Why PCs Die - Part 2

In the last couple of months we've seen a number of Windows XP PCs that won't boot when turned on. Typically the PC appears to start OK by displaying the coloured XP splash screen but then proceeds to the text-only start up screen that gives the option to boot to Safe Mode or to the Last Known Good Configuration. No matter what is selected at this screen the PC either reboots and goes through the splash screen and finishes up again at the text-only start up screen or it results in a stop error screen, more commonly called a blue screen of death or BSOD. The information on the BSOD can vary but generally will include one of the following statements:
Invalid partition table
Error loading operating system
Missing operating system

Getting a message like this can be pretty scary and may cause you to overreact and try to reformat your hard disc and reinstall the operating system - thereby losing any data not previously backed-up.

The cause of the behaviour noted above is generally a corrupt master boot record (MBR). Every hard disk must have a consistent "starting point" where key information is stored about the disk, such as how many partitions it has, what sort of partitions they are, etc. There also needs to be somewhere that the BIOS can load the initial boot program that starts the process of loading the operating system. The place where this information is stored is the MBR and it is always located at cylinder 0, head 0, and sector 1, the first sector on the hard disk. If
the MBR becomes corrupt then the boot process will fail as described above.

Typical causes of corruption in the MBR include it being infected by malicious code (viruses), becoming corrupted by disk errors, or being overwritten by other boot loaders when experimenting with multiple operating systems on a host e.g. GRUB or LILO used by Linux.

Generally corrupt MBRs can be rebuilt using the appropriate recovery tools and, to date, none of our customers have reported a recurrence of the problem.

Squeezebox Ver. 3.0

One of the pieces of technology that has impressed me most over the last couple of years is Slimdevices' Squeezebox, which is now in its 3rd generation and looking prettier than ever. The Squeezebox is a device for streaming music over a home network. "OK", you say, "so why would I be interested in doing that? I'm not a geek.". Well, maybe you wouldn't be. But if you're one of the growing number of people who have an increasing proportion of their music collection on a PC in the form of mp3s, wmas, aiffs, or other relevant formats, and you want to listen to that music somewhere other than sitting at your PC, then a Squeezebox may be for you.

The Squeezebox works in tandem with a piece of software called SlimServer that installs on the PC that holds your music collection. Think of SlimServer as a piece of music management software, like iTunes, RealPlayer or MusicMatch. With SlimServer installed on your PC and a Squeezebox connected to your Hi-Fi (either via an ethernet cable or wirelessly) you can access your music via the supplied remote control in any number of ways. You can play tracks by artist, album, or genre or you can set up playlists that can keep the music going for days on end without repeats (subject to the size of your music collection). In addition, the Squeezebox connects to the Internet to supply you with a vast range of Internet radio stations covering every genre, from classical to calypso and from techno to traditional.

With a traditional CD, vinyl or tape-based music system you listen to an album in the order dictated at the time of recording. When the recording is finished you have to get up and physically remove and replace the recording medium to listen to more music. Not so with a Squeezebox - it really does free up the music. Check out Slimdevices website for more details or contact me if you want a demo (we have a 2nd generation Squeezebox that we are happy to leave with interested customers for up to a week with no obligation to buy). If you are serious about music, you have a high proportion of your music on a PC, and you have a good Hi-Fi system that you'd like to listen to that music on, then the Squeezebox is for you.

A quick word about DRM, or Digital Rights Management. DRM, in the present context, refers to any of several technologies used to enforce pre-defined limitations on how music in digital form can be played. For example, if you rip a CD to your computer, you can generally do what you want with the ripped file, be it in mp3, wav, ogg or other format. However, some CDs have DRM embedded within them and, for that reason, it is not possible to rip them onto your PC.

I mention this only to highlight the fact that, while the purchase of music online is becoming ever more popular, most customers are not aware that a lot of what they are purchasing online is crippled with DRM. For example, because of DRM, all music bought online from Apple's iTune website, and from Eircom's Music Club, cannot be played on the Squeezebox. This is not a limitation of the Squeezebox, all media streaming devices have the same issues when dealing with DRM-crippled music. DRM may stand for digital rights management, but it severely limits your rights of enjoying music that you legitimately paid for. To my mind, this is extreme short-sightedness on the part of the music industry who are only encouraging the computer-savvy individuals out there to come up with creative ways of circumventing DRM and enabling users to get full value out of the product that they paid their hard-earned money for.

This issue won't be over until the Fat Lady Sings ... assuming, that is, that her recording is DRM-free!

Big Trio Tackle Badware

Google, Lenovo Group (who bought IBM's laptop business), and Sun Microsystems are sponsoring a nonprofit effort to fight what they are calling "badware," a collective term for spyware, adware and computer viruses that get installed on computers without the consent of the owner. You can get details at www.stopbadware.org

If you think because you have an antivirus program installed on your computer that you are protected, then think again. Most antivirus programs offer little or no protection against spyware and it's estimated that 85% of internet-connected PCs are infected by some form of spyware. You might think that installing anti-spyware software on your computer will sort you out. The problem is that there are over 180 known bogus anti-spyware programs being offered for sale. These are either programs that take your money and do nothing in return, to programs that you pay for which install even more spyware on your machine. Caveat emptor indeed!

PC Medic recommends Sunbelt Software's Counterspy and Webroot's Spysweeper as two effective and legitimate programs that can keep your system safe from infection. While all legitimate anti-spyware programs can remove spyware from infected machines, don't think that these programs are the answer to all your problems if you have a badly infected machine. It has been PC Medic's experience that when a machine is badly infected with spyware it is often more appropriate to perform a reformat and clean install of the operating system and applications. It's either that or spending several hours with your sleeves rolled up poking around in the registry.

If you have a masochistic streak and want to speed up getting your PC infected by spyware here are a few tips to help you on your way:

1. Download free doodahs to make your desktop prettier e.g. screensavers, toolbars, search bars (Google and Yahoo excepted), wallpaper and cursors.
2. Visit pornography sites.
3. Engage in free music dowloading using peer to peer software such as Kazaa, BearShare and LimeWire.
4. Click on links in unsolicited e-mails (spam)
5. Visit sites that allow downloading of Warez, Crackz and Serialz (software that has its copy protection removed or copied serial codes for legitimate software.
6. Don't bother to read the EULA (end-user license agreement) in free or trial software - it often says you agree to the installation of spyware on your PC.

You have been warned!

Coffee anyone?

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But is it Art?

PC Medic has recently taken delivery of a Wacom Graphire 4 A5 graphics tablet, a device that I've always been keen to try but, up until now, never got around to it. So, what is a graphics tablet? Essentially its a glorified mouse mat and pen that handles your on-screen input instead of your mouse. "Why would I want to use a pen instead of a mouse to work my way around the screen?" I hear you ask. The short answer is that, unless you're using specific graphics packages such as Adobe's Photoshop, Corel's Painter or Jasc's Paint Shop Pro you can happily live your life without a graphics tablet.

However, if you use any of the aforementioned products then you are in for a real treat. If you have ever used a graphics drawing program on your PC and tried to draw with a mouse you will have realised by now that a mouse is not designed for drawing with. What do we use in the real world for drawing? That's right ... pens. And so it goes in cyberworld that drawing with a pen is a much more natural and rewarding experience than with a mouse.

The Graphire 4 is a USB device that installs with no fuss on Windows XP machines. Bundled with the tablet is a copy of Corels's Painter Essentials 2. While this is a cut down version of Corel's powerful Painter IX program it still is an excellent package and shows off the value of a graphics tablet to great effect.

Do you need a graphics tablet? Probably not. However, if you have an artistic bent and want to use your PC for more than just e-mail, then you can have a lot of fun with the Wacom Graphire 4 and the bundled software. At a cost of €199 you need to be sure that you'll use it frequently to recoup the investment but, a bit like broadband, once you have it you'll start using it more and more. The picture at the top of this post was created in less than 5 minutes by myself using the Graphire 4 and Adobe Photoshop Essentials 3, and I confess to being quite proud of the finished product. But, is it Art?

Why PCs Die - Part 1

This is the first part in what will be an ongoing and occasional series looking at the factors that can cause your PC to die or, at best, become fatally wounded.

Despite what you might think, modern PCs are incredibly reliable, at least at the electrical and electronic level. Reliability at the operating system and application software level is another matter entirely, which we'll deal with in coming weeks.

Today I want to talk about the number 1 cause of system failure in a PC, which is faulty power supply units (PSU). For most PC users the PSU is not something that you are likely to be aware of or give any consideration to. Unlike some of the other components, like the CPU or the RAM, there is very little hype about the PSU in the marketing brochures. Let's face it, a piece of metal and wire the size of a brick that converts 230 volts AC into 12, 5 and 3.3 volts DC is not something most of us would cross the road to find out more about. However, its the first part of the computer that the electricity hits when you press the big round button on the front panel so you're right in thinkng that if this component isn't working then the rest of the machine is going to find it tough to get going! In essence, the PSU is a big transformer (or more correctly a series of transformers) that converts the input AC voltage into different output DC voltages. The 3.3- and 5-volt supplies are typically used by digital circuits on the motherboard, while the 12-volt supply is used to run motors in disk drives and fans.

The most common cause of power supply failures is overheating. Once power supplies get to very high temperatures, the components inside of them fail resulting in unacceptable or no voltage being supplied to the computer components. Power supplies generally overheat due to improper airflow through the unit. This typically is the result of either a failing or failed cooling fan or a blocked air intake. One is fairly easy to detect, but the other is more difficult. As a fan's bearings tend to wear out (a precursor to their failure), they produce a greater amount of noise. Often this will be a scraping or high pitched tone. If your power supply is showing these audible signs, its best to take the time and money to replace the power supply. If the fan fails completely, the power supply will likely overheat which can result in greater damage to your components.

As I said at the outset, modern computers are extremely reliable. However, PC Medic can confirm that the most common hardware failure we see is due to defective PSUs. More about PSUs again.

PC Medic's PCs

I thought a good place to start would be to describe the various PCs used by PC Medic in the course of business and in the PC Medic household.

The oldest PC we currently use is a custom-built Intel 2.8GHz machine with 512 MB of RAM that is used mainly for back office duties. In addition, I use it for music production and, because of this, it's fitted with a fairly high-end Terratec sound card. This has a front-mounted break-out panel which allows great connectivity with the outside world, including midi devices. This PC is built around a Lian-Li aluminium case, which is my favourite case for custom builds - great access, true toolless assembly, terrific heat dissipation and not bad looking either. This machine is dual boot - Windows XP Home plus Red Hat Linux, though we rarely use the latter on this box.



The main workshop PC is another custom build, this time an Intel 3.2GHz chip overclocked to 3.5GHz, fitted with 1GB of RAM. Once again this machine sports a Lian Li case, this time in black anodised aluminium. This is a multi-boot machine kitted out with Windows Media Center Edition, Windows XP and Windows 98SE. If we need to bring Linux up on this machine we will use a live distribution, usually Knoppix.


Then we have the Shuttle box which was bought as a bare bones unit and fitted with a 3.0GHz Intel processor and 512MB RAM. This is located in our kitchen/dining room and is used as a home entertainment system. Our music collection is located on one of the two hard drives in this box and we stream the music to other PCs over the wireless network or to the Hi-Fi system in the living room via our wireless Squeezebox (more on that again). This PC is also fitted with a TV card for viewing and recording TV via DigiGuide's TV scheduling application that I'll explain more about at a later date. While it normally runs under XP it also has Mandrake Linux on it.


Upstairs in MHBD's office we have a Mac Mini running OSX, which is mainly used by MH for web browsing and e-mail as well as managing our photo collection, but also serves as a test machine for us to learn more about Macs. It's pretty, silent and OSX has a beautiful interface but is a little bit on the slow side, partly due to the fact that it employs a laptop hard disk.






Finally there's my trusty IBM X31 laptop running XP. This is about 3 years old now and, while its a very compact and portable PC, it's built like a tank. This we bring with us on customer calls where we need a working PC in place. There's a number of network diagnostic tools on it and I generally always bring it with me when working on or troubleshooting networks. This is the machine that we have Skype installed on as its portable and we can make our calls from anywhere around the house

All these PCs are running on a wireless network sharing a 2GB Eircom broadband service via a D-Link DSL modem and a Linksys wireless router - more on these again.

Welcome!

Welcome!

This blog is aimed at providing anyone who is interested in PCs with tips, advice, background information on hardware and software, and details of emerging trends and technologies. Sometimes I may even post completely off topic just for the fun of it. In all cases I will be giving my own personal view of the world, which may be biased based on my experiences but at least it will be honest!

Enjoy.

Brendan
PC Medic