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Windows Secrets Newsletter • Issue 101 • 2007-03-22 • Circulation: over 270,000
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For links to every subtopic in this issue, scroll down to the
Index |
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INTRODUCTION Next issue is Apr. 5, no issue on Mar. 29
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LANGALIST TIPS Hundreds of hard-drive repair tips!
When to put your drive in the freezer Unbelievable! It's been a month, and the reader e-mails are still coming in about heat and cold, and their effects on various storage media. We first discussed "How to predict CDR and DVD-R longevity" in the Feb. 8 issue. We continued with "CD-Rs don't survive freezing temperatures" in the Feb. 22 issue, and "Cold weather can damage hard drives" in the Mar. 1 issue. We then ran "Worldwide responses to CD longevity" in the Mar. 15 issue, which covered data tapes and flash drives. But, there's more — as this reader note from Ken Stewart suggests — beginning with a way that extreme cold can actually benefit an ailing hard drive:
Clearly, these fixes run the risk of further damaging a drive. They truly are last-ditch efforts to be called upon only when you've already tried the normal drive fixes without success and have nothing left to lose. (We'll come back to this in a moment.) The freezing trick sometimes works because the mechanical contraction/expansion may help free up binding parts. Other times, the cold can help an aging, failingelectrical component to remain within specs for at least a few minutes — perhaps enough time for you to recover your essential data from the drive. Here's how the freezing trick works: Take the dying, otherwise-irreparable hard drive out of your computer, and place it a Ziploc bag (to help minimize condensation on the drives). Put the bagged drive in a freezer for several hours. Then, working fast, take the drive out, remove the bag, and reconnect the chilled drive to the PC. If the drive spins up and seems to be working, get your essential data off the drive as fast as you possibly can. The best option for this is to selectively copy portions of the dying drive to a new drive. Start with the most essential folder trees (My Documents, for example), and then copy increasingly less important folders as the drive warms up. Odds are, the drive will again become erratic or fail. But, if you're lucky, you'll be able to squeeze one last brief use from it. The above method can work, but it's classification as a "last-ditch effort" begs the question: What are the front-line techniques? Glad you asked! Here's a series of articles I wrote that will walk you through a whole range of proven techniques for resurrecting a dead hard drive (including the in-the-freezer trick mentioned above): Dead Drive Fix Hard Drive Repair Options (Part One) Hard Drive Repair Options (Part Two) More Dead Drive Fixes Finally, a gem: 200 ways to revive a hard drive. It's from TechRepublic, and you have to register (free) to download it. But between that and the four items mentioned above, you'll be well-equipped to handle just about any hard-drive problem you may encounter! How to stop repetitive patch-update offers Ever had Windows Update repeatedly offer you the same patch again and again, even after you've downloaded and installed it? Reader Rick Framme finds himself frustrated by this problem:
It's actually not that hard to fix, but the explanation takes some space. Rather than eat up the rest of this issue on that one topic, please allow me to point you to Web sites with the information you seek. The Windows Update Resource Page has an enormous number of tips relating to specific update problems, but the information at the top of the page is rather dated. Instead, scroll two-thirds of the way down the page to the text section that appears after the list of links. Try steps I-V. I'll bet that will fix what's blocking your update. If this doesn't work, try cleaning out any reference to the failed install in the C:\WUtemp folder. Then manually download and install the troublesome file. See How to download updates and drivers from the Windows Update Catalog. You can also try the Windows Update Troubleshooter, especially if you have a specific error message to look up. Find out what's bogging down your PC Reader Les Griffin's PC is running with the brakes on, and he's looking for a fix:
Now, to address the problem at hand. Most modern BIOSes offer several built-in default settings, usually labeled something like "Safe," "Normal," and "Optimal." The Safe setting almost always works, but disables most or all advanced and speed-enhancing features. You can think of this as the hardware equivalent of Windows' Safe Mode. The Normal setting uses the most common enhancements, but doesn't push the hardware to its limits; this is often the Default setting, which you say you enabled, Les. The Optimal setting turns on most or all of the motherboard's advanced features and speed enhancements. If your BIOS offers the Optimal settings, your first step might be to try them rather than the normal or default settings, which may indeed be slower than what you're used to. If none of the built-in settings give you the performance you seek, then you may have to try making individual adjustments. Two of the more common problem areas affecting a PC's speed are the CPU Multiplier and the speed of the front side bus (FSB). Getting these speeds wrong can do anything from drastically slowing down your PC to even preventing it from working altogether. If you need to adjust these speeds (i.e., if none of the built-in, preset values work), your best bet may be to contact ASUS tech support and simply ask them to tell you what the correct settings are. The ASUS support page is a little hard to find, but I located it for you here. If that doesn't work, or as a parallel inquiry, check out your favorite search engine and fire up your newsgroup reader to see what other people with the same setup are using. For example, a group of Microsoft Certified System Engineers have created their own, independent online discussion board that already has a section on ASUS problems, such as this thread. The "overclocking" crowd (users who push their PCs to speeds beyond what the manufacturer intended) can also be a rich resource for motherboard and BIOS information. For instance, Overclock.net has more than 425 discussion items on motherboards alone. Surely, one of those resources will get you going again! Does Vista really need 4GB of RAM? Reader Paul was alarmed at what he recently read in a computer magazine:
For Vista, Microsoft says you need at least an 800MHz processor, 512 MB of RAM, and a graphics processor that's at least DirectX 9 compatible. Vista will indeed run on such a system, but you won't enjoy the experience. You'll also lose key features of Vista, such as the new interface. Microsoft's "recommended" standard — including a 1GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM, a graphics card with at least 128 MB of video RAM, a WDDM driver, and 32 bits/pixel output — is a more realistic minimum for real-life use, where you'd actually be trying to be productive with Vista. A system like this should allow all the key components of Vista to load and run. But even then, a "recommended" hardware standard is not the same as an "optimal" setup. Many pundits recommend at least 2GB of RAM, which was a sweet spot for XP. Vista is larger and more complex than XP, so it will not run as well on 2GB as XP does. Nevertheless, many users will find Vista's performance perfectly acceptable in this range. That's where the 4GB recommendations come in. All the 32-bit versions of Vista can handle up to 4GB of RAM (the 64-bit versions can handle more). So, the reasoning goes, you might as well throw in as much RAM as Vista will allow. That way, you'll have access to all of the new operating system's features with no performance loss compared to XP. So, does Vista really need 4GB? No. Vista will run in a limited way with as little as 512MB. It will run passingly with 1GB, and fairly well with 2GB. But, if you're looking to get as much out of Vista as it has to offer, then yes, you need 4GB of RAM. Fred Langa is editor of the Windows Secrets Newsletter. He was editor of Byte Magazine (1987 to 1991) and editorial director of CMP Media (1991 to 1996), overseeing Windows Magazine and others. He edited the LangaList e-mail newsletter from 1997 to 2006, when it merged with Windows Secrets. The following LangaList Plus tips are in today's paid newsletter: • When should you load new software? • Update reads legacy help files in Vista • Getting HyperTerminal back into Vista • MSN Messenger Sidebar widget for Vista • More about monitoring children's Internet usage • How to understand Windows system services |
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WACKY WEB WEEK Jazzy new look at a Hindu epic
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YOUR SUBSCRIPTION The Windows Secrets Newsletter is published weekly on the 1st through 4th Thursdays of each month, plus occasional news updates. Vacation breaks occur in late August, Thanksgiving Week, and Christmas/New Year's. Publisher: WindowsSecrets.com LLC, 300 Queen Anne Ave. N. #456, Seattle, WA 98109 USA. Vendors, please send no unsolicited packages to this address (readers' letters are fine). Editorial Director: Brian Livingston. Editor: Fred Langa. Associate Editor: Scott Dunn. Contributing Editors: Susan Bradley, Mark Edwards, Woody Leonhard, Chris Mosby, Ryan Russell. Research Director: Vickie Stevens. Program Director: Brent Scheffler. Managing Editor: Jody Braverman. Trademarks: Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. The Windows Secrets series of books is published by Wiley Publishing Inc. The Windows Secrets Newsletter, WindowsSecrets.com, LangaList, LangaList Plus, WinFind, Security Baseline, Patch Watch, Perimeter Scan, Wacky Web Week, the Logo Design (W, S or road, and Star), and the slogan Everything Microsoft Forgot to Mention all are trademarks and service marks of WindowsSecrets.com LLC. All other marks are the trademarks or service marks of their respective owners. HOW TO SUBSCRIBE: Anyone may subscribe to this newsletter by visiting our free signup page. WE GUARANTEE YOUR PRIVACY: 1. We will never sell, rent, or give away your address to any outside party, ever. 2. We will never send you any unrequested e-mail, besides newsletter updates. 3. All unsubscribe requests are honored immediately, period. Privacy policy HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: To unsubscribe from the Windows Secrets Newsletter,
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