http://www.bootdisk.com/ 002 April 2007
HouseCall
Welcome to the 2nd Edition of HouseCall
INDEX
1) Nero 7 In Vista?
2) The Case Of The PC Speaker
3) Is 512 RAM For Vista OK?
4) Frantic Disk Activity
5) I'd Like A New Girlfriend
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1) Nero 7 In Vista?
Mahmadi wrote - I am using Windows Vista Ultimate edition and beside that I know some software are still not compatible, yet I tried to install Nero7 but it didn't go through correctly and stopped the installation, however, it shows that I have a directory in my hard disk with the name Nero 7 but I can't use it since its not installed correctly. I tried to uninstall it but couldn't succeed. I used General Clean tools from Nero in order to uninstall it but also with no success.
Mike B. replied:
Ensure you are using the very latest version of Nero from their web site - that install and runs fine on Vista.
Kirk said:
You need to make sure that you have Nero 7 Ultra Edition Enhanced. That is the version that will run with Vista.
Bromine adds:
Try: http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm
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2) The Case Of The PC Speaker
GT questioned - Why does the PC speaker header need 4 pins and why is the speaker connector 4 pins wide, but only use pin 1 and 4. I have a black (neg) wire on pin 1 and red (pos) wire to pin 4?
*** Sometimes the speaker wire to the motherboard will even have pin 2 or 3 blocked out. Ifs that's the case then just cut the connector in half or drill through the blocked pin 2 or 3 on the speaker connector. It doesn't matter which way you connect it either as either way will work. The speaker wires are often many different colors, eg yellow and black are quite popular. In addition, the speaker connector may not be labeled for pin 1, tho most/many motherboards do have that label on them for the speaker.
kony added:
Anyone who doesn't have drill bits that small (since what you'd typically find in a hardware store or generic drill bit pack is no smaller than 1/16", way too big for this
purpose) can instead heat up a needle hot enough to melt it's way into the blanked position on the connector, then use a knife to trim away any flared material remaining on the surface.
*** Furthermore, the PC Case speaker is often more important than you think. Oddly tho, many case makers these days are saving $0.25 by not including a PC speaker with the case. When and if you build a PC yourself be sure and connect the PC speaker right off the bat as you want to hear that "beep" when trying to post as that's a good sign you're on the right track. If you hear repeating beeps, either multiple short or short/long beeps than it's almost always a mis-seated video card or bad/mismatched/mis-seated/wrong type RAM.
Noozer buds in:
For the perfectionists out there. There actually is a correct connection for the speaker wires.
Pin 1 is the sound
Pin 2 is the key - the missing pin
Pin 3 is GND
Pin 4 is +5v
The connections should be the +5v pin to the + on the speaker, and the sound pin to the - on the speaker. The PC makes noise by toggling pin 1 to ground.
Of course it will work the other way, but the polarity on the speaker will be backwards.
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3) Is 512 RAM For Vista OK?
Andy posted - I was at a friends Dell Vista Dimension E520 today with 512MB RAM and when I went to control panel / system advanced it was reporting paging/virtual memory as recommended 754mb but saying currently allocated 1024mb (or something like that) so I set virtual memory manually system managed size and restarted the PC and when it restarted it was still reporting the allocated was more than the recommended why is the PC doing this?
Former captain of the Enterprise answered:
Recommended. Is only 1.5 times the amount of the ram you have. They give that number so people wont put whatever numbers comes to them randomly as a guideline!
If windows needs more paging file it enlarges it. why do you worry?
*** Obviously and very easy to see is that 512 RAM is no where near enough to run Vista properly and the associated background apps. Andy has loading up on startup. Adding more RAM to that Dell will certainly speed things up very noticeably.
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4) Frantic Disk Activity
Juliet Foxtrot complained - Have a brand new computer delivered with Vista Home Premium.
Once every day when I first start the computer there is 20 to 30 mins of frantic disk activity and a loss of some disk space. Can anyone explain what Vista is doing for me. Have checked the following and it's not:
Restore Point (not daily and last one 3 days ago)
Windows Update (does it when no internet connection)
Anti Virus Software (happened before I installed it)
Can find NO files with relevant date, have even tried viewing System and Hidden Files but nothing big enough to account for the loss of disk space.
Perhaps I am just imagining it, but if anyone out there has any idea as to what Vista is doing, I would be forever thankfull. Could I be imagining the disk space loss, could it just be changes to the page file?
Former captain of the Enterprise responds:
Vista has some "hidden" things working in the background.
Like FILE INDEXING to make search faster
SUPERFETCH to make programs load faster
and DISK DEFRAGMENTING that works also in the background
You can disable any of these from > Control panel (in the classic view) |Administrative tools |Services. However I would suggest that if you are not comfortable with changing such settings to just leave them as they are; The indexing will stop thrashing after some time (according to the amount of files you have).
Yes I know. Many people hate these "features" and I can understand them 100%
I would vote for a nice GUI options with buttons that people can find easily to turn these tools on and off according to what they prefer. ie not things hidden as services that force your computer to thrash its disk.
Also make sure you have no viruses and adware spyware.
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5) I'd Like A New Girlfriend
SeanV posted - Are there any other voices to download? Microsoft Anna is getting boring. I want some custom ones. Any ideas?
DanR wrote:
I use the NeoSpeech (Kate and Paul). Very realistic human speech. Not typical computer voice. However I don't think the speech engine is edit able to correct
mispronunciations.
unlearned added:
I would suggest AT&T Voices:
*** Background:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Anna
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