New Video Adapter.

Notice I said Adapter?

Ha! I went to my favorite site "Directron" and found a card I wanted. I'm sorry... I meant an adapter!

I sent in my order for a $50 Chaintech with 128Mb of memory. A few days later I was informed that they were out of that model. They sent me a much newer "adapter" for the same price! I love when that happens.

Long story short, it worked perfectly and I'm still using it. It'll be nine years in a few months.

My Fly 2! Flight Sim went from almost unusable to really great!

Now my hard drive failed on me a few months back and I haven't even loaded that program again. But I was very pleased with the new card. Er... "Adapter" : )

My favorite Flight Sims are Fly2!, Mig Alley, Lightning 3, and Apache Havoc!

I also like No One Lives Forever 2, Several Star Wars Games, and various other "Retro" games.

I'm in the market for a new laptop and am into different things now. Mostly video editing for YouTube and those kinda sites. My problem now is finding something that will play and edit H.264 video.

I'm sure many of you have the same problem.

I'd just love any details on systems that can handle that. I've been looking at those HP DV Series Laptops. I don't want to buy a MAC even though I expect that would be the best bet.

So I'm still using an almost nine year old Athlon with 128Mb of video ram, but find it very functional other than MP4/H.264 video. I like using WMM too. I do have some Arcsoft software as well.

If you just happened to stumble on this Blog you'd never see any of my videos. Well, Unless you just Googled my e-mail name. They're very grainy, and I wouldn't suggest looking unless you already know who I am : )

I'd really appreciate any advice on editing H.264 video and the hardware and software needed to do that.

Thanks for stoppin' by Y'all : )

Where Was I?

I finally got my video issues resolved and was relieved about that. I knew it was a crappy card but it would do for a while. What I really wanted now was a good sound card. Preferably not a Soundblaster because of the cost and the potential compatibility problems with my Athlon system.

I always watch the Sunday Ads and pounce when I see something at a reasonable price. I try to balance the price and the technology that's not quite cutting edge, but not old either.

I wound up with a Hercules Fortissimo II 5.1 with a Cmedia Chip. I think it was one of the first cards with that particular chip? They are all over the place now. Hercules doesn't make sound cards anymore I don't think? They did make a few versions newer than mine. They made some kick ass speakers for a while too.

For anyone that doesn't remember that far back Hercules used to be the makers of the best video cards out there. I'm not even sure they make those anymore.

It's a 16 bit sound card, and I had some problems getting the drivers installed the first few tries. It came with the Yamaha XG Studio and I love that. The Hercules Media Player isn't so hot. I was very happy with this sound card which I paid $50 for. I know there are many cheaper cards but I think this one was worth it. I'm still using it at least five years later.

One thing I don't like about the card is that it uses a dongle, one of those things that connects to the card and has several other connection coming from it. That's just asking for trouble down the road when they start shorting out. It also has TOSLINK connections for optical hardware. But I don't use them. I think it was one of the first cards to have that feature also?

Of course now everything is 24 bit.

I'm using the speakers that came with my PC, a USB desktop set that sucks (BenQ), and a 2.1 CyberAcoustics set that was about $25... also at least five years ago. I can't even remember if I bought them before or after the sound card, but it must have been before?

I could have just used the onboard sound but am old school enough to remember when motherboards didn't have sound. Now you can't buy one without it as far as I know. But there may be some company that makes specialty stuff for users with those needs. There usually is.

My PC is so old now that I'm really out of the loop on current hardware. I do know that even on a new computer I'd have a separate sound card and disable the on board sound. Maybe not right away.

I have my stereo hooked up to my PC and the only thing I didn't get with the card was software to record with or a midi sequencer. I wound up with Nero Wave Editor when I bought a CD-R drive and that takes care of recording. The Hercules Media Player is supposed to do that, but it always froze up on me. Later on I bought Cakewalk Music Creator for the sequencer, but rarely use it.

Maybe I should "create" something while my YouTube is out?

I almost forgot to mention that Arturia Storm Light came with the Hercules card, and I rarely use that either... but it does work without any problems as far as I can tell.

I was very pleased with my new sound card and if I remember correctly the power supply was the next thing I replaced... except for those whirring fans?

A Break In The Flow

I'm breaking the flow of my Blog to write about my most recent troubles. It's ironic that I'm writing here about how difficult it can be to get help with a computer problem without getting steered from one place to the next for "New Drivers", or the same old advice.

A little over a Month ago I was happily surfing the net when a terrible thing happened. It wasn't storming out like it does in my area regularly, so I was surprised when the power went out. It was very hot though, and I thought possibly it was a brown out?

No matter what it was that caused it the power went out, for about two hours. Now I've had this PC for almost eight years and the power goes out all the time. This time was different.

When the power came back on I booted up my PC and everything looked fine. I didn't even get one of those error messages about "A Serious Error" and things seemed normal. Until...

I went to run my Netzero software to go online but the splash screen came up, for a second... then just went away. WTF?

Well, I sat and thought about why this would happen. I sat for a few hours thinking about things to try. I sent off an e-mail to Netzero. In case you're wondering how I did that I'll tell you. Netzero is interesting in that they will allow you to connect manually with their numbers. Making a connection and dialing without using the NZ software. However when you connect they restrict you to your e-mail account and your account pages. No internet access. I'll give them credit for allowing that. It was helpful, more so than their support people.

Of course they advised me to do everything I'd already done a thousand times and I sent many notes back and forth over a few weeks. I had to go use the PC's at my local library to seek help from MS newsgroups or anywhere else I could think of.

After three weeks I managed to get things back in working order, but only by trying over and over again.

I wound up using the "Restore Windows" function off of the XP CD. I heard about that feature from Mark Marfer who is listed on this page if you want to link to his site and see what else he has there. His link is on the left side of the page.

This feature "pokes" around and repairs Windows only, and leaves everything else in place. Well, except service packs and media players and...

It turns out that my NZ wouldn't run because my firewall was blocking the program. I checked that many times and it wasn't being blocked, until finally it was in the blocked list as "exec.exe" instead of "Netzero" like it usually is. It's just not in the blocked list of course.

I'm not sure how the repair windows function helped me, or if it did?

Once I could connect online again I had a few people I wanted to send notes to and was way behind on my virus updates and patches. I was just glad to be online again.

I spent many hours building my programs back and getting back to SP3 for XP.

The advice I got was all the stuff I write about in my first post here. Defrag, reinstall software, reinstall drivers, Blah, blah... It Drove Me Crazy!

I knew I'd have to solve it myself, and can't really blame the support people. They were very nice, but just not able to help from a distance. It's a hands on thing and I know that.

I know you may be thinking that I didn't actually solve the problem. That's correct too. I'm not sure what happened, except that I got my internet back. I also noticed that the power company was digging holes all over the neighborhood and running lines underground the next day when I left the house.

That led me to believe that it must've been more than a regular power outage? Maybe it caused a surge or something and that's what corrupted my PC?

Speaking of surges and corrupted PC's. I suppose it's time to start shopping for a good UPS System. I'd love some good advice on that topic if anyone out there has anything to offer : )

Cassie...

One Beep... Two Beeps.

The sound of fans whirring, something you don't really want to hear from a computer. The local shop that built her had set up Windows for me, so I didn't have to go through the usual array of dialog boxes and screens like an "Off the rack" PC.

All I needed to do was decide on a new password, and go on to seeing what this new operating system had to offer. I'm not going to go into my particular setup for Windows. I'll just say that I'm a fullscreen kinda user, and I don't like programs in my taskbar by default.

If I want to run a program I'll start it myself.

Now that's one advantage to buying from a local shop. You only get what you want, not whatever Compaq, or Dell, or whoever wants you to have. My shop did add one little icon into a dialog box somewhere, but it went away after about a month.

I had Windows XP Home Edition, and McAfee Viruscan... version 6. Period!

Of course I wanted to do something cool so I put in a CD and started checking out the visualizations in Media Player! Wow! How cool is that...

The coolness didn't last very long.

After kicking the tires a little I noticed a problem with the Monitor, or video card... something wasn't right. The monitor was flickering ever so slightly. I spent several days surfing the net looking for help. I got the familiar "Check the drivers" and advice like it's the software.

Now I would say that this is where the "Off the rack" computers offer an advantage over a local shop, but I've experienced those tech support services and quite frankly. They might mean well, but they generally suck. I have had the occasional satisfying experience of helpful advice that lead to a solution. But I'll never buy a PC because they have a "Good Warranty".

I didn't get any useful help from the local shop on the phone either, and wound up carting everything back so they could have a look at it. Now if I'd bought a major brand from an electronics store I would have had to pay to ship it in for service.

First they couldn't see what I was trying to describe, and said they didn't see a problem. They gave me a new monitor to see if that was it. Unfortunately it wasn't and it may be my imagination, but I don't think the first monitor hummed as much as the replacement?

I had to take everything back a second time, this time the problem was solved.

A younger guy took a look at it, and even he didn't notice anything at first. Then after about thirty minutes he came back and told me it was fixed. All he did was swap the video card with another one from the shelf.

Now here's what bothered me. I had already asked them to swap it out and they went and tried everything but that. It was just a bad card. I was happy to finally have the problem solved, carted everything back to the car and headed home.

The video card was working well enough, no more flicker. It was a problem card though. It turned out that S3 had gone out of business and sold everything to another company. Via I think, and the drivers were full of glitches. And updated drivers were not available because Via didn't write any. I was stuck.

My only issues were with a flight sim I had bought, Fly2, and that was a few years later. So I didn't even know there was a problem yet. The other video issue turned out to be related to DVD's, and I hadn't bought the DVD drive yet. Again I had no clue.

I was up and running and didn't have any trouble for a while.

I was already planning future updates. I knew I wanted a sound card instead of using the onboard sound, which wasn't bad. I didn't like the case at all but it would do.

I had time for new stuff later. My PC was brand new after all...

I might see what I can do about those noisy fans though?

Home From The Nursery.

Er... Home from the local PC Shop, no diapers required.

The very first thing I did after removing my baby from the box was make sure everything was in place, with no loose parts. Then I opened up the case, a standard ATX case with four external bays, well six counting the two little 2.5" bays.

There is enough room for about three HD's if you really cram em' in there. I wouldn't suggest that in this case because it's not very well designed as far as airflow is concerned.

No thumbscrews on this case, you need a screwdriver to open it up. In fact you need one to do anything in this no frills case. I couldn't even find out who made it. I don't think it was listed on the box. So we'll just call it a "Generic" case. I'm still using it, but I made a custom side panel and added several fans, and accessories over the years.

I had a lot of fans laying around, but not one that would fit my S3 Video Card... which only had a heatsink on it. I used it that way for about two years without any problems. Not related to heat anyway.

There's a spot in the front of the case for an 80mm fan, and a similar spot in the rear. So I automatically installed those. I didn't do that right away though. I wanted to boot her up!

Everything had been secured inside and nothing was out of place. I know a lot of people that will not open up a brand new PC for fear of voiding the warranty or messin' something up. Sometimes things come loose during shipping or were never connected properly at the factory.

It's a good idea to open up a new machine and check things before pushing that button for the first time. At least I think so.

A few minutes later I was pushing the start button to bring her to life! I was so excited :)

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The Spark Of Life.

Early October 2001... I'd been using an old 486 hobbled together from a hodgepodge of parts from around the World. A "Frankenstein" PC as it were. That sounds so ancient, and it was... still, it was a world above my earlier machines.

Some of which I still own, others I wish I still had. An original IBM 5150, A Zenith 286 with a backplane motherboard, XT's, A Compaq "Suitcase" XT Computer. That was one of the first "Portable" machines. Ha ha...

I still have that one and it still works. I used to use it to log in to the local library to put holds on books. Before they closed down that system. That was fun.

It was right after 911 and things were shakey. Americans were encouraged to spend money on products to help the economy. A local screwdriver shop was running some pretty good deals and I decided to buy my first "real" PC. Not one I built from thrift store appendages with bolts protruding from the neck.

I love thrift store PC's but I'll save that for later. This Blog is about the life of my current PC after all.

I picked a store special that had an ECS K7S5A Motherboard. It was the first motherboard I'm aware of that had DDR Memory slots, a huge deal at the time. They didn't throw in the DDR Memory without an extra charge, so I went for a measly 256 PC133Mhz of memory.

It was an AMD Motherboard. Of course I didn't want an Intel Chip, not then, not now. AMD all the way! A 1Ghz Athlon "Thunderbird" which was great back then. Unfortunately though just like with the memory, the "Thunderbird" was only a 100Mhz Chip. Running at a clock speed to equal 200Mhz. 100 X2.

Still that was much faster than Intel chips which were topping out at 133Mhz Bus Speeds.

If I had waited one more day the XP chip would have been available which ran at much faster speeds. There were Thunderbirds running at faster clock speeds too but the shop where I bought my PC wasn't selling those in the package I chose.

It had a 40Gb Maxtor HDD running at 5400 rpm, also not the fastest available. But a good size for the technology of the day. They were still putting floppy drives in PC's then too, even though they were just about useless.

There was a 32mb S3 Savage 4 Video card with no TV out or anything like that. Now S3 was a goodproduct at one time, but they were starting to fade away by 2001. 32Mb wasn't too bad for those days, but the card was a lemon. I'll get to that later.

By then on board sound was a regular feature, the days of needing a sound card were long since past.

I had a choice of Windows 98, or I could wait one day and get the new operating system... Windows XP. I chose the Home Edition which was about an $80 charge.

The machine came in an awful little ATX Case with a cheapo keyboard and mouse.

I paid for a 17" AOL Monitor, good for the times... but when I went to pick up my machine several days later they gave me a Hansol Monitor. I asked about it, but didn't push for the AOL which was out of stock.

The people in the shop were very helpful and friendly, but I must say some of them probably shouldn't been allowed to touch a PC. I'm pretty sure you will find those people everywhere?

I was pretty excited when I got it home! Then, the journey began...