System Restore Saves the Day!

Microsoft System Restore
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-SG/windows7/products/features/system-restore

This has been in system a long time ago, since XP perhaps. While most of the time, we only hear about how this feature waste space and cause delay during installation, we had totally forgotten when it would become useful.

In fact, for me, even in the days of Windows 8.1, this feature prove to be useful. What actually happened to me was that I was migrating one of my PC from a ATI (AMD) graphics card to a Nvidia one.

 

It is no surprise that ATI and Nvidia driver would not play nice together. The fatal mistake was however my own. I had forgotten to remove the old ATI driver before shutting down and plug in my Nvidia card. After testing, I wanted to change back to my ATI card and this time, even when I remember to uninstall the Nvidia driver, it just give me the famous "Black Screen of Death" at the Windows 8 login. I had tried reinstalling the ATI driver (but it won't install when the Nvidia card is in) and install-remove the Nvidia driver, but it just wont boot up when the ATI card is in, but perfectly OK on the Nvidia. I guess it could be a "feature" so that you won't switch back to your own card... LOL

Anyway, in the end, during the boot option, I click "Advance Option" and decided to try a System Restore, fortunately was just before the swap since the Direct X was updated. Guess, what? It solved all the issue and I got it up on the very next reboot (even though System Restore did took a while).

So, ask yourself is that little bit more of HDD space worth it? To me, definitely, since HDD space is cheap nowadays and System Restore actually manages itself not to overuse the space anyway. And one thing is for sure, I would add more restore point in the future. And lastly, Thanks Microsoft for implementing this nice feature! 

Catalyst 11.5 Yet Another Cock Up Again

It looks like it will become a common trend now for ATI driver to always havea hotfix version. In fact, for 11.5, the hotfix came out within 30 mins of release. For my personel use, I find that I was not able to install the original driver due to BSOD and I always have to install the hotfix version, at least since 11.4.

Here is the link to the 11.5 hotfix version:

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/AMDCatalyst115ahotfix.aspx

AMD Catalyst 11.4 installation failed. ATI Display Driver could not be installed.

Yes, it looks like AMD had fucked up again with the release. Even though they had taken a long time to release their drivers, they still did not get it right, at least for me. The ATI Display driver had failed to installed for my HD 6950. I had tried to removed all drivers, reinstalled etc yet nothing works. I am about to give up and roll back to 11.3 when I thought there might had been a hotfix. For AMD, there are usually some hotfix because some card just could not install the driver here and then. And I was right.

Download the Catalyst 11.4c hotfix here:
http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/AMDCatalyst114cHotfix.aspx

Despite the descriptions saying that it remove some flickering in some games as below:
Resolves intermittent flickering issues seen in the following applications in a system using an AMD Radeon™ HD 6600 series graphics card with DDR3 memory and running in DirectX® 9 mode:

• Civilization 5
• Dead Rising 2
• Fallout 3
• Mafia 2
• NBA 2K10
• ShenGuiChuanQi
• Starcraft 2
• Warcraft III
• World of Warcraft

I found that the driver somehow works for me this time. Thank goodness I did not need to roll back my drivers. I hope AMD gets it right in 11.5.

ATI Catalyst Application Profiles

If you think you don't need it, you could be wrong. The Catalyst Application Profiles are NOT just for crossfire or Eyefinity. As long as you are using the ATI Catalyst Drivers, you will be able to leverage on the application profile to optimize your game play. Here is a link to the original Application Profiles:

http://www.rage3d.com/cap/

And yes, you will realized its actually faster and newer than the AMD / ATI site.

For a understand of the Application Profiles, here is a good FAQ:

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33961798

Enjoy you ATI Card!

Epson TX100 New Windows 7 drivers does not work with Vista

In a previous post, I mentioned the release of new Windows 7 drivers for the Epson TX100:

http://nemesisv.blogspot.com/2009/10/epson-tx100-new-drivers-with-full.html

what I failed to notice was that the Epson scan program (v3.4.9) only list Windows 7 compatibility. So what happen to Vista? I tried to installed it and every time it started, it crashes. At first I thought it was me. So I uninstalled clean and reinstall it. Same thing happened.

I cannot find the download online anymore, but I managed to find my previous files. So, I reinstalled the older version for Vista (v3.4.3a) and it works perfectly. I guess in moving ahead, Epson either has branched out the codes or totally forgotten that they still need to support Windows Vista.

Do take note of this. If you had installed and crashed and needed a old copy of the installation, let me know, maybe I can put it online.

Epson TX100 new drivers with full support for Windows 7.

You can either download the driver using Windows Update on Windows 7 or get it via:
http://www.epson.com.ph/epson/drivers/driver_download.htm?dc=1&mode=3&m=false&catid=4&pid=1373

Epson Stylus TX100 Driver for Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows Vista, Windows 7
Version : 6.62
Date Posted : 2009-10-22
Download Url : SX100_TX100_101_106_109_W2K_662Es.exe

Epson Stylus TX100 Driver for Windows x64, Windows Vista x64, Windows 7 x64
Version : 6.62
Date Posted : 2009-10-22
Download Url : SX100_TX100_101_106_109_x64_662Es.exe

Epson Stylus TX100 Epson Scan for Windows
Version : 3.4.9.0
Date Posted : 2009-10-22
Comments : Support Windows 7, Windows 7 x64
Download Url : SX100_EXP_WIN_3490_31.exe

The Mac fiels are there too, but I do not really care.

ATI Catalyst 9.8 is out!

Though these drivers are not yet available on the official download page, Over at Quakecon Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton released Catalyst 9.8 drivers.
According to the latest info, with this driver, you should see significant performance increases on AMD platforms.
These improvements are more platform related – you will see gains of up to 50% in some titles (like Far Cry 2) when using a CrossFire solution with 4870 X2 or other 4xxx series in resolutions 16x10 and higher – you’ll see these gains mostly in CPU-bound situations. You will also see significant improvements in titles like HAWX, Crysis, Company of Heroes and World in Conflict.

• ATI Catalyst 9.8 Windows 7 and Vista (64-bit)
• ATI Catalyst 9.8 Windows 7 and Vista (32-bit)
• ATI Catalyst 9.8 Windows XP (32-bit)
• ATI Catalyst 9.8 Windows XP (64-bit)

ATI Catalyst 9.5 Suite is out!

Finally, after the long wait. I found this from the TechPowerUp website with direct links to all version of hte Catalyst 9.5 drivers. If you has read my previous post you will know that mainly the upgrade is necessary for anyone on the HD 4770 cards and using crossfire. I am installing right now. Hope this finally fixes the issues.

ATI Catalyst 9.5 for Windows XP 32-bit Windows XP 64-bit Windows Vista/7 32-bit Windows Vista/7 64-bit

Update : Works perfectly with CrossFire. After reboot, automatically enabled. Yeah, kicks some ass in Furmark with 150 fps and COH with 70fps average :)

RIP Lenovo System Update

I remember I praised this system update application from Lenovo not long ago. It is a great software to obtain a one-stop download for all affected applications for Lenovo systems. However, I did not know why, this application has suddenly stop updating.

Browsing from Lenovo website, I found this article:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-72207.html

From the look of it, it seems they had decided to stop supporting this application and change the way how update can be delivered... Well, I know what you may be thinking. Windows Update integration. Well, we will just have to keep our fingers crossed.

Anyway, R.I.P. Lenovo System Update.

Grub Option for Ubuntu 9.04 on Virtual PC 2007 SP1

I seems to see some people run into issues after a reboot with Ubuntu 9.04 on the MS Virtual PC 2007 SP1. I did not have this issue and Ubuntu boots fine. However, maybe its some setting in GRUB that is preventing a proper boot up... Anyway here is my configuration for menu.lst:


title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic
uuid a6c101f9-5125-4826-8a28-266a9398162b
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=UUID=a6c101f9-5125-4826-8a28-266a9398162b ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic (recovery mode)
uuid a6c101f9-5125-4826-8a28-266a9398162b
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=UUID=a6c101f9-5125-4826-8a28-266a9398162b ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic

title Ubuntu 9.04, memtest86+
uuid a6c101f9-5125-4826-8a28-266a9398162b
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

Oh, and lastly, do remember to eject your CD / DVD before rebooting, otherwise you will keep going back to the installation screen!

Canon Canoscan 4200F for Vista

Yes, finally to say this scanner pays off. It was a gamble to buy it and hope that vista drivers will come out. But finally it is there. I wont post the link here, but you can easily find it at support from http://www.canon.com. Do take note that you need to download both the application (for your buttons to work) as well as the driver.

Direct link to Canon Support for 4200F :

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=SupportDetailAct&fcategoryid=235&modelid=10445

Hasta La VISTA, Windows!

Ya, it must be mad to go into vista now! This is a follow up to the hardware (in)compatible post. NO sound works probably in Vista, except than those on boards one… What a satire right? And guess what? According to the latest DirectX 10 specs, there will not be EAX, A3D or whatever. Basically, DirectX drops the whole sound acceleration idea. What’s the reason behind this I can only guess. Does it has something to do with Xbox 360 and loust gaming PC… Emm

Anyway, I guess for soundcard its just the same like scanner. Lets wait and see...