The computer and electronics super geek superthread...

[azrael]

Anyone know how to make Matshushita DVD-RAM UJ-85 JS region free? It appears mine has been locked to region 1.

Matsushita are kinda tricky. Matsushita normally releases to OEM so firmware updates are usually far and few between. You may have to flash the firmware with a UJ-845 version, but that has the potential of screwing up your drive, badly. I would check CDFreaks.com to see if they have a solution.

[Dante74]

Mobility 8.3 drivers

Mobility 8.2 drivers

Thanks, but the system validation app in the first link tells me my system isn't compatible with the drivers. Sony isn't in the list of supported manufacturers.

The site in the second link doesn't show a download link.

Edited May 17, 2008 by Dante74

[azrael]

Thanks, but the system validation app in the first link tells me my system isn't compatible with the drivers. Sony isn't in the list of supported manufacturers.

The site in the second link doesn't show a download link.

There's a CAPTCHA code you need to put in on the second link to download the driver. Scroll down the page and you should see it.

[Dante74]

There's a CAPTCHA code you need to put in on the second link to download the driver. Scroll down the page and you should see it.

It doesn't show up on the defective Vaio (the whole site looks weird on it, with text running through each other), but I'm downloading now on a different comp. Sure hope it works!

Thanks Azrael!

[Dante74]

It worked! Thanks so much Azrael!

Now, on the the next problem. In the device manager, it says that it's missing drivers for a mass storage controller, what ever that is. I've tried re-installing the drivers by letting Windows look for them but it can't find any drivers, even online. Any ideas?...

Edited May 17, 2008 by Dante74

[azrael]

It worked! Thanks so much Azrael!

Now, on the the next problem. In the device manager, it says that it's missing drivers for a mass storage controller, what ever that is. I've tried re-installing the drivers by letting Windows look for them but it can't find any drivers, even online. Any ideas?...

You probably won't find it among the Windows drivers. This may be something you'll need to look for. I don't know if we can help you unless you can find a specs sheet for it.

[Dante74]

You probably won't find it among the Windows drivers. This may be something you'll need to look for. I don't know if we can help you unless you can find a specs sheet for it.

Here's the specs for the the american version, the VGN-S270 (same laptop, different name)

So what's a mass storage contoller anyway? Some kind of harddrive controller device?

VGNS270_270P_CTO_mksp.pdf

[emajnthis]

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGNS270P

You're probably looking for this list of drivers, Dell has the exact same thing on their website since OEM's often use proprietary drivers (usually it's the same as a generic driver just branded with their name).

[azrael]

Here's the specs for the the american version, the VGN-S270 (same laptop, different name)

So what's a mass storage contoller anyway? Some kind of harddrive controller device?

Lovely. You probably need this one (mind you I was looking at the European site when I was looking for drivers which is lacking a bit):

Intel® Chipsets Drivers Installation Utility: http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-downl...689&os_id=7

[Dante74]

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGNS270P

You're probably looking for this list of drivers, Dell has the exact same thing on their website since OEM's often use proprietary drivers (usually it's the same as a generic driver just branded with their name).

Wow, there are a lot more downloads available on the Sony's US site!

Lovely. You probably need this one (mind you I was looking at the European site when I was looking for drivers which is lacking a bit):

Intel® Chipsets Drivers Installation Utility: http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-downl...689&os_id=7

I downloaded and installed the driver you suggested and the laptop starts up a little faster now,but in the device manager, it's still missing the drivers for the mass storage controller. Yesterday plugged a USB stick into it and it found the stick and said it found a mass storage device, but it didn't show up in windows explorer. Might that be the problem?

[mikeszekely]

Wow, there are a lot more downloads available on the Sony's US site!

I downloaded and installed the driver you suggested and the laptop starts up a little faster now,but in the device manager, it's still missing the drivers for the mass storage controller. Yesterday plugged a USB stick into it and it found the stick and said it found a mass storage device, but it didn't show up in windows explorer. Might that be the problem?

It could be, but only if you had used that USB stick before (and had problems with it before). Otherwise, it wouldn't have shown up in the Device Manager prior to plugging the stick in.

Knowing that it's a Sony laptop, I'd bet dollars to donuts that there's a Sony Memory Stick or Memory Stick Duo reader built into the laptop. I don't know if you have any Sony Memory Sticks to test it with, but the Memory Stick reader would be my primary first suspect.

[CoryHolmes]

So. IE on my computer seems to have developed a dislike YouTube. Now the majority of clips that I click on say, "This video has been removed" but when I copy-paste the URL into Firefox, the video works just fine.

Let me just say that I like using IE and would like to continue using it. I just want my YouTube back. I've tried updating and reinstalling Flash Player, but that doesn't seem to work. This is most annoying.

[mikeszekely]

Hey, what do you guys make of this? I'm setting up my new computer. I tried installing Vista, and it rebooted during installation at a point where it shouldn't. I installed XP, and XP installed without an issue. I didn't run it long, since I was tossing my Linux box and I needed Kopete to chat with my wife (long story), so I reformatted the drive and installed Kubuntu Linux. Ran it for two days, and I never had a single issue. But, since the new computer is supposed to become my super Windows machine, I took the Kubuntu drive out, stuffed it into a Lenovo I refurbed, and took the Lenovo's Vista drive and stuffed it in the new computer. Suddenly, I've got issues. It gets to the black screen with the green loading bar, flashes a blue screen of death almost too fast for the eye to catch, let alone read, and reboots.

Even though the computer ran XP and Kubuntu Linux just fine and dandy, my gut really wants to say it's a RAM issue.

For the record, the components installed are as follows:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz Wolfdale

DFI LanParty DK P35-T2RS motherboard

1GB Kingston DDR2 PC5300 667 RAM

nVidia GeForce 8500GT 512MB VRAM video card

Pioneer 20x IDE DVD burner

80GB SATA HDD (didn't look at the brand)

Antec TruePower Trio 650w PSU.

[azrael]

Hey, what do you guys make of this? I'm setting up my new computer. I tried installing Vista, and it rebooted during installation at a point where it shouldn't. I installed XP, and XP installed without an issue. I didn't run it long, since I was tossing my Linux box and I needed Kopete to chat with my wife (long story), so I reformatted the drive and installed Kubuntu Linux. Ran it for two days, and I never had a single issue. But, since the new computer is supposed to become my super Windows machine, I took the Kubuntu drive out, stuffed it into a Lenovo I refurbed, and took the Lenovo's Vista drive and stuffed it in the new computer. Suddenly, I've got issues. It gets to the black screen with the green loading bar, flashes a blue screen of death almost too fast for the eye to catch, let alone read, and reboots.

Even though the computer ran XP and Kubuntu Linux just fine and dandy, my gut really wants to say it's a RAM issue.

Is the Lenovo running the same exact specs ?

[mikeszekely]

Is the Lenovo running the same exact specs ?

No. And yeah, I know, that's going to freak out Windows anyway, but I thought it was in a more "hey, your copies not genuine" fashion than a crash/restart fashion.

I'm going to try swapping the RAM in it with the RAM in my HTPC. If that doesn't work, well, there's a reason I backed up the drive, right? I'll try giving it one more fresh Vista install, or start digging for my XP disc.

EDIT: It seems you might have been spot on, Az. The Vista disc I burned with SP1 slipstreamed onto it has what looks almost like a burn on it. And I was too lazy to actually pull out my HTPC to steal its RAM, so I just got Vista disc I started with and tried reinstalling from it. It seems okay so far. I was pleased that this computer, even with its borrowed parts, is a 4.5 (the Lenovo only ranked a 3.4). And of course, it's the RAM holding me back. I was somewhat surprised to see that the Wolfdale in there only rates a 5.6. I guess when buy my own RAM, I'll buy it one speed higher than the stated standard for the mobo, and overclock a little until I bump that 5.6 to a 5.9. Shouldn't be too hard. I've heard people overclocked Wolfdale's above 4GHz. And it runs cooler stock than the 3.0GHz 65nm Core 2 Duo, so I can probably bump it up without shopping for a new CPU cooler. The fact that the case has 3 120mm fans will help there anyway.

Edited May 19, 2008 by mikeszekely

[Dante74]

It could be, but only if you had used that USB stick before (and had problems with it before). Otherwise, it wouldn't have shown up in the Device Manager prior to plugging the stick in.

Knowing that it's a Sony laptop, I'd bet dollars to donuts that there's a Sony Memory Stick or Memory Stick Duo reader built into the laptop. I don't know if you have any Sony Memory Sticks to test it with, but the Memory Stick reader would be my primary first suspect.

I don't have a memory stick at my current location but I'll be sure to give it a try once I get home and dig up the adapter for the old fashioned sticks. Thanks.

[mikeszekely]

I don't have a memory stick at my current location but I'll be sure to give it a try once I get home and dig up the adapter for the old fashioned sticks. Thanks.

Well, don't thank me now. You should probably wait and see if I'm right first! But seriously, other posters in this thread have helped me from time to time with sticky problems. I'm just giving back to the community.

[Dante74]

Well, don't thank me now. You should probably wait and see if I'm right first! But seriously, other posters in this thread have helped me from time to time with sticky problems. I'm just giving back to the community.

Well, I just got hold of a memory stick, downloaded the drivers from Sony's US site and it works just fine now.

Thanks to everybody that helped out, I really appreciate it!

[Gunbuster]

anyone know a good site to look at a bunch of different style 5 1/4 in front control panel display? I looked at newegg selection and it's "meh". are there any other sites? I'm looking for ones that display mainly tempertures, but I don't mind if they have other functions like for controlling fans. I mainly want to check out the different style as well. Thanks in advance

[boinger]

Hi:

I've been having a little problem with my vista 64 bit sp1 computer lately.

When I have more than 5 web browsers open (internet explorer and mozillla) and I'm doing filesharing, etc.,

1. I get this graphic corruption that only resolves itself by closing programs or

2. programs start randomly shutting down or

3. the web browsers shut down by themselves.

I noticed this problem when I was downloading pictures for the WM Cheng step by step guides. Also, when I was just doing the COTB video editing last month, Womble locked up and shut itself down and I lost 4 days of video editing! I had to save every 3-5 audio edit points to save before crashing again.

I did a google search on this problem for the last month and spent days reconfiguring my computer and updating software and hardware to address this possible "memory" problem. I think I'm able to keep all the programs runing, but then the memory usage quickly shoots abover 70% and I get graphic corruption and my computer becomes useles until I'm able to close down a bunch of programs.

I thought it was the Data Execution Protection, since I was having programs close randomly once my 4 gb of memory was used over %69 in the task manager. I disabled the DEP, but I still get graphic corruption. I turned off Superfetch to allow the ram more memory for current tasks. I increased virtual memory to 6141 MB as the default and switched the memory to focus on "background" programs rather than the current program.

I have 4 gb of memory, but I run at 60-70% most of the time. It looks like it's the internet explorer or the explore.exe, but it could be I run too many services in the background?

I was thinking that I could double my ram to 8 gb and get a bigger hard drive.

Computer specs:

amd 3.2 ghz

4 gb ram

ati 3800

200 gb sata hard drive

Thanks for any pointers

[Gunbuster]

What version of the the OS are you using? if you are using a 32 bit OS, increasing your ram will do nothing. you already hit the cap with 4GB, windows OS 32bit versions only sees 3 to 3.5GB. if you want to access more than 4GB, you will need to switch to a 64bit OS.

[azrael]

What version of the the OS are you using? if you are using a 32 bit OS, increasing your ram will do nothing. you already hit the cap with 4GB, windows OS 32bit versions only sees 3 to 3.5GB. if you want to access more than 4GB, you will need to switch to a 64bit OS.

boinger already stated that he's using Vista 64w/ sp1.

boinger

I don't think adding RAM is going to help your situation.

[eugimon]

What version of the the OS are you using? if you are using a 32 bit OS, increasing your ram will do nothing. you already hit the cap with 4GB, windows OS 32bit versions only sees 3 to 3.5GB. if you want to access more than 4GB, you will need to switch to a 64bit OS.

he says in the first sentence that he's running vista 64.

It could be the RAM, you might want to test them and see if you have a bad stick. 4GB of ram should be WAY more than sufficient to run 5 instances of IE.. unless each instance has like 10 open tabs.

[mikeszekely]

boinger

I don't think adding RAM is going to help your situation.

Seconded.

I don't know much about programs randomly shutting down, but crashes and weird graphics glitches could be a sign that something's overheating.

[Gunbuster]

boinger already stated that he's using Vista 64w/ sp1.

boinger

I don't think adding RAM is going to help your situation.

My bad, I missed the first sentence (I didn't get my morning coffee yet). I agree with eugimon that you should try memtest your memory to make sure if it's all good.

[boinger]

Okay, I'll try seeing if I can get some fans in the desktop box or just leave the case open.

I'm at 78% ram usage and no crashes. I have my window open by my computer and it's chilly today. maybe, it's the cooling? no viruses or spyware. I have 64 bit vista, so I could get 4 x 2gb sticks of ram.

Thanks!

[Dat Pinche Haro!]

my laptop crashed on thursday and I've been doing recovery and reformatting like a crazy man...so I finally reformat the hard drive on it and do a clean windows install...except some psp game saves, demos and other data were not saved!! I'm really super pissed off at myself... I've been using Handy Recovery 2.0 and some files would not recover since I repartitioned the drive... so now I can't get that stuff off...So far it's just scanning all the partitions...Hopefully someone can help me out with this...it's just pissing me off beyong belief!!

[HoveringCheesecake]

Question for you camera guys. I went on the trip and the camera worked great but I was just looking at all of the pictures and I noticed a bright spot on each picture. Here's what it looks like. Keep in mind this is just a tiny portion of the picture but it still bugs me.

Any ideas? Lens fault? Just something stuck on the lens? It didn't show up on the crappy digital zoom pictures. It's only 5x5 pixels.

Edited June 6, 2008 by meh_cd

[azrael]

Any ideas? Lens fault? Just something stuck on the lens? It didn't show up on the crappy digital zoom pictures. It's only 5x5 pixels.

If it showed up on all of your pictures, then it's either the lens or the sensor.

[HoveringCheesecake]

If it showed up on all of your pictures, then it's either the lens or the sensor.

Son of a bitch. I guess it's a good thing I was a pushover and purchased the 2 year warranty/accidental damage protection from Best Buy. Hopefully I can just walk out with a new one.

[azrael]

Son of a bitch. I guess it's a good thing I was a pushover and purchased the 2 year warranty/accidental damage protection from Best Buy. Hopefully I can just walk out with a new one.

If it's on the lens, try cleaning the lens with a lens cleaning wipe (cloth or tissue). If it's still there, it's possible it's on the inside of the lens or on the sensor. If the camera is a SLR, you might have an easier time cleaning it. If it's a point-and-shoot, good luck returning it. I would check if your camera has a built-in sensor cleaner.

[HoveringCheesecake]

If it's on the lens, try cleaning the lens with a lens cleaning wipe (cloth or tissue). If it's still there, it's possible it's on the inside of the lens or on the sensor. If the camera is a SLR, you might have an easier time cleaning it. If it's a point-and-shoot, good luck returning it. I would check if your camera has a built-in sensor cleaner.

It's a point and shoot. You don't think they'll swap it out if I have the replacement plan? It's clear that there's a dead spot or something on the sensor when I look at a night shot I took.

[Hiriyu]

I just put together a new rig and it works very well, but I have a question: Can anyone recommend a good hardware and temperature monitoring software?

On my old computer (a P4 on 875 chipset) I used MBM5, which worked great. My new computer is an Intel E8400 on P35 chipset, and MBM is not an option. I've tried CoreTemp, RealTemp, Speedfan and several other programs, and none have quite delivered the all-in-one solution I'm looking for. Suggestions, anyone?

[azrael]

It's a point and shoot. You don't think they'll swap it out if I have the replacement plan? It's clear that there's a dead spot or something on the sensor when I look at a night shot I took.

They'll just give you a replacement. Same model.

On my old computer (a P4 on 875 chipset) I used MBM5, which worked great. My new computer is an Intel E8400 on P35 chipset, and MBM is not an option. I've tried CoreTemp, RealTemp, Speedfan and several other programs, and none have quite delivered the all-in-one solution I'm looking for. Suggestions, anyone?

What are you looking for in your monitoring software?

[mikeszekely]

I just put together a new rig and it works very well, but I have a question: Can anyone recommend a good hardware and temperature monitoring software?

On my old computer (a P4 on 875 chipset) I used MBM5, which worked great. My new computer is an Intel E8400 on P35 chipset, and MBM is not an option. I've tried CoreTemp, RealTemp, Speedfan and several other programs, and none have quite delivered the all-in-one solution I'm looking for. Suggestions, anyone?

How big's the case you put it in? You might have an easier time with a hardware solution, if you have a free 5.25" bay. You pretty much rattled off any software solutions I could think of.

Are you overclocking? If you're running it stock, the E8400 runs pretty cool (I've heard reports that an overclocked E8400 runs cooler at 3.5GHz than a 65mn Core 2 Duo running stock at 3.0GHz). Even if you overclock it (I'll get around to it, since I want to wring out that last .3 in Vista's CPU assessment), people still fan cool it (although they replace the stock cooler) and maintain stability at 4.0GHz.