Route
Topic: Computers

To start, keep in mind that my router was having issues anyway, but they were subtle and I had blamed them on my ISP, or the web sites, or even the internet itself. I didn't think it was the router because my computers could talk to the router just fine.

But we had a big (and brief) electrical storm over the weekend (this happened right after my previous post, which ended with the statement that there were dark clouds outside and I had to go), and power to the house failed after a huge crack of thunder and flash of lightning that blew out a transformer across the street from us. I had no power to the house, and sat around for a while. During that time, I realized how dependant on electricity I am for my entertainment, and I need to get some more books. I couldn't walk to too many places, since my gout was still flared up pretty badly.¹ So I just waited and used my laptop for a bit, hoping the battery would outlast the outage.

It did. But when the power came back up, the internet didn't. The cable modem seemed fine. The router seemed fine. The computers seemed fine. But there was no 'net. No WWW. No infobahn. I realized the cable modem had no indication on its activity light. This means there was no activity.

My first reaction was to call the cable company. The person I spoke to told me there were no outages in my area, so since there was no activity light, I should try eliminating some of my components. I wired my computer right to the cable modem instead of through the router, and, long story short,² there was activity and I needed a new router. For some reason, the computers would talk to the router, but the router wouldn't talk to the cable modem.

There's a lot of routers on the market. There are some that advertise speed boost, range boost, speed and range boost, and so on. One, made by Netgear, has 7 antennas that electronically tune the router to the strongest signal source from your computer, enhancing your connection despite interference from other electronics sources. I was really, really close to getting that. It was about one hundred dollars at Best Buy.

In the end, though, I got the basic wireless router. I've never had range issues with my laptop. It's apparently got some kind of funky signal boosting circuit or something. I can receive Mars with it. All my other systems have had issues with wireless in the past, true, but they all are now connected by cable in the same room. There was no reason to spend 50 extra dollars on something I didn't really need. I just got the basic Linksys router like the one I had originally, only it's had a couple of years of tech improvements. I'm even using the power cord that was on the first router; it was fine and exactly like the one in the box, so why bother re-running the cords behind the desks and everything? I didn't open any software at all; I just plugged it in, connected the cables, set up my wireless security systems and passwords, and my laptop connects fine from the bathr... uhm... from the other side of the apartment. It took me 10 minutes. I spent more time deciding which router to buy than it took me to set the network back up.

And the best part was that my connectivity improved. All the sites I had trouble seeing no longer gave me problems. All the little issues I had with the internet went away. So my router was dying after all (it was pretty old, really), and needed replaced anyway.

Sometimes, my computer problems are easy to solve. I just need a thunderstorm to strike the transformer across the street.

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¹It's doing much better now, thanks.
²Too late.

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Retro
Topic: Computers
"Never throw anything away. Ever." -The Doctor

This is more than simply justification for my pack-rat approach to housekeeping. This is a reason to archive. Keep your old files, documents, and so forth. If need be, simply copy them to a backup media, such as a CD or DVD, and keep them available. You'll be glad one day. Someone will say to you "What? Teri Hatcher never posed nude in a Superman cape!" And you'll just smile and break out the archived image, tsking at the person's glaring blind spot for Teri's penchant for cheesecake shots in order to promote whatever cinematic effort in which she happens to be taking part. She could be handling the lighting, and she'd still pose for cheesecake shots. She strikes me as the kind of woman that, in high school, wore tight, revealing clothes to get nerds to do her homework for her. "But Bernie... if you help me, I'd be so happy... I'd show you my... appreciation..." And she'd smile winningly as another slide-rule jockey's glasses steamed up, and a No.2 dropped from numb fingers and cracked on the floor...

*ahem* But I digress.

You just never know when one of those old files is going to come in handy. An old .wav file that's the perfect startup sound, or maybe a font that's perfect for the presentation, whatever you may have.

Ghostwolf's computer had been having severe problems with Everquest 2, in that, after their last patch, she could not enter her character into certain kinds of places; instanced small rooms, such as her apartment, or crafting instances. Whenever she tried, she got the Blue Screen of Death, explaining that there was a non-recoverable error in file nv4_disp.dll, where the file attempted to access a page in a non-paged area blah blah blah big number words words words practical upshot, you need to reboot. We tried updating her driver, and discovered that it was a bit out of date, but not horribly so. But that didn't help. The same error would occur every time she attempted to access such a location in-game. She was getting annoyed, and a little frustratedly desperate. I didn't know what to do. I had decided that we needed to upgrade her video card* so that it could catch up with the driver. It's a GeForce 5500, overclocked. I'd rather it were a slightly higher numbered GeForce. Maybe a 6600 or something. We were discussing options.
I'd also noticed that the tray icon for her Zboard was no longer in the tray. Her drivers were not installed either, and sliding the EQ2 keyset into the board no longer automatically started the game. Indeed, it didn't function at all, and if you returned the normal keyset into the board, it had stopped working as well and you had to reboot. I reinstalled the driver and restored Zboard functionality, but the tray icon was still missing. Clearly, something was wrong.

I decided to retrofit the video drivers. Fortunately, I have 7 versions of the video drivers for NVidea's GeForce line, of varying ages. I decided that, since the problem started with the driver prior to the one installed, I should go back to the third most recent driver. I installed that.

Not only did her EQ2 problem go away, but the Zboard icon returned to the tray. She's happier now.

This isn't the first time that retrofitting a video driver has resulted in better performance in a certain game. One example: Unreal Tournament 2K3 had a problem, also with GeForce chipsets, that was resolved by downgrading the video driver. Now, these games (EQ2 and UT2K3) advertise that they work best with NVidia. It's their preferred graphics chipset. So you'd think that they'd do better testing with those chipsets. Apparently, Radeon users don't have these problems. At least, I haven't heard of them.

But the main point I'm trying to make here is that I resolved my dilemma with an archived file. I won't get into the whole "find a fortune in Grandma's attic" concept, although that'd be cool too. The key point here is that storage might get a little expensive, but recovery is priceless.

If you ever meet anyone from The Learning Channel's show "Clean Sweep," tell them I said they can kiss my ass.

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I still believe this. I'm all about upgrading, not so much if it is needed, but if it is possible. I have no justification for this. Fortunately, I don't need justification.

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Modacadabra
Topic: Computers
I'm still working on it. That's why I haven't posted any images yet. I will. Be patient. Eventually, I may just consider it an "ongoing work," and post anyway.

But for now, I'm not really going to consider it done; at least, not until I get the fan grill I ordered.

It seems that although I ordered this fan grill, the folks at Xoxide sent me that fan grill. The price difference wasn't much, but on an aesthetic level, the crime was severe, and the punishment would have to fit the crime. Severity was called for. A call was called for. I called.

Unfortunately, it was 5-Card Draw, and there was still another round of betting to go. All of their people were busy helping people that weren't their people, but had reasons to call as well. This did not bode well.

It was time for an email.

I sent them one, explaining that the mistake was a) their fault, b) not my fault, and c) their fault. I expanded on this by including the fact that I wanted the grill for which I had paid*. It also seemed to me that the cost of shipping was higher than the value of the (very) basic grill they had sent, and it was up to them what I should do with it, but whatever that was, I was not paying to do it, because it was d) their fault.

I got no response all that day, and so I called them again the next day. They swear they sent me an email, but I have yet to receive the elusive message, and this was days ago. Regardless, Dot** (the woman at Xoxide lucky enough to answer my call) assured me that it had been sent over an hour prior to that moment. It said, essentially, that they were sending me that for which I had paid.

"What about the other grill?" I asked.
"Oh, just keep it. It's not worth shipping back."

Wow. I was holding Eights and Aces, and they had a busted straight. Apparently, the person that packed the fan grill and the person responsible for sending my email were the same person, living in a miasma of specificity, and clinging to it with a grip best described as "slipping." I was quite fortunate to have spoken to Dot,*** who clearly had her head screwed on right. I expect the grill any time now, and for all I know, it has already arrived. I'm still in my pajamas, and haven't checked.

Yes, I've been awake all night, but pajamas are comfortable. I've been awake all morning too.

I had to find my drill bits.

My desk shelf was too low to see my very nicely modified PC case, so I had to raise it. But the holes only went up so high. I had to drill two new holes to mount the brackets near the top of the desk. Now I just need to remove the retaining bar and replace it with L-brackets on the edge, because the case front is just a skosh**** too wide as it is. Fortunately, that won't be expensive.

Yes, I'm even modifying my desk for this case. But after all the changes I made, I want to be able to see it. Wouldn't you?

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*Grammar freaks: the concept of "payed" and "paid" has always bothered me... which is correct? So I looked it up. It turns out that it's interchangeable. As a result, I developed my own, personal rule of thumb; when I mean the past-tense of "to give someone money," I use "paid." When I mean the past-tense of "to feed out rope or line," I use "payed." It matters to me. If it doesn't matter you you, that's perfectly fine, too.fnord
**I did not ask her if her surname was "Matrix," because I really wanted my grill.
***That still kills me.
****1 skosh is about the width of four asterisks.

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Modination
Topic: Computers
My care package from Xoxide arrived today.* I've installed the following items:
-Round IDE and floppy drive cables, green UV reactive (purpose, enhanced air flow by removing flat, air blocking cables; it also looks good)
-A new fan grill for my case fan (spider on web, purpose, looks good and personalizes)
-A new hard drive fan (still glows red, now 120mm instead of 80mm. purpose, improved air flow.)
-A sound-reactive UV cold cathode light source (purpose, gotta give alla that UV reactive stuff something with which to react.)

I installed it all and it all worked the first time.

I got some UV reactive wiring mesh too, but to put that on properly will require disassembling molex connectors, and I don't have time right now. I wanted to do the easy stuff first.

It looks pretty good, but I'm going to add another cold cathode, I think, for more balanced lighting; it's all up at the top of the case right now. Bright, though. Very nice effect on the drive cables.

Air flow is much better, and ambient temperature has dropped by about 4 degrees C. Woot! Mission accomplished!

All ordered from, as I said, Xoxide. Service was rapid, price was excellent, transaction was a breeze. They've earned a link on my board.

I'll post some pictures when it gets dark over the weekend, and I'm home to take them.

---

*GLEE!

Hot
Topic: Computers
As I've mentioned before, I am using a Pent 4 3.4Ghz processor. I also run SETI@Home on my computers.

Just for fun, I decided to monitor my CPU temperature and memory usage while running SETI. First, I had to let my processor cool to baseline (UT2K4 running on "holy shit" mode kind of heats it up). Once it had got there (about 30 degrees Centigrade), I brought up Ye Olde Task Manager and clicked the "performance" tab. CPU usage: nil, with an occasional spike of %1. I'm using a standard Intel provided CPU cooler fan (that's soon to change: the Star Ice cooler from Asus is next on my list). Baseline established.

Next, I started the SETI client. I already had a work unit downloaded, so it jumped right in. I minimized the window and observed.
CPU usage went up to fifty percent (nothing else running, including antivirus). Temperature went up to 42 degrees Centigrade in about 15 seconds.

Next stop, maximize the window. The temperature jumped to 52 Centigrade in about five seconds, and CPU usage hit %100. It took a minute or so to cool back down to baseline.

On the one hand, that pretty much establishes my peak CPU temperature at about 52 Centigrade with this fan arrangement. That's not bad. It's not great, but it's not bad. On the other hand, running SETI@Home will heat a system up like nobody's business. I know of a person that runs it while playing EQ, possibly while playing EQ2.* I don't want to know what his ambient case temperature is, or his processor temp. He runs an Athlon, and, well, those tend to run a little hot.

I'm still getting a better cooler... this fan has to run full tilt just to do the job it's doing, and I just know one day the bearings are going to seize up, the system will overheat, and I'll have to hope the automatic shutdown will save my processor. I'd rather have a cooler that won't make me worry about that.

---

*Hi, Uerdane.

I Never Thought Of That
Topic: Computers
A minor advantage to a laptop vs. a desktop computer: the laptop has a built-in no-break power supply, as long as the on-board battery remains charged.

I just thought of that now because the power in my home died hard for no apparent reason, for about 5 seconds. The only system in the place that didn't die was Sputnik.

AlienGUIse
Topic: Computers
Alienware has had a couple of nice themes in the past (AlienMorph and ALXMorph), but this new theme, called "Darkstar," is my favorite by far. It's nicely done, and incorporates an excellent skin for your Windows Media Player. Click that link to get a look at it.

It comes as a part of the AlienGUIse theme management software. It's free. It asks for an email, that's all. And you don't even need to give them your real email address to do it (I gave them crow@byteme.com when I downloaded mine).

It reconfigures your Windows XP user interface, replacing icons, colors, and user graphics (you can change it all back yourself if you want). The manager also allows you to revert to the standard Windows XP interface. You can download the other 2 skins in the downloads portion of the AlienGUIse manager, for all 3 of them. I don't know yet if it works with other skins as well. And the download, and use of the manager and skins, are free (that means at no cost to you, the user). If you use a Mac, you have my sympathy. This is for Windows XP only, since Alienware doesn't make Macs.

The skins were designed for Alienware by The Skins Factory. Check them out.

City Of Heroes Saved Me From The Oogzepjn!
Topic: Computers
I know, you're asking yourself "Why do I read this drek?" Well, because it's informative. It'll tell you about something called "oogzepjn.exe."

A while back, no telling when, I lost the ability to bring up my task manager window... you know, the 3 finger salute of cntrl-alt-del, which brought up the window that lets you see what programs are running? Yeah, the task manager.

Something was messing with my system, and I didn't know what. And I couldn't find out what, because it wouldn't let me check the task manager to see what was messing with my system. I was pretty torqued.

So this morning, I thought I'd check out City of Heroes. But just as I went into the character selection, my server dropped for scheduled maintenance. Upset, but not much, I hit the 'back' button on the login screens, and the client locked up, because the login server screen was where I needed to go, and it had dropped too.

In desperation, I did the 3 finger salute, knowing it probably would fail.

Well, see... whatever was messing with my system would detect the task manager screen and close it instantly. But my system was using all of its processor capability... and the task manager window was stalled between opening and closing. I quickly looked down the list of running tasks, scanning for something unusual.

I saw "oogzepjn.exe."

What the Hell is an oogzepjn.exe? Gods know... well, Gods and the people that made the program. But somehow it had installed in my system and was playing silly buggers with it.

I still wasn't sure that was the problem, so I did a search for it, to see where it was located. It was in my Windows system32 directory, and also had a fetch file.

I renamed both the files and rebooted, to see what would happen. Lo and behold, when I attempted the 3 finger salute, I had my task manager back!

I was very, very lucky there. Not everyone will have the same twist of events that I was fortunate enough to fall into. So I'm telling you now... beware of oogzepjn.exe! If your system has this, or if you can't bring up your task manager, do a search in your Windows system32 directory for this file! It may be hidden elsewhere... Norton Antivirus won't find it. Spybot Search & Destroy won't find it. Adaware won't find it. I'm not even sure exactly what the program does, except hide itself and mess up my task manager.

But if you do a normal search for it, you'll find it. Rename it. Or delete it. Or do something. Just get it out of there!

If this helps you, I'll have performed a public service. But don't thank me. Thank Paragon City... the City Of Heroes!

...and, of course, their updates.

Whoah
Topic: Computers
I'm going to buy one of these.

I'm already drooling.

A co-slave of mine at my place of enslavement has made me promise him that he can at least finger the keyboard. This is, to him, the equivalent of touching Elvis.

Soon... soon, my precious...

At Least It Wasn't AOL
Topic: Computers
Recently, I had a discussion at my place of enslavement that made me wonder if maybe I was missing something. A co-slave wondered what the big fuss about computers is, and stated that they're not as commonplace as everyone thinks. He said he knows people that don't have any computers, and they're not a necessity.

I disagreed, and was shocked that anyone could say that.

We argued about it for a bit, and decided the only way to be sure would be if we did a market analysis on it for the entire nation, and it dropped.

I recently opened a box of Kellog's Pop Tarts. There was a PC game demo CD inside it.

The market analysts have spoken. Remember when it used to just be that crappy little plastic submarine that was supposed to go up and down in the water when you put baking soda in it, only it didn't work and it ended up sinking to the bottom of the tank and killing your fish? No? Oh.