Wrong place, wrong time. Story of my life.
I ran into this problem when, in one of my insomiac states, was writing some code on the Linux side of my laptop. In my vantage point it appeared I really broke something. When I booted up, Ubuntu would connect to my Wireless network. At least it said it did... but I couldn't reach the internet. So after a few profanities, I resigned myself to the fact that i wasn't going to sleep just yet. And started the investigation.
First I looked to see what did go right and typed the ubiquitous:
ifconfig -a
This returned and showed that I indeed did have an IP Address leased from my router. It also showed errors on transmit and receipt. Uh-oh. I then tried to ping my router... no dice. I found that if I turned off wireless through my laptop button and turned it back on it worked! But when I rebooted, and it automatically connected, I was back to the problem state.
Head bowed down, I then went off down the troubleshooting-bricked road. Restarted the router. Nope. Checked resolve.conf. Nothing in there. Checked to make sure software and hardware firewalls were behaving. Nice try. and then...
I noticed that the signal strength dropped and was very weak. Even though I was a few feet from the router. "Odd," I thought. But it had to be something to do with what I was working on. Right? Right?!?
It then dawned on me that at my home I'm never on battery power... could it be... could it possibly be an incompatibility with Ubuntu power management on battery and my wireless card (Intel 5100 AGN, for you keeping track at home)?
I began an internet search on this and found that there were indeed issues for some wireless adapters when on battery. I couldn't find a setting to change, but I did find that there was a work around. Basically you create a blank file called "wireless" and copy it to:
/etc/pm/power.d
This is because this blank file is read first and that other power management wireless file located
in /usr/lib/pm-utils/power.d is ignored.
I then rebooted, and low and behold, my problems went down the drain. Get it? Drain? Like battery drain? Ah, never mind.
Of course this might mean shortened battery life, but who cares if you can get some sleep?
Showing posts with label Computer Hardware. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Computer Hardware. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
The Strange Case of Creative's X-Fi Randomly Uninstalling Itself
Flashback to January of 2012. That's when I first put my old Creative X-Fi platinum into my office PC. Although, like most (if not all) modern Motherboards, mine had on-board audio, I still wanted to install the X-Fi. For one, I liked the fidelity. For another, I liked the break-away box I could install in the front of the case; it gave me a wider variety of connections. Stereo aux-in RCA jacks, MIDI-in and MIDI-out connectors, a quarter-inch headphone and stereo mic/line-in jacks with volume control, plus coaxial and optical S/PDIF inputs and outputs. Oh my.
I've had this setup for awhile and eagerly installed it into the new PC. Everything seemed to install fine (and due to past experiences with Creative drivers causing BSOD, this was a good thing), when, a day later, I noticed that I had no sound. Looking into Sound properties of Windows 7 I could plainly see the "speakers" output was missing. I uninstalled the X-Fi from device manager, rebooted, and everything was back. Besides my settings, of course.
And so began the vicious, frustrating cycle. Well, maybe not vicious... but definitely frustrating.
I tried to figure out what was going on to no avail. Installed the latest drivers, etc. Still from time to time (and with seemingly greater and greater frequency) a reboot would mean I was in the soundless Gulag. Granted, I got a little smarter and, instead of rebooting, I just right-clicked Sound, Video, and Game Controllers in device manager and selected Scan for Hardware Changes. This circumvented the rebooting step but still amounted to a major pain.
I gradually learned to live with it. Occasionally, I'd scour the internet in nerd rage to find some seemingly sensible answer, and time and time again I'd end up (eventually) with no sound. As time rolled on, my attempts became fewer and fewer; my resolve less solvent. I had regulated my self to the cold, bitter winters of creative re-install land. I had given up.
So almost a year and a half later it happened again. Nothing new there. But something bubbled up within me. Perhaps because it was late. Perhaps because I was sick of being bullied by this hunk of silicon. Or maybe a little of both. I screamed, "Enough!" and decided that I was going to solve this once and for all or relegate the card (and break-away box) to the bin. Either way, I had no plans of letting this cycle continuing any further.
Well unlike my previous searches, I found more info on it. First that I was not alone. And second, it seemed to have something to do with the Creative driver (yeah, not surprised) and having an SSD. Wow. Leave it to Creative to party like its 1998 with an outstanding driver issue on new but not so new hardware.
I worked through every post on the Creative thread. All 560 of them. Within were a lot well meaning community provided answers which included different drivers, different uninstall procedures, and even programs to change the driver load order. Nothing worked. I thought I'd try one last thing, and then throw the white flag. I figured I'd move the windows swap file from its place on the SSD to one of my mechanical HDD data drives. I don't know what made me think of that -- probably because it was 4am -- but I figured why not. So I moved the swap file from my SSD to my mechanical HDD.
You know what? It worked. It's been two weeks and nary a re-install in Creative land. I've been basking in the warm glow of constant sound since.
Any repercussions to moving the swap you might ask? I don't think so. If anything, it will prolong the the life of your SSD drive (although the amount might not be too significant). Some people even suggest running without one with machines that contain large amounts of physical RAM -- though I didn't want to do that.
So without further ado, here is a step-by-step of changing your swap file location. I won't be going over how to uninstall/install the creative driver. If you are here, you know how to do that oh too well. And because I never. Want to. Do that. Again. Not even in my mind's eye.
I've had this setup for awhile and eagerly installed it into the new PC. Everything seemed to install fine (and due to past experiences with Creative drivers causing BSOD, this was a good thing), when, a day later, I noticed that I had no sound. Looking into Sound properties of Windows 7 I could plainly see the "speakers" output was missing. I uninstalled the X-Fi from device manager, rebooted, and everything was back. Besides my settings, of course.
And so began the vicious, frustrating cycle. Well, maybe not vicious... but definitely frustrating.
I tried to figure out what was going on to no avail. Installed the latest drivers, etc. Still from time to time (and with seemingly greater and greater frequency) a reboot would mean I was in the soundless Gulag. Granted, I got a little smarter and, instead of rebooting, I just right-clicked Sound, Video, and Game Controllers in device manager and selected Scan for Hardware Changes. This circumvented the rebooting step but still amounted to a major pain.
I gradually learned to live with it. Occasionally, I'd scour the internet in nerd rage to find some seemingly sensible answer, and time and time again I'd end up (eventually) with no sound. As time rolled on, my attempts became fewer and fewer; my resolve less solvent. I had regulated my self to the cold, bitter winters of creative re-install land. I had given up.
So almost a year and a half later it happened again. Nothing new there. But something bubbled up within me. Perhaps because it was late. Perhaps because I was sick of being bullied by this hunk of silicon. Or maybe a little of both. I screamed, "Enough!" and decided that I was going to solve this once and for all or relegate the card (and break-away box) to the bin. Either way, I had no plans of letting this cycle continuing any further.
Well unlike my previous searches, I found more info on it. First that I was not alone. And second, it seemed to have something to do with the Creative driver (yeah, not surprised) and having an SSD. Wow. Leave it to Creative to party like its 1998 with an outstanding driver issue on new but not so new hardware.
I worked through every post on the Creative thread. All 560 of them. Within were a lot well meaning community provided answers which included different drivers, different uninstall procedures, and even programs to change the driver load order. Nothing worked. I thought I'd try one last thing, and then throw the white flag. I figured I'd move the windows swap file from its place on the SSD to one of my mechanical HDD data drives. I don't know what made me think of that -- probably because it was 4am -- but I figured why not. So I moved the swap file from my SSD to my mechanical HDD.
You know what? It worked. It's been two weeks and nary a re-install in Creative land. I've been basking in the warm glow of constant sound since.
Any repercussions to moving the swap you might ask? I don't think so. If anything, it will prolong the the life of your SSD drive (although the amount might not be too significant). Some people even suggest running without one with machines that contain large amounts of physical RAM -- though I didn't want to do that.
So without further ado, here is a step-by-step of changing your swap file location. I won't be going over how to uninstall/install the creative driver. If you are here, you know how to do that oh too well. And because I never. Want to. Do that. Again. Not even in my mind's eye.
- Install the Creative Drivers so they are installed and working. I'm using the SBXF_PCDRV_L11_2_18_0015A drivers for Windows 64-bit.
- Click on the Win 7 Orb -> Right-click Computer -> Properties...
- In the left pane, click the Advanced Settings link.
- Choose the Advanced tab, and in the Performance group box click the Settings... button.
- In the Performance Options dialog, select the Advanced tab. Click the Change... button located in the Virtual Memory group box.
- This is where the magic happens. (1)Uncheck the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives check box. Select your C drive from the list box (pictured). (2)Select the no paging file radio button. (3)Click the Set button.
- Still in the Virtual Memory dialog, select the mechanical HDD you have (in my case, E). Select the System managed size radio button. Click the Set button.
- Click Ok 3 times to dismiss all the dialogs. Reboot your machine and enjoy not reinstalling those freaking drivers and trying solutions as, Brian Fantana would say, "60% of the time works everytime."
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
[: PC in a Shoebox :]
UPDATE: I've since replaced the LG Electronics DVD drive with a Panasonic Blu-ray one and added a Samsung 840pro SSD for the data drive (relegating the WD HDD to a backup drive). This is reflected below.
So in comparing the PC apple to the console orange there are really only a couple of categories you must award an edge to the Console (which is, of course, itself a budget PC): Price, and the "couch factor."
Price is actually a little dicey. It's more like a "buy-in" price, where the console wins. If you start looking at things like cost of ownership and maybe a price per value kind of thing, the PC starts to get a lot more competitive. A PC is ready to customize. Dying to be customized, in fact. This versatility might make its money back to its owner as you can use it for a myriad of things, in literally any way you want to. Coupled with digital distribution game sales on platforms such as Steam, the PC allows their owners to buy games at a much cheaper rate (due to the lack of royalty on the Windows platform) than its console brethren.
The "couch factor" as it were, allows for you to play video games slumping on your couch, with Doritos stained orange fingertips mashing on a controller as -- according to many -- God intended. I'm not always the biggest fan of this idea, in part, due to the fact the controllers just don't have the resolution that the keyboard/mouse combo have. I also am not a fan of the lower resolution on TVs, and the speed of the hardware found on today's aging consoles. But even after saying all that, there is a real argument here; sometimes you just want to slump in front of the TV and play your games. That, and if you want to make this a social thing, particularly in sports games... it really is a better experience.
So I wanted to have my Doritos cake and eat it too. I did not want to sacrifice quality for the "buy-in" price of a console and was quite willing to invest in a mini-living room PC that would provide gaming, media, and more. And so began my quest to build the shoebox PC!
First, in this example I'm shelling out a decent amount of dough. As I said, I wanted to future-proof this purchase.
[: The Shopping List :]
SilverStone SST-SG08B Black Mini-ITX Desktop Computer Case 600W Power Supply
ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe LGA 1155 Intel Z77 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core
(2) CORSAIR Vengeance LP 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW 2GB Video Card
Kingston HyperX 3K SH103S3/240G 2.5" 240GB Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (System Drive)
Samsung Electronics 840 Pro Series 512gb SSD (Data Drive)
Western Digital Blue WD10EALX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" HDD (Backup Drive)
Logitech Wireless Combo MK260 920-002950 Black USB RF Wireless Standard Keyboard and Mouse
LG Electronics - Slim DVD±RW Drive
Panasonic UJ240 6x Blu-ray Burner BD-RE/8x DVD±RW Drive
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM
So you can see cost could be easily trimmed on memory, storage, and even processor model. But if you want to be an enthusiast, go big!
The items on the list that really "make" a mini-pc are the case and the motherboard. And in this setup I went with the Silverstone SG08B for the case and the Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe for the motherboard.
The Silverstone case dimensions are quite small at 8.75" x 7.49" x 13.82" (WxHxD), and it's black aluminum finish allow it to fit in aesthetically quite easily with other home theater components. It uses a positive pressure system: a single 180mm fan on top of the case blows air through the case and pushes out through the side venting. Early on I decided to use stock cooling (as this was not going to be an overclocked system), so this seemed a-OK with me. Note: I did see a review where they successfully swapped this fan out with a radiator and closed watercooling system.
The Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe was chosen for the motherboard do its high performance reviews as a Mini-ITX board and the inclusion of a built in wireless radio. Wires... the natural enemy of living rooms since ancient times.
[: Putting it all Together :]
Ok so the next step is putting all the pieces together. I was pretty nervous as this was my first Mini-ITX build and, unlike more traditional builds, requires more attention to spatial details. It went pretty fast, actually. I was sick when I did it, so I did a couple of bonehead things along the way
(including using the part that was meant to be discarded for the VGA duct and almost throwing away the actual duct), but I made it through pretty well.
The first thing I noticed after installing the motherboard was just how tiny it actually was! It went in without a hitch.
Cable management was one of the hardest things to do in this build. It was a constant process of planning, tying, fitting a component, and the re-evaluating the cable positions.
The most challenging component to install was the full sized video card. This was easily the hardest step. After much patience (and by patience, I mean swearing) I was able to install the card from the side and click into place.
Finally the HDD cage, fan, and DVD drive were installed. This added the last roadblock; trying to get these components in and cables placed in a way to allow for the case to close properly.
[: Temperatures :]
With a mini-case comes hight temperatures. Or do they? Let's take a look.
For GPU stress testing I used Real-Time HDR IBL while for CPU stress testing I used Prime95. The 180mm fan has two settings: High and Low. All tests were run with both fan settings. All temperatures are in Celsius.
CPU Testing
Idle (Fan on Low)
CPU Average 31 (31 33 30 30)
Idle (Fan on High)
CPU Average 29 (29 30 28 28)
Prime95 small fft (Fan on Low)
CPU Average 81 (79 78 81 85)
Prime95 small fft (Fan on High)
CPU Average 79 (77 75 79 83)
GPU Testing
Idle (Fan on Low)
GPU 35
Idle (Fan on High)
GPU 35
[rthdribl.exe] 1720x982 GPU Fan auto (Fan on Low)
GPU 78
[rthdribl.exe] 1720x982 GPU Fan auto (Fan on High)
GPU 78
These temps seem fine for stock cooling. With a TJMax of 105C, definitely nothing to worry about!. The GPU also appears to have very nice temps for such an enclosed space (its safe max is 97C).
We can see that the 180mm settting really only buys about 2C on cpu temps (and none on GPU) so it would be fine in this setup to keep on low and save the noise.
[: Conclusion :]
The only negatives were the aforementioned non-modular power supply and my data drive (WD10EALX) was a little loud in access. This wasn't noticeable with anything that has sound (games, movies, music) so I'm not too worried about it(No access noise with the new 840 Pro SSD!).
As a major coincidence the very next day after I put this system together Valve released the "Big Picture Mode" for the Steam beta client (an interface designed for High Definition TVs). Talk about meant to be!
It looks beautiful on a 1080p TV (although for fidelity nothing beats a good monitor) and thanks to the Steam Cloud, I can play my steam games interchangeably between the two locations.
The budget wireless keyboard/mouse combo I bought works surprisingly well. Although to be safe I disabled the 2.4GHz radio on the motherboard and am only using 5GHz (to prevent interference).
Now all I need to do is invest in a couple of game controllers (for sports games) and a bag of Doritos. Game on!
So in comparing the PC apple to the console orange there are really only a couple of categories you must award an edge to the Console (which is, of course, itself a budget PC): Price, and the "couch factor."
Price is actually a little dicey. It's more like a "buy-in" price, where the console wins. If you start looking at things like cost of ownership and maybe a price per value kind of thing, the PC starts to get a lot more competitive. A PC is ready to customize. Dying to be customized, in fact. This versatility might make its money back to its owner as you can use it for a myriad of things, in literally any way you want to. Coupled with digital distribution game sales on platforms such as Steam, the PC allows their owners to buy games at a much cheaper rate (due to the lack of royalty on the Windows platform) than its console brethren.
The "couch factor" as it were, allows for you to play video games slumping on your couch, with Doritos stained orange fingertips mashing on a controller as -- according to many -- God intended. I'm not always the biggest fan of this idea, in part, due to the fact the controllers just don't have the resolution that the keyboard/mouse combo have. I also am not a fan of the lower resolution on TVs, and the speed of the hardware found on today's aging consoles. But even after saying all that, there is a real argument here; sometimes you just want to slump in front of the TV and play your games. That, and if you want to make this a social thing, particularly in sports games... it really is a better experience.
So I wanted to have my Doritos cake and eat it too. I did not want to sacrifice quality for the "buy-in" price of a console and was quite willing to invest in a mini-living room PC that would provide gaming, media, and more. And so began my quest to build the shoebox PC!
First, in this example I'm shelling out a decent amount of dough. As I said, I wanted to future-proof this purchase.
[: The Shopping List :]
SilverStone SST-SG08B Black Mini-ITX Desktop Computer Case 600W Power Supply
ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe LGA 1155 Intel Z77 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core
(2) CORSAIR Vengeance LP 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW 2GB Video Card
Kingston HyperX 3K SH103S3/240G 2.5" 240GB Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (System Drive)
Samsung Electronics 840 Pro Series 512gb SSD (Data Drive)
Western Digital Blue WD10EALX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" HDD (Backup Drive)
Logitech Wireless Combo MK260 920-002950 Black USB RF Wireless Standard Keyboard and Mouse
Panasonic UJ240 6x Blu-ray Burner BD-RE/8x DVD±RW Drive
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM
So you can see cost could be easily trimmed on memory, storage, and even processor model. But if you want to be an enthusiast, go big!
The items on the list that really "make" a mini-pc are the case and the motherboard. And in this setup I went with the Silverstone SG08B for the case and the Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe for the motherboard.
The Silverstone case dimensions are quite small at 8.75" x 7.49" x 13.82" (WxHxD), and it's black aluminum finish allow it to fit in aesthetically quite easily with other home theater components. It uses a positive pressure system: a single 180mm fan on top of the case blows air through the case and pushes out through the side venting. Early on I decided to use stock cooling (as this was not going to be an overclocked system), so this seemed a-OK with me. Note: I did see a review where they successfully swapped this fan out with a radiator and closed watercooling system.
 |
| All that stuff has gotta go in that little black box |
The case comes with a 600W power supply -- more than sufficient for a mini-pc system. It is, unforunately not modular. This seems to be a strange design choice for such a small space! It would be theoretically possible to swap it out with a modular one, but you will have to do your research... it is a tight fit with the video card.
 |
| A lot of performance packed into a tiny space |
The Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe was chosen for the motherboard do its high performance reviews as a Mini-ITX board and the inclusion of a built in wireless radio. Wires... the natural enemy of living rooms since ancient times.
[: Putting it all Together :]
Ok so the next step is putting all the pieces together. I was pretty nervous as this was my first Mini-ITX build and, unlike more traditional builds, requires more attention to spatial details. It went pretty fast, actually. I was sick when I did it, so I did a couple of bonehead things along the way
(including using the part that was meant to be discarded for the VGA duct and almost throwing away the actual duct), but I made it through pretty well.
 |
| The Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe installed |
The first thing I noticed after installing the motherboard was just how tiny it actually was! It went in without a hitch.
 |
| Cable management. Early and often |
Cable management was one of the hardest things to do in this build. It was a constant process of planning, tying, fitting a component, and the re-evaluating the cable positions.
 |
| Already starting to get crazy... even before the video card is installed (that groove to the left will be its home) |
 |
| Gigantic Video Card. Check. |
The most challenging component to install was the full sized video card. This was easily the hardest step. After much patience (and by patience, I mean swearing) I was able to install the card from the side and click into place.
 |
| Hard drive cage, Slim DVD drive, and fan installed |
Finally the HDD cage, fan, and DVD drive were installed. This added the last roadblock; trying to get these components in and cables placed in a way to allow for the case to close properly.
 |
| Reporting for duty |
[: Temperatures :]
With a mini-case comes hight temperatures. Or do they? Let's take a look.
For GPU stress testing I used Real-Time HDR IBL while for CPU stress testing I used Prime95. The 180mm fan has two settings: High and Low. All tests were run with both fan settings. All temperatures are in Celsius.
CPU Testing
Idle (Fan on Low)
CPU Average 31 (31 33 30 30)
Idle (Fan on High)
CPU Average 29 (29 30 28 28)
Prime95 small fft (Fan on Low)
CPU Average 81 (79 78 81 85)
Prime95 small fft (Fan on High)
CPU Average 79 (77 75 79 83)
GPU Testing
Idle (Fan on Low)
GPU 35
Idle (Fan on High)
GPU 35
[rthdribl.exe] 1720x982 GPU Fan auto (Fan on Low)
GPU 78
[rthdribl.exe] 1720x982 GPU Fan auto (Fan on High)
GPU 78
These temps seem fine for stock cooling. With a TJMax of 105C, definitely nothing to worry about!. The GPU also appears to have very nice temps for such an enclosed space (its safe max is 97C).
We can see that the 180mm settting really only buys about 2C on cpu temps (and none on GPU) so it would be fine in this setup to keep on low and save the noise.
[: Conclusion :]
The only negatives were the aforementioned non-modular power supply
As a major coincidence the very next day after I put this system together Valve released the "Big Picture Mode" for the Steam beta client (an interface designed for High Definition TVs). Talk about meant to be!
 |
| Rise... Steam. RIIIIISE! |
It looks beautiful on a 1080p TV (although for fidelity nothing beats a good monitor) and thanks to the Steam Cloud, I can play my steam games interchangeably between the two locations.
The budget wireless keyboard/mouse combo I bought works surprisingly well. Although to be safe I disabled the 2.4GHz radio on the motherboard and am only using 5GHz (to prevent interference).
Now all I need to do is invest in a couple of game controllers (for sports games) and a bag of Doritos. Game on!
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