Pickings Of Life

Resolve ATI 6850 Saphire 2 channel audio problem in Win 7 64bit

noreply@blogger.com (Prasad) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 06:43:00 +0000

Earlier when I got the card and did the first time installation everything worked out fine, the audio was displaying 5.1 channel output as set and the format supported shows True HD & DTS master audio. I was using the latest ATI catalyst 11.5. Then after a few days i notice that the audio channel output became only 2 channel & don't have the option to set 5.1 or 7.1. Not sure if my dirt 3 installation caused the issue or windows unable to recognize the audio driver. Was having a huge headache just trying to get the setting back but fail. tried various methods like remove all ATI & sound driver (Uninstall & driver sweep) and also disabling on board sound also failed when reuse the ATI catalyst 11.5 driver. Even check the .inf driver info if the is an error because it seems the windows don't know this card can output 5.1 & 7.1 sound.
Solution: Make sure all audio drivers uninstall & double check with driver sweep. You can uninstall the ati audio driver my going into the device properties using the sound properties/console.Once done that I restarted the system and allows the system to self install the driver for the sound. I downloaded realtek driver 2.61 from GURU 3d website, this is a special driver from them not direct from realtek. It was able to display the 5.1 option & all the formats after that already. But later on the system reseted to 2 channel back but windows prompt out an error to disable the room enhancement as causing problems on the sound. Choose yes or you can disable it under the ati hdmi audio options in sound console. once that was done i did not have an issue on the audio channel reseting to 2.

Getting the best out of your HTPC with ATI 4850

noreply@blogger.com (Prasad) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 09:22:00 +0000

Building my home theater PC was actually by an accident. Started of with building a gaming rig with ASUS Top ATI 4850 graphic card, quad core CPU Q9550 and my old CRT 17 inch monitor.. The CRT monitor was straining my eyes and that forced me to upgrade to a full HD LCD monitor. Spend a bit more and manage to get DELL's 23inch Full HD monitor at a pretty good price RM630 at that time.. It had a HDMI port so i was able make full use of my graphic card. ATI 4850 requires a special converter for DVI to HDMI supplied together to be able to pass audio plus video through the yellow DVI port output. It's getting a bit technical, but this is a technical subject anyway.

Getting HDMI audio is not such a simple task as one might think, unless of course you have the much never ATI 5570 and above graphic card. My earlier sound set up was pretty much simple, i was getting the sound directly from my motherboard to my old speakers (my old speakers was pretty good considering it's size, it's a portable Creative PS2000 speaker for PS2 actually). My ASUS motherboard had coaxial output so i was able to use it with my old speakers for a digital/SPDIF sound. This of course is a DVD quality sound set up. The speaker was able to create virtual dolby digital sound out of a 4.1 speaker set up. Things was going fine till i got my hands on new ONKYO SKF 330 set of speakers which had 2 front, 2 surround and 1 center speaker. I had a 5.0 speaker set up but no amplifier & sub woofer which is required to use this set up. So had to do some searching whats the best cheap set up I can assemble to experience full HD audio. Got tangle up with Blue ray movies in the process. Things was just getting more and more costly sad to say...

Checking around put Blue ray player option is still quite expensive in malaysia, around rm1200++. Even PS3 is around RM1400. Best option is to get the player true deals such as purchase with purchase program. A friend of mine bought an LCD TV so i was able to buy the blue ray player at a bargain rm500 (Sony BDP3000). So now i've got my blue ray player but with no option to set up my speakers. I still needed an AV Receiver to connect my speakers and i wanted to experience True HD audio & DTS master audio from blue ray movies. My sony BDP3000 Blue ray player does not do decoding for DTS MA but it is capable to bit stream the audio out to the receiver, so this needs a receiver which can do decode the bitstreamed sound for True HD & DTS MA audio.

Ok, Let me explain a bit on the audio part as some might not quite understand as there is more to it than meets the eye. DVD audio is normally dolby digital format (48khz/16bit/448kbps- lossy), while Blue ray HD audio is Dolby Digital, DTS, True HD (96khz,24bit,18Mbps - lossless) & DTS-HD MA (96khz,24bit,18Mbps - lossless). If you want 7.1 or 8 channel sound only HD audio (True HD\DTS-HD MA) can do it, the rest is 5.1 channel. For my PC i only could output PCM audio through the HDMI cable as my graphic card does not support bit streaming, bit streaming is basically only passing the full audio some where else like your receiver to decode the full lossless audio. PCM audio is the audio already decode by your PC for instance then passed to the receiver to amplify the sound and output to the speaker. Due to Protective Audio Path rule, PCM audio that come out of your PC must be downsampled to DVD audio to protect the audio from being copied by other people. High definition content protection is much less the same as PAP but if the system does not support HDCP you'll not get video output. If the audio can be bit stream out from your PC then you can enjoy the full audio instead of being downsampled. Newer ATI graphic card able to support bitstreaming so if you can get blue ray rom this will be a good thing. Another option is to purchase an audio card with bitstreaming support and HDMI output. I didn't care about the audio from my PC as i was stuck with my current GC, but to get the audio through the ATI graphic card HDMI port is a bit hard. first u need to have the latest AV codecs in your pc, next you need the latest ati driver, realtek hd audio driver at real tek website and ati HD audio driver. This should enable your HDMI audio, power dvd 9 is also needed i believe if you use a blue ray rom instead of a standalone player. By the way i'm using XP os, some say Vista or win 7 would be easier to get the hdmi audio working. I tried many steps so i'm not so sure which worked but the basic thing is to make sure your software is up to date. For example if your audio codec id not up to date you won't get even the PCM output through your HDMI cable as multichannel PCM output is something new if you output using ur HDMI cable.

Your receiver will only display PCM as the audio input as no decoding is done by your receiver. My AV receiver is Yamaha RXV565, it supports 7.1 channels(minimum rms of 90 watt per channel). It also supports 4 HDMI input and 1 HDMI output, this is good for my future support also as my pc uses 1 input, my blue ray player 1, hopefull astro beyond set will use another and i'll still have 1 free HDMI input. The receiver does upscale 1080p but for PC it is a bit screwed up, so what i did is set video passthrough for my pc hdmi. The problem that i encountered is that my graphic card tried to upscale and my receiver also did something causing my video setting to reset. Best is to make sure only one system upscale the video and graphic card is the best option as it maintains good quality as it's meant for video.

By setting your blue ray player to bitstream the HD audio your receiver will be able to display True HD/DTS-HD MA depending on what audio language selected, only one of the HD audio will normally be supported. Currently my set up is still 5.1 with my boston powered or active subwoofer. I could get 2 more speakers and make it 7.1 but i don't have enough room to set that up. Do bare in mind that not all blue ray discs support 7.1 channel, some old movies only support up till 5.1 so 7.1 channel may not always be used and also some movies is taken with standard definition so check for the video and audio quality in the disc details. Listening to music from your PC may not sound best with the configuration, i'm not so sure why. Personally I suspect due to mp3 music is basically taken in stereo format so making it 5.1 may not be a good thing all the time. Perhaps if I can get my receiver to decode the sound then it may be better, but that's up to try another day. Thinking of using my motherboard to pass SPDIF digital audio to my receiver to see the difference if my receiver processes the music. For now that's about it, already a lengthy sharing but i believe it would help most of HTPC enthusiast. I'll try to add on more details in the future.

My Backpacker trip to Kota Kinabalu & Labuan

noreply@blogger.com (Prasad) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:44:00 +0000

It was some where in May 2009 when we booked our Air Asia flight to Kota kinabalu from Penang Island, it was cheap (RM250 return) & I haven't had any other trip overseas this year. As our last minute planning goes, we where to reach Kota Kinabalu & take express bus to Labuan Island. That was the only thing we were sure off, all three of us. We haven't booked a thing and had no tour guide to show us around. We landed in kota kinabalu at 1pm (3 hours journey from penang), we knew we could not catch the 1pm direct ferry to labuan earlier but what we never expected was that the last direct bas from KK to labuan also had left at 1pm. They folks there we friendly enough to tell us how else to get there. We had to take a bas trip from KK to beaufort then some how catch another bus from beaufort to Menumbuk which is the closest jetty to Labuan. The bus driver already informed someone to wait for us at a turning to menumbuk so we didn't have to get all they way to beaufort. The bus journey was terrible as the seat were small & it was a local bus only, so is the direct bus to Labuan. It was a 2 and half hours journey to Menumbuk. As soon as we got to the jetty there was already a speed boat waiting, in sabah the public transports leave only when it's full (Bus & speed boat). The 20 minute ride from there made us feel rejuvenated as the strong wind breeze flow & the atmosphere gave us energy. Labuan was finally in our sights. There were a lot of international ships at the shore lines & petroleum treatment centre can be seen first before we reach the Labuan jetty.

Labuan is a duty free island which is not part of Sabah, it's part of Wilayah Persekutuan. More famous for it's night life as there is a lot of clubs and liquer is cheap. Trips to labuan should be planned before 5th & after 10th of every month as it will be visited by off shore workers which would mean most of the hotels,lodges & inns would be full and the clubbing area overcrowded. Taxis is a great way of getting to know a new place, we choose to stay nearby the clubbing areas as it would be safer. There's few clubs generally know there, Beyond 2000, King & Popin. They start to be over crowded after 10.30pm. If you're looking for liquor bottle you can purchase nearby the jetty itself. You're allowed to carry out of Labuan 1 liter liquor bottle after a 24 hours stay. These clubs tend to be visited by sabahan & Filipino people. We stayed at Labuan Inn where it was at the centre of the clubbing area. Rooms there were cheap & clean. The eating restaurants also were in the same area. We were lucky to meet some of our local friends there, so we were able to find more about Labuan. Partying all night together we had to wake up early at 6.30am to catch our 8.30am ferry to Kota Kinabalu as we had made appointment for snorkeling in Tunku abdul rahman park at 1pm. We picked up the pamplet for great N famous tour at the KK airport when we touched down and saw a good deal for snorkeling at 2 islands for RM170. We only made the confirmation during our bus trip to Labuan. The ferry to KK took us 3 and half hour to reach there, then we went to our Promenade Hotel which we booked during our bus trip also.

Great N famous tour had arrange a pick up for us at the hotel at 1 pm, to bring us to the jetty where a speed boat would be waiting to take us to Sapi island & Mamutik island , both which is part of Tunku Abdul Rahman Park. This park consist of 5 islands which is Gaya, Manukan, Sapi, Mamutik & Sulug. It's a 20 minute trip to Sapi island from KK jetty or more know as Jesselton Jetty. Picked up our fins & snorkels first which was included in the package also. A fun speed boat ride there passing by Gaya Island which is where the fisherman village is. Sapi Island was pack with tourist from all over the world, there's a small hut like cafe where we had our free lunch. Expensive by Malaysian standards but just good enough to eat. We had an offer to take parasailing for RM80 each. The unique thing about this was that we will lift off from the speed boat & land back on the boat itself. Me for one was new to this, I was doubtful at first safety vise as we are doing thing in the open ocean but I & my friend took a chance. It was a specialized boat with a platform on the back & a motor to reel in the cable for the parachute. He took us from the Island towards the open sea. It was a beautiful sight as the deep blue ocean lines perfectly with the horizon. There was no islands in sight in front of us, strong wind blowing in our faces and we were ready to hook on to the parachute. We were kinda tumbling here and there as the wind was picking up. Then slowly the cable was released putting us in the air. What i never expected was for the ocean dip before we were brought up. They slowed the boat down to make us submerged into the water before he picked up speed. It was a bit scary at first as it was the deep sea, I couldn't see what was in the water. Too much movie influence i guess. On one hand i was thinking of which shark's lucky day was today & the other if the parachute might touch the water. I was even trying to avoid the water a little, but then i set aside my fear as no point worry about the unknown. The other thing was my friends leg was longer so the shark would go for him first then me. After making a big round then we headed back to sapi island where we started with our snorkeling. The diver showed us how to use the gear properly and escorted us for the whole time. The water was still a bit murky & the corals seem some what simple. Did manage to see some coral fish & so other fish variety there. Finish most of our time there then took some snaps around the island then we were of to Mamutik Island. Due to short of time we weren't able to go to Manukan island instead. Mamutik island was a little smaller & had less people snorkeling at that time. It was already 4.20pm, we had till 4.40 to snorkel there. There was less variety there & big sea urchins spoil our exploration there. Stepping on one would be very painful & would cause swelling as the poison needles would stick to the skin. Pissing on the affected area would relief the pain so they say. Time was up and we headed back to our hotel. It was still a great experience snorkeling away there.

It was a saturday & Terence wanted to go to the saturday mass at Sacred Heart Church few minutes drive from KK town. The travel agency was kind enough to wait for us to change & take us to the church also. It was a big church visited by many sabahans. Prayer lasted to 1 hour then where were off to have our dinner in KK town. We were looking for a place called Kampung Air or Water village. It was some where nearby our Promenade hotel. It's a place famous for cheap seafood restaurants. With the help of people we were shown the correct way there as we were traveling by foot from the bus station. It was kind of like a food court with all the restaurants were under 1 roof. Beware to choose the right restaurant, just survey the prices first before settling down at one restaurant. We got a great restaurant where 1kg of mud crabs was only RM13.80, some restaurants were selling at RM40 for the same crabs. On the order the three of us got kinda greedy in a sense that we order too much. We order 2kg of crabs prepared 2 different ways, prawns, fish & Sabah vege which was something new that we couldn't find in Peninsular Malaysia. Meanwhile i surveyed the price for lobster, it was only RM16 per 100g. But since we already ordered too much we didn't order that. The table beside us actually order a king size lobster, almost as big as a human head. It was around 2.5 kg worth around RM400. We were pretty surprised seeing that, and the presentation was magnificent. We were there for quite a long time as we couldn't finish the food, it tastes good but just that there's no more room in our stomachs. I did a mistake of eat all the rice also thinking I can have all the crabs later. The shop owner was a lady from butterworth penang which was very nearby our place, she was very friendly also. We told them to pack the food and give to her workers as not to waste the food. Full we then make our journey back towards our hotel. Terence had his sinus problem reoccuring perhaps due to the crabs so we had to stop by at a clinic nearby. It was a 24hours clinic situated near the apartments behind our hotel. It was already 12pm, Terence still wanted to go to a pub after taking his meds. I suggested to go to BED which was actually a famous club name in KK situated at Waterfront which right in front of our hotel. We choose our hotel which was strategically located in town & nearby the entertainment centres. So happened the bus station also was walking distance. Arriving at BED it was overcrowded and had a queue just to go in, we then decided to check out the other clubs. Cock & Bulls was the other club there, so we just settle down there. it was late and the clubs close at 1. We only had and hour there. Then we had to close for the night as we have a buffet breakfast in the morning at Promenade hotel.

We were checking out at 12 but had to leave earlier because we wanted to go to Gaya street which was famous for it's sunday market which starts at 6am-1pm. We first looked around for a place to stay and found an Pantai Inn. The room was just nice for 3 of us. Our flight next day was at 7am so we just needed a place to put up the night. Gaya Street was really busy with tourist and a lot of things were sold there such as crafts, pets, sarong, T shirts, crystals & pearls. It's the best place to buy your crafts as the price is cheaper compared to the Filipino Market which is a lot more expensive even thou you'll have more choices. Pearls are famous in sabah, especially black pearls. You'll get more choices at the filipino market, but need to watch out for the prices. There are fresh water pearls & saltwater pearls. Some are cultured pearls while some are originals. Fresh water pearls are more like corn shaped rather then round like salt water pearls. I was pretty lost there as i didn't know how to choose the pearl. All looked the same to me, not knowing which is fake i just choose to go for the cheaper option. All prices can be bargain, some more then 50% cheaper. First I surveyed the prices and asked around before actually bargaining or buying something. Gaya Street market is just one stretch of street meanwhile at filipino marker it's all under one roof with rows of crafts being sold. I bought some crafts at the Gaya street itself luckily as the same items sold in filipino market was too expensive. The only thing I bought in Filipino market is white saltwater pearls. The more rounder the pearl is the more better the quality is but watch out for plastic pearls. A scratch test could prove a true pearl also.
Shopping was done for the day and we retired to our room. We planned to meet a friend of Terence at night & go clubbing after that. He took us around KK showing us the other which is near University Malaysia Sabah. We wanted local Sabah food but nothing was really there, at night nearby the filipino market was the wet market which had BBQed food/ Ikan Bakar. There was so many stalls selling the same thing and chicken wings, the place didn't look clean so we choose to go somewhere else. We went to Jesselton Jetty instead, it was very quite there and no music playing also. I thought it would have been happening there at night but it was kind of a disappointment there. We ahd dinner and return back to our room to change and headed to BED at Waterfront at around 10. Still quite early there, it was a Sunday so one jug Carlsberg was only RM30, by 11 the club was packed. A lot of sabahan people there, and the music band was good. Great place to let loose. After that we headed to Cock & Bulls which was like a pub, more low toned & talking crowd. Hanging there till 2am then our night in KK was over, we headed home and took a taxi to the airport in the morning.

We felt we had not enough time to enjoy there in KK, no real friends there could be the problem but we manage to squeeze out what ever time we could find to enjoy our trip to Sabah.

Vios with RON 95

noreply@blogger.com (Prasad) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 02:11:00 +0000

RON 95 was introduce to all petrol stations in Malaysia since 1st Sept 2009. Shell Replaced it's VPower fuel with RON 95 meanwhile Petronas eliminated RON 97 from it's gas stations.
RON 95 is said to be more combustible compared to RON 97 so why it's being considered low quality fuel when it's just cheaper.
To begin to answer this question i need to first explain some basic principle & my understanding of engines. We gain power from how effective an explosion/combustion occurs in our engine. There's a number of ways to improve the power, one of which is the compression ratio.

Higher Compression = More Power

The higher the RON rating the higher the compression capability of the fuel before it explodes (Controlled explosion). This in turn produces more power/torque.

RON 95 will tend to explode with less compression compared to RON 97. What does it mean? Will our engine have less power if use RON 95?

We should understand that standard cars have standard compression ratios. Typically set by the manufacture which also specify which type of fuel we can use or RON rating. Most modern fuel injection engine is capable of identifying when knocking or earlier explosion before full compression occurs, so it's then capable to adjust to maximize the compression efficiency. What this means is our engines adjusts to the new fuel rating and still will produce good power.

My understanding is that RON 95 will produce better responds but with a slightly less power then RON 97 because of the slightly lower compression. But since the difference is not much, 2 digits after all the difference is not so noticeable.

Vios is capable of handling RON 95 well and so far with usage i don't sense any knocking issues. I also felt better responds from the engine. So to all Vios users out there don't be afraid of using RON 95.

Vios Brembo Brake Cover

noreply@blogger.com (Prasad) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:17:00 +0000

Just installed my Brembo disk brake cover. Bought it from Brothers Alor Setar for RM30, was finding for a blue one for quite some time. Quality wise not bad, but never expected installation to cost the same as the cover. It's made by fiber with metalic dark blue paint. To get it install I had to travel to Kampung Sungai Kuala which was about 4~5 km from Brothers. Den Auto shop which was the only shop they claimed to do the installation as it's more then a simple task to install it.

At first i thought it would only require a proper glue to just stick it on the brake cover. I never thought they had to remove the wheels also. Had a hard time finding the place then I had to wait quite long also to do the installation (They had a lot of customers before me). He told me it will take 3 hours, i was surprise. They had an air con room to sit in but no TV there quite boring wait also. Got plenty of new rims to look at also there, never knew the shop existed also in sungai kuala as it's quite secluded from the main road.

To get the brake cover installed first both front rims had to be removed. Next is checking the fitting of the brake cover onto the disk brake. *CAUTION* because my rim was 16" so they had no problem fitting it in as it does not touch the rim, those with smaller rims need to check first if the brake cover size can fit or not. The brake cover had to be modified to fit perfectly on the brake, they had to cut it with a motorized saw. Next was using the clear type silicon glue to stick the cover and need to hold in place for quite a while. Avoid the black type as it won't stick on or dry as fast, they did a mistake with mine at first when they bought the glue. It had the same number but it had a black silicon gel inside.

I was told not to wash the cover all for 2 days to let it dry completely. The cover was quite out standing from my overall car look, just wonder if the blue color was a bit too much.

Gua Tempurung Adventure

noreply@blogger.com (Prasad) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 02:46:00 +0000

19th August 2009 - We had our fantastic adventure in Gua tempurung ,Ipoh, Perak. Exploring the deep dark caves of Perak. Our journey started of from Kulim , Kedah at 8.00am , where we reach Gopeng exit at around 10.30am. Just a couple minutes from there we are already at the entrance for the cave. It had all the facilities required such as bathroom , mini mart & lockers to facilitate visitors. There was even a lake there which looked like a great place to fish.

There were 4 packages available to suits visitors of all kind. A guide will be provide with the minimum pax of 8 people. Our group of 40 was split in 2 where some choose package 2 which brought them to Platform 5, or Top of the world. The other package was the package 4 which was a Grand tour of the caves & river. It started of like package 2 where we were kind of window shopping, looking at all the great formations from a walk way constructed of concrete & sand from the cave itself. Great stairwell were build leading up till the Top of the world. It's the highest part of the grand tour.

Next was the journey down deep into the silent caves formed by the powerful underground river. Here's where the adventure begin. There was no sun light in, your torch light becomes your best friend as it's pitch dark environment would scare any man. Large stalactites & stalagmites formed on the ground & ceiling of the caves, some were at least 12 feet long. It takes 100 years just to form 1 inch of this formations, imagine how long it would have taken to form this huge blocks. The name Gua tempurung came from it's 5 large dome like ceilings inside which looked like the inside of a coconut shell hence it's tempurung name.

As we journey deep and deeper into the caves our feet gets wet by the icy cold mountain river, water trickling down from the sharp formations above giving relive as our tired feets gets cooled down. Water level wasn't high as we were still early into the day, any later would mean that the water level will be too high & dangerous to continue the journey. The water level would rise up to cover the entire cave if it were to rain.

As we get deeper the space becomes smaller and smaller, some parts we had to crawl through till we reach a clearing which was the other side of the mountain. It's an opening to the jungle which is said to face the highway. We thought most of the journey was over and we were through the hardest part. It just seemed like a long walk.

We were to double back after that but will be using a different part which showed us the true meaning of adventure. The water level was higher, we had to swim under some formations with just a head room to breath just to get splash by friends at the other side. None of us made it dry.

There was one part we had to go through a hole small in the ground to reach an underground cabin. In such a small space 30 of us crammed in, not enough space to stand so we had to sit or squat meanwhile waiting for the rest to come in before continuing through. Another splashing session to welcome those who made it through.

Another memorable moment is when we had to slide down a smooth slope. It was like 8 feet high and it was a pretty sharp slope. We manage to tackle it with 2 stages, one stopping point in the middle to slow down our momentum. Those who went first had to grab the rest when they come down to prevent the drop in the end. It was a coordinated team effort with plenty of helping hands.

Sharing moments together as a team & having fun really brings meaning to having a team building activity. We work as a team to get things done. Help each other through difficult tasks & really had fun doing it. Treasure these moments we shall, an forever Gua Tempurung will always be in our hearts.

My Car Toyota VIOS with TEIN springs & 16" rim

noreply@blogger.com (Prasad) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:44:00 +0000

Toyota Vios J specs Auto:
Metalic Blue, love the black interior. Great car. Used a Myvi before & now just feel Myvi is underpowered some how (Of course comparing 1.3 to 1.5 cc). Very little body roll compared to Myvi with standard specs. You can touch 170km/h easily. Felt Vios was a big car to buy at first but then you'll realize the comfort & how going 110km/h feels like 70km/h. Good insulation from sound & wind is the reason why driving at these speeds seems very easy. My mom & grandma still catches me for speeding thou because of the speedometer in the center. Acceleration is good depending on your mood.
Driving a Vios involves 2 stages. One is slow & stead, rev won't go up more then 2k (Idle is at 500-700 anyway). In order to move on to the second stage(fast & furious) there is a lag due to changing gears. You can avoid this if you speed up from the start at a steady rate. If your looking for an extreme sports car perhaps your should try Peugeot 308, EVO10 or something like that. But if you don't plan to enter races then maybe this car is good enough for you. P.s i drive pretty fast most of the time also.
Pic with standard springs
Current mods:
Volks racing 16" rims. Comments: Looks great, just suits my car color but a little on the heavy side. It's Taiwan made. Cost RM1600. Costly but worth it. I prefer looks of course then light racing rims.

Tyre Falken ZE522 (205/45/R16). Comments: Love the tyres. Feel so much secure to the road compared to my previous 14" tyres. I've maintained the same size ratio with my previous 14" set so that not much change in my speedometer. No problems like tyre hitting the fender even after lower with full load. Quite on tar & great grip in rain. Noisy on Concrete thou.

Tein S-Tech Lowering Springs. Comments: At first look quite high but it does it's job at making sure it won't hit bottom. The gap around the arch is the same for the sides & top. At full load there is 1 finger gap between the arch. Some saw the spring would be hard but for me it feels the same as standard but just lower by 1.5" (2/3 fingers lower compared to the earlier 5 finger gap). For daily life in kulim it's good enough as the roads are pretty messed up. Some might prefer lower as there is still 3 finger gap between the fenders (Thins fingers).

Tinted rear light. Comments: Just don't like the silver or chrome finishing for the rear lights so covers it with tinted film. Put it on myself.

Some important links for VIOS lovers to jump to below.

1) http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html (Calculate tyre size)
2) http://www.fujicorporation.com(Toyota Belta/Vios with rim's of your choice)
3) www.viosclub.com & www.vioszeroseven.com (Vios Forums)
4) www.ftzoneracing.com (Online Car accessories in Butterworth)
5) greddyvios.blogspot.com & http://www.viosunderground.com (A blog on Vios mods)
6) http://www.etimago.com/yaris/repairmanual/ (Detailed repair manual)

With Tein springs...

Pantai Kerachut Uncovered

noreply@blogger.com (Prasad) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:49:00 +0000

20th June 2009- It was a Saturday. Set my alarm at 6.10am but manage to get up earlier. Eyes still so sleeping as i slept last night at 12 only. Why must wake up so early on a Saturday I thought.First time waking up and it's still so dark. The day before i was thinking it wasn't too early when they said need to meet up at Seberang Jaya Hospital at 8.15am. Plus need to gather at 7.50 in Terrence house first before going there. My house to Terrence is about another 10-15 minutes. I had to leave my house by 7.35am. When i start doing all the maths then only i realize i need to get up pretty early, plus i need to eat something & prepare all my gears. Even for work also i only wake up at 6.55. At 7.50am Terrence called, "Where are you" he asked. Lucky I was on my way already no means i'm screwed.
All 5 of us had gathered rite on time at Terrence's place (Me, Terrence, Uthaya, Andy & Vijay). The first plan was to take my car, but last minute change of plans we took Vijay's car (Not sure why thou). Anything goes for me. As soon as we left both me & Terrence started to realize how slow Vijay was driving. Just too slow for our standards. But thank god that among of all the 3 cars meeting up at the hospital ours was actually the fastest.

Soon we were on our way to Teluk Bahang, Penang. First thing that was on my mind is where to have breakfast. I was hungry. Few biscuits & tea wasn't enough for me. Terrence suggested a place in Teluk Bahang, in front of Kahlels Nasi kandar. A mamak shop, with some chinese stalls nearby. It was the stop where finally all members of the team had gathered. We had some Roti Canai & bought some extra for lunch. Soon all 13 of us move on to Taman Negara which is the start of our hiking journey. As there is no place to buy food in Pantai Kerachut we had bought food earlier. All are contributions from the team such as mineral water, roti canai, fruits ,nasi lemak & maggi mee. We had no worries about food.

Everyone heading up the hiking path need to register first at the Taman Negara office prior to the journey for tracking purpose. Had a few pics & a little discussion before we were off for hiking to Pantai Kerachut which was 3km from Taman Negara. At first I thought it's going to be a tough 2 hours hike to the beach but that I realize it wasn't as hard. There's basically a walking path most of the way there & most of the time it's like a walk in the park. If i've know how easy it was i would have had Shogi bring his guitar there. We thought it was going to be hard to carry a guitar thru a hiking trail, so decided to leave it in the car.
As we were going thru the path the two military veterans was talking about hows their life was those days. Living in the jungle for sometimes almost 3 months. Only ammo was provide & food they had to find for themselves. Atmosphere so tense that opening a can would trigger the battalion on alert. Those were the days when they had to guard against the communist.
There were convenient sign posts & rest stops along the way. Quite a number of people also traveling to Pantai Kerachut. Just earlier a group of Chinese people went past us, we started earlier but had to slow down to wait for the others. Some were old & some don't have regular exercises. One of the reasons to go on a hiking trip of course is to promote a healthy life style.
As soon as we were closer we could hear the strong waves of the ocean. Just hearing that give you energy to go faster. Just could imagine a beach side & the waves pounding the sides. There was a clearing and we were there. There was a suspension bridge crossing the river mouth. We were finally there.

It's my first time there with many others. I just can't wait to get the the fishing spots. Just a day earlier i've bought my fishing gear, always have been my interest to fish. Nothing near a pro of course. It was hot out there as it was nearly 12. Our friends brought us to the spot which they previously used during their last trip. It was shaded and had rocks near by. Can see about 6 people fishing by the side of the rocks. There was washrooms to bath & toilet facilities. A jetty where we can hire a boat back & do some fishing. Vivek already contacted the boatmen earlier in the morning on what time we will be leaving from pantai kerachut.
We gathered all our stuffs & food in one place & having some lunch. Within minutes there was a bunch of monkeys hiding & looking form inside the jungle. They were hoping for food. They were kind of our entertainment as we were resting from the trip.
Had an apple first before me and a few other head out to the rock side to do some fishing of our own. I had no bait with me as i couldn't find any live bait yesterday. I can't buy and keep prawns also as I had no fridge at home. Luckily Uthaya brought some prawns but the skins was already taken out. That made the prawns soft and easy to be eaten by the fish. As time past we had no luck. Sashi moved into the water to get a better location. In a few minute wallah he caught a fish. It was small but a fish none the less, Ikan Bunting they call it due to it's over sized stomach. Uthaya made quick work off the fish into bait. Time passes by but no luck at all after that. We then went back to our spot to meet up with our friends and see what are they cooking. Thanks to Vivek we had a small reusable stove which we used to boil water & add to our maggi in cup.

I took nasi lemak for lunch which was more then enough as i drank too much water earlier.
We rested again. It was already 2pm. I was eager to try fishing again but this time from the jetty. Some of them went swimming, I knew if I hit the water that's it for fishing. I march past them and headed to the jetty. Few fellows already fishing there and they were getting small Sting Rays or Ikan Pari. I join in the hunt for fish but this time using my artificial bait. A small rubberized fish which would be suitable for bigger fishes. I manage to improve my throws, throwing further & further every time. But no bites at all. Too hot i thought myself. I had no live bait to try also till a group left leaving for some of us their bait. Now's the chance to catch some sting rays i taught. What I find happening is that the bait is munched away but none took the hook. Small fishes eating for free. Uthaya & Kunen joined me after a while but no luck also. It was already 3 plus, not a fish from the ocean. It was very hot outside & strong currents. Vivek came to take over what Uthaya left off. after few minutes suddenly the fishing rod dropped. We were too busy talk till it dropped. It was a fish foe Vivek, Bawal Putih they call it. Small but beautiful. It was a small hope that there was fishes around.

Soon it was 4.30 already. Time to go back. Still fishing to the last minute. Already had my bag all with me. Haven't bath yet thou. But never mind, everyone started coming there on time. The boatmen also was on time. Had few snaps of the camera & we were off to leave Pantai Kerachut.

The boat journey was pretty nice with strong waves pounding the boat.Water splashing from the sides. Able to view the coastal side from afar. A beautiful sight in deed. Had some words from the boatmen. Telling us about the stone faces by the sea side. It was of a turtle & a crocodile. Huge were the sizes of these rocks. Amazing to see something so naturally crafted by the sea.

On the way he showed us Monkey Beach & USM own research center by the sea side with it's own jetty. We even saw a large black lizard swimming away from us luckily.

We later reached the Kampung Nelayan, where our cars were parked. We were hungry so we went to Miami Beach which is behind Park Royal. It's a place where there's a beach side pub & a lot of sea activities such as para sailing, jet ski & horse riding. We were there early so the Indian shop was still close. So we choose to have a drink first. The other cars had other appointment so they head home straight. Sitting on the beach chair admiring the view, although the sea was quite bad there but a lot of beautiful people were there. Had some datin's visiting the beach side with their bodyguards. Chilling with a few Tigers in hand by the beach is a statement some would always dream about.

We were approach by some of the promoters there promoting para sailing. Terence agreed to give it a try. It was his first time. We were just wondering what could go wrong as terence was pretty thin. We watched as the boat took him up high. He had his legs stretch out as though he was scared. As though a balloon was in the sky.

We watched as he made a large circle covering the whole beach front. Then it was time for him to come down. He was suppose to pull the string. He pulled it with both hand but to no avail. He was still sky high. They were shouting to pull the string from below. He couldn't hear them. He was supposed to actually pull only the left side of the para sail to bring it down, a fact he must have forgotten or not realize. They went around another time. This time one of the people in charge took the jet ski to get close to terence and tell him to only pull one side. He manage to do that but terence started pulling too much making the sail drop down. Luckily he let go of it and he was once again high up in the sky. He would have drop to the sea if he didn't let go. It's a pretty dangerous situation to drop in the sea as the chances is high that he can get tangled up with sail & landing in the sea can be pretty rough as you'll stop immediately. This time around he pulled the string correctly but he had to use 2 hands as he wasn't dropping much. Second time lucky I guess, he did a perfect landing. Had some people cheering for him as he landed there.
That was basically most of the journey we gone through the whole day. We took or dinner at Ananda Bagawan in Tanjung bungah. We had a last minute foot massage then headed home for kulim. Thanks for Vivek & Uthaya in putting effort in organizing this trip to Pantai Kerachut without whom we couldn't have made this journey.

My MYVI tragedy

noreply@blogger.com (Prasad) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 05:58:00 +0000

June 4th 2008: was a day to remember as it was when my black MYVI SE burned to a crisp. Should have thought twice before lending my Uncle the car to go to Alor Setar. He wanted to get his IC done (He's using RED Identification card as was born before 1957) & he wanted to take my cousin sisters children for a tour of Alor Setar, since his car was too small he wanted to borrow my car. I couldn't say no plus the kids really wanted to go. Heavyhearted I gave the keys to him as I was working that day, meanwhile i used his car.

6.00pm that day: I received a call from my nephew that my car overturned. She said it was on fire and it happened in Alor Ganjus (Had no idea where it was). I thought it was a joke (It's just been 6months since i bought the car). I just could not comprehend how it happened, it was a new car. My uncle, aunt & the kids were all taken to Alor Setar's new hospital(Sultanah Bahiyah) but they were all fine except my uncle & aunt had bruises due to the seat belt & pain because was suspended upside down in the car. Call my parents in Alor Setar but no one was answering. I rushed to the hospital from kulim alone, all the way worried about how they were. I couldn't even contact them as they made the call from somebody's phone. Both my parents still not answering. It was a jolt from my otherwise casual life. Fearing that they were alone & helpless. Plus my aunty already old and being half paralyze some more made things worst. My cousin sis children were only 7 & 10 years old, what if something were to happen to them.

7.00pm i was at the hospital. I was confused as it was a new building & i wasn't sure where they were. Looking all over finally i found them. The kids were safe, playing around in the waiting room. My aunt had a bruised neck due to the seat belt. My uncle had to undergo an Xray check up because of his hip was too painful. He had to be admitted overnight as his pressure was high & we didn't want to take the risk of any complications. While waiting there to get all the check up done only them my mom called me back. I didn't want to tell her want happen, scared she might over react. Tried to get dad on the phone but still can't. Had to tell my mom. She rushed there immediately as it was only 15 minutes from home. We took them home, had to leave my uncle there for the night as his pressure wasn't going down.

What happened at Alor ganjus km11 5.30pm: He told me a bicycle cross the road & he avoided it by making a wide turn that made the car overturned. The car had overturned at the other side of the road on a medium sized drain. Within 5 minutes smoke came out from the engine bay as it is still running & they we still unaware whats going on. No air bags deploy as there is no front collision. Doors were still locked. Smoke from the engine getting into the car as they panic. Both my uncle & aunt are 60+ so they don't have the strength to get themselves free. Thank god that the people near by saw and came to help them almost immediately. Those that helped at first was afraid to approach the car as it was smoking already, but as one guy quickly rushed they followed to help. They had to break the rear window to get the kids out as the door couldn't open (Not sure if it was because it was locked or jammed shut as the car was upside down). As it was too hard to bring out my uncle & aunt through the window so they had to turn the car back up to remove them. As soon as they we removed & taken away from the area the car burst into flames. If the people didn't work together that day it would have been a different story. Bomba(Fire truck) came but only to watch as the flame was out of control & the car was too far gone. I still can remember my uncle telling me that he heard explosions from each of the bursting tires.

The next day: I went looking for my car in the morning with my parents. Was going through the Alor Ganjus road but couldn't see my car there. Then suddenly my mom told she saw the car. As I turn & saw the car I was amazed by how it was. It's size had shrunk down to a kancil's size & it was gray in color as only the bare metal showing. Nothing but the rim only remain to show what it was once was.

Graduating... Finally...

noreply@blogger.com (Prasad) — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 07:53:00 +0000

5 years.. ago MMU was a strange place to me...
All the way from Alor Setar to a place called Melaka... The furthest i have gone before that was only KL... New surroundings, new friends, basically a new life..
everything just past by so fast... felt like it was just yesterday i first set foot in MMU..
If i get a chance again i don't mind going through it again... the experiences , the moments, my fellow friends can never be forgotten... feel as thou I'm leaving MMU too soon.. just wish can spend more time there... well the hard truth of life is that we gotta move on..
Time to move forward.. Carry the memories with me... forever being friends...
Time to test what i had learn and experienced in MMU...
Time to compete to achieve my goal..
Time to work hard and succeed in life...
simple words to say... but carrying it out is another thing...
if only life was so simple...
well the only way is to march forward and believe in yourself...
Keep in touch my friends.. where ever we end up just remember the times we had together...

Trinite 2006

noreply@blogger.com (Prasad) — Sun, 02 Apr 2006 06:47:00 +0000

1st april .. what a day to choose.. got only April fooled once by someone unknown some more... hopefully that doesn't count... hmm.. remember once i fooled melvin for like 5 times... that's the record for a single person la on the same day. Muahaha...
Well only today i n my buddy Manika planed to buy our prom clothes la...
last minute shopping ... we went to a tailor shop in Melaka Raya called Boss Tailor...
I ,Manika and Shashi bought shirts n Wafi got himself a jacket... Oh yeah forgot to tell that i highlighted my hair today just before the prom... that's the time the barber(Suresh shop) said he thinks this is how highlighting is done... had a baby cap on me n my hair was pulled out through tiny holes in the cap.. Manika and Shashi was suppose to do it also but they backed out at the last minute... (Central fellows ... useless) :)
well got all ready and headed to prom at 7.30.. picked up Wafi's date and reached there to find Glenn with his date... hows my date you ask.. hmm.. well we single fellows must hang out together so Shashi was my date unfortunately.
table 52.. lucky there was a television set there to watch the show..
started out wit dinner( food not bad but no alcohol :( )
Daniel and Jaclynn victor sang... oh yeah Daniels songs all sounded as thou he was singing in Chinese... mystery celebrity was Reshmonu.. the only dance i had all night.. Hey Waley Waley song.. never knew it had a meaning... well it will be fun using it.. sporting gentleman.. manage to take a pic wit him.. too dark thou.. had fun teasing the prom king & prom queen and amber chia also.. (sorry if we hurt anyone's feelings..) i , Joshua , Shashi and Thiru was like the only singles there... hmmm... enjoyed the company of friends thou.. final year already.. don't know what happens after this semester.. hopefully the best for everyone... the sad thing about the prom was they had slow songs for 30 minutes and then the dance was over... its a prom for god sake... i would think its mainly about dancing... well at 12.30 we left equatorial hotel..
after party huh... just hanging out in geographers only.. fantastic songs there by the way...was there till 2 am as it was closing.. had the regular clowns there to entertain us.. that was basically the night out for prom... Well this are some of the pics before and during the night...

Group pic at the prom:

Gunung Ledang trip

noreply@blogger.com (Prasad) — Sat, 04 Feb 2006 09:57:00 +0000

woke up this morning feeling like gonna get high fever but that ain't gonna stop me from my trip to Gunung Ledang with fellow housemates... 2 cars set on a long journey to sagil.. with one lost soul...
One house mate missed out on this chance but nvm... went thereand had a fun time there... Melvin and John took turns making somersaults.. there was a big hole just under the waterfall.. at least 2 to 3 metres deep.. all of us took turns diving into it(except Wafi of course)... there's even a place inside that we can sit in it...
later we got a little hungry and when we went up to take our food, we saw half of it is gone.. our dear friend barathi gobbled up half of the loaf of bread we bought... lucky there was another loaf there.. no means there would have been a funeral here today..
after Gunung Ledang we went to eat in Tangkak.. An indian shop and planned to play futsal right after we reach Melaka.. most of us were thinking of sleeping and taking the rest of the day off but John was insisting so we had our match in a new futsal barn in Batu Berendam..(played 1 hour of course.. anymore then that we are dead).. Kelisa car versus Iswara... hmm... too bad nobody kept the score... my head felt like gonna explode because i was still sick.. and still played like mad..
hanged around there for a little while then headed to our home sweet home...(By the way its the Petronas house in Taman Bunga Raya).
***THE END***

Singapore Trip

noreply@blogger.com (Prasad) — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 05:35:00 +0000

Finally i can say that i've been to SinGaPoRe(a lot of kiasu people by the way)... got some pocket change the day before and let for singapore early in the morning... transportation was provided by our dear legend... got there.. went through immigration(the lady officer there was cute also) hehe...
got in the bus back and went to MRT station... Guess wat... went there n i got scolded by the janitor... USELESS... that was my first impression of Singapore... so rude...
well then back to my journey with my 2 hobbits.. hehe..
just onli started our plan of where to go...
I suggested to go to the Singapore Zoo (Well i don't know where else to go... New ma.. First time)
after a few minutes of discussion we got to a conclusion to go there first la....
Singapore Zoo.... Hmmm... Very big.. lots of animals.. the gals there not bad.. hehe.. 15 sing dollars la to enter...(RM34.50 of my money gone)
Visited all of miss footie's friends (4 hours walking got so tired) but very nice to see. Detailed report about the zoo must ask in person, too lazy to type (pig year ma...)
had lunch in KFC which was different from our normal KFC based on the menu but the price almost the same... Ms. Footie was vegetarian so pity her.. hehe... she saw us eating nicely.
about 30 minutes of more sightseeing then got back on the bus to Ochard Street...
Warning!!! the gals there are hot.. so just stay away from them... u might just start cursing about malaysian gals... I and shashi actually got tired of looking at the gals there for that day of course...
had our Cup of tea (actually it's coffee but a very costly one)
than made our little journey home..
tired.. trilled.. and heavyhearted we left Singapore... shashi bought some remembrance of Singapore... i saved my money don't know for what reason and felt the next time on my to do list is to sleep...(with the sweet memories of Singapore.. not to forget my incident also)
**THE END** (Feeling lazy to type some more so just made it short)

Life In JB

noreply@blogger.com (Prasad) — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 01:57:00 +0000

It started of at a snails pace but then it just suddenly blew past me...
No car.. No Astro.. No Internet.. No Friends nearby (Except Shashi of course)..
Got cold stares from everyone we walk past.. Its just that we are different from what they normally see.. felt like its gonna be a long way for this to end...
But then...
where there is darkness there is light.. (did i say it right hmmm..)
Wat it takes is one caring person to look after you.. a brother, a colleague and fellow workmate..
He took care of us when he could just let us by... Panasonic became from boring to somewhere we can met our friends...
Movies.. Badminton.. Futsal... Hoped for fishing but no time..
planned a movie for the weekend became a group event.. certain parties won't be happy if no invitation was given.. hehe... Badminton with the legend is held every week... If we stay on the winning side we always win... hehe...
Futsal... hmmm.. became the favorite choice.. where i can swipe some people.. hehe..
We got our Pele making murukku on the turf.. Top scorer man, i can't believe my eyes.. well of course he waited by the goal post la... our MIC president is legends enemy la.. Badminton school player against legend sure no fight.. hehe...
became good friends with our Ms. footie.. (Real name kept secret hehe..)
there were some turmoil's as nothings perfect but no matter as life goes on...