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The school computers are all ASUS G1Sn laptops.  Asus didn’t bother to write drivers for this system, so here is a path for rebuilding and loading XP tharupon.  (4 gig systems have to pull the memory back to 2 or 3 sometimes)  Note: G1s (not g1sN) have 205 and 300 BIOS to allow the following:

1.     Go to BIOS Utility F2 during splash screen

2.     Select advanced – IDE SATA CONFIGURATION – Compatibility.

3.     Boot from CD and Install Windows XP and Service Pack 3.

4.     Download and run 7kim06ww.exe

5.     Go to C:\DRIVERS\WIN\IMSM\PREPARE, and double-click install.cmd.

6. Reboot and enter the BIOS.

7.  Select Advanced -  IDE SATA CONFIGURATION – ENHANCED  

8.  Start Windows XP. The Welcome to the Found New Hardware Wizard appears.

9.  Click No, not this time and click Next.

10.  Select Install from a list or specific location (Advanced), then click Next.

11.  Select Search for the best driver in these locations. Then select Include this location in the search:, specify the path, C:\DRIVERS\WIN\IMSM, and click Next. The Completing the Found New Hardware Wizard appears.

12.  Click Finish.

13.  When the System Settings Change window appears, click Yes.  Restarts.

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Popcap never ceases to amaze me and waste my time!

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Two Acer Aspire Ones have died on my watch.  A pink 150 and a sapphire blue AOA 150-1447.  Both were almost a year old.  In both cases the failure occurred after closing and opening the lid (when they should have gone to sleep mode)  They act like they want to boot, make hard drive spin sounds, but never display on the screen.  The good news is that Aspire has built-in a BIOS recovery routine, so it is possible to flash the BIOS even if the system doesn’t boot anymore.  (note that the windows license sticker is right where it will rub off.  Put some clear tape over the product key so you don’t loose it.)

The following steps completely recovered one of my two Aspires:

1. Format an USB thumb drive as FAT.  (My Computer – right-click the USB drive - select FAT and format.)

2. Download the latest BIOS to your USB stick: (ftp://ftp.acer-euro.com/netbook/aspire_one_150/bios, ftp://ftp.acer-euro.com/netbook/aspire_one_110/bios).

3. Open the downloaded BIOS file and put both “FLASHIT.EXE” and the BIOS file (named like “3011.fd”) in the root directory (main folder) of the stick.  Rename the BIOS file to exactly “ZG5IA32.FD” < – - everything between the quotes.

4. Connect your USB drive to Aspire 1 while it is powered off.

5. Make sure the battery is installed and the power adapter is connected.

6. Hold both the ”Fn” and “Esc” keys down together, keep them pressed and press the power button to turn the Aspire on.  Release all these keys after a couple seconds, the power button should be blinking.

7. Press the (now flashing) power button. The power button will continue to blink.  Your Aspire should initiate the BIOS flash at this point.  Do not interrupt this process!  You should see it briefly access the USB drive (USB lights blink), the Aspire will reboot shortly after.   You will see the Aspire power lights go on and off and then it should reboot.  Wait patiently.

8. If a full reboot happens rejoice when you see life on the screen again!  Your BIOS has been updated and all settings will be at default.  This whole process should be no longer than 5-10 minutes.

This worked for my blue Aspire, and not the pink one.  No matter how many ways, different BIOS files or USB formats I tried nothing worked.  The Pink one would not access the USB.  The only difference between the two was that the USB light never flashed during the process.  It ended up requiring an RMA and a new mainboard.  The warrantee process was quick, within about two weeks total the original pink machine came back fully repaired.

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A practice tweet:

I almost woke up for a few minutes today. Something about Obama getting the Nobel Prize, and something about bombing the moon? I am going back to sleep.

I think I will stick to blogging.

Popsy Pointless

My barely used PS3 died. The sony curse is still with me. I tried to connect it online which required a firmware update. As soon as the 3.0 software installed, my PS3 ended up with a blinking red light of death. This was a barely used machine, no more than a dozen hours on it. Of course Sony swears up and down that the firmware could not have caused it. I wonder how many of the older machines are burnt up by the new software? Will I send it in for repair, or just buy a new slimline model? What on Earth possesses me to continue buying Sony?

I saw the chance to take this thing apart and see what makes it tick. (Or rather not tick.) As I suspected, there is no burnt capacitors, no indication of heat. As perfect inside as it was out. Can you believe the size of the main fan?

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While Hannabit says Mythos will come back, Runic is moving forward on a new design! Torchlight. This is a good article on the new project!

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Kindof Meh.

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If we get our young’uns to sport these, they will look way moby! Then we can keep them in zoos without supervision.

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I have not been keeping record of why I can’t stand Vista. Microsoft is so ashamed of their work they call it “Windows 6″ for the service packs. Anyhow the recent support cry was for a webcam, which Microsoft kindly and intentionally removed support for. Apparently something in Service Packs can help, so here is the friendly message:

One hour? That is longer than installing the OS takes! Plus the service packs are no longer cumulative, so SP1 has to go first. What a joke! A gigabyte download and all of this to add support for a native XP function. Please indicate whether you want to read this post. Windows needs your permission to do what you are trying…

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