Tuesday, July 31, 2007
unrar for Ubuntu
The Archive Manager in Ubuntu doesn't handle password-protected rar file well. It doesn't prompt for password, only failing with an error. A post on the Ubuntu forum led me to install unrar (non-free) from multiverse. This adds a "extract here" option in the right-click menu and that does prompt for password.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Struggling with Windows freezing/reset issue
My WinXP x64 would freeze after typing in username/password - the color bar stops moving. Or it'd freeze even after just clicking "Shut Down" - the button would stuck.
One thing seemed to help is unplug KVM after forcing it to shut down, but it may just be a coincidence. Unplugging KVM before starting doesn't seem to help.
Today it got worse - XP actually reset it self a few seconds into the logo stage. After a few safe mode boot, again unplugging KVM seems to be helping. The ntbtlog.txt doesn't contain anything interesting.
System log showed consistently driver blocking for pfc.sys and GEARaspiWDM.sys under SysWOW64. They seem to be from Intervideo and iTunes.
I disabled Application Experience Lookup service, just because all failed start (freezing) seemed to stop right before the AEL event, compared to the successful ones. Also disabled WWW, Image Acquisition, Proxy Auto-discovery, and Error-reporting services, just for the sake of it.
The only major changes I remember happening before this issue is installing PerfectDisk and x64 SP2.
PS. The computer so far stayed healthy. It may have just been the AEL. Since MS doesn't really say how AEL works (or even what it does), it's probably no big loss without it.
PS. (07-31-2007) Problem came back. Now I just hibernate the machine and it didn't have the problem when waking up. However, for some reason I have to shut down the PSU; otherwise the machine will restart 3 seconds after hibernation.
One thing seemed to help is unplug KVM after forcing it to shut down, but it may just be a coincidence. Unplugging KVM before starting doesn't seem to help.
Today it got worse - XP actually reset it self a few seconds into the logo stage. After a few safe mode boot, again unplugging KVM seems to be helping. The ntbtlog.txt doesn't contain anything interesting.
System log showed consistently driver blocking for pfc.sys and GEARaspiWDM.sys under SysWOW64. They seem to be from Intervideo and iTunes.
I disabled Application Experience Lookup service, just because all failed start (freezing) seemed to stop right before the AEL event, compared to the successful ones. Also disabled WWW, Image Acquisition, Proxy Auto-discovery, and Error-reporting services, just for the sake of it.
The only major changes I remember happening before this issue is installing PerfectDisk and x64 SP2.
PS. The computer so far stayed healthy. It may have just been the AEL. Since MS doesn't really say how AEL works (or even what it does), it's probably no big loss without it.
PS. (07-31-2007) Problem came back. Now I just hibernate the machine and it didn't have the problem when waking up. However, for some reason I have to shut down the PSU; otherwise the machine will restart 3 seconds after hibernation.
AT&T Yahoo! Email Settings Change
# Change the POP server to pop.att.yahoo.com.
# Change the SMTP server to smtp.att.yahoo.com.
# Check the option labeled Use an encrypted connection (SSL) and change the SMTP port to 465.
# Check the option labeled Use an encrypted connection (SSL) and change the POP3 port to 995."
# Change the SMTP server to smtp.att.yahoo.com.
# Check the option labeled Use an encrypted connection (SSL) and change the SMTP port to 465.
# Check the option labeled Use an encrypted connection (SSL) and change the POP3 port to 995."
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Firefox error message - "could not be updated"
Don't know when it started but my Firefox (2.0.0.4) kept saying "Some files could not be updated" upon launch.
Had to do this to get it fixed:
get into c:\documents and settings\{log on}\local settings\application data\Mozilla\firefox. Delete everything in there (active-update.xml, updates.xml, and updates folder).
Had to do this to get it fixed:
get into c:\documents and settings\{log on}\local settings\application data\Mozilla\firefox. Delete everything in there (active-update.xml, updates.xml, and updates folder).
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