Endeavors of unixxx

iTunes hates Windows

unixxx — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 01:14:00 +0000

So I update iTunes and get the following error message when I launch it:

"The iTunes application could not be opened. An unknown error occurred (0x666D743F)."

It turns out that by default you can't run iTunes through a Remote Desktop Connection. Luckily, the fix is simple, from within the Remote Desktop Connection program navigate to:

Options -> Local Resources -> Remote Computer Sound

Then select either:
"Leave at remote computer" or "Do not play"

As long as you don't select "Bring to this computer", which causes iTunes to crash when Windows attempts to reroute the audio, everything will work fine.

Who uses a serial mouse?

unixxx — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 00:12:00 +0000

So you've got your GPS plugged into your serial port and you boot your computer. Only when it comes up you find that your mouse is bouncing all over the screen and randomly clicking shit. Well, this is because Windows thinks your GPS is a serial mouse. Here's how to fix this on Windows XP by telling the OS not to load a serial mouse:

1. Click Start -> Run
2. Type regedit
3. Browse to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\sermouse]
4. Change the value "Start"=dword:00000003 to "Start"=dword:00000004 by double clicking the "Start" value and changing the 3 in the box to a 4.
5. You're done!

Props to ret of the mp3car.com forums for showing me this tip. Note that some Windows updates will revert this setting and force you to perform the fix over again. If your GPS is permanently wired into your internal serial port like mine was, you can just disable the serial port in the BIOS until you have a chance to apply the fix.

Warning, I am a: "fail to set the install registry key"

unixxx — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 23:22:00 +0000

Tried to update the my ATI Radeon X800's Catalyst drivers to version 5.8, only to be greated with a wonderful message from the driver installer:

"fail to set the install registry key"

Luckily I found a solution and I'm just dying to pass it on to you:

(Courtesy saintberry)

[QUOTE]
1) uninstall cat driver and the CP from yo pute
2) go to http://p-nand-q.com/download/supershell.html and download supershell
3) after unzipping it, run the proggie and type "regedit" then wack enter
4) in the registry editor nav to HKLM>Software and get rid of anything ATi related
5) close regedit go back to supershell type "exit" then wack enter agian.
6) restart if you want...i didnt
7) install new drivers/cp and restart...all should now be working with TABS!!!
[/QUOTE]

If you're still having problems you might want to try installing the latest .NET Framework (v2.0) available here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/ After installing (or using the package's repair function) try repeating the above Catalyst install procedure again.

What about me Mr. H and Mr. P?

unixxx — Thu, 25 Aug 2005 22:50:00 +0000

I have an HP Photosmart 7550 printer, I also have Windows XP Pro x64 Edition. HP decided that there was no compelling reason to make a driver for this combination. Luckily, they were kind enough to point me in the right direction. To get your HP Deskjet, Officejet, PSC, and Photosmart printers working in x64 you definately want to check out this page: http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c00364537 For the HP Photosmart 7550 check out this page specifically: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?docname=c00365046&dlc=en&lc=en&cc=us If either of these links go dead just head over to the HP website and type c00364537 in the search area at the bottom.

Fire Liar

unixxx — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 20:21:00 +0000

I download the latest Linux distro and throw a blank DVD in the drive only to find that, WTF, my Firewire DVD-RW drive is no longer supported by Windows. I was just using it yesterday, I think to myself. Well after absolutely no luck finding drivers (apparently they're only required for and thus only developed for Windows 98) I finally found a solution. After downloading and installing the latest non-beta BIOS for my Asus K8V SE Deluxe my drive is working again as good as new. The new Asus BIOS must have improved Firewire support, so if you're having a similar problem getting peripherals to work I urge you not to forget about trying a BIOS update.

DRM Implementing Bastards

unixxx — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 18:46:00 +0000

So you just bought or built a brand new shiney media center PC only to find that, oh shit, I can't play 3/4 of the DVDs ever made on it. Welcome to the world of DRM (Digital Rights Management), where it just so happens 3/4 of DVD publishers prevent the playback of DVDs through any video outputs designed for a TV. This includes, especially, component and S-Video. Well, today's your lucky day as there is a solution and a very good one at that. Head over to DVDIdle.com and grab a copy of DVD Region+CSS Free: http://www.dvdidle.com/dvd-region-free.htm Once installed this sweet app will let you watch any protected DVD you could imagine through your TV outputs, yes, including component and S-Video.

Really Shoot the Messenger (with x64 compatibility)

unixxx — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 18:36:00 +0000

So you're fed up of that jack ass MSN Messenger wasting your precious RAM everytime you turn on your computer. Well here's the non-convoluted and very straightforward way to keep that program closed from where it all begins.

1. Click Start -> Run...
2. Type "msconfig" and click OK
3. Click the Startup tab and uncheck msmsgs
4. Click OK

Now when you restart your computer and for the rest of eternity MSN Messenger will remain closed. The first time you restart your computer you'll see a message telling you that settings have been changed, just click the check box saying not to tell you this anymore and click OK. You're all set!

But I Don't Want to Find a Path

unixxx — Fri, 20 May 2005 21:26:00 +0000

Windows 2000 and Windows XP do away with the AUTOEXEC.BAT file forcing you to set command prompt environment variables in a different manner. Personally, I needed to add the Java SDK bin directory to my PATH environment variable, here's how:

1. Right click My Computer -> Properties
2. Click the Advanced tab and then Environment Variables
3. Under "User variables for (current user)" click New
4. Name the new variable PATH and give it the value to which you want to set your PATH, in my case I gave it the value: D:\j2sdk1.4.2_08\bin
5. Click OK three times and you're done; the path will be automatically appended to your PATH variable whenever you open the command prompt

For more info you might want to check out the following Microsoft document: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310519&sd=tech

Stubborn Americas Army Server Manager (AASM)

unixxx — Sun, 08 May 2005 05:16:00 +0000

This text was taken from an AASM tutorial post by [STAB]-Ravenstone on the official Americas Army forums; I'd like to thank him for posting it.

"PART 7: AASM Removal bug fix.. OK I have tested this method at my house and I have not experienced any problems with this removal process. First this is an uninstall process for the people who installed AASM from a fresh install of America's Army 2.3.0 and selected to install AASM at that time. If you did this you may have come to find that you now cannot remove this program from your pc. This only happens to those that install AASM during the full install of America's Army 2.3.0. Before we start let me state this. Use this at your own risk the utility you need to use for this method is a Microsoft program. You will be downloading this small utility from their (MS) website. Please read all the warning information on the Microsoft website before you attempt this!!! It is not hard at all and took me only 5 minutes to do twice. This will also unlock the "AASMInstaller.msi" file that is located in your America's Army folder. So at a later date you can reinstall AASM if needed. At which point you can use the normal method of uninstalling it. 1. Go to Microsoft's webpage http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;290301 and read the WARNINGS 2. Scroll down to the bottom and download the file. Save it to your desktop. 3. Double click the file you just downloaded and follow the instructions. 4. Click your "start menu" and then "Programs" and look for 'Windows Install Clean Up" then click it to start the program. 5. Find the AASM entry like the next picture and click the remove button 6. Close "Windows Install Clean Up" 7. Delete the AASM folder. By default it is located here. C:\Program Files\America's Army Server Manager\ 8. Enjoy the rest of your day. Now what this utility does is removes the MSI installation information from the registry meaning it is no longer listed in the Add/Remove Programs list, but does not remove the files. There is also a folder that is in your "My Documents" folder to remove too. I think it only creates this folder if you run a server config though, but double check. That is a complete un-install the semi hard way. The file in the America's Army Root folder named "AASMInstaller.msi" Is now functional again. This means at a later date you will now be able to reinstall the AASM to use. Please leave feedback if this works for you. There are a great deal of people that have this issue and don't know it yet. If this has helped you please leave that feed back for others. This is something that I have tested on all the pc's in my house and it has worked with no side effect that I can find yet. I would like to know how well this works for others."

Don't Hate Me Thunderbird

unixxx — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 22:53:00 +0000

Recently I installed the x64 version of Windows XP on my computer and went to import my Thunderbird mail only to find that Thunderbird can import from just about anything but other installations of Windows. I'd already started downloading messages into the new Thunderbird installation with its new profile, so the only way to add my old messages to this installation was to create a second profile and then import my old messages from my old Windows installation into this second profile. I then end up with my default profile that I'd already started to use and another profile containing the older imported messages. After a bit of searching I found a fairly easy solution. Here's how:
1. Open profiles.ini for your new Windows installation at D:\Documents and Settings\mrobinson\Application Data\Thunderbird2. Add a random profile entry to the file and save it, something like this will do fine:

[Profile2]
Name=Old Mail
IsRelative=1
Path=Profiles/5ef5scgc.Old Mail

Of course make sure that the path, profile heading (Profile2), and the name aren't already used. Also make sure that under [General] StartWithLastProfile=0 (is equal to zero) or Thunderbird won't let you select which profile to load. You might also want to add the following line directly under the others options for your main profile so that it is highlighted by default in the profile selection menu: Default=1

3. Now when you open Thunderbird you should see a profile dialog box, in this box click Create Profile and follow the wizard giving the second profile your creating the name "Old Mail"

4. Now go back to the profiles.ini file, remove the bogus entry you added earlier (be sure not to remove the entry named "Old Mail" that Thunderbird just created when you were playing with the profiles dialog), and save the file.

5. Now enter your old installation and navigate to your old profile, which should be somewhere like C:\Documents and Settings\mrobinson\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\[profile_name_here]\Mail and copy all of the folders in this location.

6. Now navigate to your second profile ("Old Mail") on your new Windows installation which should be somewhere like D:\Documents and Settings\mrobinson\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\fsdghh.Old Mail\Mail and paste all of the previously copied folders into this location. Note that your can determine which profile is which because profile folders are named be a string of random letters followed by a dot and the profile name.

7. When you open Thunderbird you should now have a choice to load both profiles, one of which will include your imported mail and the other of which will include any new mail.

That's it! Please tell me if you have any modifications, suggestions, or problems with this procedure.

Power! Power! Power!

unixxx — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 03:04:00 +0000

A couple of days ago I bought a brand new ATI Radeon X800 Pro and decided to install it in my computer. Of course, I still had the cheap power supply that came with my case (300W Codegen) and it just wouldn't supply enough power, the computer would crash as soon as I tried to do anything graphics intensive. So I replaced my power supply with a 400W Antec TruePower and restarted the computer. Guess what happened? The computer would get half way through the loading Windows XP screen and then restart. It kept doing this in a continuous loop. So I went into Advanced Startup (F8) and found a cool boot mode (Disable Auto Restart) that keeps the BSOD up if the computer crashes. Sure enough the computer crashed but this time I was able to get the following error code: STOP 0x000000ED and after a quick Google search came across the following:

"RESOLUTION To resolve this behavior, use the appropriate method. UDMA ControllerIf your computer uses a UDMA hard disk controller, use the following procedures: Replace the 40-wire cable with an 80-wire UDMA cable.In the BIOS settings for your computer, load the 'Fail-Safe' default settings, and then reactivate the most frequently used options such as USB Support.Damaged File SystemIf the second parameter (0xbbbbbbbb) of the Stop error is 0xC0000032, then the file system is damaged. If this is the case, restart the computer to the Recovery Console, and then use the chkdsk /r command to repair the volume. After you repair the volume, check your hardware to isolate the cause of the file system damage. To do this, use the following steps: Start your computer with the Windows startup disks, or with the Windows CD-ROM if your computer can start from the CD-ROM drive.When the Welcome to Setup screen appears, press R to select the repair option.If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the Windows installation that you want to access from the Recovery Console.Type the administrator password when you are prompted to do so.NOTE: If no administrator password exists, press ENTER.At the command prompt, on the drive where Windows is installed, type chkdsk /r, and then press ENTER.At the command prompt, type exit, and then press ENTER to restart your computer.For additional information about how to use the Recovery Console in Windows XP, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 314058 Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console If this procedure does not work, repeat it and use the fixboot command in step 5 instead of the chkdsk /r command."

To my great luck it worked and my computer rebooted flawlessly after the somewhat endless 2 hour repair process. Note that I didn't need to run fixboot and my computer began booting again just after running chkdsk /r I later also realized that I was using a 40 conducter IDE cable and as soon as I replaced it with an 80 conductor cable my boot time was quartered. I believe that the entire problem resulted from data corruption due to using an underspeced IDE cable, but now that I've repaired the disk and replaced the cable I have a much faster and working computer.

Xbox Cables & WTF

unixxx — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 02:53:00 +0000

I received my four replacement power cables for my Xboxs today and they all seem to work exactly as intended except that I have no idea which cable goes with which Xbox. Three of the cables are the same and one is different. Anyway, I go online trying to find the answer and find a whole bunch of people complaining and saying how Microsoft is cheap for sending them a free $10 cable to protect their house from burning down. In the meantime I'm thinking WTF and asking myself why people are so f!@#ing ungrateful, at least I felt a little better when I read this person's post:

"i can see how most of you think that ms has done thw wrong thing here. but i think that they have done the right thing. if you have a psu that is liable to have a dry joint, they give you the cord with the big bulky plug thing. if it stops working, you send it to ms, the replace the psu.

for evreyone else, the reason why you have a new cord is so that for you lazy fuckers out there who dont unplug it when you transport your xbox, you dont do as much major damage the connecter"

If you guys keep trying to sue Microsoft there isn't going to be an Xbox 3 or a Halo 4; Microsoft isn't going to produce products for a market that they're not even making money in yet that is just going to sue them 5 times over. Four years ago for every Xbox you bought Microsoft lost over $100, it's only now after four years as a result of Moore's law that they break even. Give Microsoft a break.

By the way, doesn't the warranty say something like "free from manufacturing defects and poor workmanship for 90 days", not 4 years. A power connector coming lose after four years is not uncommon at all, especially with people dragging their boxes by the cord. Microsoft isn't obligated to give you a new cord, sure they're covering their own asses, but they could just as easily say you screwed up the power connector by not removing the cable as specified. As for the sparking, even of newer consoles, all products spark when they're plugged in, it's called a difference in electrical potential and you can even hear it when you turn your light switch on. Also, remember that all of these Xboxs passed UL and CSA testing...

Here's the concensus on what kind of cable you get:

"There are two potential defects within the xbox. The power supply solder joints, and the power cord pins not fitting snuggly enough. The bigger fire hazard is the power supply. Some xboxes have both problems, some only have the power cord pins problem.

M$ is therfore distributing two cords:

1) One with an afci box on it [for Xbox 1.0 & 1.1 with Rev. A Foxlink supplies without the riveted power connectors].
2) One without the acfi box on it, but just fixes the pin connection problem [for all Xboxs manufactured in 2003 or earlier (1.2-1.5 Xboxs)].

If you want to fix the solder joints, or otherwise replace the power supply to avoid using the cord with the afci box on it, you can BUT: it is advisable to replace the cord anyway. The old cord is still potentially defective. The new cords are numbered JHT-031, and the old defective ones are numbered JHT-013 . And of course, new xboxes will come with JHT-031 cord in the box." - jason_m

XM(hel)L

unixxx — Sat, 26 Feb 2005 03:31:00 +0000

For the past few days on my Windows box I've been getting an Error in my Event Log from MsiInstaller stating the following:

"Product: Microsoft XML Parser and SDK -- The installer has encountered an unexpected error installing this package. This may indicate a problem with this package. The error code is 2103. The arguments are: 26, , "

After a bit of research online it turns out that this means that Automatic Update failed to install a critical security update for the Microsoft XML Parser, which also explains why the error coincides with my previously set Automatic Update time. Thanks to Chris Miller it has been determined that this problem can be solved by installing the newest Microsoft XML Parser and SDK (msxml.msi) from the following site: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=3144b72b-b4f2-46da-b4b6-c5d7485f2b42&languageid=f49e8428-7071-4979-8a67-3cffcb0c2524&displaylang=en#filelist Again, please feel free to try this fix, it worked for me.

An operation...that is not a socket

unixxx — Tue, 15 Feb 2005 23:20:00 +0000

Well, I started my Windows 2000 computer today and while trying to renew my IP address from the DHCP server received the following message: "An operation was attempted on something that is not a socket" Luckily after a bit of searching I found the following article on support.microsoft.com: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;817571 which seems to have allieviated this particular problem. Unfortunately it also left me with a problem where where I was completely locked out of my remote printers from this particular machine. Apparently both of these problems are related to McAfee firewall and its playing with the Windows networking software. In the end the only way to recover what McAfee had destroyed with the printers was to update from Windows 2000 to Windows XP, although any update (even to the same OS) or use of the system recovery tool (located on the Windows installation disc) should fix the problem.

Even Retail Goes Bad

unixxx — Sat, 05 Feb 2005 06:34:00 +0000

A couple of days ago I upgraded my old server from its measly PIII 1.0GHz w/ Flex-ATX mobo to a brand spanking new AMD Athlon 64 1.8GHz w/ MSI K8T-Neo mobo. Since my new MSI motherboard didn't have integrated video I threw my Opteron box's video card into the new server and bought a nice new cheap (but better than the card I just removed) PCI 128MB ATI card for my Opteron box. Unfortunately the card appears to be DOA and crashes the computer literally two seconds after every boot. Hopefully I'll be exchanging this card at CompUSA tomorrow and my Opteron box will be up and running soon.

Discoverable Oddity

unixxx — Sat, 05 Feb 2005 06:27:00 +0000

Today I tried to remove an old Add/Remove Programs entry for OpenOffice 1.1.2 and was confused as to why I couldn't find its key in: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall After a bit of searching on the web I found that there's a "bug" in OOo 1.1.2 that puts its Add/Remove Programs key in: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall Just wanted to let you guys know in case you ran into this same oddity and want to get that useless entry out of you Add/Remove Programs menu.

In case anyone is interested in the standard official removal of false entries from the Add/Remove Programs list you can find Microsoft Article ID: 314481 here: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314481

The Going Gets Good

unixxx — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 03:14:00 +0000

Well, I've received and installed both my replacement Opteron 244 and new Xecuter mod chip. I've also gotten Linux installed on my dual Opteron and Xbox Media Center (XBMC) installed on my Xbox. Both software installations worked flawlessly and I'm looking forward to getting some development work done on my nice new shiney workstation which thanks to the motherboard has gigabit Ethernet :)

Good, Better, Best

unixxx — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 06:25:00 +0000

As mentioned previously my replacement CPU arrived with bent pins which I semi-successfully straightened. Well, a couple of days ago I tried to swap the processor into the primary socket in order to test its ability to run as primary with the other processor in the secondary socket. To my dismay the pins were still fairly bent the the processor refused to seat in the socket. The processor has been RMA'd and I'm currently waiting for the replacement. On a better note I've ordered an Xecuter 3 which should be arriving tomorrow for the Xbox portion of the project.

Bitch to Biatch

unixxx — Fri, 17 Dec 2004 03:17:00 +0000

Well, it's been a while since the last update with exams and all, but make no mistake, progress has been made. All of the refrigeration components have been removed from the A/C unit and a rough plan has been layed out. Unfortunately the A/C unit appears to have lost its refrigeration charge and I'll probably be forced to recharge it. I'm currently ordering some of the necessary parts to complete the recharge and am going to replumb the entire system in a manner that fits my case before I do in fact recharge it. Until this begins you can see some of the unit's pics here: ftp://fuzzymuzzle.serveftp.net:3333/H2A/ac_unit/ and check out the detailed and frequently updated progress here: http://xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=47222

Innards of the Beast

unixxx — Thu, 02 Dec 2004 02:14:00 +0000

Well, I opened up my new A/C unit and it appears to be quality made and has a huge a** evaporator and condensor along with a compressor with the following specs:

LG Electronics
1 PH 60Hz 115V~ LRA49
Part # 252OUKQC2AA
Model # QK156CAA

Datasheet: http://www.lge.com/products/compone.../pdf/QK156C.pdf
Home Page: http://www.lge.com/products/compone.../r_QKseries.jsp

Its specifications indicate that it uses R22 (Freon) and "SUNISO 4GSI" oil. I can't find a HP rating on the datasheet or website anywhere, I guess I just have to keep looking :)

Lovable Pengiun

unixxx — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 03:46:00 +0000

About a week ago I got Linux successfully installed and running on the test bed; I can now finally continue development on my Linux port of OpenXDK, no promises yet however :) I'm currently searching for some sort of bench mark software that will let me test both CPUs, as of now I'm not sure whether the second processor is capable of doing anything or is just sitting there. I want to get it tested with some strenuous processing to ensure that both CPUs work as expected. On another note, yesterday my 12,000BTU A/C window unit arrived and I'm hoping to get it producing some frost this weekend.

The Tale of Bent Pins

unixxx — Fri, 19 Nov 2004 01:35:00 +0000

A few days ago I received my replacement CPU via USPS Priority mail, again this time in record braking speed. I love the US Postal Service, it wouldn't surprise me if their motto was "More work, less BS," whereas UPS settles for "We illegally put packages in your postal box rather than at your door, oh, and we also run across your grass every day." Anyway, the processor arrived in great condition except for a few bent exterior pins which were easily fixed and some necessary persuasion into the socket ;) The computer posted fine except for the obviouis "No System Disk" error we all know and love. My BIOS happily reported two 244's and 1024MB of RAM. Hopefully this weekend I'll get a temporary OS installed to test the components under some stress.

A+ Future

unixxx — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 23:16:00 +0000

I e-mailed the guy I bought the CPU from and he seemed to be understanding of my problem and agreed to a trade of the processor he originally sent me for one of the same model number of my other processor. Today I shipped the non-matching processor back via Priority Mail so my matching processor should arrive sometime next week.

Retention Brackets are go

unixxx — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 18:00:00 +0000

A few days ago I got my retention brackets "fitted," where fitted meant simply unscrewing the Xeon brackets and screwing down the early P4 brackets. The early P4 heatsinks fit the motherboard and CPU with these new brackets like a charm. On another note my two CPUs are incompatible. One of the auctions listed the item as the same model number as my first CPU when it was really quite different. As most of you probably know matching CPUs is extremely important and generally a requisite for SMP. I e-mailed the guy and hopefully I'll get this worked out soon. All of my other components seem to work like a charm. I may have to replace my PSU as it seems it won't have enough power on the +12V rail to support all of my components in the completed system. Oh well, I was gonna build a power supply for the final system anyway.

Incognito vcores

unixxx — Sat, 30 Oct 2004 20:01:00 +0000

Well, I got my testbed assembled and it works perfectly, except when it has two processors installed. After a bit of searching online and some messy thermal adhesive cleanup its come to my attention that the vcore stepping and revision must be the same for each CPU. According to what I've read, this vcore stepping and revision are indicated by the last two letters of the processor's model number. In my case I have an AL vcore and and AH vcore. Unfortunately, these don't match :) I've gotta check to see whether MSI offers a BIOS update to support mixed vcores and if not I'm gonna have to trade one for one with a matching vcore. Hopefully I'll have it up and running soon.