Meuchel Computer Services & Office Supplies

Well folks, here it comes.  Windows Vista is going to the wayside and in comes Windows 7.  Looks like Microsoft will be releasing Windows 7 on October 22, 2009.  So remember what that means for Windows XP.  Look what happened to Windows 2000 when Vista came out, it went out of support life cycle. According to this link http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-xp/future.aspx XP will stop being supported in April of 2014.  Microsoft has already stopped manufacturing of Windows XP licenses.  So anything that is still stocked will be sold out and discontinued. 

If your looking for that Christmas Computer with the latest and greatest…expect to get it with Windows 7 installed or at least ready with an upgrade offer.

Most computer manufacturers now are trying to boast 4+ Gigabytes of memory with super huge hard drives and Dual or Quad Core processors.  In the computer world those numbers usually mean everything.  Here is the problem.  Windows XP and Vista, as most people know them, run on what’s called a 32-bit platform.  Most games, software, and hardware drivers are programmed for that platform.  The 32-bit platform only supports a total of 4 GB memory.  This includes video and processor memory.  So, in essence, only about 3.5 GB of total system memory can actually be used or even seen.

Enter 64-bit.  Now most programs are not coded for 64-bit Operating Systems yet.  But there is a compatibility feature that will allow 32-bit programs to run on 64-bit systems.  Here is the tricky thing.  Hardware has to have a 64-bit driver to run on a 64-bit operating system.  This is why when people unaware of this situation buy a 64-bit computer, they cannot get older hardware to work on it such as printers, scanners, cameras and such.

So the key is to watch for the amount of memory.  If it has 4+ GB it is most likely 64-bit.

          Fraudulent Antivirus programs alert.

Recently there have been some evolving antivirus programs that trap you into buying their shoddy services and report inaccurately that you have a virus on your system.  The primary of these is Antivirus 2009 aka; Antivirus XP, Antivirus 2008 and Antivirus 2010.  Please be very cautious about installing anything that does not look trustworthy on your system.

          Good Free Antivirus Programs.

AVG antivirus is a nice small antivirus to run to keep your system protected.  It can be downloaded from free.grisoft.com.

Avast antivirus is another.  It can be downloaded from www.avast.com.

A nice open source package is Spyware Terminator.  This bundle includes Clam antivirus which was designed for use on Linux machines and is very capable on windows machines.  Plus since it is open source it is okay to license on your business computers. Download from www.spywareterminator.com.

Here recently I came across a Compaq/HP computer that had a PCI-e add in slot in it.  Anybody who has ever built a new system within the last little while knows that if you want a decent graphics card for gaming or development it will come in the form of a PCI-express card which is the current replacement to the AGP standard.  The motherboard in said system had on-board video and it did not perform well enough to run the CAD application that the system was used for.  So we decided to upgrade the video card to either a GeForce 8400 or 8800 GS series card.  These are good entry level cards and work with most systems.  Unfortunately for us, not this system.  I shut the computer off and opened the case and inserted the card.  Which was fairly straight forward.  Then I booted the system with the monitor plugged into the analog port on the new GeForce card.  Low and behold the system booted up with no post errors and continued to load with no video.  Thinking okay maybe it is using the DVI port as the default output, I decided to plug the DVI to Analog adapter in and plug the monitor into that.  Still no video.  So shut the computer down with the power button soft off, unplugged the monitor from the add in card and plugged it into the on-board video port again.  I left the GeForce card in the slot just to see what would happen and turned the computer back on.  This time the card’s fan spun as before but I had video.  In a normal situation with an add-in card the motherboard will shut down the on-board video and feed the video output through the add-in card.  So I start tapping the key sequence to get to the BIOS setup but wait.  I got a message on the screen saying this system only supports SVDO/ADD2 cards in the X16 slot.  What?  So I get to digging and I find this.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document…

Cool.  So basically what this tells me is that the only card that will fit this slot and do anything is a $20-$30 card that only has a DVI or S-Video port and actually runs off of and extends the on-board video.  In other words this slot is USLESS!  Good job Intel.  Not your best idea.  Needless to say that new GeForce card will either have to be sent back or used in another system.  As for what we will have to do to the CAD system?  Can anyone say replacement?

The other day I wrote about cleaning your computer.  We cleaned an E-machine system of viruses today and I snapped some shots of the inside to show what to watch for with dirt build-up inside your case.

Many machine’s these days get neglected in the cleaning department.  A standard computer acts like an air filter in a way.  It draws air in for cooling and exhausts it over the processor and power supply.  The air going in can be riddled with dust and debris depending on the environment.  That debris get trapped in the heat sink for the processor and in the power supply.

First of all choose a decent air can.  We at Meuchel Computer Services use an air compressor with a moisture trap, but for this demonstration we will be using a Blow Off Duster.

For a simple quick clean if the computer gets regularly maintained you may just need to blow out the back ports and the power supply grid.

Then turn it around a blow out the drive bays.

The next part is removal of the case cover to get inside.  Most generic cases, again we are using a generic Diablo case for this demonstration, have 2 screws to remove on the side of the case opposite the motherboard ports.

This case then allows you to slide the side back about 1/2 to 1 inch and pull it away.

Once inside you can blow the dust out of the power supply fan.  This demonstration is showing an OCZ GameXStream 700 watt power supply.

Then blow out the drive bays from the inside.

Then the processor fan and the heat pipes (the little copper fins next to the processor) if any.  This demonstration is showing an AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ mounted to an Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe Motherboard.

Then just to clean up a little blow everything off with a dust over and make sure the add in cards get dusted as well.

When your done you can close the case backup and plug it all back in to play.

You can buy these fine blow off products in store at Meuchel Computer Services & Office Supplies of Watford City.

Also check out our website here for other canned air.

          Meuchel Computer Services has started to collect old computers to make into a “crunching farm.”   The idea behind this project is to put computers into service working for the World Community Grid.  Crunching farms are uses to do work that normally a Super Computer would do such as processing data for good causes like cancer research, which is the project that we will be participating in.  We are looking for computers with good processors and lots of memory but any computer will work to add to the grid.  No hard drives are necessary as all the processing is done in memory and the computers boot from a CD-ROM.  What better way to let your old PC live on by allowing it to try to help someone else live on.  Who knows, if we can help find a cure we may help save a loved one of your own.

          Most research facilities can afford to purchase their own computing power but medical research facilities need all the help they can get.  Unfortunately since this is a project that MCS is donating it’s time and resource to, we are unable to pay for any used computers, but know that this is as good of a cause as donating money to the National Cancer Society.

          To find more on World Community Grid projects go to www.worldcommunitygrid.org.

Microsoft Office bundles range from $150 to $450.  Windows XP and Vista operating systems range from $90 to $250.  Here is an alternate solution to the software price crunch.

Try OpenOffice.org as a replacement to Microsoft Office.  It is an open source office suite including a spreadsheets, word processing, database maintenance, presentations, graphics and more.  The great part is that it is distributed under the open source license, which means it is 100% free.  Check it out at www.openoffice.org.

Try Ubuntu as a replacement for your operating system needs.  Ubuntu is an operating system based off of Linux and is also distributed under the open source license.  Check it out at www.ubuntu.com.

Want more open source solutions? Check out www.sourceforge.net for tons of open source projects created by programmers that believe that software should be free.  Remember that if you use an open source product a lot, it is always courteous to offer donations to the cause.

Use of open source solutions limits your support options as most of the software is self-support only.  Also it may not run under Windows unless it is specified.

Granted there have been a lot of complaints about Windows Vista.  Old printers and other accessories do not work.  Old software is not compatible.  Asking for authorizations for certain processes is a hassle.  But what a lot of people don’t understand is that these “issues” are actually done to compliment customer requests.  Not supporting old software and hardware was done to eliminate security risks that were open to hackers and other internet crime.  The authorizations are to protect a user from accidentally causing harm to their system.  All in all Vista is not that bad of a beast.  It has a pretty friendly user interface and a nice look.  It just requires a little more hardware to run it than the good ol’ Windows XP.  Oh and those of you who were waiting for Windows Vista’s first Service Pack before making your purchase, wait no longer as it has been released.

As Windows XP reaches end of life, vendors and system builders will no longer be able to sell Windows XP on new systems.  If you are not planning on migrating to Windows Vista be sure to pick up a license of Windows XP Retail Version, as any OEM or pre-installed version of XP cannot be transferred to your new PC.  Custom systems can still be built with XP sor a little while longer so if you are planning to get a new computer and want XP preinstalled, make sure to do it soon as it won’t last forever.