10 reasons why PCs crash U must Know
Fatal error: the system has become unstable or is busy," it says. "Enter to return to Windows or press Control-Alt-Delete to restart your computer. If you do this you will lose any unsaved information in all open applications."
You have just been struck by the Blue Screen of Death. Anyone who uses Mcft Windows will be familiar with this. What can you do? More importantly, how can you prevent it happening?
1st Hardware conflict
The number one reason why Windows crashes is hardware conflict. Each hardware device communicates to other devices through an interrupt request channel (IRQ). These are supposed to be unique for each device.
For example, a printer usually connects internally on IRQ 7. The keyboard usually uses IRQ 1 and the floppy disk drive IRQ 6. Each device will try to hog a single IRQ for itself.
If there are a lot of devices, or if they are not installed properly, two of them may end up sharing the same IRQ number. When the user tries to use both devices at the same time, a crash can happen. The way to check if your computer has a hardware conflict is through the following route:
* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Device Manager.
Often if a device has a problem a yellow '!' appears next to its description in the Device Manager. Highlight Computer (in the Device Manager) and press Properties to see the IRQ numbers used by your computer. If the IRQ number appears twice, two devices may be using it.
Sometimes a device might share an IRQ with something described as 'IRQ holder for PCI steering'. This can be ignored. The best way to fix this problem is to remove the problem device and reinstall it.
Sometimes you may have to find more recent drivers on the internet to make the device function properly. A good resource is www.driverguide.com. If the device is a soundcard, or a modem, it can often be fixed by moving it to a different slot on the motherboard (be careful about opening your computer, as you may void the warranty).
When working inside a computer you should switch it off, unplug the mains lead and touch an unpainted metal surface to discharge any static electricity.
To be fair to Mcft, the problem with IRQ numbers is not of its making. It is a legacy problem going back to the first PC designs using the IBM 8086 chip. Initially there were only eight IRQs. Today there are 16 IRQs in a PC. It is easy to run out of them. There are plans to increase the number of IRQs in future designs.
2nd Bad Ram
.
Ram (random-access memory) problems might bring on the blue screen of death with a message saying Fatal Exception Error. A fatal error indicates a serious hardware problem. Sometimes it may mean a part is damaged and will need replacing.
But a fatal error caused by Ram might be caused by a mismatch of chips. For example, mixing 70-nanosecond (70ns) Ram with 60ns Ram will usually force the computer to run all the Ram at the slower speed. This will often crash the machine if the Ram is overworked.
One way around this problem is to enter the BIOS settings and increase the wait state of the Ram. This can make it more stable. Another way to troubleshoot a suspected Ram problem is to rearrange the Ram chips on the motherboard, or take some of them out. Then try to repeat the circumstances that caused the crash. When handling Ram try not to touch the gold connections, as they can be easily damaged.
Parity error messages also refer to Ram. Modern Ram chips are either parity (ECC) or non parity (non-ECC). It is best not to mix the two types, as this can be a cause of trouble.
EMM386 error messages refer to memory problems but may not be connected to bad Ram. This may be due to free memory problems often linked to old Dos-based programmes.
3rd BIOS Settings
Every motherboard is supplied with a range of chipset settings that are decided in the factory. A common way to access these settings is to press the F2 or delete button during the first few seconds of a boot-up.
Once inside the BIOS, great care should be taken. It is a good idea to write down on a piece of paper all the settings that appear on the screen. That way, if you change something and the computer becomes more unstable, you will know what settings to revert to.
A common BIOS error concerns the CAS latency. This refers to the Ram. Older EDO (extended data out) Ram has a CAS latency of 3. Newer SDRam has a CAS latency of 2. Setting the wrong figure can cause the Ram to lock up and freeze the computer's display.
Mcft Windows is better at allocating IRQ numbers than any BIOS. If possible set the IRQ numbers to Auto in the BIOS. This will allow Windows to allocate the IRQ numbers (make sure the BIOS setting for Plug and Play OS is switched to 'yes' to allow Windows to do this.)..
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Burning BIN/CUE Images with Nero Burning Rom
Burning BIN/CUE Images with Nero Burning Rom
BIN/CUE image format is quite common on the Internet. It might seem that finding an appropriate software for burning these images is quite hard. Luckily, it's not. In addition to Golden Hawk CDRWin, the original software for BIN/CUE format, you can also use Nero Burning Rom to burn the images.
Please make sure that you have the latest version of Nero...
Verify the CUE-sheet and open it with Nero
Before doing anything else you have to verify that the path in the CUE-sheet is correct. A CUE-sheet is a plaintext file describing the structure and the location of the BIN-file. You can open up the .CUE -file using, for example, Notepad.
The file should look something like this:
FILE "IMAGE.BIN" BINARY
TRACK 01 MODE1/2352
INDEX 01 00:00:00
Usually the CUE-filename and the BIN-filename have the same body -- e.g. IMAGE. All you need to do is verify that there is no path information on the
FILE "IMAGE.BIN" BINARY
-line. Ie. it should NOT read e.g.
FILE "C:\TEMP\IMAGE.BIN" BINARY
If there is any path information on the line, just remove it so that you have just the name of the .BIN-file as in the example above. Also make sure that the name of the .BIN in the CUE-sheet is the same as the actual .BIN file you have on hard-disk.
Next load Nero Burning Rom and choose File, Burn Image....
Load the CUE-sheet in Nero
Choose the Files of Type: dropdown menu and select All Files *.*. Next just locate the .CUE file, select it and click Open. Make sure you select the .CUE -file, not the .BIN -file.
Burn the image
All you have to do then is choose the writing speed, select the Disc-At-Once Write Method, and click Write.
That's it! After a couple of minutes you'll have a CD with the BIN/CUE Image written on it.
NOTES:
--> Do not worry if the BIN file seems larger than the capacity of your CD-R or CD-RW. Bin files are raw data and once burned, the file size is smaller.
--> If you have a DVD burner, just burn the cue/bin directly onto the DVD. Then use Daemon Tools to mount the cue/bin image when you use the files. This way you maintain a true exact image. And Daemon Tools (also Alcohol CDR burning software, which has the same feature) mounts the image, and you see the files instead of the bin/cue.
BIN/CUE image format is quite common on the Internet. It might seem that finding an appropriate software for burning these images is quite hard. Luckily, it's not. In addition to Golden Hawk CDRWin, the original software for BIN/CUE format, you can also use Nero Burning Rom to burn the images.
Please make sure that you have the latest version of Nero...
Verify the CUE-sheet and open it with Nero
Before doing anything else you have to verify that the path in the CUE-sheet is correct. A CUE-sheet is a plaintext file describing the structure and the location of the BIN-file. You can open up the .CUE -file using, for example, Notepad.
The file should look something like this:
FILE "IMAGE.BIN" BINARY
TRACK 01 MODE1/2352
INDEX 01 00:00:00
Usually the CUE-filename and the BIN-filename have the same body -- e.g. IMAGE. All you need to do is verify that there is no path information on the
FILE "IMAGE.BIN" BINARY
-line. Ie. it should NOT read e.g.
FILE "C:\TEMP\IMAGE.BIN" BINARY
If there is any path information on the line, just remove it so that you have just the name of the .BIN-file as in the example above. Also make sure that the name of the .BIN in the CUE-sheet is the same as the actual .BIN file you have on hard-disk.
Next load Nero Burning Rom and choose File, Burn Image....
Load the CUE-sheet in Nero
Choose the Files of Type: dropdown menu and select All Files *.*. Next just locate the .CUE file, select it and click Open. Make sure you select the .CUE -file, not the .BIN -file.
Burn the image
All you have to do then is choose the writing speed, select the Disc-At-Once Write Method, and click Write.
That's it! After a couple of minutes you'll have a CD with the BIN/CUE Image written on it.
NOTES:
--> Do not worry if the BIN file seems larger than the capacity of your CD-R or CD-RW. Bin files are raw data and once burned, the file size is smaller.
--> If you have a DVD burner, just burn the cue/bin directly onto the DVD. Then use Daemon Tools to mount the cue/bin image when you use the files. This way you maintain a true exact image. And Daemon Tools (also Alcohol CDR burning software, which has the same feature) mounts the image, and you see the files instead of the bin/cue.
Bit Torrent Tutorials
Bit Torrent Tutorials
The first things you need to know about using Bit Torrent:
-- Bit Torrent is aimed at broadband users (or any connection better than dialup).
-- Sharing is highly appreciated, and sharing is what keeps bit torrent alive.
-- A bit torrent file (*.torrent) contains information about the piece structure of the download (more on this later)
-- The method of downloading is not your conventional type of download. Since downloads do not come in as one
big chunk, you are able to download from many people at once, increasing your download speeds. There may be
100 "pieces" to a file, or 20,000+ pieces, all depending on what you're downloading. Pieces are usually small (under 200kb)
-- The speeds are based upon people sharing as they download, and seeders. Seeders are people who constantly
share in order to keep torrents alive. Usually seeders are on fast connections (10mb or higher).
In this tutorial, I will be describing it all using a bit torrent client called Azureus. This client is used to decode the .torrent files into a useable format to download from other peers. From here on out, I will refer to Bit Torrent as BT.
Which BT client you use, is purely up to you. I have tried them all, and my personal favorite is Azureus for many reasons. A big problem with most BT clients out there, is that they are extremely CPU intensive, usually using 100% of your cpu power during the whole process. This is the number one reason I use Azureus. Another, is a recently released plug-in that enables you to browse all current files listed on suprnova.org (the #1 source for torrent downloads).
Before you use the plug-in, take a look at /http://www.suprnova.org, and browse the files. Hold your mouse over the links, and you'll notice every file ends in .torrent. This is the BT file extension. Usually, .torrent files are very small, under 200kb. They contain a wealth of information about the file you want to download. A .torrent file can contain just 1 single file, or a a directory full of files and more directories. But regardless, every download is split up into hundreds or thousands of pieces. The pieces make it much easier to download at higher speeds. Back to suprnova.org. Look at the columns:
Added | Name | Filesize | Seeds | DLs (and a few more which aren't very useful.)
I'll break this down.
Added: Self explanitory, its the date the torrent was added.
Name: Also self explanitory.
Filesize: Duh
Seeds: This is how many people are strictly UPLOADING, or sharing. These people are the ones that keep .torrent files alive. By "alive", I mean, if there's no one sharing the .torrent file, no one can download.
DLs: This is how many people currently downloading that particular torrent. They also help keep the torrent alive as they share while they download.
It's always best to download using a torrent that has a decent amount of seeders and downloaders, this way you can be assured there's a good chance your download will finish. The more the better.
Now that you should understand how torrent files work, and how to use them, on to Azureus!
First, get JAVA! You need this to run Azureus, as java is what powers it. Get Java here: /http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/download.html
Next, get Azureus at: /http://azureus.sourceforge.net
Next, get the Suprnovalister plugin from /http://s93732957.onlinehome.us/storage/suprnovalister.jar
Install Java JRE before you do ANYTHING.
Install Azureus, and then in the installation folder, create 2 more folders. ./Plugins/suprnovalister (For example, if you installed Azureus to C:\PROGRAM FILES\AZUREUS, create C:\PROGRAM FILES\AZUREUS\PLUGINS\SUPRNOVALISTER). Next, put the suprnovalister.jar file that you downloaded, in that folder.
Load up Azureus, and if you want, go through the settings and personalize it.
The tab labeled "My Torrents" is the section of Azureus you need the most often. That lists all your transfers, uploads and downloads. It shows every bit of information you could possibly want to know about torrents you download.
In the menu bar, go to View > Plugins > Suprnova Lister. This will open up a new tab in Azureus. Click on "Update Mirror". This will get a mirror site of suprnova.org containing all current torrent files available. Once a mirror is grabbed, choose a category from the drop-down box to the left and click "Update". Wah-lah, all the available downloads appear in the main chart above. Just double click a download you want, and bang its starting to download. Open the "My Torrents" tab again to view and make sure your download started.
After your download has finished, be nice, and leave the torrent transferring. So people can get pieces of the file from you, just as you got pieces from other people.
Alternatively, if you don't want to use the plugin... you can just head to suprnova.org and download files to any folder. Then go to File > Open > .torrent File in Azureus.
The first things you need to know about using Bit Torrent:
-- Bit Torrent is aimed at broadband users (or any connection better than dialup).
-- Sharing is highly appreciated, and sharing is what keeps bit torrent alive.
-- A bit torrent file (*.torrent) contains information about the piece structure of the download (more on this later)
-- The method of downloading is not your conventional type of download. Since downloads do not come in as one
big chunk, you are able to download from many people at once, increasing your download speeds. There may be
100 "pieces" to a file, or 20,000+ pieces, all depending on what you're downloading. Pieces are usually small (under 200kb)
-- The speeds are based upon people sharing as they download, and seeders. Seeders are people who constantly
share in order to keep torrents alive. Usually seeders are on fast connections (10mb or higher).
In this tutorial, I will be describing it all using a bit torrent client called Azureus. This client is used to decode the .torrent files into a useable format to download from other peers. From here on out, I will refer to Bit Torrent as BT.
Which BT client you use, is purely up to you. I have tried them all, and my personal favorite is Azureus for many reasons. A big problem with most BT clients out there, is that they are extremely CPU intensive, usually using 100% of your cpu power during the whole process. This is the number one reason I use Azureus. Another, is a recently released plug-in that enables you to browse all current files listed on suprnova.org (the #1 source for torrent downloads).
Before you use the plug-in, take a look at /http://www.suprnova.org, and browse the files. Hold your mouse over the links, and you'll notice every file ends in .torrent. This is the BT file extension. Usually, .torrent files are very small, under 200kb. They contain a wealth of information about the file you want to download. A .torrent file can contain just 1 single file, or a a directory full of files and more directories. But regardless, every download is split up into hundreds or thousands of pieces. The pieces make it much easier to download at higher speeds. Back to suprnova.org. Look at the columns:
Added | Name | Filesize | Seeds | DLs (and a few more which aren't very useful.)
I'll break this down.
Added: Self explanitory, its the date the torrent was added.
Name: Also self explanitory.
Filesize: Duh
Seeds: This is how many people are strictly UPLOADING, or sharing. These people are the ones that keep .torrent files alive. By "alive", I mean, if there's no one sharing the .torrent file, no one can download.
DLs: This is how many people currently downloading that particular torrent. They also help keep the torrent alive as they share while they download.
It's always best to download using a torrent that has a decent amount of seeders and downloaders, this way you can be assured there's a good chance your download will finish. The more the better.
Now that you should understand how torrent files work, and how to use them, on to Azureus!
First, get JAVA! You need this to run Azureus, as java is what powers it. Get Java here: /http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/download.html
Next, get Azureus at: /http://azureus.sourceforge.net
Next, get the Suprnovalister plugin from /http://s93732957.onlinehome.us/storage/suprnovalister.jar
Install Java JRE before you do ANYTHING.
Install Azureus, and then in the installation folder, create 2 more folders. ./Plugins/suprnovalister (For example, if you installed Azureus to C:\PROGRAM FILES\AZUREUS, create C:\PROGRAM FILES\AZUREUS\PLUGINS\SUPRNOVALISTER). Next, put the suprnovalister.jar file that you downloaded, in that folder.
Load up Azureus, and if you want, go through the settings and personalize it.
The tab labeled "My Torrents" is the section of Azureus you need the most often. That lists all your transfers, uploads and downloads. It shows every bit of information you could possibly want to know about torrents you download.
In the menu bar, go to View > Plugins > Suprnova Lister. This will open up a new tab in Azureus. Click on "Update Mirror". This will get a mirror site of suprnova.org containing all current torrent files available. Once a mirror is grabbed, choose a category from the drop-down box to the left and click "Update". Wah-lah, all the available downloads appear in the main chart above. Just double click a download you want, and bang its starting to download. Open the "My Torrents" tab again to view and make sure your download started.
After your download has finished, be nice, and leave the torrent transferring. So people can get pieces of the file from you, just as you got pieces from other people.
Alternatively, if you don't want to use the plugin... you can just head to suprnova.org and download files to any folder. Then go to File > Open > .torrent File in Azureus.
Important Keyboard Shortcuts
Getting Used To Using Your Keyboard Exclusively and Leaving your Mouse behind will make you much more efficient at performing Any Task On Any Windows System.
I use the following keyboard shortcuts Everyday :-
Windows key + R = Run menu
This Is Usually Followed By:
cmd = Command Prompt
iexplore + "web address" = Internet Explorer
compmgmt.msc = Computer Management
dhcpmgmt.msc = DHCP Management
dnsmgmt.msc = DNS Management
services.msc = Services
eventvwr = Event Viewer
dsa.msc = Active Directory Users and Computers
dssite.msc = Active Directory Sites and Services
Windows key + E = Explorer
ALT + Tab = Switch between windows
ALT, Space, X = Maximize window
CTRL + Shift + Esc = Task Manager
Windows key + Break = System properties
Windows key + F = Search
Windows key + D = Hide/Display all windows
CTRL + C = copy
CTRL + X = cut
CTRL + V = paste
Also don't forget about the "Right-click" key next to the right Windows key on your keyboard. Using the arrows and that key can get just about anything done once you've opened up any program.
I use the following keyboard shortcuts Everyday :-
Windows key + R = Run menu
This Is Usually Followed By:
cmd = Command Prompt
iexplore + "web address" = Internet Explorer
compmgmt.msc = Computer Management
dhcpmgmt.msc = DHCP Management
dnsmgmt.msc = DNS Management
services.msc = Services
eventvwr = Event Viewer
dsa.msc = Active Directory Users and Computers
dssite.msc = Active Directory Sites and Services
Windows key + E = Explorer
ALT + Tab = Switch between windows
ALT, Space, X = Maximize window
CTRL + Shift + Esc = Task Manager
Windows key + Break = System properties
Windows key + F = Search
Windows key + D = Hide/Display all windows
CTRL + C = copy
CTRL + X = cut
CTRL + V = paste
Also don't forget about the "Right-click" key next to the right Windows key on your keyboard. Using the arrows and that key can get just about anything done once you've opened up any program.
8 People Can Use The Same Msn Dial Up Account...
Its Easy Really.
Want to have an entire family on dial-up with just one Bill???
Step One :- Purchase 20 dollar a month subscription to MSN unlimited access dial up. This will include an MSN 9 cd which you will need. With the software installed, fill up your secondary account slots with new users. Make sure you pick @msn if it gives you the choice, hotmail email addresses will not work..
say the secondary account is johnsmith@msn.com type in the Dial up connection
USER : MSN/johnsmith
PASS: ******* (whatever)
connect to your local msn phone number and the other people you gave secondary accounts to will be able to do the same, while you are connected. Its a sweet deal considering everyone is paying about 2 bucks a month for internet access, especially if you cannot get broadband. if you wanted to sell off the access to people you could actually make money doing this.. but i do not suggest it :P
I used to be an msn tech and this was a little known secret even to most of the employees.
After you do this you do not need the software any more. I would suggest keeping it on to micromanage everyone else's accounts. and for the simple fact that if they don't pitch in, cut them off LOLzz...
i'm on broadband now so i dont care if i tell you my little secret. anyone else knew of this?
Want to have an entire family on dial-up with just one Bill???
Step One :- Purchase 20 dollar a month subscription to MSN unlimited access dial up. This will include an MSN 9 cd which you will need. With the software installed, fill up your secondary account slots with new users. Make sure you pick @msn if it gives you the choice, hotmail email addresses will not work..
say the secondary account is johnsmith@msn.com type in the Dial up connection
USER : MSN/johnsmith
PASS: ******* (whatever)
connect to your local msn phone number and the other people you gave secondary accounts to will be able to do the same, while you are connected. Its a sweet deal considering everyone is paying about 2 bucks a month for internet access, especially if you cannot get broadband. if you wanted to sell off the access to people you could actually make money doing this.. but i do not suggest it :P
I used to be an msn tech and this was a little known secret even to most of the employees.
After you do this you do not need the software any more. I would suggest keeping it on to micromanage everyone else's accounts. and for the simple fact that if they don't pitch in, cut them off LOLzz...
i'm on broadband now so i dont care if i tell you my little secret. anyone else knew of this?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)