February 2008 – GeekTieGuy

Computer performance puzzle: Hard drive PIO vs. (U)DMA mode

18February2008GeekTieGuy3 CommentsTech Toys

[I may have a hard drive mini-series on my hands here, see previous post.] If your computer has performance problems and you can’t quite explain why (you’ve ruled out startup items, spyware and such ilk), it may be worth looking at how your IDE controller manages hard drive data transfer. It should be using (U)DMA,

Listen to your hard drive’s S.M.A.R.T. status

18February2008GeekTieGuy3 CommentsTech Toys

As I mentioned in my last post, I went to the local Fry’s recently to get a replacement hard drive. What prompted me to do that was a warning from the BIOS of my computer saying that the S.M.A.R.T. status of the drive was bad. I’m glad I listened to that warning. After replacing the

On the cover of PC World February 2008

17February2008GeekTieGuyPersonal

Okay, time for a little bragging :). I was at the local Fry’s yesterday, buying a new hard drive to replace one that’s about to go bad, and on my way out I stopped by the magazine racks. Imagine my surprise when I saw this on the cover: How cool to see the product you

Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep

12February2008GeekTieGuy43 CommentsSoftware, Vista

[Update 2012-03-03: Since there still seems to be no real solution at the driver level (after 4 years), I’ve written a little app, that at least puts a band-aid on the problem. Check it out. Now you can reset the device without having to go to Device Manager and disabling/re-enabling the device.] [Update 2 2008-11-29:

GeekTieGuy

News and views from the guy with the geek tie.

Monthly Archives: February 2008

Computer performance puzzle: Hard drive PIO vs. (U)DMA mode

Listen to your hard drive’s S.M.A.R.T. status

On the cover of PC World February 2008

Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep