Dual core systems

Spending the time as I do fixing people's systems, it is amazing how often these slow, old PCs are considered adequate for what they want to do. Typically an old Intel Pentium 4 class computer with just 512Mb memory and full 80Gb hard disk drive running Windows XP SP2 is a system that I have a half an hour to wave a magic wand and make it a speed demon.

Usually the adding some more memory, stopping all the programs starting up and removing old programs and temporary files is enough to make a noticeable improvement and a happy customer, who calls me back six months later to do it all over again. Doing this all day I then go back to my 'lean and mean' modern dual core CPU system which is immediately responsive and instantly reacts to my every click together with Virgin Media's 20Mbps broadband connection speed make me realise what modern computing is all about.

It seems that adding an extra CPU core or more plus 4Gb of memory and Windows 7 makes for a really responsive system the purchase price for which can be about £300+. A really impressive replacement of a five year old computer. It is difficult to describe and persuade people that in today's multitasking environments this is what they need.

The rise of the low-end graphic card -- Part 3

Continuing my quest to achieve stunning graphics performance for not much money, I have two more cards to report on. An XFX Radeon HD4650 (£39, 512Mb DDR2, 2,580 3Dmark06) and a Powercolor Radeon HD4770 (£55, 512Mb GDDR5, 12,400 3Dmark06). One a real duffer and the other a star!

The XFX HD4650 is a total under performing failure despite the company's claims that this is in fact an overclocked version. Their customer support was totally useless in determining the cause or offering to replace it. I usually buy this company's graphics cards, but not anymore.

I then tried the Powercolor HD4770 and what a difference; fast and quiet. It has replaced my previous favourite the PNY nVidia 9600GT (£45, 512Mb DDR3, 10,000 3Dmark06) as it is slightly faster and definitely quieter when not on full load. The thermostatically controlled cooling fan on the Powercolor HD4770 wins it for me.

DELL's fabulous XPS 8000

I was tasked by my nephew to choose a new gaming PC. Given the budget and performance objectives, I went about configuring various DELL models and even considered the 'build it myself' option. We decided on a DELL XPS 8000.

It arrived yesterday and was duly unpacked and tested. What a performer! A real 'bang for the buck' gaming system. The specification is:
- DELL XPS 9000 Studio
- Intel i7 860 2.8GHz quad core CPU
- 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 memory
- 640Gb 7,200rpm SATA hard disk drive
- DVD+/-RW optical drive
- nVidia Geforce GTX 860 with 896Mb GDDR5 memory graphics card
- DELL 20" widescreen monitor
- Logitech X230 2.1 speaker set
- Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium

Even though it is a relatively small mini-tower case with a conservatively rated 350W power supply, I still managed to shoehorn in and power the large nVidia GTX860 graphics card. The massive heatpipe cooled heatsink with dual fans keep the card cool and very quiet even under load.

The performance of the whole system is amazing, totally responsive and a gamer's dream system. I recommend it to anybody who wants a great PC gaming machine.

My real Microsoft Windows 7 arrived early!

The two copies of the genuine full version of Microsoft's new Windows 7 Home Premium that I pre-ordered from PCworld for just £45 each, arrived this morning! Three days early.

I certainly didn't expect them so soon as there is a threatened postal strike later this week and they were scheduled by Royal Mail, I expected them mid next week, if I was lucky!

I immediately opened one of the packages to see what was inside, and then to install the 64bit version on my chosen Windows 7 system:
- Chieftec Mesh case with 350W power supply
- Asus P5KPL-AM motherboard
- Intel's latest Pentium E6300 CPU overclocked to 3.2Ghz
- 4Gb Crucial PC6400 memory
- 500Gb Seagate 7200.12 SATA hard disk drive
- PNY nVidia GeForce 9600GT 512Mb DDR3 grahpics card
- DVD writer and DVD-ROM

Installation was a breeze with everything detected and working. I'll report what happens after a few days.

The rise of the low-end graphic card -- Part 2

Continuing my experiences with low-end 3D gaming graphic cards, it was time to raise the stakes slightly. I was tempted by the offer of an nVidia 9600GT card at a really low price.

The PNY Geforce 9600GT (£45, 512Mb DDR3, 10,000 3Dmark06) was on sale at PCworld for a short time so I grabbed one. A revelation when introduced as the true successor to the classic 6600GT it had great reviews. To me it offered almost twice the performance of my previous winner the nVidia 9500GT (£37, 512Mb GDDR3, 5,875 3Dmark06) for just £8 more.

It is a larger size card that requires an additional 6-pin power connection. It was almost silent, certainly quieter than the 9500GT. I discovered however that not all was as it seems. This version was a derivative of the original two year old design. An eco or lower power version that has a clock speed of just 600MHz instead of the original's 650MHz. Also the shaders and memory was clocked slightly lower. This obviously leads to lower benchmark figures, but still impressive for a cheap graphics card.

DELL's data saviour

A little known fact about the DELL Vostro 220 minitower PC is that is includes a very effective hardware RAID controller that can be configured to protect your data from hard disk failure.

This is very effective in providing small businesses with some measure of data protection at a minimum cost. For just the price of a second hard disk drive in fact. And no software costs at all.

To configure this order your DELL Vostro 220MT with dual hard disk drives of the same capacity or install a second SATA disk drive yourself. Before you install Windows XP or Vista, go into the BIOS setup (F2 key), select Standard CMOS Features and then change the SATA Mode option from AHCI to RAID. Save and exit, and then continue the Windows installation as normal.

When Windows is up and running, install the Intel Matrix Storage Application from DELL's Application and Driver CD or download the latest version from Intel's website. Reboot and run this application. You should be able to select the Data protection option which will setup the two hard disks in RAID 1 (mirror) and after a couple of hours will copy all your data over to the second drive. Of course you can also select Performance which will setup RAID 0 (striped) for a higher performance disk subsystem without any data protection.

DELL's salespeople and website fails to inform you of this fact that for the cost of an additional disk drive provides an essential data security feature. In fact DELL charge a ridiculous amount for that second disk drive often over £100 even for low capacity models. Remember as well mirroring disk drives with RAID 1 is no substitute for a full backup.

HAL is missing

No this is not a reference to the errant HAL9000 computer from 2001 A Space Odyssey, but the failure of Windows XP to boot with the following message: "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: windows\system32\hal.ddl. Please re-install a copy of the above file."

Now when a customer gets this and the usual chkdsk doesn't fix it, it usually means a re-install of Windows over the existing version or a complete disk format and reload of the whole systems software and appplications. Both mean a fair amount of work, which is often difficult to justify on an old computer. So I looked for another solution.

This worked: boot the system into the Recovery Console and then reset the file attributes of boot.ini, if it exists so that you can delete it.
C:> attrib -h -r -s boot,ini
C:> del boot.ini

Then re-create it using the following:
C:>bootcfg /rebuild
selecting the Windows installation, give it a name and /fastdetect as the usual option. Finally reload the hard disk boot block with:
C:>fixboot

This will usually create a working boot.ini and the system will reboot normally. If not try to replace hal.dll from the Windows Setup CD-ROM by:
C:>expand d:\i386\hal.dl_ c:\windows\system32\hal.dll

In my case the boot.ini file was being repeatedly deleted by malware, so running Malwarebytes' Antimalware program fixed that too.

So that's how to open the pod bay doors!

Running Windows Vista (and 7) faster

I've mentioned before some of the methods that I use to get Windows Vista to run more responsively in low memory configurations. These methods also work with the new Windows 7. I've discovered a few more so I thought that I'd add them to the list.

Changing the Windows Aero display to Windows Basic settings causes the Display Window Manager to dramatically reduce in memory footprint. I've seen this achieve between 40 and 70Mb in some larger memory configurations. This can be brought back to a couple of megabytes.

Disable Windows Defender via Tools -> Options if you are using any Anti-Virus program that also have Anti-Spyware and most modern ones do have.

Use the utility program msconfig to stop any unwanted Startup programs and Services from running when the computer boots.

After deleting any superfluous files with a utility like Ccleaner (www.ccleaner.com), use a decent disk defragmenter like Smart Defrag (www.iobit.com).

Obviously fast dual or quad core CPUs, speedy hard drives and large amounts of memory help modern computers overcome the drag that the latest Windows operating systems put on them, but knowing how to tune performance given the hardware you already have can help you a lot.

Philips failure

I rarely accept a trade-in PC when I sell a reconditioned one. But this seemed too good to be true. A just over a year old Philips MT5000 Freestyle mini-tower with Intel E6420 Core 2 Duo CPU, 2Gb memory, 400Gb hard disk drive, ATi Radeon graphics and two DVD writers for £50. The system POSTed and it appeared to indicate a corrupted Windows Vista was the root cause. As the original recovery DVD was supplied, it should just mean a quick wipe disk and reinstall should fix it. It seemed a good deal for just £50.

How wrong I was! The quick fix failed after the re-install when the graphics mode changed, the mouse cursor briefly appeared and then the system power cycled. Not just reset back to BIOS, but the power light went out and then came back on again. I'd never seen that happen on a computer before. Strangely I tried a generic Windows Vista version and that behaved exactly the same. Windows XP installed fine and appeared to be stable. But I wanted to use the Windows Vista license with this system. I ran a MemTst86 memory diagnostic and that failed after a while by just freezing. No memory errors. I tested the memory in another machine and the two sticks passed without any problems. I thought it might be a power problem, so I swapped the PSUs and graphics cards and exactly the same happened. It just had to be the motherboard.

So I've ordered a new motherboard and a new case, as the old Philips one was scratched, broken and dirty in an attempt to get my money back when I sell the system. However this will not compensate me for the time taken to try to diagnose this system, disassemble it and rebuild it again. I've learnt my lesson not to be tempted by trading in a system that doesn't work!

UPDATE: The new motherboard did fix the problem.

Playing with Windows 7

I've been playing with Windows 7 RC1 for a couple of months now and I must say I'm really enjoying it. My self-build system (Pentium E6300@3.2GHz, 2Gb RAM and 320Gb HDD) is certainly powerful enough to drive it along well and the graphics card (nVidia 8600GTS) allows me to play games on it easily such as my present favourite Anno 1404.

It certainly is a 'Vista that works' and works well. It is a pity that mini-applications such as Windows Mail, Photo Gallery and Movie Maker didn't make it over into this version. Thunderbird is a great email client though and it works well on Windows 7. But how does a lower specification system perform with Windows 7?

So, I resurrected an old eMachine box based on an AMD Athlon X2 4000+ CPU at 2.1GHz with a new AsRock AM2+ motherboard but used the existing 1Gb memory and 160Gb hard disk drive. Software installation went well without any problems though the integrated VIA sound chip needed the Vista drivers from the motherboard's support CD-ROM. I also loaded the overclock utility and used that to bring the CPU to 2.3GHz.

After downloading Kaspersky's AntiVirus for Windows 7 trial there was about 68% of the memory used. Not much left over for applications to run with. A bit of trimming required. So I set the user interface style from the default Aero to Windows 7 Basic and then stopped Windows Defender. I also grabbed an extra 96Mb from the integrated video using the BIOS setup. Memory used is now 30%. Good enough for word processing, web surfing and email etc. Just to push it a bit, I installed the Anno 1404 game demo. It worked well if a bit slow on reduced details settings on the Geforce 7025 integrated graphics.

Now if only I could get rid of the faint tobacco smell from the previous owner it would be fine!

Losing my memory

I don't know why, but I've been upgrading a lot of desktops recently with additional memory. In fact I've almost run out and that is after ordering replacement parts. As soon as I get them, I sell them.

It's difficult to know what to stock. That means what to carry around with me. Speeds and capacities vary so much and often you need to add pairs of exactly similar manufacturer and specification to make sure that dual channel performance is maintained. I don't want to buy large quantities of memory parts 'just in case', especially as I leave them in my car boot overnight. However PC3200 DDR2 512Mb is useful to have enough of, and PC4200 512Mb can be used as a substitute for most Windows XP systems that are upgrading from 512Mb total capacity to 1Gb. You can then take out the original pair of 256Mb strips and use them to upgrade the next one.

I had problems with a DELL Dimension 5000 the other day which needed to be increased from 512Mb to 1Gb only I didn't have any PC3200 or PC4200 memory at all. I tried replacing what was in there with PC5300, both a pair of 512Mb and a single 1Gb. The pair didn't want to work at all, it just beeped and the single strip booted but subsequently crashed when the Windows desktop screen was almost finished displaying. Eventually I managed to recover two PC3200 256Mb strips from a DELL Dimension 5100 that I had in the workshop and that worked perfectly. Job done!

When I looked on the Crucial website (where I buy most of my memory) it said that upto PC6400 was OK in the Dimension 5100. Sure enough, two PC6400 1Gb strips were installed and worked fine. Just what I needed anyway for the Windows Vista upgrade. Strange that two systems with a similar specification and chipset should behave so differently. Probably different motherboards.

The rise of the low-end graphics card

I've become aware that relatively cheap (under £40) graphics cards can provide a great 3D graphics experience with translucency, shadows and reflections in modern games at a playable refresh rate. I've just been playing the new Anno 1404 demo on my new Windows 7 system with an ATi Radeon HD3450 (£25, 256Mb DDR2, 3Dmark06 1800) on my 1680 by 1050 resolution monitor. A bit jerky but a beautiful picture.

So let me see what I can get if I pay a bit more. Say for an nVidia 9500GT (£37, 512Mb GDDR3, 3Dmark06 5875) Over three times the performance for just £12 more. Now the game runs smoothly and pretty. What a bargain! These cards are low on power and run cool and quiet too. Without the need for extra power leads and hefty power supplies. Great for decoding and playing DVDs as well.

They are a perfect upgrade of the integrated graphics in most basic systems. They improve the Aero Glass interface in Vista and now Windows 7. My Windows Experience score for that jumped from 3.1 to 5.9 with this latest graphics card.

Low-end graphics cards used to be just for playing retro games. This new generation offers adequate performance for today's games especially if you are happy to lower the detail level slightly or the screen resolution. And your whole system could feel a lot faster as well.

Intel's new Pentium CPU

I just installed Intel's latest Pentium E6300 CPU into an Asus P5KPL-AM motherboard after upgrading to the latest BIOS 516 revision. Used an Arctic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro CPU fan.

I added 2Gb PC5300 DDR2 memory, a WD Blue 320Gb hard disk drive and an Ati HD3450 graphics card. The installation was no problem and the system booted first time. I installed Windows 7 RC on it and I'm enjoying the performance and low noise level that the system achieves.

Then I overclocked to 3.2Ghz giving a Windows Experience CPU score of 6.5.

The 2Mb cache, higher 1066MHz FSB rate and the greater clock speed surely suit this CPU and set it apart from the other Pentium and Celeron versions.

A Core 2 Duo CPU for half the price. A great performer for the average user and basic gamer.

Personal stereo

For my forthcoming trip to Canada and USA, I decide to update my iPod with my latest albums. That all went well, but the sound through the iPod headphones seemed to be a bit poor. I researched it a bit and the comparison between a Ferrari and a Fiat caught my eye for the Sennheiser CX500 ear-buds. A good price of £18 at play.com was the decider.

What a difference! The bass sound was lower yet clearer, the mid-tones crisper and my 58 year old ears could determine the higher frequencies better. I didn't seem to turn them up as much and the noise isolating ear-canal grommets should keep the airplane jet drone away. I was satisfied with my purchase. My old 2Gb iPod Nano had a new lease of life, though the capacity was a little limited in trying to fit all my favourite albums into it.

So on a recent visit to the PCworld shop a Sansa Clip 2Gb for only £10 seemed a cheap way to allow me an alternative album selection. It is a great little MP3 player, and also sounds great through my new ear-bud headphones. The only problem I have with it is managing the playlist as it wants to play all the tracks alphabetically and not in album/track order. Apparently you can change this through Windows Media Player, so I'll play with this a bit more.

Anyway a new great-sounding portable personal stereo for just £28, not bad!

Windows 7

The parts for my Windows 7 PC arrived this week. Unfortunately the Pentium 4 3.4GHz CPU that I hoped to use was non-responding, so I had to use a 3GHz instead. With all the messing about I bent the pins in the LGA775 socket which required some delicate adjustment. Then the CPU cooler didn't remain firmly clamped to the motherboard, the CPU overheated and the PC promptly shutdown.

The 1Gb DDR2 memory gave errors at 667MHz (the slowest speed the motherboard would accept) and had to be replaced. Finally the older DVD player and writer drives wouldn't accept the 16X DVD that I'd burnt with Windows 7 RC1 on it. I had to burn another with 8X media. What a hassle! It all took hours to build into a successful, working system.

I'm enjoying the Windows 7 experience now, even running on just 1Gb memory. I have ordered an additional 2Gb anyway. I downloaded the Kaspersky AntiVirus Beta for this version of Windows and protection will last to the end of the year. By which time I will have hopefully upgraded to the released version. And I'll probably replaced the CPU with a multi-core midrange processor like the Pentium E6300.

I like the Windows 7 task bar with the Internet Explorer and Media Player icons in what used to be called the quick launch area. You definitely get more feedback on what programs are doing, downloading, waiting for input, stacked, etc. I don't really want to download Live Photo Gallery and Live Windows Mail on every installation that I do as the Windows versions are missing. As is Windows Movie Maker.

The Windows Paint and Wordpad are still delivered, but have been upgraded with a new user interface. I'll have to check whether there is additional functionality as well. I'll also have to look at the new Homegroup and Libraries as I've heard good reports about them, though you apparently can't integrate Windows XP or Vista systems into them.

I've ended up with a nice quiet system which is a bit slower than I'd had hoped for but will do to play around with the software on. The Chieftec Mesh case looks really good though, solid and shows the quality.

Here I go again....

I've one it again. Why? I've bought a new case and motherboard for a DIY computer. I must be mad!

It is Chieftec Mesh mini tower case with 350W power supply for just £45 from ebuyer. I've used Chieftec cases before and found them solid, reliable, quality cases with a good design. I'm writing this on a metallic purple, full tower Chieftec Matrix case which is presently in its second resurrection.


I've also added an Asus microATX motherboard (Asus P5KPL-AM iG31 Socket 775) to the order to house the Intel Pentium 4 3.2Ghz CPU that I have going spare. Add 1Gb DDR2 memory, a second-hand 200Gb SATA disk drive, a DVD writer plus a new ATi Radeon HD3450 graphics card that I liberated from a recent DELL purchase and I have the basis of a reasonable PC.

Now, all I need is an operating system. Well, Microsoft's new Windows 7 RC1 will run for a year, give me the opportunity to play with it and possibly upgrade to the full version when it'll be fully released later this year. That'll do fine.

So, here we go again with DIY PC. Why do I bother when I have a new DELL Vostro 220 minitower sitting in a box here? It has an Intel Pentium E5200 CPU, 2Gb DDR2 memory, DVD writer and a 250Gb hard disk drive. Windows Vista, keyboard and mouse plus one year's warranty for just over £200. I must be mad!

Catastrophic failure

I got this error message recently when I was trying to install Windows Live. It is good to see that programmers at Microsoft still have a sense of humour.

Norton Utilities' Shadow

I decided it was about time that I upgraded my old trusty version of Norton Utilities 2005 with the latest 2009 version. I bought it at my local PCworld shop as it was on offer for just £20. I am totally disappointed with this product which is now just a shadow of its former glory. Thank heaven that I didn't pay any more for it!

Gone are WinDoctor and SpeedDisk, CheckIT diagnostics, boot and run utilities from CD, etc. Instead is an installable and activation for just 3 PCs, which mostly consists of links to Windows own applets for performing system management, tune-up and diagnosis. From DOS days it was always the best set of tools to help you fix PCs. I still enjoy running WinDoctor from the CD on Windows XP systems, finding all the file and registry errors and then running the automatic fixer. It impresses my customers too. Why do the work yourself when you can get the computer to do it for you?

Anyway, I won't be using this latest version. I'll make a backup copy of the CD and put it in my bag just in case. I doubt if I'll be using it much though! Symantec does it again with a totally useless product release of what used to be the king of PC diagnosis and fix software!

Responsive PCs

Yet again I'm drawn to the subject of responsiveness. I've cobbled together a few parts recently and discovered a very responsive system. A Packard Bell minitower with a failed motherboard was the basis. I ordered a new Foxconn i846 chipset motherboard from Novatech for just under £25. Coincidentally a failed Novatech PC with an Intel Pentium 4 3.6Ghz gave me a replacement CPU.

Add 2Gb of PC5400 generic memory from ebuyer and suddenly I realised that I had a fast, responsive minitower computer on my hands. I replaced the Intel stock CPU fan with a cheap Akasa AK-956SF heatsink with fan from ebuyer which lowered the temperatures and noise levels.

This system is only a single core CPU with older technology motherboard, hard drive and memory yet it remains a very responsive computer system. It won't break any benchmarks yet it is still a responsive joy to use.

Cooling IT

As frequencies increase again for multicore CPUs from both Intel and AMD the importance of a good, efficient cooler becomes even more important. Though so called 'stock' air fan coolers that are supplied with the retail versions of modern CPUs are sufficient in cooling their associated CPUs at normal conditions, they are not the quietest or best cooling that can be used if you want to either overclock your processor or build an almost silent system.

I was confronted with both conditions for two different systems recently, one based on an AMD processor and the other an Intel, so I decided to investigate the technology of CPU cooling. There are definitely some weird and wonderful solutions out there including gas and water-based cooling for more money than you would pay for the processor itself. However in the more realistic world of air cooling fans the name of Zaalman was considered the best, but I could not bring myself to purchase beautiful copper cooling solutions for £50 or more when the price of the CPUs they were to cool were not that much more money.

In the region of £15 to £20 the name of Arctic Cooling came to the front, so I purchased one of these to try. I was amazed how much cooler and quieter the Intel system was! I quickly purchased the AMD version of the Arctic Cooler Freezer aluminium cooler. These seem the optimum price/performance solution as the CPU temperature and noise level dropped considerably when they were installed. Thoroughly recommended!

Finished Space Siege

I've just finished Space Siege. It was a simple and fun game and I did kind of enjoy it but not as much as Dungeon Siege which had more depth and variety.

I only paid £5 for it from GAME's bargain bin so it was really good value for money. I've just bought Dawn of War 2 so I'll probably start that straight away. It is a bit in the same vein though. I'd prefer a good first person shooter so I might try Fallout 3 or Call of Duty 5 which I hear are worthwhile.

DELL's new Inspiron 545/546

I'm disappointed in DELL's new Inspiron 545/546 range of desktops, colourful though they maybe. The Intel-based 545 uses the older G33 chipset with the Intel GMA 3100 graphics, whilst the Vostro 220 uses the newer G45 with higher specification Intel GMA X4500 graphics.

On the AMD-based 546 range wich starts at a lowly Sempron LE1250 CPU and expensively rises to the previous generation Phenom quad processors. What happenned to the great Phenom II CPUs?

It is great to see a range of coloured fronts but all are a £29 option on the standard black. It is a pity the rest of the case isn't coloured at that price. And the colour choice is limited to the 545 only. Why?

An obvious market for a coloured case would be the value gaming market, yet no suitable jaw dropping CPU and graphics combination is possible. The Intel Quad Core Q8200 and ATI Radeon HD3650 256MB graphics card is the expensive top-of-the-range model, which don't even make it to the entry level of the XPS range. The Vostro 220 also offers a RAID 0 (striped) disk capability as well.

In general on paper a poor addition to the product offering from DELL, who have now officially dropped to number two in the US market behind HP.

AMD Cool'n'Quiet Technology

The new configuration of my large purple PC was warm and noisy. To start with I replaced the old, cheap and noisy case fans with Xilence Red Wing ones which seem to shift a lot more air and are quieter too. This helped but did not result in a noise level I desired.

I was considering replacing the stock CPU cooler, then turned on the Cool'n'Quiet BIOS setting for the AMD Phenom II X3 720 CPU. This also made a noticeable difference. mMore than I thought that it would. At idle the CPU speed dropped from its overclocked 3.2Ghz to 2.1Ghz to 800MHz. The CPU fan slowed from over 5,100rpm to 3,400rpm and was a fair bit quieter.

This Cool'n'Quiet technology seems very dynamic, much more so that Intel's SpeedStep and doesn't seem to affect the responsiveness of the system at all. When you want the play games the system goes to full speed and becomes noisier but the game's sound blocks this out. When you just type it is quiet enough. I might still change the CPU cooling fan at a later date, but the Cool'n'Quiet technology is sufficient for me now.

Port 80 blocked

I recently went to a customer who claimed that he couldn't view web pages and yet email and messaging worked as usual. I thought that it just meant that I had to reset the web browser's security (Internet Explorer) and check for proxy servers, etc. However it still didn't work. Other computers on the router worked well, so it wasn't that. I spent two hours checking every thing such as reset Winsock settings (netsh winsock reset), checking the hosts file, etc.

I searched the web for clues but found none, though I did download and ran a couple of network repair utilities such as LSPfix. Still no joy. I then performed a complete virus and spyware scan. That revealed evidence and removed Trojan.MeSPAM but still didn't fix web browsing. It was looking like a Windows reinstall was required which seemed over-the-top for such a small, but vital problem.

It was definitely TCP/IP HTTP port 80 that was being blocked. DNS servers were OK and resolving. Other nework access was fine. The AVG AntiVirus was not updating, but I believe that was also based on port 80. Booting into Safe mode and web browsing was fine. I searched for dormant firewalls and other strange services but found none.

As a final desperate act, I removed all the software applications that had anything to do with web browsing or the network such as; Flash, Shockwave, MSN Messenger, Yahoo messenger, ICQ, MSN Family Safety and all the other MSN applets, AVG AntiVirus, etc. Reboot and web browsing is fine.

Reloaded all the stuff apart from MSN Family Safety which the customer didn't require and surfing the web continued to be fine. Update to Internet Explorer 8. Still OK. So what was the problem?

Going Black continued

The new CPU and motherboard are installed in the giant purple case and running well. The main problems were fitting all the devices and cables into the large case. It is still a tight fit.

The MSI K9A2 Neo-F AM2+ motherboard is great. It allows me to use my old Enermax 650W power supply to connect with a 20 pin connection into the newer 24 pin motherboard. Even the manual says that you can do this. It also POSTed first time with the new CPU and an easy BIOS upgrade with MSI's LiveUpdate program gives the correct AMD Phenom II X3 720 CPU name.

I loaded Windows Vista Home Premium and all the hardware was recognised. Even my Sil 0680 IDE RAID card! Then it was an easy job to gradually increase the CPU multiplier setting from 14X to 16X to reach my desired overclocking speed of 3.2Ghz. The system runs fine and I'm reloading my games and applications before benchmarking. I'm very happy with this upgrade.

Going Black

Even after my December post, I've decided to rebuild an old DIY computer as my next gaming system. At present I use an 18 month old DELL Inspiron 530 with Intel C2D E6550 2.33Ghz and 3Gb PC5300 memory. I want a noticeable performance improvement going up into the 3Ghz CPU range plus overclocking capabilities.

Also, though quad core processors are the high end CPU of today, I've sold a few Intel C2Q Q6600 and Q8200-based systems for gaming and I've never been totally impressed with the response times, even though more modern games are multiprocessor compatible. As always, cost is an issue, and needs to be kept as low as possible. Obvious candidates were Intel C2D E8400 and Q8X00, Q9X00 and Core i7 together with the new AMD Phenom II X4 CPUs. However I've decided on the triple core AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition for the following reasons:

• a modern true 2.8Ghz multicore processor
• 45nm fabrication leading to lower power (95W) and temperatures
• unlocked multiplier; easier to overclock without stressing memory and graphics
• the AM3 socket format giving an upgrade path to DDR3 memory
• that extra core processor
• the under £120 low price

I've also bought an MSI K9A2 Neo-F AM2+ motherboard for £60. This is an ATX format, compatible with the Phenom II CPUs and offering four DDR2 memory slots and no integrated graphics. This gives me RAM configuration flexibility as well as RAID storage and I will be transferring my XFX overclocked nVidia 9600GSO graphics card.

This will all be assembled into my very large, metallic purple Cheiftec case with existing quality PSU, DVD drives and a new WD 500Gb SATA2 hard disk drive. This presently houses an AMD Duron 1.8Ghz CPU and Abit NF7 motherboard.

I'm looking forward to receiving my new CPU and motherboard later this week. I'll let you know how I get on with them.

Is there hope for DELL with AMD?

A few years ago AMD broke the Intel CPU monopoly at DELL Computers which allowed their Opteron and Athlon processors to be offered into a wide range of DELL desktops, laptops and servers. At that time AMD Opterons ruled the server processor world, whilst their Athlon X2 CPUs seemed to offer an early dual core processor capability to the desktop market. For a while I was selling affordable DELL Dimension desktops and later Inspiron laptops with AMD processors.

Then the Intel Core 2 Duo processor was released and quickly became the market leader for performance and then 'bang for the buck' systems. The DELL AMD-based models disappeared until now all that remains is a business Optiplex desktop retained for continuity reasons and a minitower PowerEdge file and print server that struggles in a rapidly disappearing market.

Now it is all change again as AMD released the Phenom X4 II processors that are price competitive with Intel's quad core models. The recent price cuts by Intel and then quickly following those from AMD show that for the first time there is a real competitive situation again. Recent comparative reviews reflect this. So where does that leave DELL? Does the old agreement remain in place and if so, will DELL start announcing new AMD CPU-based models?

Finished Far Cry 2

So I've finally finished Far Cry 2 after over three months of play. A great game which easily made my Top Ten. The wide open spaces, the beautiful vistas, the weather and daytime lighting effects. The natural landscape textures and the non-scripted paths that you could take to obtain the goals of the game. Just driving (or boating) through the Savannah was a real joy.

Many reviews said that it was repetitive, but not for me. Either detour around the guard post, or decide to snipe at it from a suitable height, or set fire to the grass, or try to drive straight through it, or fire a couple of rockets and the take out the survivors. Great decisions. Judge accordingly. The end was a bit predictable and the final journey to it was difficult, but it left the possibility open for a sequel (please).

So now I started Fallout 3 and though an intriguing start, we are back into poorly lit corridors and limited maps, no directions, weird weapon selection keys, etc. Hadn't these people heard of fluorescent tube lights? I doubt if I will continue.

Awash with graphics cards

For the last few months I've been had a XFX 9600GSO overclocked graphics card which replaced my Sapphire HD3850. It gives a better performance and the £64 price was really good. My only worry was that the card specified a 500W PSU, but my DELL Inspiron 530 was only rated at 300W. However it has been working well. The recommended twin 12V rail cables had only one of them plugged into a single 12V power output of the DELL.

The best of all was that this XFX card had a thermostatically controlled fan which went from completely silent on boot up to a quiet hum on the 3D PKR web site game to a slightly louder hum when playing Far Cry 2 at full screen. As the computer is up on the table next to me this was acceptable and indeed having used and sold XFX graphics cards before, it has always been a good, reliable brand.

So why in a moment of madness did I buy an Asus HD4670 graphics card? I'd read reviews that they offered the best 'bang for the buck' in the lower midrange market. It didn't need extra power and was for sale for again only £64. What a mistake to make! It started off noisy even though it had a larger fan which wasn't thermostatically controlled. Admittedly it didn't increase in volume when running Far Cry 2, but the graphics performance was noticeably poorer.

I even tried a Sapphire Radeon HD3650 that I'd 'liberated' from a DELL system that I'd sold last week. Even worse! It gave really poor performance and still made quite a bit of noise that was more of a whine. Probably acceptable in a large system case under your desk and you weren't interested in the best quality graphics display, but not for me. So that one is also added to the cupboard along with the nVidia 8600GTS and the ATi Radeon X800 cards.

Anyone want to buy a PCI-X graphics card? I'm sticking with what I've got.

Conficting channels

I installed two new BT Broadband Home Hubs today with a lot of trouble establishing the required wireless networks. Firstly it seems that a lot of Wireless devices do not like the WPA2-PSK security that is the default level that these routers come with and secondly the channel setting conflicts frequently with other wireless networks.

I had problems with inbuilt and PCMCIA cards in laptops that can see the BTHomeHub2-XXXX wireless network but when you enter the supplied key as shown on the card and on the back of the HomeHub router. Previously you used to enter the serial number as the password to access the admin settings of the HomeHub, now they print the password on the back instead. You still have to change it though. You cannot disable the wireless security but you can change to WEP either 64-bit or 128-bit. This allows other devices to attach to the HomeHub router.

However you are still stuck with the channel problem. The HomeHub channel selection though set on Auto(matic) seems stuck on Channel 6. And this frequently conficts with outher wireless networks in the local area giving the 'Network is not in range' error when it clearly is. The previous versions of the HomeHub seemed to work better in this respect. So you simply have to choose an unused channel and then the connect works perfectly. Admittedly I had only a couple of other networks to avoid, so I wonder what will happen in a more technology populated environment.

Anyway, it looks like the BT HomeHub needs more work done on it.

DELL Vostro 220MT

I've installed a couple of DELL's new Small Business Vostro desktops and have been very impressed with them. The front has a modern black glossy, straight-edged look which belies their affordable price. They are quiet in operation and include the latest technology with the Intel G45 Express chipset, standard 800Mhz DDR2 memory and X4500HD integrated graphics. Optional is an Ati Radeon graphics card in the PCI Express X16 slot.

Interestingly to my surprise when I connected the leads to the back of the unit there were the old green and mauve, mouse and keyboard PS/2 sockets. The supplied keyboard and mouse were USB of course. In fact there was even an old serial socket as well. This seems a backward step for DELL.

Overall this is a very neat modern PC with many configuration options including a compact tower (Vostro 220S) and an even larger tower (Vostro 420) avaliable. Recommended.

Windows 7 beta

I downloaded the public beta version of the new Windows 7 operating system. I installed it on a fairly average hardware PC platform, 2.8GHz Pentium 4, 1Gb memory and 40Gb hard disk. It installed without errors and discovered all the relevant hardware devices correctly.

It appears to be a stripped down Ultimate version with some bundled applications and utilities missing. It runs in about 400Mb memory. This compares well to my Vista Basic essentials with additional AVG anti-software. I've read comments that this new version of Windows is just a Vista Service Pack. I would disagree with that as all the elements of the GUI have been 'adjusted'. Even the venerable Wordpad application getting a 'ribbon' command overhaul.

Performance on this lowly PC seems snappy enough, but it is early days yet. As a supporter of Windows Vista, I'm eager to see if Microsoft can market this latest Windows version better that they did Vista. Certainly it should not be hard.

Windows Genuine Advantage

My first entry for the New Year and it is about software piracy. I started in the IT industry as a programmer so I understand what it takes to develop, market and maintain a piece of software. A lot of time, effort and money. In principle I do not agree with software piracy, however as far as the evil empire Microsoft is concerned it could almost be seen as justified. Especially for Windows itself.

You can buy a PC from DELL with Windows for a little over £200, and you can buy Microsoft's own retail version in the shop for just under the same £200. So what is the perceived value of Windows? Probably from DELL or any other major vendor at about $10, yet if I build a PC I have to pay a lot more than that even for an OEM Windows licence which legally cannot be transferred to my next PC. This is one of the reasons why when I started my PC-fix-IT business, I quickly stopped building PCs and began buying them instead. I could not justify to my customers the added purchase price of the Windows software.

I've recently started to have people asking me why the desktop background on their computers has turned black and little messages have appeared that their version of Windows is not genuine. Upon investigation it appears that there is no license sticker on the computer case, no Windows XP CD-ROM and no itemised invoice with the price of Windows included. Usually a friend built it and sold it to them and they assumed legal Windows was included in the price. The only resolution in these cases is to do a System Restore back to before the time that the Windows Genuine Advantage update was installed and then turn off Automatic Updates. Not the best solution for them, for me or for Microsoft.

They could purchase a legal version of Windows XP from Microsoft for £96. A lot of money for old, soon to be unsupported software. They can still purchase a OEM Windows pack with an extra bit of hardware that they don't want. Then format their hard disk drive and reinstall Windows, applications and data. Windows Vista would be a better choice here if their present hardware could support it. Or they could use the money to put towards buying a new DELL with a $10 Windows Vista licence.

My advice is to do the latter as the perceived value of Windows is so low.