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Netbook Update: I love it X2

February 28, 2009 | 5 comments

I received my replacement Acer Aspire One a few days ago and have had some more time to play with it. I’m glad I got a replacement, as after using this one a lot, it’s clear there was more wrong with the previous one than just the sound:

  • In comparison to the new one, the original netbook I received ran hot – really hot. The bottom of it was rather hot to the touch after an hour or so of use.
  • The first one didn’t like standby much; sometimes it would work, other times when I tried to use standby, I’d end up having to reboot the computer, as it would go into standby but not come out of it.
  • I’ve not had a single lock-up with the new one, even after using it for a number of hours. The first one locked up three or four times in the limited time that I had it.

In hindsight, it’s clear that there was something very wrong with the first one, but I think my judgment was clouded by the fact that I didn’t want to send my new toy back. Can’t blame a guy, can you?

As I said in my first post about it, if you’re looking for a laptop to take notes on and use for other light duty, I can’t recommend one of these enough. While I did my homework, I still had reservations about it when I purchased it. I don’t now. The little thing rocks. I’m moving all of my note-taking for class into OneNote 2007, and syncing things up between my computers with Dropbox. I just wish I’d had one of them when I started college.

One other note which is not specifically about the Aspire One but is related: Kudos to amazon.com for once again pulling through as a wonderful company to deal with. I had no trouble in submitting my request for a replacement, and I got the replacement netbook the very next day, as they upgraded the shipping on it to one day shipping for free. They also supplied a prepaid shipping label to ship the defective one back.

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Acer Aspire One: I love it. Can I have one that isn’t broken?

February 23, 2009 | 6 comments

If you follow me on Twitter, you already know that I recently bought an Acer Aspire One. I’ve had it for a few days now, and so far, I love the little thing (but more below). My primary concern about purchasing it was the keyboard; I have ogre hands (okay, they’re not green), and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to touch type on it. This ended up being a nonexistent problem, as I can type just as quickly on it as I do a regular keyboard, with only a few more typos thrown in here and there.

While I’d love to say that it worked right out of the  box, I can’t – in fact, it was DOA. I took it out of the box, looked over the quick start guide, and then followed the easy instructions: plug it in, open it up, and hit the power button. In the instructions, the picture for the next step showed a person logging onto Windows. Instead of being greeted with a booting computer, however, I was shown a black screen, a green power light, and no hard drive activity. Following rule number one of dealing with computers, I tried turning it off and back on again, but still just got a black screen. I tried increasing the screen brightness, thinking that perhaps it was set to 0, but that didn’t do anything either.

While I certainly wasn’t overjoyed, I also didn’t freak. It’s a computer, and DOAs happen. I poked around online to see if there was any information about the problem (beyond “It’s dead, Jim”), and came across a post about the Acer Aspire One’s BIOS occasionally becoming corrupted, causing the unit to not, well, do much of anything. Apparently, the Aspire One has a built-in BIOS recovery routine, which allows you to flash the BIOS even if the machine won’t boot up. Figuring I had nothing to lose – what am I going to do, make it not boot up? – I gave it a try. I followed the linked guide, and after a bit of tinkering, it actually worked. I had to try it multiple times because the computer kept ignoring my flash drive. When it started reading though, it took perhaps 20 seconds, then the computer rebooted, greeting me with the Acer screen followed by Windows. Success!

All’s well that ends well, however, and things didn’t end quite so well despite me being able to revive the little thing. While it works quite well, there’s something wrong with the sound. If music is playing while I’m typing, the sound often becomes staticy or cuts in and out. Last night it cut out completely. The “fix”? Lightly tapping on the unit below the keyboard. I found that if I had music going, I could reproduce the static / cut out problem by resting my hands on the unit in a couple of places.  I’m not really sure what that means – a loose connection, maybe? – but I know that if tapping the device fixes it, it’s something I don’t want to mess with.

I’ve filed a replacement claim with amazon.com, as I really do like the thing – I just want one without any bizarre issues. I had the chance to use it once in class to take notes (the primary reason I bought it), and found it to be infinitely better than taking notes by hand. I caught every word, and my right hand wasn’t aching at the end of a 50 minute session. Other thoughts: The battery life seems excellent, and the screen is much clearer and crisper than I expected. I’m definitely not going to be playing Call of Duty 4 on it, but for the internet, taking notes, and other light duty, I think it’s perfect. Someone in my class remarked, “That may be the coolest thing I’ve ever seen – it’s so tiny!” While I don’t know if I’d say coolest, it is pretty awesome. For those of you who have been asking me via Twitter if I’d recommend one – most definitely. Assuming my replacement doesn’t have any issues, I’ll be very, very happy with the purchase.

One other little oddity about all of this: my original package wasn’t shipped from “Amazon.com”, but from “Amazon.com Returns.” I’m not really sure what the explanation for that is; in all my years of buying from them, I’ve never received a package from that address. Perhaps they sent me one which another customer had returned, which might go far in explaining some of the issues I ran into. Has anyone else ever received a purchase “Amazon.com Returns”?

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Computer Tales: Is That Plugged Into the Right Spot?

November 6, 2008 | 6 comments

As some of you may recall, I bought parts to build a new computer a little over a month ago. My tale last left off with me awaiting the arrival of a heat sink and fan, so I could actually, you know, turn the new comuter on without melting my desk. Let us pick things up there.

Having ordered it from Newegg, it arrived fairly quickly. When I first opened it, I was concerned that it wasn’t going to fit inside the case; the thing is massive. I actually ended up having to remove the exhaust port tube from the interior of my case – the black pastic thing on the right panel:

Not a problem, not a problem, I had a fan I wanted to mount there anyway…

After removing the tube, I fought with the monstrosity for 20 minutes or so to get it mounted on the CPU. For those who have never mounted a heat sink and fan on a CPU, it can be a real pain in the butt. The instructions make it sound easy – just slip the clips over one side, then the other side, then pull the lever, done! – but it’s actually much more troublesome than that. It’s easy to get the clips over one side, but when you start moving the heatsink around to get the clips down over the other side, guess what happens? The first clips you mounted slide off. D’oh.

Anyroad – after a bit of frustration and a few choice words aimed at the heatsink, it was mounted and plugged into the motherboard. Upon powering up, the computer nor my desk melted; success. Kind of, anyway. Bet you saw that coming, didn’t you?

I went through the usual routine then, installing Windows, installing programs, etc. The computer worked (and continues to work!) fine. Recently, however, I ran into a few issues, though. Namely, after running a system intensive game for a while, I’d get the very occasional system reboot, or the graphics would mess up and then the system would reboot. Ruh roh; sounds like it’s getting too hot in my case.

I downloaded a nifty little application called SpeedFan, which, along with telling you the RPMs of your fans, also displays the various temperature readings of your hardware: CPU, CPU ambient, GPU, etc. While the temperatures were a little warm for my likings, what really shocked me was the RPM of my CPU fan: 800! Having bought this thing, I expected to see a minimum of 900, and a maximum of 2200. Not only was it running 100RPM below specifications, it was also never going any higher, even when I configured SpeedFan to speed the fan up at a lower temperature reading.

I thought that perhaps the fan didn’t like SpeedFan, or vice versa, so I installed the software that came with my motherboard, EasyTune Pro 5, to see if it could control the fan. I was unable to figure the program out, as it’s utter junk, but what it did do was provide an important piece of the puzzle. When I looked at its hardware monitoring display, it showed that my SYSTEM fan was running at 800RPM, and next to the CPU fan reading, there was… well, a red, blinking exclamation point. Ummm… that doesn’t sound good, now does it?

It then occurred to me that the software was just reporting what the hardware was telling it, so something was obviously wrong on the hardware side. I popped the case open, and after referring to my motherboard manual again, I discovered the problem. Apparently, the plugs on the motherboard labeled CPU_FAN and SYS_FAN are identical. Except one is labeled CPU_FAN and SYS_FAN, of course (oops). They both provide the same amount of base juice, so, for example, plugging your CPU fan into the SYS_FAN plug won’t make anything blow up. It’ll just make your CPU fan unable to increase its RPM as it’s supposed to.

May I repeat a word from above? Oops. After plugging the CPU fan in where it was supposed to be plugged in, amazingly, it started to function correctly. When launching a system intensive application, the RPMs would jump up to not 2200 but 2300.

Apparently, one needs to not only RTFM, but also pay attention to what it’s telling you. Be gentle in the comments.

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A Tale of Geekish Woe

October 2, 2008 | 8 comments

Or, check your order thoroughly before clicking “Submit Order” at Newegg.

I received a chunk of change from the college this semester, money left over from my grants and my loan. I decided I would use some of this to put together a new computer for myself, as my current one, while nice, is showing its age – particularly with newer games. I thought that upgrading my video card would fix matters, but while it did help, things still chug along occasionally. Bioshock is playable, as is Company of Heroes; but in both, the framerate dives frequently. I can’t play Call of Duty 4 at all, which I’d like to give a go.

So, a new computer it was to be. I spent a week or so adding things to my wishlist at Newegg, removing things, shuffling things, trying to find the best deal for a good gaming computer. I finally decided I had it all laid out as I wanted – an AMD dual core 5400+ processor, a PNY GeForce 8800GT video card, 2GB of RAM. Reading reviews at Newegg, it was clear such a machine would run Bioshock and my other games amazingly well.

I submitted my order Tuesday. In Newegg fashion, my stuff was shipped out that day. I dutifully refreshed the tracking page frequently, obsessing over the current location of my techno goodies only as a true geek could. This morning, the tracking information showed what I’d been wanting to see: out for delivery.

Things took a turn for the worse, however. No, the UPS driver wasn’t in an accident, thank goodness; no, what happened was, I discovered a flaw in my build. While perusing further reviews for the processor I’d bought, I saw something that threw fear into my heart: “like the fact that it doesn’t come with any heat sink or fan, so I can buy the one I want.”

No heat sink or fan? No heat sink or fan? But I thought it had one! It’s retail, just like the last AMD processor I bought, and that one came with a heat sink and fan!

Alas, no; I checked the specifications for the processor, and lo’ and behold, at the bottom of the page: no heat sink and fan. For those who aren’t geeks, this is bad. Why? Because without a heat sink and fan for your processor, you can’t even turn the computer on – you’d burn the processor up in a matter of seconds.

After getting off work, I called around town, checking with all of the local computer shops for a heat sink and fan combo. None of the shops had any. Shortly after I gave up calling around town, I ordered one from Newegg. Shortly after that, my computer parts showed up: a new case, power supply, motherboard, processor, memory, massive hard drive, and awesome video card. All good for absolutely nothing until my heat sink and fan arrive, which won’t be until at least Monday.

I went ahead and put it all together tonight, so now the new (unusable) computer tower is sitting my room. Unlit. Unpowered. Dead, even. Fresh electronic parts, all hooked up to each other, ready to go – and I can’t turn it on.

Geek agony, lemme’ tell ya’. Next time, I’ll double check such things. Until then, maybe I could set it up in our big chest freezer…

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Josh Vs. The Video Card

February 24, 2008 | 4 comments

If you’ve worked with computers for a while, you’ve probably heard some standard things about maintaining your system. Defrag the hard drive regularly; keep your virus definitions up-to-date; uninstall stuff you’re not using to free up space; update your drivers, especially if you’re trying to fix a problem or get the best performance out of your hardware. My computer recently taught me, however, that updating your drivers is sometimes not a good thing. Sometimes, newer is not better; sometimes, newer is total junk.

A couple weeks ago, I bought a new video card for my aging computer, in order to give it enough juice to run some newer games I’d like to check out. (I will also openly admit that I wanted to be able to run some of my older games at max settings and still get a good framerate. Yes, I’m a geek.) I’d been running an nVidia Quadro4 750XGL for a long while, a piece of hardware I bought when I thought I was going to get into 3D modeling – a hobby that never really developed. The card had done well in running games, something it wasn’t even really built for, but some Source games were a bit clunky, even if I used low settings, and Company of Heroes was even worse. To replace it, I bought a Sapphire X1650 512MB card after poking around on newegg.com. It seemed to have, on average, very good reviews, and it’s AGP, which is all my motherboard supports. Reviewers said that it ran all sorts of newish games very well at high settings, including Half-Life 2, which is a Source engine game. The card sounded right for me.

I got it in short order, due to newegg.com’s wonderful lightning-fast service. After physically installing it into my computer*, I moved on to the next thing: drivers. Thinking I was oh-so-techy, I figured I wouldn’t even bother with the outdated drivers on the CD that came with the video card. Instead, I would get online and get the latest and greatest set, or maybe even some optimized drivers! I went to guru3d.com and surveyed the landscape; aha! I found Omega drivers, which are optimized for performance. I nabbed them. I installed them, rebooted as requested, and then fired up Day of Defeat: Source to see if the new video card made a difference. And wow, what… the hell? Why was Day of Defeat running the same, or perhaps even worse, than it did with the Quadro4?

I tried out other various games I’d played before – Company of Heroes, Counter Strike: Source, Half Life 2. While they were vaguely prettier due to the new card supporting some shading stuff that the Quadro4 didn’t, overall, the difference was nonexistent. Framerates in all of them were awful, sometimes dropping so low that the games were essentially unplayable. Certainly, they weren’t flying, which is what I had expected from all of the rave reviews at newegg.com.

For a week or so I kept trying to play the games, tweaking settings on the video card using the ATI Tray Tools application, which came with my so-very-optimized Omega drivers. Nothing made much of a difference. Day of Defeat: Source, even using all low settings, ran about like it did before. I was quite bummed overall. I felt like I’d spent $75 and ended up with the exact same thing I’d had before.

After toying with settings and staring at bad framerates, I decided that something was not right, and that I should perhaps check out the newegg.com reviews again. 10 minutes of skimming and I found a recurring issue – people loved the cards, but drivers could be problematic. More importantly, many people who had grabbed the latest drivers from ATI – the drivers that the Omega drivers are built on top of – persistently ran into problems. However, if they went back to the old drivers that came on the disk, things were great.

So, going against my usual habits – so long ingrained that they’re more like instincts – I uninstalled the latest and greatest Omega drivers, rebooted my computer, and installed the (rather old and outdated) drivers that came with the video card. I rebooted again, fired up Day of Defeat: Source, and proceeded to oooh and ahhh like I was watching Fourth of July fireworks. Everything was running on high, and it was running fast. I tried Half Life 2, and oooh’d and ahhh’d some more. Company of Heroes had me bouncing up and down in my chair, pointing at stuff and saying things like “check out the texture quality!” I even downloaded the demo of Bioshock, and was very pleasantly surprised to find that it not only ran, but it ran well enough to be quite playable, even on my aging system.

My ATI video card taught me that newer isn’t always better – even when it comes to drivers. I guess I’ll have to amend my “how to fix a computer problem” bible now.

I may end up checking out the official updated drivers, but if things go boom, at least I know the old drivers will work well.

Post Script – Read The Frakking Manual

* The physical installation did not go smoothly. I got the card and rushed to my computer like the overgrown little boy I can be. I’m sure I looked silly, with a big grin across my face.

I yanked the old card out, then pulled the new one out of the anti-static bag it was in. I put it in the computer, hooked the monitor up to it, and pressed the power button on my computer. The monitor clicked on and… nothing. Well, it was something – green, yellow, and red, slashing across my screen in nasty, jagged lines. Not quite what I wanted to see. I tried rebooting the computer (always step #1 if you’re having computer problems), and got the same thing. I then decided that I should perhaps look at the quick start guide. It told me what I already knew: take out the old card, put in the new one, and turn the computer on.

I examined the card closely, and thought that perhaps it wasn’t seated well in the AGP slot. I took it out, and put it in again; that time, I thought I saw it go into the slot a bit deeper. Aha! I thought. This shall yield success. Alas, hitting the power button told a different story. Same jagged lines; same nastiness.

At this point I was in a bit of a panic. Had I gotten a bad card? Would I have to go to the trouble of getting an RMA, sending it back to newegg, and then having another go with a different card? I decided to inspect the box more closely, to see if I’d missed anything important. By that, of course, I mean I really looked in the box for the first time, because upon opening it, all I’d grabbed was the card. That’s all I needed, right?

I found a little power cord. Before I found that, however, I moved the anti-static bag out of the way; when I did that, I noticed that, on the underside of it, there was a sticker. I flipped the bag over. On the sticker, in big red letters:

STOP!!! You MUST plug this graphics board into the power supply of your computer. Please see the Quick Start guide for details.

Oops. I used the power cord the card came with to hook it into my power supply, hit the power button on my system, and – well, imagine that! It worked.

A long time ago, when I first started messing about with computers, I often read in tech forums this simple response (usually not directed at me, to be fair): RTFM. Read the… well, let’s say frakking manual, but that’s not what it stood for. :)

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