In The Weeds of Feeds

Bold Battery Life - Real World

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 10:38:00 +0000

So I have had the BlackBerry Bold for a while now and have had an opportunity to test real world battery life. First let me say that this thing sucks down the juice. Not unlike the iPhone 3G which needed a software update to improve battery life - so to could the Bold use a software update that improves battery life.

I was able to get 4 hours of talk time during a recent conference call I had to make. In this screenshot

You can see I was on a 4:05 min call. This was in less than ideal conditions. I was using the my bluetooth (Jawbone 1st Gen) headset and I was in the server room which cuts down the signal a fair amount. Wireless was turned off.

I have since upgraded my battery to a 1750 mah type in an effort to gain more time. The battery is still the same size as the unit that comes with the bold so no need for the extra thick cover. My informal testing so far has been to just observe how much battery life is left when I get home from work. I plug my blackberry in every night and I'm away from the house for a minimum of 13 hours at work before returning. I've been keeping WiFi off for now as it really sucks down my battery switching from WiFi to 3G as I move around at work. I've also disabled my PeekaWho application as it was really draining my battery life as well (shame really because this is a great app). I do not take many phone calls on my BlackBerry but do get a steady stream of email all day long. I already have my device tweaked for battery savings (brightness, backlight, etc.).

I really just want to be able to use it the whole day (I have to check it constantly - nature of being in IT and responding to customers) without having to plug it in at work. I can say that I'm able to do it with the Bold but just barely and after upgrading my battery to a larger capacity. My iPhone 3G is getting better battery life but I think the reason is I've set it to manual fetch of emails. I enjoy both and they both have their advantages and disadvantages. I carry both on me at all times during the day; the Bold for work and the iPhone for home. If I had to choose just one it would have to be the iPhone but fortunately I don't have to choose and can carry both and have the best of both worlds.

THN vs. THN (BlackBerry Bold App vs. iPhone App)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:40:00 +0000

The Hockey News has released their mobile application on both the BlackBerry and iPhone. Since I have both a Bold (Work) & iPhone (Home) I thought I would compare both platforms. I'm on AT&T's 3G network with both devices.

Here are screenshots of THN on the bold:

As you can see they are not to bad but there is much less screen real estate compared to the iPhone.

Here are screenshots of THN on the iPhone:

One thing you should notice is that there are a lot more features on the iPhone app. Scores, standings, player stats and schedules. The app also loads much faster. The BlackBerry version takes advantage of push technology and allows the app to run in the background. You have access to everything even without network signal. Conversly on the iPhone it has to pull everything down fresh each time you launch the app. For my money (both were free apps) the iPhone is the better application platform when done right and provides a faster more feature rich experience.

Trapster = Battery Drain

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 12:40:00 +0000

So I had an opportunity to download try out free app Trapster. This little app provides real time notifications about "reported" speed traps, red light cameras and known police hangouts along the roads. It is updated by users and so your mileage may vary. While the app appeared to work okay it is one heck of a battery drainer. My iPhone was fully charged and within an hour it had drained my battery. So word to the wise, make sure you have it connected to power in your vehicle before leaving this thing running. It does a pretty good job but you will want to change the notification interval to 15 secs most likely. The default is 5 secs. I was in an area that had three known spots where police hang out (close together and within the half mile radius setting I choose) and the voice was constantly telling me "Police hang out here, Police hang out here, Police hang out here..." and repeat. Very annoying!

Trapster is available for multiple devices like RIM BlackBerry and several GPS Navigation units (Garmin, TomTom etc.) visit their website for more information: http://www.trapster.com/

Firmware 2.1 is a Winner!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 10:11:00 +0000

Well it has been almost a month since I've updated my iPhone 3G to firmware 2.1 and I can report it has been rock solid.

What it fixed for me:

1) No more crashes - I have not had to reset the phone due to the OS being locked up. Sure the occasional app freezes but that is to be expected with early release of any software. Due to iTS review process it takes a lengthy amount of time before updates are released. Not the developers fault as they have updates pending in the system. Just visit a developer site/blog and you will see that in a lot of cases they have multiple releases in the system just pending approval.

2) Backup Time - The backup time is soooooo much faster. Maybe a function of iTunes 8 but I don't care. Its just faster.

3) App Icons stay put - Finally I can arrange my app icons in a manner that works for me and not have it move to the last screen whenever an update is released.

I'm sure I'm missing some things but I'm almost taking things for granted now as it just works smooth like you except an Apple OS product to work.

iPhone Stable at Last!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 13:01:00 +0000

Well I think I will call this fixed (temporary solution) until either new Firmware or new iTunes versions are released. My phone has been stable for the better part of 4 days now. I will attribute this to the fact that I do not have to many apps installed. Here are screen shots of my iPhone pages.

As you can see I only have 3 pages and not all are ITS apps. I have several that are web apps to sites that are configured for iPhone use but do not have downloadable apps. It has been rock solid and I have even played Lumen quite a bit over the last two days. To give you an idea of how bad this issue is for folks just spend some time in the Apple Support Forums. This link http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1644828&tstart=0 has over 530 replies. All of them with roughly the same issue I was experiencing and all the different methods they have tried.

I don't even bother arranging my app icons as they will just get bumped to the last page any time there is an update. So what's the point. I guess I could put my web app icons first but really I'm just happy it's working again like it should.

So until a permanent fix is released no more trying out all these free apps as I just don't want to risk having my iPhone crash again. It's a shame really as this is the fun of the iPhone App Store.

Gmail 2.0.5 for BlackBerry

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 14:07:00 +0000

I just updated my gmail app on my blackberry (I'm on OS 4.5). Beside being quicker the most significant feature is the ability to check multiple gmail accounts without having to log out. This is a great feature and quite frankly I'm surprised it has taken this long to become available. I only have a couple of issues with this update: 1) The icon looks crappy (NBD) and 2) The body field for typing in your message is a lot smaller. Otherwise it is a recommended update.

Available if you have Google Updater or go to: m.google.com/apps from your blackberry browser.

iPhone - So Far, So Good

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 11:56:00 +0000

Well another 24 hours has passed and I have yet to crash my iPhone. I find it quite interesting that I'm not the only one having issues. I ran across this article over at TUAW in which having to many Apps is causing this issue. Tell me this is not a firmware issue. I can corroborate that I have not had my issues since I reduced the number of Apps. My iPhone only has 3 pages of home screens vs. the five or six I used to have. No longer am I loading apps that I may only need to use once in a while but have on there just in case.

I am tempted to try a restore from backup just to see but at this point I'm just so happy to have not crashed that I don't want to go thru the trouble of re-entering my account info for all those apps.

Tuesday the 9th, Apple is having an event (Let's Rock @ 10:00PST) in which the rumor mills are predicting new product announcements of the Nano 4G and iTouch 2G and maybe even iTunes 8.0. Let's just hope firmware 2.1 is announced and we can get to using the iPhone like we want; with as many apps as our 16gb will allow.

I really love this iPhone 3G but the instability is cause for much angst and I can only imagine what kind of support issues I'm going to have once my company allows them on the corporate network.

iPhone Firmware Redux

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 11:21:00 +0000

The saga continues. After spending all weekend getting my iPhone setup (see below) it crashed again less than 24 hours later.

This time I was just trying to send an email (via gmail) when the phone suddenly froze and restarted. Same problem as before.

Again I tried to backup and it would never complete. This time around (after having left it over night and it still didn't complete) when I got home from work I erased everything on the phone. It takes two hours by the way. After which I only loaded the firmware (no 3d party apps).

It ran fine for 24 hours. Not that useful (my Blackberry has more 3d party apps and never crashes) so I decide to load about 5 apps I don't want to live without. Apps like NNW, Facebook, Exposure, DC Traffic Cams.

It runs fine for another 24 hours. So I decide to load some more apps that I want on my phone. Apps like Poker, Lumen, Cellspin and a bunch more but not all of the apps that I've downloaded. It's been another 24. So far so good.

BEWARE: iPhone Firmware 2.0.2 is for Crap! and so is Backup!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 14:48:00 +0000

Okay, maybe that was a bit harsh sounding but I'm more than a little bit aggravated after having to reload my iPhone not once but twice now and the wife's iphone as well; and before you go saying what about the backup let us just say have you actually tried it!

Today is Labor Day and while I'm enjoying being on a holiday from work this firmware has forced me to work the majority of the weekend.

All of this started after updating to 2.0.2 which came out just before we left on vacation. I updated both mine and my wife's and made sure I did a complete backup just prior to the trip. Now I will say we had no troubles on the vacation but then of course we were not using them all that much. On the Monday just after we got back I got a harsh email from the wife talking about all her information was lost for an app she was using. Now I like everybody else attributed it to the app and it being a 1.0 version. I told her that I could just restore from her backup and she would just have to add back whatever she updated since the last backup.

- First sign of trouble number one: When I went to do her backup it found it no problem but after starting it could not continue as the "backup was corrupt". Well that really sucked but the wife drove on and just recreated her missing information. [background info: the wife sync's with our HTPC which is a WinXP box and has all our music on it. This box has been in service for over 5 years and although recently updated with newer hardware we have never had a problem with it other than a power supply failure. It syncs with a 3rd Gen and 5th Gen iPod, a 1st Gen iPod Touch and most recently her iPhone 3G.]

- Sign of trouble number two: Last Monday I was using my iPhone like I usually do, reading a few news articles with the NetNewsWire app and then quitting that app and starting the iPod player because my commuter bus had arrived. I listen to music on the way to work every morning. Well everything was normal until the first song finished. There was a long pause of silence...really long...way to long...I'm clicking the play button on my Etymotic HF2's (earphones) and nothing is happening. So I take the iPhone out of my hip holster to see what the "F" is going on. The iPod app is frozen. Well that's just great isn't it. I reset the iPhone (pwr+home). After it restarts I launch the iPod app. Holy Shit! all my music is gone and it's telling me I need to load some music or connect to iTunes (pretentious SOBs). Wonderful! I have a corrupt iTunesdb (verified by the fact that I have over 10gigs of file space in use but zero music and zero videos). Okay, what to do now...commute is over an hour long and I cannot stand listening to my fellow passengers. I know, I will use the Last.fm or AOL Radio app. Kewl - I knew there was a reason I kept those apps on there. So I launch Last.fm. It starts and...and...and...it quits. Damn...@#@#$%%^^^ and a bunch of other extreme expletives that my 20+ years in the Army taught me so well. Okay, let's try AOL radio; ditto - same thing happens. Okay, lets try anything - Nadda, nill, nothing. So I'm carrying an expensive paperweight at this point. Thank goodness I also carry my 80gig 5th Gen Video iPod for watching podcasts on my way home (I use it with a Phillips DVD/iPod player which gives me a 7" viewing screen) and has my entire music library on it as well. Okay crisis to work averted. I can listen to my music and drown out the sounds of the bus and passengers. [background info: I sync my iPhone with my MacBook Pro running Leopard (you see where I'm going don't you) and I also ensured I had a successful backup after the upgrade to 2.0.2.

When I get home I tell the wife I have just experienced a similar problem with losing stuff on my iPhone. I'm a bit skeptical after what happened to the wife but I figure hey I'm on a different computer, different OS and it's a Mac right? WRONG! Same damn thing!!! Your backup is corrupt. Only difference is because I have a corrupt iTunesdb on my iPhone I have to do a complete restore which wipes out everything. Even after it reconnects it tells me that there is a backup for this iPhone and would I like to do a restore. Same flipping problem. It can't because it's corrupt.

So I after I get my music reloaded and my apps put back I do not worry about setting everything back up the way I had it. At this point I just want to listen to music on the way to work and be able to answer a phone call from the wife. This was Monday night and because I have a plan and I want to test it out this weekend - fast forward to today.

- Sign of trouble number three (or the final straw and this angry post): I have used my iPhone without incident since I reloaded it Monday night. I decide I want to do a good sync, a successful backup and then go ahead and do an immediate restore before I go through the trouble of setting everything backup the way I had it. Well long story short while the backup was not corrupt (at least not indicated by iTunes) the restore would never finish and always left my iPhone in a quite unstable state. I have since just said to hell with it and hope that Firmware 2.1 will be out soon (like when the Apple September product announcements are made). I know they have seeded it to the developers and it has had numerous RC (release candidates). It has taken me until today to finish setting everything back the way I had it. It is working fine and I just have to hope it doesn't crash hard like it did before because the morale of this post is the firmware and backup of 2.0.2 is for Crap!

LifeCast iPhone App

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 13:57:00 +0000

Testing again as all my iPhone setting were gone. Long story and will be in a follow-up post.

Posted with LifeCast

Site Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 11:10:00 +0000

So I've made a couple of changes to the site. First I have changed the "Feed Weeds" to pull automatically from news I've clipped using my iPhone instead of my shared google reader.

Second I've added my blogroll.

These changes will hopefully allow me to post more frequently.

Posted with LifeCast

Testing

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 16:30:00 +0000

Lifecast mobile blog test.

Posted with LifeCast

Posted on 26 Jul 2008 at 15:26 UTC

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:22:00 +0000

Testing cellspin from the iphone.

Offline

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:34:00 +0000

Let's just say I've had a busy couple of weeks and haven't had time to post. First there was my CCNA 2.0 Bootcamp which had me in class and labs morning & night for a week straight while also watching my Redwings win the Stanley Cup - Congrats Wings! My truck of 12 years blew a head gasket seal so there was vehicle shopping, DMV, etc. My boss left so there was transition plus I moved up to new responsibilities; Father's day, the US Open, school letting out for the summer, it just goes on and on. Suffice to say while I was able to catch a few moments waiting for the bus each day to pick some good weeds out of the feeds I haven't had the chance to get them shared or mention them.

Well there are a bunch in there so feel free to check them out and I'll try to get back on track with at least weekly postings.

Update: No surprise but I've not heard anything from Kensington tech support. The diNovo's been working great and I didn't have to use the their adapter anyway.

Evernote ᴙ0(k$

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 10:53:00 +0000

Evernote Rocks [ᴙ0(k$ - Sorry, a throw back to the o'l days] - So I've been trying out Evernote for a couple of weeks now and I have to say I really like this application. My definition of a great application has changed over the years and now requires at least 2 of the items below:

Multi-platform (Windows, OS X, Linux, Mobile)
Web browser component or accessible
Sync abilities
Freeware or Opensource

I ran across an article on Touchtip's site and I'm sorry I didn't share it in the feed weeds (in my defense because you had to sign up for an invite I probably choose not to share it); regardless I'm sharing it now because of how useful I'm finding the program.

First off it is available on Windows & Mac, has a web site which works like the desktop clients and it also has a bookmark component for your browser. It will sync everything between all the clients and lastly it is freeware.

The program is akin to say bookmarking sites that have sync abilities but is really taken to the next level. You can capture anything, save anything, bookmark anything, sync it, and have it available where ever you are. You create "notebooks" in which to organize items. You can even decide to keep some notebooks private and available only on the machine in which the content was created.

I have Evernote installed on an iMac G5 running Tiger, my Macbook Pro running Leopard, my Dell workstation running WinXP, and have the bookmark applets working on Safari 3 & FireFox 2 & 3 on OS X and FireFox 3 on Windows. I have even gone from my iPod Touch and everything is all in sync and available no matter where I'm located at the time (home, work traveling).

I find the interface for the desktop client more friendly and has more viewing options on OS X [a shocker to you I'm sure] but not to worry my windows friends as the web based version makes up the difference.

In these screenshots OS X is on the left & the web on the right. I cannot find a way to do thumbnail views on the windows client but otherwise the same functionality is there. I prefer the thumbnail view.

If you would like to try out Evernote for yourself drop me a line and I will send you an invite.

Kensington Bluetooth Mystery - False Advertising?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 26 May 2008 14:31:00 +0000

Today I decided to find out what happened with my Kensington order from BestBuy. I checked my receipt against the web site and sure enough same part numbers: 33348.
Here is the product shot from BestBuy:

Here is the product shot from what I brought home (sorry for the blurry shot):

The two look nothing alike. I jumped over to to see if maybe something had changed. It hasn't and their own tech support document still states that the 33348 has a range of 65 feet.

I have sent an email to Kensington Tech Support with an attachment including all these photos asking them to explain the packaging differences and to answer once and for all if this product's range is 33 or 65 feet. I don't expect a satisfactory answer if at all but I will post any response I do receive. I still haven't decided on if I am going to return the device and guess it will depend on the Kensington reply.

Bottom line you have to be careful and double-check things despite the photos shown on retail websites.

HTPC - diNovo Mini Success

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 26 May 2008 13:50:00 +0000

Yesterday we made a quick run to BestBuy [fyi - they open an hour later on Sunday, Argh!] to pickup the Bluetooth adapter and 10' USB A-A extension cable. I had ordered from the web for in-store pickup because I like to know they have what I want in stock. After we got home I noticed that the box that the Kensington USB adapter came in didn't look anything like what I had seen on the web. A closer inspection revealed that this product is only rated for a 33 foot range. I was a little pissed to say the least and figured that they gave me the wrong part but decided I would worry about that later and give the extension cable a try with the usb adapter the diNovo came with. I quickly ran the cable up behind the TV and then ran to grab the mini. Success! Now I'm easily able to control the HTPC from the bedroom.

HTPC - New Addition

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 25 May 2008 04:57:00 +0000

Friday I received my Logitech diNovo Mini keyboard. I first saw this little guy in some of the reviews from CES 2008. I knew I was going to have to get one and now that I've completed the upgrades to the HTPC it was time to get a keyboard for control from the bedroom.

This thing is tiny (which I like) but I didn't realize how small it was. The photos on the web just don't really convey its size. Think of a Treo' without it's battery you are starting to get the idea.

I had no troubles and had the unit up and running in 15 mins. 30 seconds to plug in the usb receiver and the rest letting it get a quick charge. According to the manual a 10 min charge will allow it to run for a day and I can agree with that statement.

I use a Blackberry everyday for work so getting used to the small keyboard was no problem for me but then again I don't plan on writing a term paper with the thing either. The mouse is a little sensentive and those of you who don't like touchpads will probably have a hard time. For me though it works great.

Now for the bad part. I bought this to keep on my nightstand and access the HTPC while in the bedroom. Unfortuntely the bluetooth doesn't quite reach. I can stand at the door to our bedroom and it works fine but as soon as I go in I lose connectivity. It's only rated for 30 feet and that's about exactly what I got. I've ordered a new bluetooth adapter which claims to have a range of up to 66 feet and I'm picking up 10 foot USB A-A cord so I can mount the adapter higher up and move around for best receiption. We'll see how that works but if that still doesn't do the trick I've found the ultimate solution for a price - a USB adapter with a 1km range. Yes you are reading that right 1 kilometer. The AIRcable Host XR available for $129.00 will take care of it but let's hope I don't have to go to that extreme.

Application Testing

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 24 May 2008 15:30:00 +0000

This week I had an opportunity to try out a few applications that I've bookmarked in the feed weeds.

UtimateDefrag - I'm always on the look out for utilities for my "technicians tookit" so I installed this and gave it go. It's not the fastest freeware defrag utility out there but it does have one thing going for it that the others don't and that is the ability to move files or folders to faster portions of your hard drive. I ran this on my external drive that I keep all my utilities, drivers and services packs on at work and it did exactly what I wanted by moving those files I use the most to the inner portion of the hard drive. I'm already taking a performance hit by using an external usb drive so every bit helps when you are copying 300+mb service packs to install. Recommendation - Add it to your toolkit.

FreeSnap - This one was unique in that it will allow you to quickly resize or move application windows using keyboard shortcuts. With my dual monitor setup at work this one really saves me time. I always have many windows open and I'm constantly resizing and moving them around as I assist users remotely. Recommend - You really need this if you only have one monitor.

HamachiX - I've used the hamachi client since it's very early days on windows but knew I had to install it for Mac when I saw this. This is still in early development but it makes it much easier to get up and running on OS X with it's GUI. Hamachi is very good at cutting thru all the firewall issues usually associated with remotely connect to a machine in the office. It's secure and easy to implement. I was remote controlling my iMac G5 on an external network from my Dell workstation at the office in nothing flat.

FolderView - If you are like me you constantly have folders open to quickly access files you need. This app adds access to all your folders from the toolbar in an explorer window. The really time saving feature is the recently used list which makes it very easy to get back to a folder you are working with for the day. Recommend - Your mileage may vary depending on how you use your system and use explorer.

PstPassword Utility

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 19 May 2008 21:13:00 +0000

Came across another useful utility yesterday. PstPassword is a small utility that will recover a lost password of an Outlook .pst (personal folder) file. It purportedly will recover Outlook versions 97, 2000, XP, 2003 and 2007. You don't even have to have Outlook installed just access to the original .pst file.

This looks like another tool to add to the technician's toolkit. Download over at MajorGeeks. If you get an opportunity to use this drop me a line and let me know how it works for you.

Shout Out for Alex

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 18 May 2008 14:58:00 +0000

This week past I attended Mac OS 10.5 Support Essentials training. With more and more Macs showing up at the office by clients and in user's homes work thought it worthwhile to have folks trained in supporting them. While I admit I had learned a lot of what was taught through trial and error and heavy doses of online reading and research I enjoyed class as I always learn something new and useful and most often faster ways to accomplish things.

More importantly the instructor was easy going with a great style and didn't seem to mind when I was wandering during topics I was familiar with. One of the days he was in instructor hell which I can very much relate to having previously been an instructor but he was unfazed and had us up and running again in no time.

So I just wanted to give a shout out for my instructor Alex Kaloostian and say if you have an opportunity for some Mac training go with FMC and ask for Alex; and if you get a chance drop by his blog where he posts useful tips-n-tricks.

Thanks Alex

Upgrade Part III - Final Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 17 May 2008 18:33:00 +0000

After checking the system last Sunday to make sure everything is working like I want it I find out I have no audio via HDMI. I was running audio via the S/PIDF digital out while testing so I thought maybe I have to disable the S/PIDF port. No, that doesn't work either. I can't find anything in device manager regarding HDMI audio so I figure it's time for more research. A quick stop by the AVS Forums and I find over 50+ pages on video/audio issues/fixes with HTPC's using the Asus P5E-VM-HDMI motherboard. Thanks to those guys in there I find the answer. I need to install the Intel HD Audio Drivers and disable the audio driver provided by Asus. Of course I do not find this out until Wednesday and with my son camped out on the TV playing COD4 & GTAIV I can't try it out until Thursday night. I download the latest G35 Intel Chipset drivers and hope for the best. Reboot - Success.

This little motherboard is something else. I have 720p video (limited by the front room TV) and all digital audio both over HDMI and via the S/PIDF out to my Pioneer amp. I am able to watch the HTPC in the bedroom as well. All-in-all this upgrade was fairly easy, cost less than buying a new HTPC and gives me all the functionality that I want or need for right now.

I will definitely need to go ahead and buy the WinTV-HVR 1250 (before Feb 09) and will probably add a Blu-Ray DVD combo drive and drop in another 500gb or 750gb SATA drive to handle HD recording. I would also like to try out Logitech's diNovo Mini bluetooth keyboard/touchpad just to see if it would reach all the way to the bedroom for computer control. I'm able to use my MacBookPro to control the HTPC plus my Harmony remote can control the BeyondTV interface.

There are more pictures of the upgrade on my flickr site here and information on G35 Intel Motherboards can be found in the AVSForums

Upgrade Part II

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 17 May 2008 14:47:00 +0000

This is Part 2 - Click here for Part 1
So I have all the parts put back together (rush, rush cause hockey is coming on) and the final layout is quite clean and rather open. Much better airflow from last time. I attribute this to less PCI boards being installed and less power cables due to the modular design of the Thermaltake PSU. Have a look at the before on the left and the after on the right.

The moment of truth - Here running the unit with the cover off to see if all is going to work the first time.One of my main concerns was if the OS would recognize everything and boot correctly the first time. The first thing I did was of course boot into the BIOS and check/setup the options. Upon review everything is looking good so far as all the parts I have installed are recognized by the BIOS. The OS is on a 250gb EIDE drive so I have to set the boot drive order as it defaults to SATA. Other than that its time to fire it up. Success! a Windows XP boot screen so now it's time to wait and see (windows hardware wizard).

I wait and let Windows find all the new hardware then I load the drivers from the provided Asus CD. Remember I said I had two issues. Exception Number 2 - After all the drivers have been loaded and I reboot the computer I have video issues. It's defaulting to VGA mode and HDMI video out is not working. Note: I have the system connected via VGA input on my TV as well as via HDMI thru my 4x2 HDMI switcher. A quick check in device manager reveals my fear. Yellow exclamation points on the two G35 Intel Video devices. I uninstall - reboot - and let the hardware wizard find them again. This time I use the Intel video drivers provided by the OS. That's the trick. Now I'm seeing video over the HDMI port. Now the rest of the time is just quick tests of the system (but only between periods of the hockey game).

Above you can see BeyondTV 4 starting which is the software I use as my DVR. This is about as far as I get last Saturday. Sunday I upgrade Windows XP Professional to Service Pack 3 and start doing a full check of the system to see if everything is working the way I want it.

To be continued...

Upgrade Part I

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 17 May 2008 14:00:00 +0000

Last Saturday - I finally took out all my parts and decided to do the upgrade to the HTPC box. Everything went pretty much as expected with a couple of exceptions. First the new equipment: Asus P5E-VM HDMI Micro-ATX motherboard. From the packaging to the contents this is a well built, well stocked motherboard. In these pictures you can see that it is quality built with lots-o-extras (click on photos for highres).

The CPU is what you would expect in a Retail box. Unfortunately my old heatsink & 92mm fan would not work with this. It's a shame as the old one is much more quiet due to the larger fan size. I will say that I like how easy it is to drop an LGA 775 CPU onto a motherboard. Things sure have changed for the better (can u say easy!).

Now remember I said everything went fine with a couple of exceptions. Exception Number 1 - Not really a problem unless you count not having a power supply. Having not built a system in a while and having many other things going on I kind of over looked the fact that motherboard power connections have updated the specs to 2.0 ATX. Which is to say it is a 20+4 (24 pin) connection now. So when I went to go plug in my old PSU it was one of those "hey this can't be right" kind of moments. After a few expletives "#*&!" and a quick search on the net it turns out you can use a 20-pin on a 24-pin as long as you connect starting with the correct pin numbers. They also make 20-pin to 24-pin adapters. Now it turns out that when I last replaced the PSU I didn't go with a very powerful unit (only 260 watts). I'm sure this was to keep heat and my electric bill down. Not remembering that the PSU was so low I thought I better check the recommended minimum watts (this was an Oh Shit! moment) as it was 400 watts. Now I'm in a bit of a spot here as Saturday is quickly drawing to a close, my hockey team was playing at 7:00 and I have parts everywhere and no home theatre. All I can say is thank goodness for "Best Buy". Some quick checking for availability and a few mouse clicks later the wife and I are speeding off for the in store pick-up. I picked up a new Thermaltake 450 watt modular unit. It would of been much cheaper buying it from Newegg or another on-line site but when you gotta have it...the morale being do thorough research.

To be continued...

Equipment Arrived

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 08 May 2008 09:18:00 +0000

The UPS man made a delivery yesterday so I now have the parts in for
the HTPC Upgrade. It's on as they say. I will have the unboxing this
weekend and will post photos and my first impressions of the gear.

Remember hockey conference finals start tonight. Go Wings!