Continuum Drift - Hardware

Delete OEM Partition

Chris — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:39:32 GMT

When I bought my new Dell Studio XPS 16 laptop, the first thing I did was take out the HD and put in a new SSD. Now I've put that original HD into an external eSATA enclosure and I'd like to use all of its space, but there was a parition on it called OEM Partition that was protected, and I could not delete it from the Disk Management utility.

To delete it, I simply ran diskpart.exe, which comes as a part of Windows 7 and I think Windows Vista.

With diskpart running, I first typed:

select disk 1

then:

list partitions

(to make sure I was on the right disk), then:

select partition 1

and finally:

delete partition override

...and that nuked it! In fact, I had the disk manager open while I did this, and it vanished before my eyes. Now I can make a new partition utilizing all of the space on the drive!

SSD Performance in a Laptop

Chris — Fri, 29 May 2009 17:12:47 GMT

I've got my Dell Studio XPS 16 laptop up and running the Windows 7 RC.

Stats:

XPS 1640, Intel Core 2 Duo P8700(2.53GHz/1066Mhz FSB/3M L2 Cache)
Obsidian Black High Gloss Finish with Leather XPS 1640
4GB, DDR3, 1067 MHz 2 Dimm forXPS 1640
16.0 inch Wide Screen 16:9 1080p FullHD RGBLED LCD W/2.0 MP, XPS 1640
ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3670 - 512MB
320GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
Microsoft Windows Vista with SP1 Home Premium Edition 64-bit Edition English
8X DVD+/-RW Slot Load Drive for XPS1640
Integrated High Definition Audio 2.0
Intel WiFi Link 5300 802.11AGN Half Mini Card
56 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion P Primary Battery, for XPS 1640
Warranty Support,1 Year Extended
Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Internal (2.0+Enhanced Data Rate)
Premium HD WLED Display Obsidian Black, Leather 2.0 MP Webcam
Dell WebCam Central 1.0 XPS 1640

Total with Tax: $1,698.46

I've always noticed that when I'm using my laptop (the old one, or even this new one), if I am waiting for anything, it's the hard drive. Despite my heavy development work, the CPU is seldom the bottleneck for me.

Here's a benchmark of the hard disk from HD Tune:

The average Transfer rate is 60.8 MB/sec and the Access time is 24.4 ms. So I sped it up by replacing that HD with an Intel X-25M SSD. Check out the new numbers:

Wow, a 100% improvement in Transfer rate, and a ridiculous improvement in Access time! But this is not the full story. When you're using your computer, the operating system is not usually streaming long contiguous bytes. It's making TONS of teeny tiny little random reads and writes (click here for my source). SSDs are better at this and the Intel X-25M is the highest MLC performer (click here for my source), although OCZ has a great offering.

So let's take a look at those random reads. Here's the data for my Studio XPS 16 with the stock hard drive:

It's doing about 30-40 operations per second, regardless of the transfer size. Remember, your OS does a lot of things at once. It's shooting all over the platter of your hard disk, getting little bits of information. And each time it wants one of those little bits, it needs to move a little arm, and wait for the disk to spin to that spot! But SSDs do not have that limitation. They can read RANDOMLY as quickly as they can read CONTIGUOUSLY. Take a look at that same laptop with the X-25M installed!

Yes, it is literally ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE faster. And you will notice this speed as you boot up faster, log in faster, and launch applications faster.

But, to be fair, SSDs have their limitations. They are notoriously slow when it comes to WRITING. As explained in Andand's article, each time you want to write or overwrite data, you need to perform an erase operation (unless the disk is brand new or was recently wiped). SSD write speed used to be pretty bad, but Intel has raised the bar with the X-25 series, bringing it at least on par with hard drives in most situations. OCZ still has some issues with random writes, but they are improving.

Another SSD limitation is that they wear out more quickly. You can only flash a cell so many times. SSDs wear out faster than Hard Drives. The SSD controller is smart enough to spread your writes evenly throughout its structure, but even then, it will still wear out faster than a hard drive.

Finally, SSDs are far more expensive than hard drives.

Nonetheless, this is the beginning of the end when it comes to hard drives with regard to use as a system volume.

TortoiseSVN on Vista 64-bit Ultimate BlueScreen (Solution Pending)

Chris — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:35:02 GMT

I'm looking into making the switch from SourceSafe to SVN.

But, when I installed the 64-bit TortoiseSVN client version 1.5.5 on my Vista Ultimate x64 box, I got a BSOD upon the next reboot. The error was IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL.

I was able to boot by hitting F8 and going into the Last Known Good configuration. Once I got back to my desktop, I uninstalled the SVN client and rebooted again. This time, no crash. It was definitely the client, or something triggered by it.

I tried a re-install of the client, but this time with my antivirus disabled (Eset Nod32 64-bit) and everything else quit out of the notification area (ATI Catalyst stuff, SyncBack Pro, Daemon Tools, various Logitech stuff for my G15 and MX 1000, Window Clippings, HP Digital Imaging Monitor). The install went smoothly and I made it back into windows just fine, with the SVN client working, including shell integration.

My hunch is that some aggressive anti-virus protection was keeping the client from installing itself properly. Upon reboot, windows encountered some partially loaded software, couldn't make sense of it, and crashed. It's rare to see a BSOD that is not hardware or driver related, so I think some driver was getting confused somewhere.

2008-12-10 Update: Even after reinstalling Tortoise SVN with anti-virus disabled I was having BSODs on later reboots. I have now removed Eset Nod32 x64 Anti-virus, Daemon Tools, Adobe Version Cue Server, and Adobe Drive CS4 x64. Things seem to be working now. My new theory is that it was Adobe Drive CS4 x64. This app does version control and is a shell extension just like Tortoise SVN. I bet they were conflicting.

2008-12-10 Update 2: Successive reboots were OK, but when trying to run a disk check upon reboot, I was bluescreening. Thinking about this more carefully, I actually had it working earlier where it would boot up OK, but bluescreen during the disk check, if one was scheduled for the next bootup. I used SysInternals Autoruns app to search for stuff that is starting up with the system that may be conflicting. Doing a search for "Adobe" finds some stuff other than Adobe Reader / PDF-related stuff. Specifically I saw an Adobe Device Somethingerother (I should have written it down before deleting it, but I figured if I needed it back I'd reinstall CS4) and an Adobe File System driver. They both sound like they're related to the Versioning system or are otherwise related to hardware device management, which means they may mess with kernel-mode code, which can cause a BSOD. So, I removed both of those and I can now reboot and even run a disk check without problems. I THINK I've got it at this point but I'll let this configuration ride for a bit before I mark this as Solved.

2009-03-08 Update: No crashes in months, so this is a done deal! SOLVED!

Atheros LAN Adapter on P5Q Pro Freezes (Solved)

Chris — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 23:19:16 GMT

The onboard Atheros LAN (never heard of them) on my P5Q Pro motherboard was freezing if I transferred large files (a few gigs) over the network. My Windows Server 2008 Server x64 driver was WHQL and current according to the ASUS support site. I went directly to Atheros and found a more recent driver that was also WHQL. I thought that would fix it but the problem persisted!

So I opened up my box-o-old-PCI-cards and I had an Intel Pro/1000 MT Desktop LAN adapter in there. After uninstalling the Atheros driver and disabling it in the BIOS, I installed the Intel card and its most recent driver.

Now the server is solid again, and can transfer large files with ease. I moved a 5 gig rar at over 80 meg/sec! So I don't know if my Atheros experience is common or I just got a bad board, but I'd rather just use an old, reliable part than RMA this motherboard. The Intel Pro/1000 series rocks (I have several of them, single and dual port varieties, PCI and PCI-X varieties).

Marvell 88SE61xx IDE BIOS Ultra Slow on Boot-up (Solved)

Chris — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 23:11:44 GMT

So I upgraded a Virtual Machine Host to an ASUS P5Q Pro and 3Ghz Core 2 Duo. The installation went smoothly except for a couple things. One of them was that the Marvell BIOS would hang for over a minute with every bootup. This was pretty annoying but I eventually fixed it by changing the single optical drive that was on the IDE controller from Cable Select to Master. Now the BIOS takes only a couple seconds!

Logitech G15 Macros Not Working in Visual Studio (Solved)

Chris — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 20:53:57 GMT

I had the weirdest problem. My Logitech G15 Programmable Keyboard's macros (assigned to the G Keys) were not running in Visual Studio. At first I thought they were not working at all, but then I noticed they worked fine in Notepad and just about every other app I had running. So why not Visual Studio? I could record them there, but not execute them. Weird!

Well, because I do web development on IIS, I need to run Visual Studio as an Administrator. Since I run the Logitech G-series Keyboard Profiler under my normal, limited user context, it was Vista's security that was preventing my G keys from working. The amount of interaction between limited-user-run apps and administrator-run apps is severely limited, so that limited user apps cannot inherit the administrative rights of administrator-run apps. Makes sense.

The solution: Run the Logitech G-series Keyboard Profiler as an administrator. It will now have the permissions to inject keystrokes into applications run by an administrator account!

Security Warning: By doing this, you're trusting the keyboard profiler. You're trusting that it won't accidentally mess up your system, and you're trusting that it doesn't have any exploits that malicious users could use to get to the rest of your system. I personally do not think this is a significant risk. It's a risk you probably wouldn't even think about if you were using Windows XP. If you keep your system clean, this should be a "hole" you can live with. Just my opinion.

Safely and Properly Clean an LCD Screen

Chris — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:38:43 GMT

My displays were getting pretty dusty and had a few fingerprints (don't you hate it when people touch your monitor?!). It was time to clean them. I did a thorough search to find out all the facts on properly cleaning LCDs. So here's what I found, and I think that you will find it's pretty reasonable. Don't listen to anyone that tells you stuff without backing it up with reason. There is a surprising amount of misinformation out there!

Obviously, LCD screens are sensitive equipment, so the least invasive approach is the best. Do the minimum required to achieve the necessary results.

If your LCD contains an anti-glare coating (has a purplish or blue hue -- most do), then be extra careful. I'll explain below.
If your screen is the glossy kind (reflects lots of light and looks more like glass) you have a little less to worry about when it comes to scratches, simply because this surface is harder.

Start by turning off the display. Aside from the obvious safety reasons, it's often easier to see dust this way.

The first step in actual cleaning is the safest and least invasive: Blast the screen with compressed air. This will get some dust off, and is the best way to get up in the corners of the bezel (my personal experience). The compressed air will get rid of the larger particles of dust, reducing the possibility that you will scratch your screen.
Often, compressed air alone will not be enough. If it's not, try wiping the screen with a dry microfiber cloth. You can get these at a camera store. Microfiber cloth is ultra-high density, so its weave will not scratch your screen. Don't use paper towel or a kitchen / bath towel as they can scratch your screen. A few sources I've found say that if you don't have microfiber laying around (heh, who does?) you can get away with using a soft, plain white 100% cotton t-shirt. This makes sense to me because 100% cotton shirts have tight weaves and a certain texture that is not nearly as coarse as a bath towel or paper towel.
Most of the time, a dry cloth won't even cut it, especially if you have finger prints to deal with. Apply distilled water to the cloth (not directly to the screen, because don't want it dripping into the frame) and wipe on gently. Some sources I found say a circular motion is the best, while others say to go in just one direction, top-to-bottom, for example. I went with gentle circles and that seemed fine. I think the most important part here is just to be gentle. About the type of water: Whenever any one of the sites I've found actually specified the kind of water to use, they recommended distilled water. One site said that tap water or mineral water could leave a mineral residue. I'm not sure if that's true but distilled water is easy enough to find so that is what I went with.
Finally, if water alone is not cutting it, use a 50/50 mix of distilled water and isopropyl alcohol (which is usually already a 70% mixture). All sites I found that explicitly mention the type of alcohol mention isopropyl alcohol, and some go so far as to say ethyl alcohol-based rubbing alcohol is bad because it contains oils. Do NOT use glass cleaners like 409 or Windex, because they contain ammonia, which can damage the display's protective coating.

That's everything I found and it's been working really well for me. Most of the time the microfiber and distilled water is all I need! My displays cost over $2000 combined so you can bet I take this seriously :)