conversation the phone companies and Apple people might have had in the recent past?

“Look we’re Apple Inc: We can charge as much as we like for our products, to a point, and some mug will still buy them. We’re giving you the chance to cash in along with us. – You scratch our backs and we’ll scratch yours.”

“I’m starting to like the sound of this: We cash in with you on the massive rip-off under the Apple logo; both of us make a fortune, and as a thank-you gesture we reduce the cost of iPhone calls at some point in the future. We’re still vastly in profit thanks to you guys, who have by then made enough to buy a small county. – OK count me in. We have a deal.”

Nothing would surprise me.

I can see them trying to pull something like that in the UK also; and after a week’s outcry the sheep will all follow the leader and start paying out for it too; before complaining about how they’ve been ripped off: .

“…But it’s Apple, so it must be worth it.”

Must it f—k! If I hear anyone say that, or I see it written anywhere, I will instantly start writing my criticisms and pour vitriol upon them. If anyone is gullible enough to believe that then they don’t deserve to have any money. – Sorry; but if I hereby step on anyone’s toes in saying that then tough. – ‘Live with it.

Apple have been conning their customers by using this cult image thing for years. – This time they’ve gone too far. It’s time people woke up and started boycotting them. – End of story.

If you have something to add then please comment.

A while ago I was involved in the pre-launch purchasing of this powerful product, and I got the chance to sample the course along with a select few, prior to its full release onto the internet. The first thing that struck me was the quality and depth of the content: Although it was, out of necessity, somewhat condensed, it was clearly structured and well presented.

After a week or so of sampling the product, I was asked by David Risley, the product’s creator, if I was interested in writing a short recommendation for possible publication in advertising. To be honest I jumped at the chance; and you’ll see the following recommendation within the advertising material if you click on the linked banner.

Yes I can vouch for the fact that I did write this text, that it’s genuine and unedited, and quoted word-for-word: -

Bypass the rest of this article.

So was I simply trying to make the product sound excellent, perhaps better than it actually is; or was I being totally serious, realistic, and maintaining a full amount of ethicality whilst remaining true to myself and my inherent honest nature?

The answer to that is that I was indeed being perfectly genuine in my written opinion. – I absolutely love the product. Really; I’m jealous that I haven’t produced anything like the sheer brilliance of this course. I’m still looking for negatives; but unless I’m extremely pernickety the only negative that I can come up with is the time that it takes to download the entire package. I have a relatively fast pipe, and it still took a while to retrieve all the content. Someone on dial-up would possibly still be downloading it now had they started downloading when I did… Okay, maybe that’s a bit unrealistic, but it probably would have taken weeks.

That negative point I just made has two edges: It may take a long time to download everything; but that will give you some idea of the amount of content that David’s packed into this product. The instructional videos are, besides being competently presented in an easy-to-understand style, high-quality and crystal-clear. The .pdf transcripts accompanying the videos are well-formatted, and the accompanying podcasts also exude an heir of professionalism of production.

- But that’s not the main reason you’ll like what you get. You’re not buying it to look at nice pictures and excellent presentation alone: The main reason you’d buy it is for its content. I’ve already talked that up; but can I also talk it down too? Umm – well I suppose it doesn’t cover every possible aspect of the subject matter with regard to every possible situation, it doesn’t remove all the thinking for you to make your business a complete no-brainer – Yes I’d like to find a course that can do that too. – I don’t think one such course has yet been written. – And, as I stated above, it doesn’t run your business for you…

So; is it the ultimate in perfection? No. Will it solve all of your problems like some magic do-it-all pill? No. On the positive side, though; it’ll open up a successful streak that you never knew you had the ability to achieve if you adhere to the principles outlined within it.

Bypass the rest of this article

I could rabbit on for hours about this product; going over it with a fine toothed comb and critically analysing every detail. – That would probably bore you to death, and you’d stop reading after the first 2 pages. – So I’ll not even attempt that futile exercise.

In conclusion, then, I’ll say that if you want something that’ll at the very least put you on the right lines, giving you a lot of motivation and showing you a correct and proven method for setting up and running a successful online income stream/business, then to all intents and purposes I do believe you’ve found it. This could well be your personal “eureka!” moment.

…Provided that you’re prepared to part with a small amount of funds to proceed on what could be the start of a life-changing voyage for you. Yes I’ll be straight up with you: I mean you have to buy the product to benefit from it. – Quite logically, really. How do you do that? Click the banner below, read and watch as David tells you more, and then the final purchase choice is down to you.

One more thing, just before I end this article, is that there’s a money-back guarantee associated with this course: -

“As soon as you submit your order, you’ll have immediate access to the training material both online and available for download to your computer. If, after 60 days, you can’t make it work for you, the refund process is super easy.

That’s Right, I said You’ll Get Your Money Back!

After you are onboard, take 60 days to test drive the course. If you’re not making money and or not satisfied with what you have learned, just ask for a refund.

Remember, the course was designed to go through in 3 days. Now, obviously you won’t be able to put everything into practice in 3 days, however I think you’ll see that a 60 day guarantee is MORE than adequate.

David makes this guarantee to you because he knows that by giving this an honest attempt, He believes you will be well on your way to making money online, just like tons of other people and myself are doing all over the world.

… So there really is nothing to lose at the end of the day. – Click on the banner below and David Risley himself will tell you more in a video.

On Wednesday 3rd June 2009 I noticed a page about this site, kkomp.com, on browserdefender.com. On this page it says that there’s an unsafe download on this site; a file called gpu-z.exe.

I’ve never put gpu-z.exe on the site; so I tried to download it myself, and sure enough it’s downloadable from the site’s root directory. Despite this it doesn’t appear on the ftp server, and I can find no trace of it other than the fact that it can be downloaded from this site.

I advised the hosts; fasthosts.co.uk, (I was going to change the hosting after their last act of customer-unfriendliness; but it never happened.) of the situation, and they said that they’ve never had this situation before, that they’d put an engineer straight on the case, and that they’d get back to me by email. What they actually seem to have done is absolutely nothing: Sweet F.A.

I thought I’d have a look at this file myself; and downloaded it. First things first; I scanned it.

A scan by AdAware came up negative:

A scan by Malwarebytes came up negative: -

A scan by Avast! antivirus also came up negative… So now I’m wondering – more than I’m wondering why a file that doesn’t exist according to ftp is available for download from the server, more than I’m wondering how Fasthosts have the nerve to charge more than some other hosts, yet do almost sod-all; Where is the freaking risk?

According to Malwarebytes, AdAware, and Avast! (Which is a good antivirus at coming up with false positives incidentally.) there’s no infection. – So have browserdefender.com come up with a false positive themselves? Having said that; the ftp server at fasthosts.co.uk says that the subject file doesn’t exist; yet I’m able, nevertheless, to download it. (I’m not even going to think about running the risk of actually running the file just in case.)

So WTF is going on here?

Well, in short, it seems to be something of nothing. (Literally in some ways.) The best advice I can give you on this is: -

Don’t download gpu-z.exe from this site’s root directory. If you do download it then bear the following points in mind: A) The file has nothing to do with me: I did not put it on the server. B) You download it at your own risk, and I am not responsible for any consequences of your doing so. (If you need someone to blame; fasthosts.co.uk would be a good place to start.)

I could have said nothing about this matter unless someone emailed in and made a fuss: In some ways that may have been an equally good option. – But I prefer the pre-emptive strike tactic; hence this article.

Strangely, browserdefender.com also have pcmech.com; a site that’s just gained BBB Accreditation in the USA, that has a much higher search-engine, Quantcast, etc, rating than this site, and has over 10,000 visitors a day, marked as an unsafe site too. I bet David Risley, the owner, won’t be too amused!

I get the uneasy feeling that I may be overlooking some glaring fact that’s obvious to some others. If this is indeed the case; and you know more than I do, then please comment: There’s a comment form below, so someone may as well make use of it.

Onwards and upwards: Enjoy the coming week. I’m going to spend the rest of today (Sunday June 7th 2009) mainly watching TV I think.

Despite the claim by Mac users that their operating system is safer than Windows and much more secure; there is a chink in the armour. No, I’m not referring to a Chinese knight; I’m actually referring to something that would better be described as a gaping chasm rather than a chink: There’s still a large security vulnerability in Mac OS X with regard to Java; and it’s never yet been patched by Apple. It’s already been patched in both Windows and Linux.

According to kdawson, writing on slashdot.org: -

"Security researchers say that Mac OS X users are vulnerable to a critical, 6-month-old, remote vulnerability in Java, a component that is enabled by default in Web browsers on this platform. Julien Tinnes notes that this vulnerability differs from typical Java security flaws in that it is ‘a pure Java vulnerability’ and doesn’t involve any native code. It affected not only Sun’s Java but other implementations such as OpenJDK, on multiple platforms, including Linux and Windows. ‘This means you can write a 100% reliable exploit in pure Java. This exploit will work on all the platforms, all the architectures and all the browsers,’ Julien wrote. This bug was demonstrated during the Pwn2own security challenge this year at CanSecWest, but the details were not made public at that time. Tinnes recommends that Mac OS X users disable Java in their browsers until Apple releases a security update."

Here’s how to disable Java in your Safari and FireFox browsers in Mac OS X: -

If you still need Java access, I suggest that you install NoScript into FireFox. (See also.)

To disable Java in Safari on Mac OS X, click the Safari tab in the menu at the top right of your screen. Click Preferences in the drop-down list. In the Security section of the preferences window, uncheck Enable Java.

To disable Java in Firefox on Mac OS X, click the Firefox tab in the menu at the top right of your screen.In the Content section of the preferences window, uncheck Enable Java.

It appears that Mac users are deluding themselves that Macs are more secure than PCs: Just because something gets attacked less doesn’t mean it’s more secure.

Another weekend looms; and right on cue the British weather is breaking down. Late May in the south of the UK had weather befitting late June/early July. At times it was as warm as Florida in the US. Good things don’t last forever, though, and a change of wind direction is bringing air down from the arctic; and as a result temperatures are set to plummet to below the average for the time of year, as the skies become overcast and a precipitation begins. (It’s dry as a bone outside though, so the gardens could do with it.)

A number of developments have taken place this week. This isn’t really a news-blog though, so I’ve not made too much of a big deal over anything. – In fact I’ve only touched on two related issues.

This month (June 2009) sees this blog’s first birthday. What started as an event comparable to the waste products of an abortion has, I feel, come on in leaps and bounds; particularly this year. This advancement is partly due to advice, free and paid-for, from pro-bloggers and experienced marketers who’ve been there, done it, got the T-shirt.

Particular thanks go to David Risley, who, as well as just receiving his BBB Accreditation this week, has not only provided a huge amount of free publicly-available material, containing hints and tips for bloggers and marketers; but has also interacted with me to a small extent individually, which has assisted me in making the necessary progress to this point.

On that note; I do seriously encourage everyone who is getting into internet marketing in whatever way to purchase David Risley’s “3-Day-Money” course. I can honestly say that it’s a gem, and it’s well worth the fee: It contains hours of video tuition, and the content is also in text-format and podcast-format too.

There’s a lot more in the pipeline from David Risley; coming soon. If you’d like to know more and be notified when new product is released from this six-figure-blogger entrepreneur and also gain access to a free report, just click here to discover more.

- On with the show. – The show must go on…

On this blog since the last newsletter: -

Definitely, to my mind, the headline news this week is that Microsoft have announced a solid launch-date for Windows Seven:

*Breaking News: Microsoft To Launch Windows Seven on 22nd October 2009

Everyone has to start somewhere; and there are still people using a computer for the first time even today. Just for the benefit of such people I wrote a short article about the ethernet port: -

The Ethernet Port – A Newbie’s Guide

This last week I’ve produced a four-part series dealing with how to handle boot issues with Windows XP: -

Something To Try If Windows XP Crashes During Boot – Part 1

Something To Try If Windows XP Crashes During Boot – Part 2

Something To Try If Windows XP Crashes During Boot – Part 3

Something To Try If Windows XP Crashes During Boot – Part 4

Windows Vista has recently had another Service Pack produced for it; To save time downloading it repeatedly if you need to install  it more than once I produced a short guide on how to make your own personal Vista SP2 CD: -

How To Create A Windows Vista Service Pack 2 DVD

Next week heralds the arrival of Microsoft’s monthly Patch Tuesday. This Patch Tuesday promises to have a number of fixes packed into it. However, Microsoft have seen fit to ignore a patch for a version of a piece of their office software for running on a Mac: –

Patch Tuesday is Coming – But Macs May Remain Unpatched

- And that pretty much wraps it all up.

Whatever you’re doing this weekend; do it well and get the most out of it.

Best wishes and bright blessings.

Shazza.

Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Network Security, suspects that  Microsoft won’t issue a patch to protect Mac users of their PowerPoint software this month on Patch Tuesday: -

Despite the fact that a bumper crop of patches is expected, it appears that users of PowerPoint for the Mac may be left out in the cold.

"We don’t have the PowerPoint for the Mac patches," he said after reviewing the advance notice.

On last month’s Patch Tuesday, Microsoft patched the Windows versions of PowerPoint, but not the Mac editions, saying that it didn’t want to hang onto the update while waiting for Mac fixes.

The PowerPoint bug in Windows has been the subject of attacks by exploit code since April.

Jonathan Ness, an engineer at the Microsoft Security Response Center, said last month: –

"None of the exploit samples we have analyzed will reliably exploit the Mac version, so we didn’t want to hold the Windows security update while we wait for Mac packages,"

On June 4th 2009, Microsoft stated that it will deliver 10 security updates on its June 2009 Patch Tuesday, to patch serious bugs in Windows, Internet Explorer (IE), Word and Excel. According to sources it is apparent that 6 of the 10 patches are to be marked as "critical," while three will be rated as "moderate" and one as "important".

I was going to end this series at Part 3; but having thought further about it, I feel that the Windows Recovery Console is worth a mention: -

First; what exactly is the Windows Recovery Console?

It’s a pre-boot repair tool that allows you to recover from and repair system issues that affect the machine’s ability to boot up.

It’s very powerful and is certainly not to be sniffed at. I encourage users to only use the Recovery Console as a last resort: In fact in some cases a repair reinstallation may be just as, if not more, effective. It has diagnostic as well as repair uses though; so it might be a useful commodity at times.

So how do I access the Windows Recovery Console?

To access the Recovery Console you have to boot from the XP CD. Having done so you’ll eventually arrive at a screen that looks like this: -

Press “R”, as per the instruction on screen, and the Recovery Console starts.

The Recovery Console will check for Windows installations, and list any that are on the hard-drive. Unless the computer has been set up to multi-boot, there will only be one.

Select the operating system you want to repair and press Enter. Windows will then ask you for the administrator password: -

Enter the administrator password, et voila; you’re into the Recovery Console.

It’s a glorified Windows Command Prompt which allows access to the root folder (%systemroot%) and the Windows folder + its respective tree. Once you’ve done the major repair you can boot into Windows, (Safe Mode or normally.) and continue any repair work needed.

Details of how to use fully, and also the commands available for use within the Recovery Console, are available within the following Microsoft Knowledge Base Article: –

Article ID: 314058 – Last Review: September 22, 2008 – Revision: 5.2

Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console for advanced users

You can access this article by clicking here.

I think I’ve just about touched on everything in this and the other three articles. If your Windows XP installation ever screws up at boot in future; I hope that these articles will give you some ideas as to what to do and how to resolve the issue.

If you’d like to comment then the comment forms are open for around six months from the date of writing.

Enjoy XP; even of you’re soon moving on to Windows Seven. (You could actually run Windows XP inside a virtual environment within Windows Seven…That’s an idea for another article perhaps?)

Warning: The Recovery Console is a powerful tool; and if used incorrectly can further screw up your installation just as much as it can repair it; so use it with extreme care.

On 2nd June 2009 it was stated by Microsoft that Windows 7 will be in the stores and pre-loaded on new computers on 22nd October 2009.

This is a good move on Microsoft’s part; as the sales pace and availability of product will be going at full-tilt by the holiday season. This time they get to cash in on the buying bonanza; such that it might be in these uncertain economic times.

According to a company spokeswoman; Microsoft will be offering discounted upgrades to Windows 7 from Vista to customers who buy a new PC from July 1st 2009, in a program which they’ve named "Windows Upgrade Option".

It’s great to know when this gem of an operating system will RTM. It’ll be interesting to note any further changes they make when compared to the RC1 release; which was released in May.

This is exciting news to me. Microsoft have leaned over backwards to give their customers what they want as far as this new product is concerned; and it’ll be good to see their efforts come to fruition.

The big question is, no matter how good a reception Windows 7 gets; how much lasting harm has Vista done to Microsoft, and how long will it take to recover and eradicate the deficit in confidence that their biggest blunder to date has caused?

What do you think?

This is Part Three of this series.

In Part 1 we went to the Windows Advanced Options Menu…

… And we tried using the “Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked)” option. This sometimes, (Usually in my experience.) does the trick, but not always.

In Part 2 we looked at something else we could do if that doesn’t solve the issue: If it doesn’t solve the problem it usually means that one of the drivers is bad/corrupt/dodgy; so we looked at removing that driver by booting into Safe Mode.

What we didn’t look at was what to do if your XP computer doesn’t crash, but rather just boots and goes tits up; to put not too fine a point on it.

If you get a scrambled picture then ‘chances are that your graphics driver is playing up and needs removing and reinstalling, and/or your graphics card is either crap or has developed a fault. Some motherboards just don’t like some graphics cards: I have an Asus mobo that just hates a certain Asus nVidia graphics card. There’s nothing wrong with the graphics card; it works fine in other computers, but it just won’t work properly with this one board.

OK so we’ve covered a lot so far in parts 1 & 2; but there may be a couple more things that’s preventing XP from starting: –

These are operating system/data corruption and/or file system corruption.

Operating system corruption can result from too much buggering about and trying to be clever; – The usual scenario in my case. – or from a phenomenon (specific to Windows – ?) known as “software rot”. For whatever reason, Windows moves things around, writes, copies, deletes, all in normal operation. Eventually it makes a tiny error; which can go unnoticed. – But when a number of tiny errors build up over months of operation, then a big error happens, and things start to go downhill from there: A cascade of errors causing errors, until eventually the system becomes inoperable.

The above can take years and stay unnoticed until the machine simply stops working, or it can happen suddenly. File system corruption is much the same: The NTFS, or in some cases, the FAT32, file system, is the storage medium’s file storage structure on the disc. In short the computer stores tiny bits of data made up of a few bytes in many tiny storage areas on the disk. These are marked out before the data is added to the disk: It’s accomplished by process called “formatting”; which is the first thing that needs to be done if a new hard-drive is installed, or if the old one needs to be wiped. Also in the file system are indexes of these little areas of data; which can also be prone to error.

Since we’re on the subject of the file system; the way to correct a file system error is by using the chkdsk function built into Windows. In Windows XP this can be activated from the command prompt as well as the GUI. Open a command prompt (Start>Run and type “cmd”.) and type “chkdsk C: /f”. (Assuming that C: is the disc that you want to check for file system errors.) This instructs Windows to run chkdsk on drive C:, and the parameter f instructs the operating system to check specifically for file system errors and repair them.

Similarly; chkdsk can also check the disc for file system and data errors, and repair them. To instruct Windows to do this, open a command prompt, (Start>Run and type “cmd”.) and type “chkdsk C: /r” (Assuming that C: is the disc that you want to check for errors.) Using the parameter r instructs the operating system to repair any errors it finds on the disc: These include file system errors, corrupt data, and bad sectors. As you may imagine; this can be a long process on some occasions.

While chkdsk attends to disc errors, there is another process that checks further for data errors in the essential operating system files. This process is called the system file checker. To run it; first insert your (original) XP CD into the optical drive, then open a command prompt, (Start>Run and type “cmd”.) and type “sfc /scannow”. This instructs the operating system to run the system file checker, check the crucial system files that Windows needs in order to be able to operate, check their parity, and, if there are any errors; delete the file and replace it from the files on CD. – Short of performing a repair reinstallation, this is the best way to clear operating system corruption.

So that’s covered pretty much everything. If you’ve done everything suggested and it still won’t boot, then you have a choice of a repair reinstall or a disk-format-and-reinstall.

Before you do that, though, try pulling out all the USB plugs and other peripherals and seeing if the machine boots with no peripherals connected. If it does then you have a faulty peripheral device. Plug things back in one by one and boot after every device you plug in. When your computer fails to boot you’ll know that the last peripheral device you plugged in is faulty.

“ – After I’ve spent hours doing all that, from Part 1, 2 and 3; and now you tell me it’s a faulty peripheral device!”

- Don’t worry: You’ve just given your machine a full software service, and it’ll work a lot better as a result.

If you’re like me (Computer builder.) and install Windows Vista from time to time, then a useful thing to have in your arsenal is your own Vista SP2 DVD, to save you all that time downloading it from the internet. Even if you don’t build computers but have Vista installed on your own computer, it’s a useful commodity to have lying around in case you need it.

There is another option available, which is to slipstream SP’s 1 and 2 with Windows Vista original, but for the time being I’ll concentrate on making a separate disc.

To make things easier, Microsoft have released an official Windows Vista SP2 ISO image. << Click the linked text to download it. It’s a free download. – This can be written to a DVD as you would with any ISO image.

The best no-brainer ISO burner software I’ve found is ImgBurn : It makes creating a DVD from an ISO so easy it’s incredible. – So much so in fact that there’s no need to give any instructions other than those already given on the website. ImgBurn will burn to CD, DVD, HD DVD, and Blue Ray too.

Do you install Vista regularly; perhaps on computers that you build? Do you install SP2 too, or do you leave it for the customer to do? Are you going to start installing Windows Seven as soon as you can in preference to Vista/instead of Vista, or are you going to leave it for the customer to upgrade themse4lves if they want to, after having bought a Vista DVD from you?  Do feel free to comment.

This is part 2 of the series. I’m assuming you’ve already read Part 1.

In Part 1 we brought up the Windows Advanced Options Menu:

We selected the option “Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked)”, but that still hasn’t worked and your Windows XP computer still won’t boot: Either it’s crashing with a BSOD as it boots up, or it’s just not working at all well when it has apparently booted up fully. – The screen is scrambled, there are things missing, whatever.

This time we’re going to try something else. Does your computer crash and restart or go to a BSOD? Does your computer automatically restart when it crashes? There’s nothing wrong about that in itself, but if it does so then you don’t get the chance to read the data presented on the BSOD. The first thing we need to do is to stop the computer from automatically restarting every time it crashes, in order that you can study the BSOD.

If the computer doesn’t go to a BSOD or automatically restart, but just doesn’t work properly when it’s fully booted for whatever reason then see Part Three of this series. (Still to be written at time of writing: It won’t be long before it’s produced though.)

Go to the Windows Advanced Options Menu and use the up and down arrow keys to select “Disable automatic restart on system failure”. Press Enter¬. Allow the computer to reboot and to crash again. You should now be able to study the blue screen. (BSOD)

On the blue screen you’ll see the reason why the computer crashed, some tips which might or might not help, and some “Technical Information”, aka gibberish. The gibberish is probably the most important part of it all. First, though, try following the stated tips to whatever extent possible. I suggest photographing the blue screen with a digital camera: You might need the information later on, and the screen might not be accessible at the time you need it.

If that particular computer is the only one you have then you’ll need to use a neighbour’s computer, or an internet cafe’, public library computer, whatever, for the next bit: –

Type the stop error code into Google.

You’ll find the stop error code in “Technical Information” on the blue screen. In the example above the stop error code is the alphanumerical sequence 0×000000D1 : -

***  STOP  0×000000D1   (0×000…

Type that code into Google and it’ll return reams of information on the error; exactly what it is, what it might be, what causes it, what people think, …

You might even find a solution there. If it’s a driver issue, however, you need to identify which driver it is that’s causing the BSOD to occur. When you’ve done that we need to remove that driver before we can restart the machine and boot into Windows proper. To do this we go into the Windows Advanced Options Menu, and use the up and down arrow keys to select “Safe Mode”. Press Enter¬.

Safe Mode is a mode where Windows runs without loading all the drivers. Essentially it loads a minimal set of drivers that are essential for it to operate, and no more. On the basis of that, ‘chances are that the driver causing the BSOD won’t be loaded, and therefore Windows will boot into Safe Mode.

Whilst in Safe Mode, having identified the driver that’s causing the issue; go into Device Manager and remove that driver. Having done so, restart the computer.

Depending upon which driver it is; Windows will either reinstall one that works from the i386 folder on the hard drive and load it at boot, or it’ll start without it and let you know. If it starts without it then the piece of hardware that the driver pertained to will be severely limited in function if it works at all. It’ll be using any default driver that comes with the OS. You’ll need to manually reinstall a driver in this case – But I do suggest that you go to the device manufacturer’s website and download/install the latest driver for the device in question.

If the driver was a specialised keyboard or mouse driver then you may have to do a repair reinstallation of Windows before you can load the new driver.

A graphics card should still work in a very limited fashion using the default drivers that come with the OS. To get it working properly again you should install the latest driver from the manufacturer’s website.

Windows XP can be a funny old sod at times:

Sometimes and for no apparent reason it’ll go wonky even while you boot it up; even if your last session appeared flawless. In a lot of cases this is because it failed to load a driver properly. The result can be a number of things: It could fail to boot with a BSOD during boot-up, it could give you a mal-formed or scrambled picture on the monitor due to having loaded the graphics driver incorrectly, it might boot but not work properly – sometimes followed by a BSOD, or numerous other things.

If this happens then shut it down again in the normal manner, if you can, and try booting it up again. In numerous cases it’ll boot-up properly the next time, and everything will be fine. – But what if the same problem occurs again when you try to boot it again? Well, if it’s happened twice then the probability is that it’ll occur a third time; so it’s time to take action.

This solution works sometimes; other times it doesn’t; but it’s the easiest solution of all, so it’s worth a try before you try anything else: -

Press your computer’s power button to switch it on, and as soon as you do that repeatedly press the F8 key. One of two things should happen after the initial BIOS screen appears, depending upon the motherboard you have fitted inside your box: – (If anyone tries this and gets something else happening then I’d ask you to comment below. Please give details of the motherboard you have fitted, as well as other system spec.s (Including age of system.), and as good a description as you can of what happens.)

Either it’ll open up a boot-menu screen, or it’ll bypass this step and go straight to the next step. If it does open a boot-menu screen, (Primary Hard drive, CD-ROM, Floppy, etc.) we don’t need that, so don’t change anything there, just hit the Esc key, and as soon as you press the Esc key, repeatedly hit F8 again.

The Windows Advanced Options Menu should appear. This is white text on a dark-grey background. The options open to you are: -

In this case we want “Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked)”, so use the down and up arrow keys to highlight this line. Press enter¬.

Forget the other options for the time being. In this article we’ll deal with that one only.

On the next screen you’ll see “Please select the operating system to start.”

If you’ve only installed a single installation of Windows XP then your choice will already be highlighted and you just press Enter¬ again. It your machine has on a dual-boot and/or you see more than a single operating system; use the up and down arrow keys to select the operating system that you were just trying to boot into, (Windows XP.) and then press Enter¬.

Windows will start to boot; except this time it looks in the System Volume Information folders on your hard-drive for a setting it used before when that driver loaded correctly. If it finds it then it’ll load it into the boot sequence and proceed with boot. If it doesn’t and still encounters the problem then the crash that happened before will probably happen again. – But that’s another article’s reading from that point.

**In light of the paragraph above I’m going to make this a series: This post being Part 1, Parts 2 onward to be written soon.**

- This operation thus far may solve your problem, and then again it might not.

If it does solve the problem then I suggest that you allow the computer to fully boot, and then restart it again, just so that the new settings that work are written to the registry before you do anything else.

Coming up in Part 2: If that didn’t work then we’ll use the Windows Advanced Options Menu to do something else. – Coming soon.