Monthly Archives: June 2007

backup laptop disk … another norton goback problem

Computer Aid Posted on by

Customer has a Toshiba M35X laptop with a failing lcd screen.

He’ll get a new laptop via his insurance, but he wants me to backup his data onto his 512MB usb drive.

I find that his “my Docs” holds about 10GB of data… ok: backup to dvd seems to be the way to go.

The way i usually do this is remove the laptop HDD, plug it into my main system, then copy all the data into a folder on my main HDD.

Then I shutdown, place the laptop HDD back into the laptop, and restart my main system, and do a copy of files from the hdd to dvd via nero.

However… this time, I cannot see the laptop hdd in windows explorer… The drive appears in the bios, even the disk management panel within the “computer management console” can see it (but oddly, it has no drive letter assigned to it… it just shows up as a 37 GB NTFS active (healthy) partition (online)… So why isn’t it mapped to a drive letter?

A quick search finds:

http://techrepublic.com.com/5206-6230-0.html;jsessionid=Mank5H0rCrfSPx43jr?forumID=101&threadID=221487&start=0

Basically Norton goback is the cause… so now i need to uninstall goback, shuffle drives around some more, and I can finally backup the data…

Naturally, norton systemworks 2006 (and goback) will not uninstall itself (first it complains about liveupdate running… after I disable all services, i then get error 9999,172) … so off i go to download and run the norton removal tool… and after a very long uninstall, I can finally work on the drive from another pc.

computer aid website trends

Computer Aid Posted on by

Looking at my website stats, I’ve noticed an unusual trend:

The daily number of visitors seems fairly constant on weekdays (about 300 to 350 unique visitors per day)… but on weekends, it dips slightly, to somewhere between 260 and 310 unique visitors per day.

My intuition says it should be the other way around: people will most likely have computer problems (and search for solutions) over weekends.

I guess it just goes to show that intuition and experience, sometimes, have nothing to do with reality.

thomson speedtouch 530 telstra lock and isp.def

Computer Aid Posted on by

I had a customer that was given one of those crappy usb-only adsl modems by netspace.net.au

Amongst other things, they wanted to setup their new vista laptop to connect to the internet.

Rather than muck around with pretend dialup networking, I decided to use their old telstra thomson speedtouch 530.

Since I took the PC and modem back to the office, I decided to setup the modem for their current isp.

The modem seemed to be locked to telstra, and wouldn’t let me change the user details… (I once again forgot that I had to hit “disconnect” in order to make username changes… grrr).

I found a forum that hinted at fixing the problem by ftp-ing to the modem, going to the dl directory, and deleting the isp.def file.

So I deleted the file before my own common sense told me to make a backup…

Anyway, now there is no field for entering a username at all… so no way of configuring the modem.

A factory reset has no effect.

So after a lot of searching, I found speedtouch ppoe.ini file (from the iso image of the speedtouch cdrom, somewhere on the internet), renamed it to isp.def, copied it to where the original isp.def was, reset the modem to factory defaults, and was then able to enter in the new isp username and password.

A lot of effort, that I could have avoided by being more careful 🙁

intel 82801db driver reinstall

Computer Aid Posted on by

A customer had a sound card that wasn’t working.

The PC had been through an XP reinstall after a virus infection, but it looked like most of the drivers had been installed correctly, except for the sound.

After a quick check, I find that it has a built in intel 82801db (ch4) sound card. I remember seeing something similar not too long ago.

I run the intel chiputil.exe utility, and it confirms that is its a 82801db chipset.

More browsing of the intel website, shows that I can downlod something for the 845 chipset…

the most suitable download is called the INF update utility (infinst.exe) apparently: “This utility installs INF files that inform the operating system how to properly configure the chipset for specific functionality such as USB and AGP” 

OK, I run infinst.exe, and after a few minutes, it completes, and asks to restart windows.

After the restart, the sound device is still showing an error under device manager.

I try running “add new hardware”, but it fails to automatically detect the sound driver.

I delete the sound driver, restart windows, but the (automatically starting) add hardware utility still doesn’t find the correct sound drivers.

I run infinst again, but still no luck.

I run “add hardware” from control panel (again), but this time, I manually select to add the hardware, I pick audio drivers, Install hardware from a list, “sound, video and game controllers”, manufacturer: intel, then I select the generic intel driver, ac97 driver, “next” a few more prompts, and after a few minutes, the sound is finally working again…

What a lot of work, just to install a sound driver!

20-pin vs 24-pin power supply and pci-e

Computer Aid Posted on by

With this problem, I eventually decided it was a failing power supply…but now I’m not so sure…

The PC was brand new (meant to be a gaming PC), but when 240V was connected, the power LED would blink, and the PC wouldn’t start. So the seller (a Melb. company) gets me to go their customer and fix it on their behalf (to avoid shipping costs).

After a process of elimination I zeroed in on the power supply.

I removed the 20-pin MOBO connector, shorted the “go to full power” pins (on the 20-pin connector), and the power supply came to life… Hmmm, maybe it isn’t the PSU after all…

This is the 3rd time I’ve seen 20-pin power supplies connected to a 24-pin motherboard. I always feel uncomfortable when I see this.

OK, I plug in the PSU connector to the MOBO again, and the PC started up (for the first time since the customer had taken delivery). I checked out the screen resolution, and after 5 minutes, I declared that the there must have been a bad connection with the 20 pin connector.

I shut down the PC, put the side panel back (it has an exhaust fan, so I plug it in as well), then fire up the PC, but I just get a blinking power led (again)…

I take a guess that the exhaust fan might be causing a problem, but after I unplug it, the PC still won’t start.

OK, it must be a faulty (brand new) power supply… Its probably just on the verge of failing.

I go get another PSU from the car (it has a 24-pin motherboard connector). And by using this PSU, the PC starts first-time, every time.

Good, I swap PSUs, help out with a minor display problem, and I’m on my way again.

Later, I do some research on 24 pin and 20 pin PSUs and MOBOs, and I discover something new (and interesting):

You can plug a 20 pin PSU into a 24 pin MOBO… but it might or might not work. It seems that the extra 4 pins are for some of the more demanding motherboards, and for PCI-e video cards…

Hmm, the customer had a video card (but I’m not sure if it was PCI-e).

So, its possible that the PCI-e card wasn’t getting enough power, and was preventing the whole PC from starting.

I also get to keep what I now realise is a perfectly working, new PSU… Just as well, as the Melb. seller complained about how much I’m charging (they say it should have been a 10 minute job…), and complained about what I charge for my PSU… If I don’t agree to their lower fee, its implied that they won’t pay… So I lose out on $35, but I gain a $75 PSU 🙂

i’d say megapc need to be more careful about how they build pcs.

Computer freezes after login (problem soltek geforce fx5200)

Computer Aid Posted on by

This is another problem with my own PC… seems like I’m having a few problems lately.

Anyway, Mandy tells me the main PC suddenly reset the other day, and since then, it hasn’t been “right”.

Most of the hardware was recently updated, so I start looking for a software problem.

The PC starts and operates in safe mode.

The PC starts in normal mode, and sits at the login prompt without a problem.

About a minute after I login, it freezes, and I need to hit the reset button to restart it.

From safe mode, I disable all the startup apps, but it still freezes. Sometimes, I can press the start button and start doing some work before the freeze.

I start thinking a corrupt windows driver, or a corrupt system dll / registry.

So I do a repair install of XP.

Afterwards, I login without a problem… but as soon as I change my screen resolution to 1280 X 1024, the PC freezes.

A few more tests, and I’m homing in on a display problem.

I decide to pull out the soltek geforce fx5200, and run with the onboard VIA S3 video.

After pulling the soltek card, I see it has a “bulging capacitor”. There is my problem… a hardware problem, on a 5 month old card. Grumble, grumble

I replace the capacitor (can’t be bothered seeing if its still under warranty), and my system is finally back to normal.

Its funny how wrong assumptions can end up wasting many hours!

In this case, assuming it couldn’t be a hardware problem wasn’t the right thing to do.