Computer Knowledge. Gadget. Anime. Design. Dance. Hong Kong Life. Stuff like that.

12.31.2008

Crazy external USB DVD Drive

I was trying to multitask while cataloging my photo discs on my DVD Drive using Portfolio 8.5, so instead of using internal DVD Drive as the source of cataloging, I tried to use the external USB based DVD Drive. Big mistake. The resulting thumb nail was like all broken, and the drive has serious problem reading the disc properly. Finally I had to give up and use my internal drive to do the reading again.

Stupid Extensis Portfolio 8.5 catalog

For an unknown reason, after I tried cataloging a DVDR disc directory, a portoflio catalog file was ruin. The worst part is that there goes all the time I spent on cataloging 5 to 6 disc, and now I have to process them all over again. I kept reminding and kept forgetting to do this: before catalog a disc, make a backup of the catalog file. You never know when the diaster will strike.

The general rule of thumb seems to be:
  • ALWAYS backup before catalog a disc
  • Stop using a catalog file when the size of the catalog is bigger than 3Gb. Start a new one instead.
  • Make user you don't catalog files that does not generate thumbnail, set the keyword capture to include whole file path, and disable fast cataloging.

12.30.2008

How I recovered my Lenovo X60T Tablet PC

Turned on my Tablet PC earlier today, only to find out that it didn't boot up properly. During to boot up of the Acronis OS Selector, the system stopped, emitting long long beeping sound. Something was wrong with my machine.

First I need to stop that horrible horrible consistent beeping. I did that by plugging a broken headphone head into the the headphone jet. At least the bleeding has been stopped.

Then I needed to figure out whether the problem is on the harddisk itself. It wasn't the case because I can boot into BIOS, and use the Hard disk diagnostic tool didn't give me any error. After scanning for 10%, I stopped the process.

By this time I pretty much convinced that there's nothing wrong with the harddisk and thought that it's probably the boot partition got messed up. So my next option is recover the partition.

So I tried to boot up the external USB DVD Drive with ACronis TrueImage 10 in it. It wasn't successed the first time, but after a few trial, especailly after I plugged in both the USB DVD Drive and the external USB harddisk.

So by pressing the blue ThinkAdvantage button, I got into the BIOS and changed the boot setting. I booted up the Acronis TrueImage 10 from the CDR disc, and was ready to recover the C: boot drive from a drive image. Unfortunately, I couldn't see the external HD that contain the boot image I stored in it. However, I also have a boot partition in the E Drive of the system. So I used that.

AFter the C: recovered, things got back to normal. At least I got no more crazy beeping sound. The partition, though, seems to be pretty. It's still in Windows XP SP2 . So I am now in the process of applying serice pack 3.

Still, this is way better than restoring everything from scratch.

Windows Server 2008 + Sound = Crash on home desktop

For some reason, the Windows Server 2008 in VMWare crashed on my home desktop, and the solution to get rid of that blue screen of death is by removing Sound from the cofiguration, and I was like .. what? Oh well, don't want to waste time to figure out the solution but I am glad that I didn't wasted hours on figure it out.

12.16.2008

Strange USB problem seems to be resolved, but ... still strange ...

Some who fellow my blog (probably only me and myself) may have recalled that I was complained about the whole panel of USB ports at the back of my desktop PC stopped functioning. And then in the last several days things went from bad to worse. Some how some USB devices went on and off, and whenever that happened my whole machine got hanged out for about 10 seconds.

So finally I decided to take some action. I shutted down the machine, unplug all the USB devices, and then plugged both mouse and keyboard USB plug to the back panel of my desktop. I booted up the PC, and I got Keyboard failed error. I saw this problem before, and I always solved the problem by unplugging the power chord right away, and then plug it back in a few seconds later.

It worked. Not only that resolved the back panel USB port array malfunction problem, I also haven't experienced the system hanging problem. I probably need to keep observing for a while. But at least it's improving.

12.13.2008

Ad Hoc WiFi hotspot mess with folder sharing

Here's a reason why I should NOT use my office laptop as a WiFi hotspot. It turns out that by sharing my lan wire connection, it messed up the existing folder sharing. Since Folder sharing is very citical to me, I have to give up adhoc hotspot setting ... at least until I find a better solution.

12.12.2008

Way to much I/O on small files when using SD Card as a storage

One huge problem of using a SDHC card as my main work storage is that SDHC performs poorly when dealing with tons of small files. This is exactly the kind of files I will store in my work storage as I use SourceSafe and Pidgin, and they both stores a LOT of tiny files. This is yet another reason why I should NOT use a SDHC card to be my primary work storage.

Still needs a big harddisk

I was hoping that I can simply put all my work stuff in a flash SD card and then simply bring it to work. It didn't take long for me to realize that it didn't work out all well as I expected. The read/write performance is one issue (particularly when read/write from the SD card reader build into the laptop), but most importantly my 4Gb card is not big enough to store the iTune Library for me the sync Podcast with. So eventually I still need to bring my 320 Gb harddisk, which is not too bad.

12.11.2008

Reinstall the office laptop: did the right thing

I finally fed up with the office laptop. So I took it home, wipe out all the old partition and reinstall the system from scratch. Glad that the [F12] (select boot source) function key was not disabled. I was also able to find all the drivers for the machine. I am I have a reasonably fast machine instead of the slow sluggish crap that was using before. Yeah!

12.10.2008

What's the deal with the USB Ports?

I am still extremely puzzling about why in the world the USB ports (5 of them) at the back of my computer stopped functioning. The ironic part? The ports on a USB hub that directly attached to one of the port at the back WORKED. So now instead of using any of those direct ports at the back of the computer, I have to use the ports extended from the USB ports. I even have to add USB hub on the top of a USB hub. I guess eventaully I need to spend some time to rewire all the USB devices to figure out what the heck is going on.

12.07.2008

Messy after turned my laptop into a WiFi hotspot

I was pretty happy on Friday when I successfully used by Tablet PC as a WiFi hotspot at work by following the instructions provided by CNet TV.

Trouble came when I tried to turn off the hotspot feature in order to access the Net through WiFi. Eventually I have to roll back all the setting and even delete the existing home WiFi setup. So at least now I can access the Net thru home WiFi. But I still haven't give up on using my laptop as WiFi hotspot at work. My plan is using my USB based WiFi dongle and have the hotspot setting up assoicate with it. That way it won't mess up my build in WiFi setting.

Problem is that I couldn't made it work with my home network. But then I have a feeling that it's mainly because of the strong WiFi signal of my home WiFi router.

Reply Media Catcher works with Chinese dance site, but not Hulu

I was trying out Reply Media Catcher to see if it works woth Hulu.com . It doesn't. But at least I successfully used it to capture some flash video hosting in Chinese dance site. So I guess tool is not useless after all.

12.05.2008

Get rid of lock problem with VMWare OS

Sometime when you have your VMWare OS crashed, and then tried to use it on another OS, you 'll find that your VMWare will bitch at you telling you that the VM cannot be started because it's been "locked". Fear not. Simply delete all the *.vmdk.lck files for every virtual drive in your VMWare OS folder, and you should be able to continue.