VCDGear = almost perfect a tool for .dat to MPEG conversion

I used the batch process feature of VCDGear 3.55 to convert a bunch of .dat files (from Karaoke VCD) to MPEG files, and the conversion works very well. However, the batch process keep missing some file. I check the VCDGear support forum and found out that I need to upgrade the .exe to 2.56 Build 050213 beta. I tried and it really fixed the problem. So I guess I'll just continue using the beta even though I usually hate running beta on my machine.

Continue having problem with my DVD-Recorder and SATA Harddisk

My LG DVD Recorder is gradually dying, and I am looking forward to send it back to the repair place before the warranty expries. At least I know that it's not burning DVD Correctly. And yesterday I found out that it had problem reading DVD Probably. And I mean all sorts of DVDs.

The problematic SATA harddisk was also giving me hardtime. I didn't die all the time, but when it dies it brought down my whole machine. Wicked.

Strange thing with the Daigasso game

I encountered something strange with the Nintendo DS Daigasso ROM on my SuperCard CF card which I still don't have a complete explanation.

I converted the game last night with SuperCard convert application 2.431 last night, and it was all going well for a while. However, when played the game after work on MTR, I found that the game hanged at the very beginning. I have to reconvert and put the ROM back in CF card again. However, the save file was OK. So I think it's probably the ROM got corrupted.

Strange indeed, though.

Damn Serial ATA hard disk is dying

One of my serial ATA harddisk is dying. Damn it, it's less than 2 years old and already showing it's age.... Sigh. I better dig up my warrenty and ask for a repair.

SuperCard Firmware 1.53 and 2.431 convert app is out. Awesome!

The latest SuperCard upgrade (firmware 1.53 and Convertion Application 2.431) has been released, and I have to say that it's totally sweet. The load time of some games were improved, and the following games that previously cannot save properly on CF card is not working flawlessly:

- Super Mario DS - Europe Edition (the other two edition cannot be save, so beware)
- Bomberman DS
- 應援團

Feel the Magic 2 is running smoothly without the screen shaking.

One strange thing: I have to use the old 2.3 conversion application to convert SuperMario DS Europe in order to make it work. But other than that, it's all good.

Totally sweet Nintendo DS heaven!!

A story of an almost dead Nintendo DS, and how to rescure it

I was forced to update my Nintendo DS from running original FlashMe to FlashMe version 5, all because of a SuperCard version of Mario Kart DS.

The nightmare started yesterday after I played a SuperCard version of Mario Kart DS ROM I downloaded from Nintendo DS BBS (a big mainland China NDS site). The Rom ran very well and I had great fun with it. After I turned off the machine, I pressed power button trying to start it up again in order to test the Pokemon RPG.

The NDS started with black screen.

That's how I started my fustration whole night last night, trying to figure out how come the power light is on and yet the machine didn't display anything. I even yanked out the battery, hoping that the machine would OK next morning.

And it didn't.

Out of ultra fustration, I went to Nintendo DS BBS to look for answer. Finally I found a solution:

- Prepare NoFlash.nds (the one which removes FlashMe from the system) by removing everytying from the CF card except the NoFlash.nds file.
- Hold [Select][Start][A][B] and press [Power] button to turn on the machine. The power light is on but there's still no display. Don't worry. Now release all buttons. And then press [A] button. The system should load the NoFlash.nds now.
- Follow the instruction on the and complete the no flash porcess.
- Now the NDS is back to normal.

I went one step further by installing FlashMe version 5. And so far it seems to work fine. Now I have the lastest FlashMe, and I am able to play games with WiFi.

I just hope that there's some warning before I running the Mario Kart DS Rom compiled for SuperCard.

Well, at least now the problem solved.

Strange experiment on my DVD Recorder

I am trying a strange experiment with my DVDRecorder and see if it help:

First, not putting any disc on LiteOn.
Then, select 2x speed.
Then, click start burn.
When Nero 7 asked for a DVD Disc, put in the Sky 8x.

The result? It creates Disc that can be readable by my office NEC CD ROM, which to me is a pretty good improvement because previous the LiteOn burned stuff that cannot be read by the others.

However, the LG drive still doesn't with the 8x discs no matter what trick I try. So seems like the LG drive will be preserved for buring 4x disc only, and I have to use 2x to burn DVD on the LiteOn drive.

Oh, and skip the verification. I need to test copying on the LG Drive anyway.

I also need to check and see if the eBlue 8x disc also works.

TCPMP 0.7 still couldn't play all WMV files correctly

I just tried the new release of TCPMP 0.7, and it still couldn't play all WMV files correctly. Big disappointment I have to say :-< .......

I hate my ultra lame LG DVD Recorder

My saga with the stupid LG DVD Recorder continues.

I brought a barrel (25 pieces) of Sky 8X DVD+R disc, hoping that the LG Recorder had problem only with the eBlue 8x one. I found out that it has problem with the Sky 8x Disc too.

In fact, it seems like that almost ALL the 4x disc I put in the LG drive has NO PROBLEM, while ANY 8x disc I put in LG drive HAS PROBLEM.

This sucks, consider that all new disc released these days are 8x.

So seems like I have no choice but buy another DVD Recorder, and this time I will go for nothing else but Pioneer. LG and LiteON failed on me, and NEC has problem reading all the discs, SamSung is Ok but didn't get the go reputation, Sony ... hate Sony, period.

Either eBlue 8x DVD+R sucks, or my LG DVD Recorder started failing

These days I was being frustrated by the hardware I have at home. Specifically, the hard disk and the DVDRecorders.

First the hard disk. My Q Drive is on a Serial ATA hard disk, and it had problem being recognize in the last one to two weeks. In fact, the system even failed to boot up because of the hard disk recognition problem. Interestingly the S.M.A.R.T. checking at the boot up time didn’t report any problem. After being diagnostic for a few days, I kind of concluded that it’s probably due to the fact that I am using a under-powered power supply yanked out from a broken AMD K6 machine. So I brought (thank for my colleague Griffin) a new 400W power supply and installed it yesterday. Hopefully the problem will not show up any more. We’ll see.

But an even bigger problem is on my LG DVD Recorder. Starting from a week ago, it started to burn BAD DVDR disc. Confidently, that was about the same time I used up my Sky DVD+R Discs and started using a new batch of eBlue DVD+R disc. So I am still not sure if it’s the problem of the new batch of eBlue DVD-R, or the LG Burner itself. But still, I used to throw whatever crap on my LG DVD Recorder, and it used to be able to take them all.

Well, I don’t want to go get a new DVD+R recorder yet. I am going to get a barrel of Sky 4x DVD+R today, and see if it works better.

By the way, the Lite-On DVD Recorder is acting strange too. It goes like this: I used the New 8x eBlue DVD+R on the LG and it failed, so I used the LiteOn with the same kind of 8x eBlue DVD+R to burn. It completed successfully. However, the LG had problem reading all the files. I brought it to work, and had the following recognition result:

[Can be Recognized] Samsung DVD Recorder – on Laptop
[Failed to recognize] NEC 3450A – on my Dell desktop
[Can be Recognized, will slightly delay] NEC 3530A DVD Recorder – on another new Dell desktop.

So in order to make sure that the disc I burn can be compatible with most DVD Drive, I think I better NOT use the LiteOn to burn stuff :-<.

Stupid trick about Monster Chinese input on PocketPC 2K3SE

Remember I had problem with the Chinese handwriting input provided by Monster Chinese for PocketPC 2003SE because it always crashes in the middle of editing, nothing which application I use (notified, Pocket Word ....)? Well, I figured out that the crash WILL NOT happen if I simply remember one thing: DON'T PRESS THE COMMA BUTTON on the screen. I can work around by pressing the on screen puncuation button and then select comma. This is good because now I have one less reason to try out Windows Mobile 5, and I heard too many horrible story about Windows Mobile 5 on DELL Axim x50v.

Glad that my HK$160 old 2.5 inch harddisk case works great with 80Gb HD

I was pleasantly suprise that the HK$160 2.5 inch harddisk case (it's so generic that it doesn't have any model number) works great with my newly brought Samsung 80Gb 5400rpm harddisk. I particularly like the fact that the Dell Optiplex GX280 computer in office can be drive the harddisk WITHOUT an additional power cable. I cannot say the same thing with my Look A6 OTG harddisk. But then, they have different usage.

More GBA ROMs not working with SuperCard

I was testing a batch of new GBA ROM (about 30 of them), and found the following 7 not working:

trm-pm2u.gba
trm-m41u.gba
trm-bsu.gba
trm-3lol.gba
rs-fess.gba
rs-300.gba
2196 - 2 in 1 - Crash Super Pack.gba
2120 - Wagamama Fairy Milmo de Pon Dokidoki Memorial Panic (J).gba

Still, this is not a particular bad sign since it was known that not all GBA ROMs working with SuperCard anyway.

OSX86 Traditioanl Chinese input thing not working

I mentioned a Traditional Chinese input patch thing a while ago. I tried it and it didn't work. Maybe I did something wrong :-< ...

Set up Active Directory on W2K3

Found this nice page that talks about how to install Active Directory on Windows 2003 Server and preparation before installing it.

Add Traditional Chinese input in OSX86

I was trying to find a way to enter Traditional Chinese in my Mac OSX86 environment, and found the following two sites that maybe helpful on this issue:

- OSx86 Localizer (Language Patch)
- A discussion

On another issue, this page sort of explained how to set up sound on my Office machine DELL Optiplex GX280.

Try make sound on Mac ....

I still cannot make the x86 Mac playing any sound. I wonder if this link works ....

My office machine has:
Vendor ID : 8086
Device ID : 266E

Adium X 0.86, a great unversial IM for Mac OS X

I cannot live without IM. That's why today I started looking around trying to find a Mac OS X app that does Universial IM. I found one from the site called Adium X 0.86 and boy it worked so well. I am using it now, and think that it looks much better than GAIM on PC. How come everything just look better on Mac :-> ?

WinXP Installation disc: not all are the same

Not all Windows XP installation disc are not all the same. For instance:

- the OEM installation disc require XP activation
- the VLM installation disc asked for a valid VLM Product ID at the beginning of installation, and that's it.

Nice quality DVD vs crappy CDR

I burned a set (4 disc) of CentOS 4.2 on some chessy quality CDR disc, and it had problem being recognized by my office desktop DELL Optiplex GX280. However, after I burned the DVD version of the disc and used it to intall CentOS, it was smooth like a silk. This simply explains that a good CDR disc indeed is good, and chessy CDRs are ... well ... freaking chessy.