Windows XP SP1 and earlier

Having upgraded two PCs yesterday from Windows XP Service Pack 1, I wonder how many old, unprotected systems are there out there? Users, in this case a teenager and a senior citizen, are oblivious to any notion that you have to protect and maintain these computers and if you don't, eventually they stop working.

Now that Windows XP SP1 has been added to the unsupported list of Microsoft products, there should be someway of telling these people that a free upgrade is available and reasonably simple to apply. Then when it is installed the usual warnings that 'No antivirus' or 'Out of date antivirus' should at least warn them that something is wrong.

With all the publicity that is about Internet security, fraud and ID theft that appears, you would think some bells would start ringing somewhere. Indeed this week as been all about the Internet Explorer vulnerability and few of my customers contacted me about this. Yet for many people there is obviously no concern at all and they continue to think that they are invulnerable to any of these issues They are protected by the trial version of the antivirus software that came with their PC purchased six years ago and never bothered to pay from any further subscriptions or look for free alternatives such as AVG.

I try to tell them about the risks, even overplaying them to scare them into action, but I think that my words are falling on deaf ears as they claim not to be 'computer literate'! Anyway all the more work for me I suppose.

Snake oil software

Looking for the ultimate resurrection software for your failing PC? A lot of the utility packages offered in the market are pure snake oil software. But for years I've been using Norton Utilities (now Systemworks) and especially Norton WinDoctor to analyse and repair PC problems. For Windows XP and earlier, it does a good job in analysing and repairing the registry, finding invalid shortcuts, missing program files and libraries, etc. And big advantages that you can run it directly from the CD, it is quick and effective and it impresses the customers.

Now that Windows Vista systems are getting older, I've been on the lookout for something similar. I could upgrade Norton Systemworks but I'd like to see a positive review of it for Windows Vista and I don't want to pay full price (£38 inc. P&P) for it as there is no upgrade version. Recently I've been trying Iolo's System Mechanic 8 trial version and it appears at least to do a good enough job in cleaning up the clutter in a system without destroying it. The Advanced automatic mode works better and defragments the hard disks and registry as well, but I've yet to try the individual tools. I'm happy with the results but do not like the annual subscription method of renting the software. At present I'll continue using the trial period on customers computers and then uninstalling the software.

I remove a lot of this sort of software from people's computers who have download and ran these programs in a desperate attempt to recover their systems back into working condition. Mostly these programs are scams which did not achieve their advertised capabilities, demand money to complete the process and usually make the situation much worse. The snake oil products of the IT industry.

DELL mini 9 netbook

I bought and installed my first netbook for a DELL mini 9 netbook for a customer recently and I was not impressed. It seems to me that these netbooks are a bit of a fashion item especially for the young and not an effective IT appliance at all.

This was the more expensive Windows XP model with 16Gb solidstate disk drive. It took an age to install Windows not it and I had to use an old external CD writer drive to install additional application software. The 9" screen is too small for me to see properly so you either have to bend over to look at it when it is on your desk or hold it one hand and peck at with the other instead of resting it on your lap. The processors (Intel Atom N270) seems quite slow and it becomes warm to the touch underneath after a while.

My other concern is they quickly get expensive. I see that you can get a similar hardware spec Acer Aspire One running Linux lite for just over £160 and this is probably worth the money. But if you want Windows, extra data storage and a 10" or 12" screen the prices quickly rise to well over £300. For this money you can begin to get a proper laptop with larger screen, hard and optical disk drives, etc.

I think that I'll pass on these for now.

Fighting the urge to build

I haven't built a PC for over a year now. I find myself browsing the component websites choosing just the right motherboard for the best 'bang for the buck' CPU, the cheapest, fastest hard disk drive, the latest graphics card, etc.

I usually browse the DELL website for the best value computers that I can offer to my customers. Since starting this business, I quickly realised that building PCs was an expensive waste of time. You have to:

1) spend time selecting and ordering the components
2) assemble then into the case, typically at least a couple of hour's work as usually something goes wrong.
3) pray that the thing starts
4) load the Windows operating system and basic software applications
5) try to convince the customers it is what he wanted
6) persuade the customer to buy a legal version of Windows as well
7) not offer a warranty, but feel morally obliged to fix if something goes wrong

I realised that I could offer ready-made DELL configurations that were easier to sell, the customer has a warranty and I made most of my money on the installation services. DELL has a good reputation for making good looking, great value computers that are well designed and built. I don't get to fix much old DELL hardware.

You get some satisfaction from opening the box of the latest whizz-bang PC from DELL, but it is not the same as building your own. It is a statement to your technical knowledge and skill of getting this selected bunch of assorted parts to leap into life as the fastest computer you have ever worked on.

Ahh well, I'm fighting the urge to waste money in choosing which motherboard would best suit this processor. Because by the time I add the case, PSU, hard and optical disk drives, memory, graphics card, software, etc., I could have bought a great DELL desktop, have better peace of mind and saved myself some time and money.

Finding a test bed

Microsoft finally released Windows Small Business Server 2008 last week and duly made available for download a trial version to try out. So I downloaded it onto my Windows Home Server where I keep all my large downloads (this was over 3Gb for the first DVD image), then burnt it to DVD and looked for a PC to try it on.

My first choice was a large trade-in PC that I'd just cleaned. reconditioned and reloaded Windows XP on. All I had to do was to replace the 160Gb hard disk with another and away we go. Not so. Apparently this system has one of the few Pentium 4 (Northwood) CPUs that aren't 64-bit. Even though it is 3GHz. Loading CPUID confirmed that this was a non-starter as SBS 2008 is only available in 64-bit version.

So I started looking around at my other systems for a suitable test bed:
a) another reconditioned AMD Athlon XP 2600 also not 64-bit.
b) my eMachine Windows test PC already has Windows XP and Windows Vista on it and is only a Pentium 4 2.8GHz.
c) my HP ProLiant server is 64-bit but is already setup as a games system with RAID 0 disk drives and I don't want to mess with it, just sell it.
d) my DELL Inspiron 530 demo and games system is a Core 2 Duo E6550 which would work but it has my new nVidia 9600GSO graphics card, the hard disk drive is fairly full and I don't want to add another. Anyway I'm enjoying Far Cry 2 on this.
e) my daughter's DELL Vostro 200 has a C2D E4500 processor and plenty of space, but she wouldn't appreciate me messing about with it.
f) my DELL PowerEdge SC440 server is running Windows Home Server on it and is the centre of my network so that's out.
g) my old DELL Dimension 4550 with 2.53GHz Pentium 4 is still doing a grand job as my administration computer and is strictly hands off for any new hardware or software.
h) my trusty DELL Inspiron 1300 laptop is also 32-bit and anyway it doesn't seem right to run SBS 2008 on a laptop.

So that's the story so far, I'm keen to try this out but no hardware platform is available at the moment. Maybe it is time I tried this virtualisation technology. If only I could find a system to put it on.

I've started Far Cry 2

One of my favorite FPS (First Person Shooter) in the last five years has been Far Cry, so I was eager to try the sequel. I enjoyed the original for the graphics, the atmosphere and the believability of the game.


The magazine and online reviews of the Far Cry 2 were positive, so I purchased the game online last week. I was amazed at the graphics, even from the opening sequence. The atmosphere and the action from the start seemed superb, as was the freeform nature of the game. However, it wasn't till a couple of hours later that I realised that I was just playing the training portion of the game. Having been let off the hook so to speak, it develops into a much deeper a certainly less scripted adventure. The time effects of night, dawn, day and dusk are new for me as is finding a safe house to sleep.

I'm addicted already and eagerly looking forward to many months of amazement and excitement.

AOL bad_pool_header

About last August, a customer of mine with a fairly new DELL Vostro PC started getting 'Blue Screen of Death' bad_pool_header crashes in Windows Vista when she attempted to start the AOL 9.0 VR software. It had been working fine for about six months before that. The usual advice from AOL was to uninstall the AOL software and reinstall. That didn't help.

The Thomson Speedtouch 330 USB modem was working fine and she could surf the Internet, download updates, etc. without any problems. The AOL crashes were starting to make Windows Vista unstable, so I recommended that she read her email through AOL's webmail facility for now. No solution could be found and though the customer was concerned that she could not use her favourite software on her new computer, at least she could work.

Then last week another customer with an almost identical configuration, started to get exactly the same problem. I suspected the unsupported networking access to AOL was causing the problem. I substituted the USB modem with a router and immediately AOL 9.0 VR was fine and working well. OK, as well as AOL software works which generally is not great!

Back to the first customer with my new solution and bursting with confidence that this will fix her problem. No it didn't. AOL 9.0 VR still crashed even after uninstalling, cleaning up, and reinstalling. Go figure? Suggestions welcome.

As an aside to this, I signed myself up for a free AOL screen name and email address. However this does not allow you to download and use their software. You have to be a member for that. So, I can't diagnose the problem at my workbench.

Xbox 360 replaced

I've replaced the Xbox 360 that I bought for under £100 earlier this month from Sainsburys. And what a difference. The original Xbox started crashing in the games, then finally wouldn't display a picture and showed the famous 'Red Ring of Death' on the console. Luckily Sainsburys offer a 28 day returns policy so I was able to exchange it. I even swapped the memory card so I could retain my Xbox Live profile and saved games.

When I unpacked the replacement it was a completely different console and then I realised that the original Arcade had been swapped for an old Xbox 360 Core. The new one had a dedicated HDMI connection below the standard Xbox video socket. And when I turned it on another suprise it was so much quieter. The setup was easier, presumably because it was initiated properly. I've also connected it now to a standard 19" TFT computer monitor with the sound via a mini HiFi system. A lot better for both the picture and audio quality.

When I purchased the orginal Xbox 360 Arcade console the box was not sealed, so somebody had replaced the Arcade with an older Core console and Sainsburys had sold it as new. Thanks to their returns policy I'm a happy customer. This new model is a much better version and it shows how Microsoft's hardware product development and manufacturing has improved over the years.

The return of Norton

Like many others in the industry, I've given Norton Antivirus and Internet Security products a hard time over the last few years. The market leader had definitely 'lost the plot' becoming bloatware, slow, riddled with bugs and difficult to understand and use. I've removed countless copies from my customer's computers. Replacing Norton with AVG Free in most cases and Kaspersky Internet Security for businesses and individuals who wanted enhanced security and features such as AntiSPAM.

I read a review in this month's PCpro magazine which claimed that the latest version Norton Internet Security 2009 was a different beast, faster using less memory and easier to install. Review is here. Intrigued I downloaded the 15-day trial copy on a test PC and tried it out. It works, is quicker and makes the computer respond as if it wasn't there. Boot time is good, unlike the previous versions that took a few minutes to return control back to the user. I've yet to install it on a system that is badly infected by viruses, but going on what the review says it does the clean up job well too.

Previously, I used to be frequently called to attend to PCs that had had Norton loaded on them because the owner had gone to the local PCworld shop and been sold the package as a cure for all their problems. Even though their system specification was below the system requirements for the software. So I got to remove Norton and upgrade the memory as well. We shall see.

I've got an Xbox 360!

A spur of the moment purchase. I've been helping Dads connect Xbox 360s to wireless and wired networks for their children for a while now. Usually the boy (so far) is there to actually steer the user interface with the controller, but yesterday I was on my own. Wow, did I find it difficult! Still I finally succeeded. I discovered that the new Xbox 360 Arcade version (without the hard disk) had been bought the day before at Sainsbury's supermarket for under £100. So I bought one as well.

Initial impressions were not good. I connected it to an old TV with the supplied cable and SCART adapter. The picture wasn't great. Should be better with a LCD HD flat panel TV though. It has an HDMI socket but no cable. The next thing to notice was the noise. The fan makes it difficult to hear the sound through the TV at normal levels, hopefully it will be drowned out when you start gaming or use a surround sound system. Then I couldn't get the wireless controller to connect at all. I just kept pressing the synchronise buttons on the console and the controller until finally they found each other.

Going through the Xbox user menu or Dashboard did not make it easy and obvious to set up. I attached an Ethernet cable into the loose (!) socket at the back and then repeatedly testing the Xbox Live connection until it finally passed all the stages, then eventually adding my details to register my name, gametag, etc. I downloaded a game (DOOM) onto the supplied 256Mb memory stick and was able to play it!

Then I tried the game I really wanted to play, Halo 3. I bought it pre-owned for £13from Blockbusters. Hey, I wasn't going to pay £50 for a game to play on a £100 console. An impressive start but wow, is the control system difficult to use. I spent most of my time looking at the floor to see where I was going or at the sky trying to see who was shooting at me. And having seen 'checkpoint reached' frequently, I was amazed to find that the game hadn't been saved at all.

More things to learn I guess in this console business. I'm also going to look at the Media Extender possibilities and integrating the Xbox 360 into Windows Home Server.

High speed broadband

Just a quick note to say thank you Virgin Media. As my ISP (previously NTL cable), you've just upgraded my broadband bandwidth from 3.8Mbps (nominal 4Mbps) to 8.4Mbps (nominal 10Mbps) on my cable connection without any extra charge.

I've been paying £25 per month for broadband for a few years now and it has been upgraded at least twice before. But this latest upgrade has really improved the connection speed to what a lot of my customers could only pray for. Especially, as I can offset this cost to my company and claim back the VAT.

It is amazing how quickly you can become accustomed to these speeds. So now when I visit a typical customer here in Basingstoke that has a connection speed of just 512Kbps to 1Mbps it seems really slow to download files, web pages, emails, etc. Almost like a telephone dial-up connection was when broadband first came along. Why wait when much better speeds are available? Mind you I still have customers on that dial-up connection but at least I can take along mobile broadband without having to wait as much any more.

Thanks again NTL, sorry Virgin Media! And I'm really enjoying it.

HL2: Episode Two

So that's it. I've finished it. Half Life 2: Episode Two. Not bad for a Christmas present from my son. Nine months to the day to complete the journey to White Forest base. And I still didn't want it to end. Hopefully Episode Three will come out soon.

No more Combine to kill. No more vast landscape vistas to admire and wonder at. No more heart pumping moments. Admittedly I got stuck a few times and left it for a while, only to be drawn back to see if I could go a little further. My all time favourite game has been completed again. The final battle with the Striders was awesome, but would obviously lead to the end of this episode.

There were so many places that required a little extra thought or strategy to proceed and then a little bit of luck just to go a bit further. Sections where nothing challenging was happening but were part of the plot to be led into a trap that was sprung and had to be conquered and then an escape onwards to new discoveries.

I've enjoyed Team Fortress 2 as well and will start Portal now.

Adobe Reader Lite

I've just downloaded another piece of bloatware. The latest version 9 of Adobe Reader is over 200Mb installed (up from 85Mb) and it includes something called Adobe AIR which I didn't ask for.

Ever noticed that when you click on a PDF link, your browser now freezes? Takes no notice of mouse, button or keyboard. Sits there for a while, completely comatose, until it finally gives you the first half of the front page of the PDF document and then freezes again. This is the user experience of Adobe Reader.

There is a really good alternative called Foxit PDF Reader. Freely downloadable, takes less than 2 minutes, installs immediately and works just as well. Get it from www.foxitsoftware.com

Configuring updates:

After a busy couple of weeks followed by my summer holiday, it is back to writing my blog. This time Windows Update is the subject of my wrath. When Microsoft released the concept of Automatic Windows Updates it all made good sense, but now I'm not so sure! With Windows Vista these updates are always applied both before a shutdown and after a reboot, making the restart process a lot longer. And they always seem to need a reboot which nags away at you until you feel forced to go away and have at least one cup of coffee.

Over the last few months this seems to be the normal mode of operation now. I timed a mid-specced, modern PC with this month's updates and it took 6¼ minutes to shutdown and 3¼ minutes to reboot making a total on almost 10 minutes. And as I type this, it is nagging away again saying that it needs to reboot again. I find this obtrusive and takes the control of the tool away from the user. And it is not just Windows but every application you have and some you don't want, are all asking to be updated.

I'm an engineer who believes that 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' so why should I continually be changing a proven software configuration with some updates that could cause the thing to fail? Security I hear you say. Are we really sure that leaving an unpatched computer on the Internet with a good a security suite on it will really fall victim to a piece of malware? I see many computers that never install updates and aren't completely ridden with viruses, worms, etc.

I upgraded the memory in the PC and I have to wait many minutes while the thing shuts down and restarts and no option to avoid it. I'm seriously considering turning off Automatic Updates and relying on a three or six month 'grab 'em all and install once' option.

System Restore fails

I had a interesting challenge today with a very slow laptop. I did all the usual things, deleted unnecessary programs, cleaned up the startup list, removed Norton Internet Security, deleted all temporary files and folders, etc. And then came to the cleanup of System Restore which was using over 7Gb of disk space. But there was no System Restore tab in the System Properties!

First, I checked the services and sure enough System Restore service was set to Automatic but was stopped. Tried to start it and got 'Code 5: Access is denied'. Did a search on Google and there was some information about clearing registry entries that disabled it, but all to no avail. Then I ran a virus and spyware check but nothing was found.

Finally started thinking about repair installing Windows and I thought about just reinstalling only System Restore. I did a little bit of investigation about this and found that right clicking and selecting Install on C:\WINDOWS\inf\sr.inf started this off. Give it the latest Service Pack files in C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles and then reboot. System Restore is restored and the restore point storage area is cleaned out as well. Worth knowing.

The fake Antivirus scam

I've recently come across a number of PCs infected with the Vista Antivirus 2009 (even Windows XP systems!) and the Antivirus 2009 spyware variants. Other Antivirus 2009 aliases that have recently appeared on the Internet are: XP Antivirus 2008, Ultimate Antivirus 2008 and System Antivirus 2008. These trick the users by appearing to be genuine Microsoft Windows warnings and products but are in fact scams that require a credit card for US$30 to be entered to remove the apparent detected viruses and spyware. Obviously if you pay up nothing happens.

Initially these appear difficult to remove but I've succeeded by:
- downloading, updating and running Spyware Doctor from Google Pack
- using msconfig to remove any suspicious Startup entries
- resetting Internet Explorer to remove any pervasive Browser Help Objects

A cleanup of an infected machine takes about two hours including any Windows and IE7 updates, plus general maintenance work. Additional work could include restoring Windows Update functionality, allowing Task Manager, removing desktop icons, program entries and Control Panel applets.

WHS Power Pack

I've just installed the recently released Windows Home Server Power Pack update. This should fix the data corruption that occurred when editing files in the Shared Folders. The rest of the new features don't really interest me, but it is a pity that they dropped the backup to external hard disk. This would have been really useful as an extra level of data security. I hope it will be in the next release and that we don't have to pay for it. Come on Microsoft make this useful piece of software really something!

The DELL from Hell

A customer asked me to look at a DELL computer that he had recently acquired that had a booting problem. It was a large, heavy DELL XPS Generation 5 with twin RAID hard disks. The previous owner appeared to have wiped them. An easy job thought I to reinstall Windows XP from the supplied DELL Operating CD.

It stalled after 'Press a key to boot from the CD...'. I tried everything to get it past this point. Reset the BIOS, disabled RAID, swapped every component and cable apart from the motherboard and 3.4GHz Pentium 4 CPU. All to no avail. This thing would just not boot. After spending many frustrating hours on this piece of junk, I called the new owner to tell him the bad news. Fine says he, just scrap it. It seems crazy to scrap a powerful, two year old brand name computer, but that is exactly what I did. I'm building another one with some of the reclaimed components for the owner.

More screen real estate

I decided to purchase a new monitor to go with my new graphics card (see last month's post). My DELL 19" standard aspect screen was nice, but with the prices of the 22" widescreen models dropping to the £150 mark, it was too tempting. The reviews (Pcpro and online) indicated that the DELL 22" E228WFP Widescreen LCD Black Flat Panel Monitor was a wise choice even when priced much higher.

Anyway it arrived yesterday and a small monitor shuffle took place and the loser was an old DELL 15" LCD that I used of my test system (already sold for £50). The new monitor is impressive and I don't notice any decrease in frame rates when playing games even though it must me moving more pixels around. The big difference is the increase in screen real estate! The Windows Sidebar is now really off to the side and my two columns of desktop items seem almost lost on the left hand side. Great display too,

Measuring responsiveness 2

Two things reminded me about computer responsiveness recently, one from a long time ago and the other just today. Over 30 years ago, I used to program real-time flight simulators being responsible for fuel, electrical and hydraulics systems. There was no operating system to speak of, just an ‘executive’ program that controlled the time-slices in milliseconds that each program had to compute its results within. If you didn’t finish within your allocated time-slice too bad; you were just cut off. So if your fuel calculation wasn’t completed and the fuel gauges weren’t updated, the engines never ran out of fuel and the aircraft weight remained constant. Ultimate responsiveness, you moved the flight control and the aircraft moved precisely as it should in the real world without any hesitation. No mice to click on, or cursors to watch, it just happened!

I had to edit a home video today. I chose my powerful gaming computer but quickly realised that for all its powerful processor, great memory capacity and cavernous hard disk the editing session was stuttering and painful. Something was going wrong here, but I couldn’t be bothered to find out what it was. I suspected the video card drivers, but they worked well with the 3D games I played, so I was reluctant to change them. I moved the video clips to the small HP server (see previous blogs) and sure enough every thing worked quickly and responsive. Even though the system specification was below the gaming system, apart from the striped RAID hard disks.

In both these examples it was the environment and the task that determined the responsiveness of the system, not the performance and capabilities. So why are some systems so much more responsive if raw performance and resources have nothing to do with it? And how can you measure this?

Measuring responsiveness 1

I'm interested in trying to measure the responsiveness of computer systems. This was because I'm amazed at the apparent quickness of my old DELL Dimension 4550 (2.53GHz Pentium 4, 1Gb DDR memory with Windows XP SP2)which I use for email, web browsing, Word, Excel, Sage bookkeeping, web designing and other administrative tasks. Yes, I know it is over five years old and needs replacing but it still works well and seems reallyresponsive often with many windows open and applications running.

I install quite a few new DELL systems with various configurations and you have to beef them up a bit with the faster Core 2 Duo processors and at least 2Gb of memory before they appear to be just as responsive as my old DELL. So I started to research how to measure responsiveness and discovered very little in the way of research or benchmarks. The closest is Futuremark's PCmark which at least simulates normal use of a computer and times the various operations. However, it still seems very CPU oriented.

Thirteen years ago I had an Intergraph TD-3 workstation with two Intel Pentium 90MHz processors and a SCSI disk drive running Windows NT. That was a very responsive system. You could even continue to work on it while it was printing or formatting a floppy disk. Today multi-core processors seem essentially linked to fast response. This means that when you double click a desktop icon the first time a window opens immediately with the respective application's menu structure and your document or data displayed within it, ready for your attention. A slow response gives three blank windows (because you ended up hitting the icon three times), the hard disk light comes on continually and the system grinds away trying to fill in the boxes.

Wedding

The lack of recent posts to this blog is for a real good reason. Just over a week ago my son got married in Holland to a wonderful girl. It was a really enjoyable time and everything was perfect. They were married in a famous Dutch castle which is in the village where we once lived. He was born, raised and schooled the the village so it was great to back and see him married there. The receptions were in the bride's village and then in a chateau nearby.

Weather was beautiful, just right for the photos and to drive the open-top Aston Martin car that he used for the day. The families got on really well, had a great dinner together and then partied until the early morning. We stayed a few days as well and even watched Holland lose at football to the Russians in Euro 2008.

Since getting back, I've obviously been very busy, but will start to think and write about my experience in this blog.

PSUs do matter

I've had a busy week and one of the many things I had to do was upgrade a gamer's graphics card. An hour later I received a telephone call that the PC had 'blown up' with a load bang, tripped the domestic circuit breaker and caused the owner to spill his cup of coffee.

I'd checked that the card was acceptable for the 350W power supply as stated on the box, but obviously with the 3.4GHz Pentium 4 and two WD Raptor drives had taken more power than was available. I'd replaced the PSU in the last year so it wasn't old and filled with dust. Luckily, further investigation had shown that the other components had not suffered in the massive electrical trauma.

I installed a 500W quality PSU that cost almost three times the original one, and I trust that the gamer will continue to play for many happy hours. He certainly likes the new graphics card, but wishes that the explosions were not so close. So I'll remember to upgrade the PSU as well, when I upgrade the graphics.

That HP server that could

Following my disappointment at trying to create a gaming system from a cheap HP Proliant ML115 server, I've persevered in trying to improve the system. So I have removed 512Mb from my new DELL server to increase the HP's memory to 1.5Gb, installing a Creative Audigy SE sound card and finally adding a proper gaming graphics card, the Sapphire Radeon HD3850. Plenty of room in the small chassis to fit these and plenty of power from the PSU as well.

Amazingly this has improved the potential somewhat. The quiet graphics card has not increased the noise level which though not silent, is subdued for a games PC. The graphics performance of this card are also great for a mid-price model. The disk RAID sub-system performance is now increased to over 110Mb/s. The computer is much more responsive and able to handle today's games such as Crysis, Company of Heroes and Flight Simulator X.

Altogether it gives a quality feel. A small box which can handle most games that you throw at it and has become something that I can sell with confidence. Not as cheap as I originally envisaged but fair value for money and a configuration that I'm happy with.

Thank you AVG

Grisoft's recent announcement to end support and updating of AVG Free 7.5 has lead to a surge of business for me. For years now I've been loading AVG Free on people's computers (and also removing Norton in its many guises), telling them that it is better and free as well. So now they are all calling me asking what they should do.

To be fair, I've been emailing instructions on how to remove the old version then download and install the new version (with telephone support), pay the upgrade cost to the complete version or arrange an appointment for half an hour to do it for them. Most people have taken the later option causing me to travel around Basingstoke for many short appointments. Saying that of course when you are there I can also fix the printer, email, broadband, slowness, etc.

So thank you Grisoft, and I'd appreciate it if you don't make this occurrence happen too often as it creates a lot of work for me. Good money though, even for you as quite a few have taken the complete upgrade solution.

Disappointed

It all got off to a really good start. The little HP server was delivered on time. It even came with a decent keyboard and a ball mouse (didn't know they still made those). Adding an extra hard disk as a RAID 0 (striped) configuration was straight forward. When I put in the Vista DVD, the RAID controller was recognised and Vista installation was a breeze. Then it all started to go wrong...

The unit is quite noisy and there is a powerful chassis fan that can't be regulated. There is no overclocking capability on the motherboard. The PCI Express x16 (graphics) slot is very close to the large CPU cooler fan assembly. Any graphics card when inserted, obscures the PCI Express x8 slot adjacent to it. The sound card wouldn't fit in either PCI 3.3V slot so I'll have to but a new one. It looks like Creative's Audigy SE card is dual voltage sensing so will work but that's an extra £20.

Then came the benchmarking, the CPU was as almost expected at the very bottom end of the dual core table. So probably won't make a great gaming powerhouse system. Even worse was the disk subsystem which didn't even make it to 100Mb/s and puts it again as the slowest I've ever tested. So digital video editing is out as well. The onboard graphics is poor quality so even using it as a PC is doubtful unless I put a cheap PCI Express graphics card in it.

OK, on the bright side it didn't cost me much money and I didn't waste too much time on it so the experiment was worthwhile. However, the conclusion is that this system will not make a worthwhile gaming PC.

From Server to Gamer

As the local company that I quoted for a new IT infrastructure have accepted the configuration based on my old DELL server, I'm continuing my quest to discover what can be done with these value servers. Having already successfully implemented Windows Home Server on the new DELL server, I'm now looking at what can be done on the desktop and even at the gaming level with one of these boxes.

I've ordered an HP Proliant ML115 for £118 including VAT and delivery from PCworld Business. This comes with a dual core AMD Opteron, 1Gb memory, 160Gb hard disk drive and a DVD/CD writer combo drive. More importantly it has PCI Express x16 slot for a mid-range graphics card, SATA RAID 0/1/5 controller and a good 370W power supply.

So by adding an extra 160Gb hard disk drive in RAID 0 (striped) configuration, a Ati Radeon 3850 Pro graphics card and an OEM copy of Windows Vista Basic should give a reasonable desktop box for not too much money. You certainly can't build a system like this yourself for this price. And have HP quality and warranty too.

Hopefully Vista doesn't require a floppy to load the SATA controller drivers as there is no floppy connector on the motherboard, and I don't want to have to buy a USB floppy just for that. Finally, I can always add some more memory as well, Crucial have an extra 2x1Gb kit for just £38.

I'll keep you informed of my project.

Prey finished

After almost two months of play, I've finally finished Prey from Human Head Studios and 2K Games. I found it in the bargain bin for under £5 and knowing that it has been used to test 3D graphics cards in the past, and it was under two years old I thought that it was worth a try.


It was a good game with nice graphics, a good story line and very playable. Definitely worth the money. Also having an online strategy guide from Gamespot and a easy God mode meant for the really heavy moments that I didn't get stuck in it and lost interest. There were plenty of puzzles to solve and the abstract use of gravity added an extra edge, as did the spirit walking and innovative recovery mode. Also you don't need to keep the CD in the drive, which is always a plus point for me when playing any game.

So, thanks to this game's developers for taking the effort to give me a few good hours entertainment.

Vista on minimum memory

I'm visiting a growing number of people who have recently bought computers running Windows Vista and which have only 1Gb of memory or even less for those computers whose integrated graphics take a chunk out of it. All these people are complaining that their computers are going increasingly slower and a lot slower than when they first bought them.

I display the Windows Sidebar CPU meter gadget which shows the memory needle hard over in the red and not moving. The disk drive is paging like mad and there is a row of icons in the notification area. Further investigation show 60 to 80 processes all competing for the valuable memory resource and Vista's memory manager trying to sort out the mess. So how do I fix it? Sell them more memory is often the easiest solution. Easy for a desktop, but the extra laptop slot is often already occupied. Here's another solution:

a) remove the integrated security solution (Norton, McAfee, etc.) that was supplied with the computer and replace with AVG Free Edition.

b) using msconfig, go to the Startup tab and remove all the other programs that are supplied with the computer from the Startup list. All of them, completely, totally not one left. Leave AVG though.

c) still in msconfig, go to the Services tab and stop any non-essential services. For example; Windows Search which I've never understood, as it won't search the whole hard disk for the files that I want to find and won't find other computers on the network. Also Windows Defender as you've already installed AVG Free with Anti-spyware.

d) disable the Aero user interface. Nobody notices the difference anyway. They never do Windows key and Tab key.

Having done all this you should get a Windows Vista computer that is useable, responsive, protected and works as it should. The CPU meter should now show memory use at about 38-40% on idle, giving plenty of spare room for your applications. Which after all is what you wanted to do with the damn thing anyway!

The Vista Phenomenon

Again this week three events made me think about the viability of Windows Vista for the long term. Don't get me wrong I've been a big supporter of Windows Vista in the past, in spite of the continuous bad press it gets and Microsoft's lamentable efforts in marketing it at all. In fact of the over 200 DELL systems that I sold last year, only two were downgraded to Windows XP on the customer's request.

However, the three events were:
a) I received Microsoft's own Vista SP1 DVD and tried to install it on a customer's brand new, high-spec DELL laptop. It took about an hour and a half to do it! The downloadable version which dribbles occasionally onto your fully loaded system typically takes 30-40 minutes to install. Why the difference? I doubt I will ever install it from that DVD again, as it is so embarrassing!

b) I had to backup 2Gb (7,000+ files) of data from another newish DELL laptop to a external USB disk drive. It took over 40 minutes! Maybe Vista SP1 would have helped this a bit, but even so it took much too long. 1Gb of large files was only a couple of minutes.

c) I had to quote for an upgrade of a local small company's IT infrastructure. This included server, desktops, laptops and the network itself. I would have preferred to quote Vista on the desktops with Windows Small Business Server 2003 on the server. However to play safe I changed the desktops to Windows XP instead. The risks were higher and they wanted to run 3rd-party client/server applications that I knew ran on Windows XP and would probably need to be upgraded at considerable cost to the customer for Windows Vista. Risk plus expense was too much.

WHS configuration dilemma

I've been using the 120 day evaluation of Windows Home Server (WHS) for about three months now on a DELL SC430 server. It has two hard disk drives on it; an 80Gb with the 20Gb SYS partition and then the rest as DATA; plus a 250Gb second disk with the rest of DATA. Actual data used is only 150Gb at present, backing up five PCs and using Shared Folders. The 250Gb disk is potentially faulty which I only use in test configurations. It has suffered a bad block trauma in the past and though it is not getting any more, I would not want to trust it in a 'real' situation.

I've now purchased a new DELL SC440 server with 250Gb disk drive for only £125 delivered. I've also purchased a new full OEM version of WHS to run on it. I have the choice of the following new disk drives 160Gb, 250Gb (came with server and has DELL hardware diagnostics on it), 320Gb and 500Gb. I've moved the existing disk drives from the old server to the new one, updated the video and network drivers and it is working again with the WHS evaluation version on the new server.

I understand that I will have to re-install WHS and recreate the accounts and settings, so I've decided to start completely from scratch again.

My dilemma is which disk drives do I choose?

a) is a single larger disk drive better or worse than two drives for overall server performance?
b) do I go for just the 250Gb that came with the new server? The data should fit and I can always add another disk at a later date.
c) should I go with the biggest drive to start with?
d) or a small (SYS only) drive and a big dedicated DATA drive?

Also how do I transition the Shared Folder data to the new configuration? At the moment I'm just doing a file copy to an external USB hard disk drive and intend to copy it all back after the re-installation. Will this work? Also, do I have to remove and re-install the WHS Connection Client software on the five PCs?

Computers that don't work

It never ceases to amaze me that some users are quite able to continue to work on PCs that give frequent error messages, pop-ups, lost paths to applications, corrupted file systems and intermittent Internet connections.

Just today I replaced a modern PC desktop with just such symptoms with an older yet much more functional unit. I'm now receiving praise that it has made so much difference and that everything just works correctly. OK, it took four hours to copy and reconfigure the 'new' box with all the three users data files, applications and settings. But it is now a useful asset to the home and business, and has reduced the frustration levels considerably.

I think that we are so used to understanding and just using these tools of our IT profession that we frequently forget what it can be like for some users out there!

Windows Home Server

Well my new DELL SC440 server arrived yesterday. Great box for a really low price (see previous entry). I was was going to reinstall WHS from scratch but I thought that I'd try taking the two hard drives out of the old DELL SC430 and put them in the new one and see if it would boot. And it did! I had to reload the network Gigabit NIC driver and ATi video driver from the DELL driver CD and then all was going perfectly again.

The new server seems more responsive if you logon directly but not over the network. This was to be expected I suppose. What was interesting was that DELL had added an extra Broadcom Gigabit NIC in one of the PCIE-1 slots. This was in addition to a similar port integrated on the motherboard. Amazing for the price.

My new car

I've had my new Vauxhall Corsa Breeze 1.2 3-door since last month, so I thought it was about time to write about it.

Driving it is good. I’m a large guy, and for a small car the Corsa has lots of interior space especially in the front seat. It has a very comfortable driving position with adjustable seats and steering wheel. The performance is getting better and better. The engine is beginning to really feel more flexible and revs well. The fuel consumption has gone from 26mpg on the first tank of petrol to 40mpg on the second. So that's going in the right direction too.

Very quiet to drive, not much road noise and a good sounding radio/CD player. Nice handling with no surprises. Good quality feel to the controls though the indicators and windscreen wipers/washers take a while to get used to.

I've just taken it on my first reasonable motorway run and it felt like it had enough power even if 5th gear to keep up. In fact with the smoothness and quietness it seemed to want go over 80mph all the time. 70mph is 3,000rpm. It plays my iPod through the radio and the MP3 music CDs show the track names which I didn't expect. Also my TomTom One satnav fits nicely in the cup/cash/card holder in front of the gearstick and still gets a good signal. So it's not in view when I park (easy to cover with a fuel receipt).

Why did the make the numbers on the speedometer and rev counter look exactly the same? Couldn’t they afford to paint a few more zeros on the rev counter to distinguish it a bit?

To begin with the performance was terrible. I expected that as I test drove a brand new 1.2 SXi and it was the same. However now the engine is run in (over 1,000 miles) it is getting better. Power kicks in nicely between 3000 and 4000rpm. Lower than that nothing much happens in higher gears. Is this typical of the Twinport valve technology? I would have liked a Breeze 1.4 which is not available, but remember the 1.2 is in fact 1,229cc and the 1.4 is 1,364cc so the difference isn't as much as it seems at first.

Other benefits are very light steering when manoeuvring, easy gearbox and low insurance group. Overall I’m very happy with it. It does what I want and is a good replacement for my seven year old Fiesta.

Hardy Heron

I last messed about with Linux distributions over five years ago in the days of Red Hat and SUSE, so I thought that it was about time that I had another go with the latest and most popular desktop version of Ubuntu 8 codenamed Hardy Heron. Ubuntu seems to be getting a lot of praise in the press and I wanted to find out what it was all about.

I was disappointed before with the hassle of installing the old versions and expected more of the same with this one. I just downloaded the desktop Ubuntu 8.04 LTS version from the website and burnt it onto one CD. Boy, was I surprised when it installed in about 25 minutes on an old eMachine system that I had lying around. Everything just worked first time from the box so to speak. Access to the network, sound, graphics all configured perfectly. The applications like Openoffice were installed and ready to go. It just worked. And you don't have to mess about with antivirus, firewalls, security suites, etc.

This will be perfect for recycling all those old PCs that I get without a legal version of Windows that can be reloaded onto them. Mostly I just get what spares I need from them, destroy the hard disk drives and take them to the municipal rubbish dump. Now I can find another use for them, especially for people and organisations who already have a broadband Ethernet router and just want an extra PC for the visitors, children, mother, brother, dog, etc.

Three surprises this week

I had three surprises this week:

DELL PowerEdge SC440 server for £117 offer

For just a few days DELL offered a small tower server (18Kg) with Intel Dual Core processor E2160, half a gig of ECC memory, 160Gb HDD and DVD-ROM for only £117 delivered. I ordered one with a upgraded 250Gb HDD for an extra £8. Maybe it was a mistake or DELL wants to get rid of old stock.

Anyway when it gets delivered it will make a great platform for another of my pet projects which is Windows Home Server (WHS). I already have the DELL predecessor the SC430 server with an Intel Celeron 2.5GHz but the new one will offer three times the performance (with dual core CPU responsiveness) and capacity. I can sell the old server to pay for the new one! I also have a 500Gb HDD waiting to go in the new server as well.


I'm really fond of WHS for sharing files and printers plus performing automatic backups of the other desktops and laptops that I have. Plus offering easy remote access on the occasions when I need it.




AVG Free 8 AntiVirus

Grisoft released their latest AVG Free 8 AntiVirus this week with a revised prettier user interface that looks really good and much more modern. It also integrated their antispyware software package as well, which is a real bonus. And on testing the memory footprint is not much larger than the previous version. Well done Grisoft!

I've been recommending and installing AVG Free as the antivirus software of choice for my customers for years now with very few problems. My previous choice for antispyware was AdAware SE Personal and more recently free Spyware Doctor downloaded as part of the Google Pack. Now I can install just one piece of software and know that I'm covering both bases and also make it easier for my customers.


DELL Inspiron 1525 laptop

I bought a couple of these laptops for clients recently and was surprised by the design, quality, speed and value that this model offers. Previously I'd supplied the DELL Vostro 1000 and 1500 models, but seeing this new Inspiron I thought I'd try it.

Nice wedge shape, solid looking silver keyboard, 8 in 1 card reader, Firewire, and HDMI port. Also the more usual USB ports (4), Express Card slot and inbuilt wireless networking. Bluetooth is an option.

Even with the basic Intel Pentium T2370 dual core processor, a £10 upgrade to 1.5Gb and 120Gb HDD it performs admirably on the simple tasks that my customers want them for. And when installing them, I load them up with a number of concurrent tasks it seems to handle everything well and remain responsive. All for under £350. Nice one DELL! DELL needs to get Vista SP1 quicker though.

More background...

The philosophy of my company PC-fix-IT was when I started, to offer friendly, experienced, yet affordable services to the local community in an increasingly technology advanced market (broadband, security, Windows, etc.) taking advantages of good quality free software and well priced hardware products. This has been successful, as in the four years I've been trading I have over 800 customers in the Basingstoke area and revenues that force me to be VAT registered.

I quickly realised that building cheap PCs from components was not part of the business model. You have to investigate and source the components, assemble them in two hours (something always goes wrong), load software (including a bootleg copy of Windows) and then essentially offer a lifetime warranty on the computer. I quickly switched to selling DELL computers which offer brand recognition, easy configuration, legal Windows, and a backup warranty from DELL. The profits were better and it was a lot less hassle. I make my money on the resultant services. In fact I offer the first hour free in the price.

The majority (90%) of my customers just want a simple, modern computer to surf the Internet, email, manage digital photos, create the occasional letter and spreadsheet. For the rest they are games players, video editors and run specialist applications. All require help in configuring a suitable computer, ordering and installing it, connecting printers, broadband, networking etc. Then transferring data, files and settings from their old systems, reinstalling applications. i offer these services at a reasonable rate that most people whether individuals or running a small business can afford. Plus after business hours in the evening and weekends to make it convenient to them.

I rely on information from Microsoft, evaluation software, free software from reliable vendors, DELL computers, broadband suppliers (and their poor offshore support call centres) and the Internet to tie it all together. Plus my wife to run the accounts, answer the phone, wait in for deliveries and remind me often.

I've frequently been asked why I don't have premises but the extra overheads of lease, insurance, security, stock and salary costs over a potentially slight increase in passing trade and carry in business do not seem to be worth the risk. In fact a number of such local establishments have closed recently, so my views seem to be correct.

In the next post I'll be more specific on experiences, products, etc...

Introduction

OK my first post. I will start with a short introduction. I live in Basingstoke, England, married and run a one man company for fixing PCs (www.pcfixit.co.uk). This blog is to document some of my experiences, my successes and failures, and my thoughts about life in the IT industry, albeit at the lowest level.

I've spent well over 30 years in the IT business from programming, project mangement, development department manager, product manager and finally in marketing hardware mainly workstations and servers. After being made redundant three times in seven years, it was obvious that it was increasingly difficult to get and keep an job as you got older and anyway I wanted to decide when I retire not for a company to do it for me.

So four years ago I turned my hobby of building, fixing and using PCs into my trade by setting myself up as a PC repair man, mainly for residential customers and small businesses.

That's the background, let's see where this takes us...