EQ2 guide

EQ2 guide
The fiery peaks of EverQuest II’s Lavastorm zone have claimed the life of many unfortunate 
adventurers.  Rivers of lava flow freely and hundreds of hostile goblins and lizards inhabit this 
desolate place.  SOE has recently decided to revamp this area making it friendlier while maintaining 
an intimidating allure.  Ten Ton Hammer put on its asbetsos-ware and trudged into this new content.  
What is there to do and how does it affect you the game?  Let's take a look shall we? 
Zone Overview: 
In an unusual move this traditional level 45-55 zone has not only been revamped but expanded adding 
two new raid instances.  These changes include new quest hubs to progress players through the zone, 
so gone are the days of suicide runs to Solusek.  To help move between areas a system of fast 
transportation  much like what we see in the Faydarks has become available.  If you are going to 
travel through a volcanic wasteland, flaming horses are the way to go.  
The expanded area mentioned above is level 80+ content designed to satisfy the end game, and note 
both the new raid instances require The Shadow Odyssey expansion.  The quests here won't replace 
your daily shard runs but it's a nice addition to what’s available in the Moors of Ykesha.  If you 
are level 45, there is one quest to pick up just inside the shrine near the docks.  After that exit 
the docks and move straight through the tunnel to access your content. Level 80's will enter the 
shrine at the docks to receive multilpe quests and find faction merchants. Exit stage right (that's 
your left) towards the swarm of players and void creatures standing on the beach.   
Level 45 - 55: 
As you exit through the tunnel you'll find the area pretty safe to stand in.  Stay away from any of 
the goblins working near rocks and make your way to the flaming horse.  You'll be whisked away to 
the next area and find yourself among the Sootfoot Goblins.  The Sootfoot are an odd group and are 
the dominant faction here and absolutely love you. They like you so much they won't sell you any of 
their reward items.  In order to purchase these items, You are going to have to complete quests 
(some which are repeatable) to increase their loathing.
What kind of rewards will you find?  The most obvious are the cool mounts which consists of flaming 
rhino's and carpets which will certainly impress your friends.  House and Guildhall items are 
plentiful allowing a fiery theme, but for those who demand to literally be flashy, a suit of lava 
armor. It's of course appearance slot only but check out the merchant while you are here, something 
should catch your eye.  Start with Blisterzonk who has five quests to give before sending you to 
Magnurmal.   
For the most part the transportation system will move you to the appropriate hubs so it's just a 
matter of doing the available quests. You'll spend 45-55 working through here, Everfrost, Steamfont 
Mountains, and Lower Faydark. Between these four areas 10 levels should be a breeze.  If you do find 
yourself short of quests however don't ignore Solusek. While the revamp left this untouched, there 
was solo content added in here quite some time ago and can net you some pretty easy AA in an 
uncrowded area. The Golden Effreti Boots heritage quest is here and if you can find one or two 
others, this dungeon offers a lot of discovery and quest experience.   
Level 80:  
The level 80 solo content offers a number of opportunities for end game players.  Now first to 
clarify, when I say Level 80, I don't mean 78 or 79.  My character is average if not better than 
average equipped with fabled weapons and shard armor, including a few Tier 2 pieces.  The creatures 
these quests require are 81 or 82 and aggroing an additional encounter was not a matter of 
annoyance, it was a matter of survival. If you have friends, save yourself some time and bring one.  
Otherwise don't expect to get very far alone under 80. 
Inside the shrine at the docks you'll find a number quest givers and types.  The first type are 
faction quests which grant access to certain items on the merhcant.  The second are solo shard 
quests which we'll detail below and finally the series which grants access to the two group raid 
zone.  It's easy to get confused on what you are working on so we'll try and clear things up a 
little.   
The first person you will want to see is Palissa Rargon who will hand you a simple task of placing 
crystals in staffs on the beach.  Palissa does have five more quests available rewarding you each 
time with faction.  You can stop by Pyrissa Flamecog after the Palissa's first one to save time 
(we'll explain below), but completing all of these will open up  Marathin Allim's five quests.  Once 
completed you will be able to return to her daily and receive a quest which grants a void shard. The 
merchant outside will exchange these shards for jewelry and belts and a few of the pieces are 
actually quite nice. Each item is running roughly 30 shards so expect to be here for a month.   
Pyrissa Flamecog's quest series is an important one as completion will allow you access to the Ward 
of Elements raid zone.   These five quests will start out on the beaches but have you making at 
least two trips into the skull cave in the mountainside and one trip to the entrance of Halls of 
Forsaken instance.  You'll be sent to the raid zone entrance which is at the bottom of the elevator 
under Najena's Hollow and this will complete Pyrissa's involvement.  See Nida Ya'fiyyah to receive 
your zone access and begin a quest series to spawn nameds in the caves you visited.   These have 
nothing to do with the Ward of Elements zone.   
Was that not confusing enough for you?  Alright well toss one Saedie Kalterra who has three daily 
faction quests.  Now when you mix all these factors in together, you have a lot of people going 
after the same creatures.  Be patient and remember to combine quest updates if possible to maximize 
your experience. 
Instances:   
Ward of Elements - This is one of EverQuest II's first two group raid zones.  While yes there have 
been a few other attempts, this is far and above anything else SOE has attempted.  While there will 
be those who can boast of their single group of uber geared friends completed the zone, it's 
designed for two moderately equipped parties. There is plenty of trash to kill and more than six 
bosses most of which can be fought in any order. This is a perfect place for more casual guilds to 
learn the elements of raiding, and more advanced groups to spend on free nights.  
Munzok's Material Bastion - Almost nothing is known about this four group raid zone.  Poking my head 
into it on the Test server revealed a layout similar to the Anchor Bazzul and filled with level 
89's.  Hopefully this is just the development team’s way of keeping out those wanting to get a jump 
on the content while they are still testing.  Otherwise there is hopefully some trigger or item 
which lowers the level. 
Lavastorm's revamp was significant and opened an entire new venue of content for both its original 
audience and its current playerbase.  There are literally dozens of new quests available, house 
items galore, and flaming mounts which are circulating through the community.  Hopefully we've been 
able to start you on your way to finding success here but if you see anything we missed, be sure to 
email me . 
Message Edited by Dorothy-BBY on 06-30-2009 02:10 PM

Great info.
But how would a BES Admin push the software from BES to the Device?
Thanks, 

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  • [Guide] Install and run Windows 7/8 from an external drive without using bootcamp (works for late 2012 iMacs with 3TB drive)

    This is a copy of a post from my blog, you can also Read it on my blog...
    Introduction
    After I received my new iMac with a 3 TB Fusion Drive, I was disappointed when I realized that Bootcamp was not running on this model and prevented me from installing Windows on it. I wanted to take advantage of the powerful iMac hardware to play games but I couldn't.
    There are a few ways of working around this limitation, but I found most of them quite complex and most of the time they required formatting the internal hard drive or repartitioning it and go for a brand new installation of Mac OS X. I was not comfortable with that.
    But there is another way, and that is to install Windows on an external hard drive, using either USB or Thunderbolt. Personally I used a Lacie Rugged 1 TB drive that has both USB3 and Thunderbolt connectors. Both work very well.
    This guide may interest you if:
    You have an internal hard drive of more than 2TB and you can't run bootcamp at all (like late 2012 iMacs with a 3TB drive)
    You have limited space or you don't want to dedicate disk space on your internal hard disk drive to a Windows installation
    What this guide will make you do:
    It will make you erase all your data from your external USB3/Thunderbolt hard drive
    It will make you install Windows on your external USB3/Thunderbolt hard drive
    It will make you install bootcamp drivers
    What this will not make you do:
    It will not make you modify anything on your internal Mac hard drive
    It will not make you use or install the bootcamp assistant
    It will not activate the Preference Pane for the default boot drive. You have to boot by pressing the ALT key to manually select your boot drive each tome you want to boot Windows.
    What you'll need
    An external hard drive with a USB3 and/or Thunderbolt connector. This drive will be formatted so ensure you saved your files before going further. You can use either an SSD drive or a classic hard drive.
    A Windows 7 or 8 install DVD or ISO (check whether to install 32 or 64 bits versions based on your Bootcamp drivers) and the corresponding Windows serial number.
    One of the following:
    Mac OS X with a Windows 7 or 8 Virtual Machine (use VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop for example. Note: VMWare Fusion seems to have some issues with Thunderbolt and USB3. Plug your drive to a USB2 enclosure or hub to work around this -it worked for me-, or use another VM software) → Read the important note below
    A PC running Windows 7 or 8 → Read the important note below
    Windows AIK (free) running on your Virtual Machine or on your PC, or just the imagex.exe file (the rest of the Windows AIK package is not needed)
    Download imagex.exe
    Download Windows AIK (this download and installation is not required if you have already downloaded imagex.exe)
    Bootcamp drivers for your Mac. You can get these either by running bootcamp from your Mac (Applications > Utilities > Bootcamp) or, if like me you have a 3TB drive and can't run bootcamp at all, use the direct download links here.
    A USB stick to store your bootcamp drivers
    IMPORTANT: If your Mac has a 64 bits processor, your Windows Virtual Machine on OSX, your Windows installation on your PC and your Windows DVD/ISO must also be in 64 bits!
    Step by Step guide
    Step 1: Get the install.wim file
    If you have a Windows ISO file:
    Mount the ISO
    If you're on OS X: double click on the ISO file
    If you're on on Windows 7: Use a software like Virtual Clone Drive (free)
    If you're on Windows 8: double click on the ISO file
    Open the mounted drive, then go to the "sources" folder and locate the "install.wim" file. Save this file to C:\wim\ on your Windows installation or virtual machine.
    If you have a Windows DVD: open the "sources" folder on the DVD and locate the "install.wim" file. Save this file to C:\wim\ on your Windows installation or virtual machine.
    IMPORTANT: If instead of a "install.wim" file, you have "install.esd", you can not continue this step by step guide. And an ESD file can not be converted into a WIM file. So you must get a version of the Windows installation DVD/ISO that has an install.wim file.
    Step 2: Clean, partition and format your external hard drive
    On your Windows installation or virtual machine, plug in your external hard drive (can be plugged using USB2, USB3 or Thunderbolt at this stage)
    Open the command prompt in administrator mode (cmd.exe). To run it in administrator mode, right click on cmd.exe > Run as admin.
    Type the following and hit enter to open the disk partitioner utility:
    diskpartType the following and hit enter to list your drives:
    list disk
    This will display a list of disks mounted on your computer or virtual machine. Make sure your drive is listed here before you continue.Identify the disk ID of your external hard drive. Replace # by your real external disk ID in the command below:
    select disk #Clean all partitions by typing the following (warning: this will erase all data from your external drive!):
    clean
    Create the boot parition by typing the following followed by the enter key:
    create partition primary size=350
    This will create a 350MB partition on your external driveFormat the partition in FAT32 by typing the following:
    format fs=fat32 quick
    Set this partition to active by typing:
    active
    Assign a letter to mount this partition. We will use letter B in our example. If B is already used on your PC, replace B by any other available letter:
    assign letter=b
    Windows will detect a new drive and probably display a pop-up. Ignore that.Create the Windows installation partition using all the remaining space available on the external drive by typing the following:
    create partition primary
    Format the new partition in NTFS:
    format fs=ntfs quick
    Assign a letter to mount this partition. We will use letter O in our example. If O is already used on your PC, replace O by any other available letter:
    assign letter=o
    Windows will detect a new drive and probably display a pop-up. Ignore that.Exit the disk partitioner utility by typing:
    exit
    Step 3: Deploy the Windows installation image
    Still using the command prompt in admin mode (you didn't close it, did you? ), locate the imagex.exe file mentioned in the "What you'll need" section and access its folder. In our example, we have put this file in C:\imagex\imagex.exe
    Type the following and hit enter (remember to replace o: with the letter you have chosen in the previous step):
    imagex.exe /apply C:\wim\install.wim 1 o:
    This will take some time. The Windows installation image is being deployed to your external driveOnce done, type the following to create the boot section (remember to replace o: and b: with the letters you've chosen in the previous step):
    o:\windows\system32\bcdboot o:\windows /f ALL /s b:
    If you get an error message saying that you can't run this program on your PC, then most probably you are running on a 32 bits installation of windows and you're trying to deploy a 64 bits install. This means you did not read the important notes in the beginning of this guide
    If you get an error message on the options that can be used with the BCDBOOT command, then it's because you're installing Windows 7, and the /f option is not supported. If that is the case, remove /f ALL from the command and retry.
    Step 4: Boot from your external drive and install Windows
    Plug in your external drive:
    If you've done all the previous steps from a Windows PC, unplug your external drive from your PC and plug it to your Mac, either on a USB3 or a Thunderbolt port.
    If you've done all the previous steps from your Mac using a Virtual Machine, ensure the external drive is plugged in to a USB3 or Thunderbolt port. Using USB2 should also work but you'll get very poor performance so I don't recommend doing that.
    Reboot your Mac and once the bootup sound is over, immediately press the ALT (option) key and release it only when the boot drives selection screen appears. If you did not get the boot drives selection screen, reboot and try again. The timing to press the ALT (option) key is quite short. It must not be too early or too late.
    On the boot selection screen, choose "Windows" using the arrow keys on your keyboard, then press enter.
    The Windows installation starts. Follow the on-screen instructions as normal. The installation program will restart your computer one or 2 times. Don't forget to press ALT (option) right after the bootup sound, and boot on Windows again each time to continue the installation.
    Step 5: Install bootcamp drivers
    Once the Windows installation is complete, plug in the USB stick where you stored the bootcamp drivers (see "what you'll need" section), open it and right click on "setup.exe" and select "Run as admin". Follow the on-screen instructions.If you have an error saying that you can't run this program on this PC, obviously you have installed a 32 bits version of Windows and the bootcamp drivers for your Mac are made for a 64 bits version. You have to restart the whole guide and make sure to get a 64 bits version of Windows this time!
    Once the bootcamp drivers are all installed, reboot and press ALT (option) after the bootup sound to boot on Windows again. And Voilà, you have Windows installed on your USB3/Thunderbolt drive running on your Mac.
    Now each time you want to boot on Windows, press and hold the ALT (option) key after the startup sound and select "Windows", then press Enter.

    Hi i'm trying to follow your guide, I installed windows 8 on bootcamp to do it planning to remove it after the operation is done, but i get stuck at part 3: every command i give to imagex i get a pop-up ftom windws asking how do I want to open this kind of file install.wim and imagex does nothing, what do i have to do to stop those pop-ups?

  • Guide: Optimizing Your Windows XP/Vista Notebook

    purpose:
    to build a highly optimized, personalized, faster, smaller and more secure OS installation using windows xp (can use vista also but this guide will not cover it in any detail)
    plus i was bored to tears
    information:
    this is a somewhat advanced guide not meant for those unfamilure with the tools and techniques used here
    the basics of this guide can be applied to most/all windows xp/vista notebooks and desktops, not just Lenovo, however in my case i run windows xp pro on a T60 (8743) with an add-on graphics card (similar to a T60p i assume) and this guide will be geared toward this config.
    many alterations can be made, so it is very general in nature and should not be taken literally
    this is my personal machine and i am not on a private network. you may have to adjust as necessary.
    disclaimer:
    it ain't my fault
    what will you gain:
    * a highly customized OS
    * faster boot times
    * more free disk space
    * a lighter, snappier feeling OS
    * a more secure OS
    * a more stable OS
    * more free RAM
    * less problems (or maybe more if you're not careful)
    with all due respect to Lenovo, i have found that the less Lenovo software i install the fewer glitches i have and the faster things run. this is often the case for various other hardware vendors that supply proprietary software which is often not needed, or not all of which is needed.
    what you will need: (all free, except for possibly the OS):
    * a windows xp/vista installation disk. though you may be able to do this using your i386 directory (perhaps on the recovery partition), a full, non-OEM disk is preferred.
    * SP2 and SP3 (it is my understanding that either SP1 or SP2 should be installed before installing SP3, though i have built installations with SP3 only).
    * dotNet runtime
    * nLite (or vLite for vista) - http://www.nliteos.com/
    * Ryan's Windows XP Post-SP3 Update Pack - http://www.ryanvm.net/msfn/
    * Ryan's integration tool - http://integrator.siginetsoftware.com/index.php?do​wnload
    * all current drivers for your hardware
    please read any license agreements for the above (for instance, nLite is not to be used for commercial applications)
    also visit the nLite and RyanVM forums as there's a ton of helpful info there, add-on packs, etc., and please consider donating to them both if you like the software. both are great guys. i wouldn't bother running windows anymore without nLite. from Nuhi's page (his english is not the best):
    Have you ever wanted to remove Windows components like Media Player, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, MSN Explorer, Messenger...
    How about not even to install them with Windows ?
    nLite is a tool for pre-installation Windows configuration and component removal at your choice. Optional bootable image ready for burning on media or testing in virtual machines.
    With nLite you will be able to have Windows installation which on install does not include, or even contain on media, the unwanted components.
    Features
    * Service Pack Integration
    * Component Removal
    * Unattended Setup
    * Driver Integration *
    * Hotfixes Integration **
    * Tweaks
    * Services Configuration
    * Patches ***
    * Bootable ISO creation
    basic build procedure:
    * install the dotNet runtime
    * install nLite (or vLite for vista)
    * create a directory structure something like:
    c:\nlite\source\
    c:\nlite\working\
    c:\nlite\sp\
    c:\nlite\hotfix\
    * download Ryan's post SP3 update pack and dump it in c:\nlite\hotfix\
    * download Ryan's integration tool and dump in c:\nlite\hotfix\ 
    note that you can use nLite to integrate service packs and hotfix's, but i prefer Ryan's tool as i have had problems in the past using nLite to integrate Ryan's post SP update cabs, though this happened during the earlier beta days of nLite.
    * download xp SP2 and SP3 service packs and dump in c:\nlite\sp\
    * copy contents of windows installation disk to c:\nlite\source\
    * using Ryan's integrator, set update pack path to c:\nlite\sp\WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe, windows source to c:\nlite\source\, and destination to c:\nlite\working\ and start integration
    * using Ryan's integrator, set update pack path to c:\nlite\sp\WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe set windows source to c:\nlite\working\ and destination to c:\nlite\working\ and integrate SP3. after SP3 is integrated, if you want to save the windows installation for the next time you install, copy it elsewhere before moving on.
    *  using Ryan's integrator set source to c:\nlite\hotfix\ (where you dumped Ryan's post SP3 update cab) and destination to c:\nlite\working\ and run it.
    * start nLite and set the windows installation path to c:\nlite\working\
    make sure that, in the "version" box, that SP3 is written, otherwise you've made an error earlier.
    IMPORTANT: when using nLite be very careful and move slowly, making sure to READ ALL DESCRIPTIONS and explore all options -- it's easy to skip or screw up something if you're not very careful. 
    rule of thumb: don't remove something if you don't know what it is or what the implications might be
    * following the wizard, select your options. i would suggest the following:
    remove components
    unattended
    options
    patches
    tweaks
    build ISO
    in the case of my thinkpad my hard drive will not be recognized by windows unless i integrate the driver for the SATA controller using nLite OR enter BIOS setup and put the controller in compatibility mode so i can install the driver from windows (after which BIOS needs to be changed again).  integrating drivers will require extra reading on your part and is beyond what i wish to get into here, so, to make things easy if you're not comfortable doing this, just put your controller in compatibility mode if necessary and install the driver from within windows.
    * following the wizard and hitting "next" as necessary, if you've selected the options above, nLite will pop-up a compatibility options window where you want to select what components you really need (prevents you from removing dependancies later).
    * in the next step you'll remove unwanted components - the part i enjoy most.  be careful what you remove! stuff in red is important. this is what i typically remove, give or take:
    Accessibility Options
    Briefcase
    ClipBook Viewer
    Defragmenter (replaced with JKDefragGUI)
    Games
    Internet Games
    Paint
    Pinball
    Screensavers (useful only for very old CRT monitors)
    WordPad (replaced with PSPad)
    Keyboards (i remove all - nLite will keep default for your language)
    ActiveX for streaming video (depends on IE which i remove parts of)
    AOL ART Image Format Support (depends on IE which i remove parts of)
    Images and Backgrounds (desktop eye candy)
    Luna desktop theme (cartoonish desktop theme)
    Media Center
    Mouse Cursors
    Movie Maker
    Music Samples
    Old CDPlayer and Sound Recorder (replaced in part by foobar2000)
    Speech Support
    Tablet PC
    Windows Media Player (replaced by foobar2000, VLC and Satsuki codec pack)
    Windows Media Player 6.4 (replaced by foobar2000, VLC and Satsuki codec pack)
    Windows Picture and Fax Viewer (replaced by XnView)
    Windows Sounds (unneeded sound themes)
    Communication tools (phone dialer, hyperterminal, etc., some replaed by better 3rd part s/w)
    FrontPage Extensions
    Internet Connection Wizard (not needed to create a connection)
    Internet Explorer (i keep the core (there's 2 options for removing this; one to remove parts but keep basic functionality and another to remove the core, which i suggest keeping) as it's functionality is needed by many applications - removing this will remove the "Program Files\Internet Explorer" directory, but you can still browse the web using windows explorer (file manager) if need be. i replace with Firefox)
    Internet Information Services (IIS) (i use Apache (WAMP) for web development)
    IP Conferencing
    MSN Explorer (partially replaced with Miranda IM)
    Netmeeting
    Outlook Express (replaced with Thunderbird)
    Peer-to-Peer (only for MS networks, nothing to do with P2P)
    Share Creation Wizard
    Synchronization Manager
    Vector Graphics Rendering (VML) (depends on IE i think, which i remove parts of)
    Web Folders
    Windows Messenger (replaced with Miranda IM
    .NET Framework (i don't install this at all)
    Blaster/Nachi removal tool
    Color Schemes (predefined desktop color schemes)
    Desktop Cleanup Wizard (replaced with CCleaner)
    Disk Cleanup (replaced with CCleaner)
    File and Settings Wizard (used to transfer settings between 2 computers)
    File System Encryption (try TrueCrypt or AxCrypt - note that MS encryption is propritary and, as such, should not be trusted)
    Help and Support (huge space hog)
    IExpress Wizard
    Manual Install and Upgrade (ability to upgrade OS, which is always a bad idea (better to install clean))
    MS Agent (used for annoying animated paperclip in MS office)
    Out of Box Experience (OOBE) (do NOT remove unless you have a VLK)
    Remote Installation Services (RIS)
    Search Assistant (annoying animated dog in search window)
    Security Center (replaced with Comodo firewall)
    Service Pack Messages
    Shell Media Handler
    Tour (useless windows tour)
    User account pictures
    Web View
    Zip Folders (replaced with IZArc and Universal Extractor)
    Automatic Updates (hardly needed once attack vectors are removed)
    Beep Driver (annoying beep, such as when you press too many keys at once)
    Error Reporting (automitic error reporting to MS - i suppose vista is the result?)
    IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service (replaced with ImgBurn)
    Remote Registry
    Secondary Logon
    System Restore Service (bloated nonsense used for restoring viruses to their orgional state - better to reinstall)
    Languages (i remove all - nLite will keep your default language)
    as should be apparent from the above, security is already enhanced since many attack vectors were removed (OE, WMP, MSN, remote registry, system restore, etc., etc., etc.).
    missing functionality is replaced by better, more functinal and more secure software
    * for the "unattended setup" step, you can select many options, change default paths (Program Files), disable hibernate, configure network adapters and much more.
    * next is "options" where you are presented with many more choices.
    * next is "patches". here i would highly suggest turning off SFC (windows file protection) as this is an incredible annoyance for many people and will greatly increase the time required for your installation.  furthermore, malicious folks and vendors that write drivers know how to get around this nonsense anyway.
    * next is "tweaks" and then you'll finish up by building your installation. i typically cut the size of a default windows xp install by about 50%, but i'm a bit agressive with what i remove.  also some of that space is used by 3rd party software to replace the components removed.
    * if you are comfortable with virtual machine software, that'd be the way to test your shiny new installation ISO. if not, then get ready to take the plunge
    when installed an nLite OS on my thinkpad for the first time (a day or 2 after i got it), i did a test install first - i kept the recovery partition in tact. once i got comfortable with installing the drivers and got everything working, i un-hid and formatted the recovery partition -- gone! you may want to do the same, though speaking from expierence i can tell you that it's rather trivial to get everything working on my T60 (though i do not have nor did i want a fingerprint reader, i would doubt it would be an issue to get working).
    * once windows is up and running, there will be allot of broken stuff  
    some of the "Fn" keys will not work, some will (because the hardware is configured in BIOS). you'll need to install the drivers for the items that you want to work, and this is another area where i depart from the norm. here's some things i don't install and the reasons why (whenever possible, any hardware below is disabled in BIOS or device manager):
    * easy eject utility - not needed/i don't use it anyway
    * hotkey driver - bloated and sometimes buggy software that may corrupt OGL and DX full-screen display (games) and cause stop errors (BSOD)
    * trackpoint - i don't use it, though it works anyway with limited functionality if not disabled in BIOS/device manager
    * trusted platform module - yeah, well i don't trust it
    * away manager -  don't use it/lighter weight alternitives available
    * keyboard customizer - not needed/i don't use it
    * scroll lock indicator - not needed/i don't use it
    * software installer - bloated mess/not needed (subscribe to the Lenovo RSS feed to be made aware of updates)
    * thinkpad configuration package - i'll configure it myself, thanks
    * thinkvantage access connectkions - bloated mess/slows boot time/not needed (better and lighter weight alternitives * available if you need this functionality)
    * ultra-nav wizard - not needed
    * bluetooth - i install the microsoft bluetooth stack (which is smaller and simpler) and have noticably less lag with bluetooth devices resuming from a standby state (mouse in particular)
    * display drivers - i use the highly acclaimed and optimized Omega drivers.
    for the drivers i do install, i install only the drivers, NOT the software (in other words i do not run the installer). i do this by extracting the installer using IZArc or Universal Extractor and using device manager to point the hardware to the extracted *.inf files.  for me, there is only one device that comes up "unknown device" before drivers are installed (i forget which).  the rest are named, so it's easy to tell what path to give them for the drivers. installing drivers for the unknown device is then simple a process of elimination, or you can use software to help identify the device.
    ::: the end :::
    hack it 'till it BREAKS!

    *bookmarked for desection*
    I already see flaws, like turning off remote registry for example. Remote registry only has very limited access, and you can change the access, but why would you? You can see what it has access to by going into Control Panel > Administative Tools > Local Security Policy > > Local Polices > Security Options, then scroll a little more than half-way, and it's under the Network access box.
    There are so many crack pot guides out there, that the only good advice is to look where they looked, and if you don't get it, and don't go though all of it, LEAVE IT ALONE! It only makes servicing the box at a later time a HUGE pain, and if it's in a business, it'll just be reimaged.
    Keep this guy's disclaimer in mind at all times. Just do the easy ones to start, like run CCleaner, it basically does everything for you, and doesn't cause any errors (or as far as I know, and I use it just about every other day)
    Currently Just passed the CompTIA A+ 601 with flying colours! =D
    Owner of an SL500 running Vista Business with 4GB of PC2 6400 RAM

  • SharePoint Foundation 2013 guide

    hello guys, getting off my hands to get wet on sharepoint.
    need a guide on how to setup document management using sharepoint foundation
    thanks.
    Every second counts..make use of it. Disclaimer: This posting is provided AS IS with no warranties or guarantees and confers no rights.
    IT Stuff Quick Bytes

    Hi,
    Please check the below Urls
    https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff607621(v=office.14).aspx
    http://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/questions/110899/sharepoint-foundation-2013-document-management
    http://www.jornata.com/resources/Documents/Configuring%20SharePoint%202013%20Document%20Management%20and%20Search_Scott%20Jamison_SPSNH_2013.pdf
    Don't forget to mark it as an Answer if it resolves your issue and Vote Me as helpful if it useful.
    Mahesh

  • New .TV (pets, recipe, etc.) and Viacom channels not in zap2it or Tivo guides

    So, it's been about a month since the new .tv channels came out and two days since the Viacom HD channels were introduced.  And zap2it.com, Tivo, etc. all still don't list ANY of the new channels in their programming guides.
    I've opened cases with Tivo.  With Zap2it.  With Verizon.  Everyone points fingers saying it's the other's fault.
    In the meantime, for the .TV channels that got added a while back, if you go to zap2it, or Tivo, you get "loor633" for channel name and "to be announced" for guide info for pets.tv.  You get "loor599" for Cars.tv.  You get "loor674" for MYDestination.tv.  Etc.
    And for the Viacom channels, you also get nothing.  Just blank space with "to be announced" for programming info.
    From what I understand, Verizon needs to tell Tribune that their channel lineup has changed.  And Tribune, Zap2it and Tivo all claim that Verizon hasn't done that.  Verizon, of course, is silent on the matter and the "fiber solutions center" says there is nothing they can do right now and that channel info for the .tv and Verizon channels might get added to online guides in a few MONTHS!?!?!?!?!?!?
    Why does this seem to be a problem with Verizon's lineup and no one else's?  When I had Dish, Zap2it would have updated listings within 2 hours of new channel additions.  When I had Charter, both Zap2it and Tivo had channel guide info for new channels usually the day BEFORE the channel was added.  But Verizon doesn't seem to provide Tribune with new channel info / guide data at all.
    Having had FIOS for less than two months, I'm not happy.  I'm almost certain the goal is for Verizon to get me to dump my lifetime Tivo service and instead pay them $15.99 for their DVR.  But trust me -- I'd rather go back to Charter first.
    Message Edited by skierrob2 on 06-24-2009 10:44 AM

    I do not understand why you folks are blaming Verizon for this. Please give me a moment to explain my theory.
    First of all, I have been for a long time a very dissatisfied user of the FiOS Guide data. So dissatisfied that late last year I sent an email to Verizon's CEO expressing my dissatisfaction, and providing examples and pointers to various forum threads discussing the problem. I received maybe 4 or 5 phone calls about the issue, no resolution, but I was told the procedure for the FiOS Guide was this:
    Each channel (say ESPN, whatever) develops the data, and sends it to FYI Television of Grand Prairie, TX (in the DFW area). FYI gathers the schedule info from all of the channel providers and once a day sends that data to Verizon. Verizon then inputs the data to the Guide and bingo, we see it, good or bad (lots and lots of bad IMO). I have no way to know if this is really the process, but this is the way it was explained and it makes sense to me.
    Now, lets talk about one of the other guide providers for the Tivo or whatever. It seems to me that a very similar process would have to take place: channel to guide data collector to actual guide data provider (maybe the last two are one and the same?).
    Now, where would Verizon be in this process for the other guide data providers? Seems to me nowhere, it should be the responsibility of the channel to notify the data provider that the channel is now on FiOS, what the channel name and number is, etc.
    I am sure you will disagree with me, but where am I wrong? It seems to me you should be complaining to the channel providers, not Verizon.
    (jumping into the foxhole....)
    Justin
    Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
    IMG 1.6.2, Build 08.58
    Keller, TX 76248

  • Channel Guide Update - Questions & Concerns

    In speaking with customer support this morning, it would appear that my only recourse for letting Verizon know that I don’t like the new Channel Guide is to make a post on the forums and this seems like the most applicable one.
    To start, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the old channel guide and I can’t figure out what the new guide does better aside from possibly displaying 2 additional channels per page…at the cost of incorporating a GIANT active dvr UI (user interface), an awful color scheme and a PiP window in the channel guide that seems to have had its size reduced to about ¼ of the previous one.
    Does anyone know if there’s a way to change the display back to the old style or at least something close to it? I only had 15 minutes to play around with it this morning before work, but the rest of the new display styles are even worse than the standard one and I was hoping there was another options section that I didn’t notice as far as the overall display goes.
    For those of you who use the verizon DVR services, that display has also changed and I can only assume that it’s geared towards displaying commercials while we use the dvr functions b/c there’s no other reason for it to take up so much room on the screen at the moment.
    The previous dvr display used to consist of a small horizontal bar across the bottom of the screen that displayed the basic channel info (channel #, name of the show, run time etc etc), showed you the speed at which it was rewinding or fast forwarding and the point in the show that you were currently watching. With the update, the DVR window is MASSIVE and it has to be taking up close to 1/3 of the screen when you hit the FF, RW or play button. However, even with the new giant dvr display, there’s nothing being utilized in the actual display and I have a feeling it’s going to be used for corporate commercials or simply advertising verizon on-demand programming.
    The new channel guide is clearly slower than the old one too and as I said earlier, I just didn’t see anything that warranted the huge makeover and I have trouble understanding how this new version of the channel guide could’ve possibly been beta tested by anyone and wound up in this state.
    I love the verizon internet speed and I’ve come to find that their customer service is excellent, but this change was possibly enough to make me drop the full package I currently utilize and simply maintain the internet going forward for the sake of accessing websites like hulu & netflix for my television needs.

    Agreed.  The new guide format is slow, the text is difficult to read, but worst of all, you can only see a few channels at
    a time when scrolling.  With hundreds of channels, you need to be able to glance at many channel listings quickly
    on one screen, before quickly scrolling to the next screen. 
    I agree this is so bad that I will have to look at cable or satellite options if the old channel guide is not restored, at least
    as an option.  It was great!   Why fix what isn't broken?  Or more to the point, why break something that was an asset
    to the service?
    If FIOS tries to hold me to whatever the term of my contract period and penalizes me for dropping the service, my
    position would be that the service provided by FIOS with the new channel guide is materially and adversely different from
    what I signed up for, and this unilateral change on the part of Verizon voids my obligations under the deal.  But all
    I really want is the option to return to the prior channel guide format.

  • Got my password wrong twice and my mini is disable. I connected to iTunes, but can't get it to work. Can some one guide my through?

    got my password wrong twice and my mini is disable. I connected to iTunes, but can't get it to work. Can some one guide my through?

    If it's showing the red disabled screen due to incorrect passcodes then you may need to put the iPad into recovery mode : http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1808 - you should then be able to reset the iPad via your computer's iTunes and restore/resync your content to it

  • Follow-up to archived thread "Another Error (I think) In the 12.1 New Features Guide"

    I hoped to be able to add a reply to the most recent reply on March 8 in the "Another Error (I think) In the 12.1 New Features Guide" thread (https://community.oracle.com/thread/3526588), but since that thread has been archived, I am doing what was suggested elsewhere: create a new thread referencing the old one. My reply is:
    Thank you for your explanation about preferring PDF over HTML. That is perfectly fine and understandable. Also, we very much appreciate your documentation feedback in this forum, and encourage you to continue to report any issues here.
    I apologize for not replying much sooner. I either didn't get or overlooked an original notification about "Recent activity" after your reply; otherwise, I would have replied then.

    Thanks for that comment. I have sent a pointer to it to the writer for that book. Note that with the New Features Guide, most of the content is automatically drawn from an internal system that tracks projects and features; so if a change is needed, the writer will notify the owner of that content (typically a developer or a product manager) to investigate and (if necessary) modify the underlying data, after which the changed information will be picked up for a future revision of the book.
    Also, while anyone is welcome to enter documentation comments in this forum, another option that may be more convenient for comments on specific sections is the Reader Comment area at the bottom of each HTML page (such as http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E16655_01/server.121/e17906/chapter1.htm#NEWFT495 for the page containing Section 1.5.9.8). Any comments entered in a Reader Comment area go to someone in our documentation production group, who forwards them to the appropriate writers.
    However, if a comment involves multiple HTML pages or books, or if you want the matter to be in a public forum for visibility and searchability, posting in this forum is a good option.

  • A PC buying guide for NLE (mainly Intel)

    For AMD setups, disregard the mentions of sockets and the like but the general recommendations still hold.
    When you need a new PC for editing purposes, you basically have three choices:
    1. Buy an off the shelf system from companies like HP or Dell.
    2. Buy a custom built PC from a specialist company, like ADK Pro Audio| Digital Audio workstations, Pro Audio Laptops, Pro audio interfaces, Pro audio software, DAW.
    3. Build it yourself.
    Solution 1 can offer good prices if you stick to their standard configurations and it is easy. But remember that these companies make their profit not on the base system, but on all the options they offer. If you follow their recommendations and upgrade memory, hard disks, or choose a better video card or a faster processor, they steal you blind.
    I have nothing against HP or Dell, I have bought systems from them, but usually that was because of a great offer with all the features I needed at the time and applied to notebooks, desktops and servers.
    Solution 2 is usually costly, but you get what you pay for. You get the expertise of the seller/builder in selecting the right components, he builds it, installs the software and tests it before delivery. The downside is that often these specialists have their own favorite hardware, like Matrox or Canopus and try to get that into the deal, which increases the price.
    Solution 3 is usually the most cost effective and the most flexible, but the largest drawback is that you need to choose all the right components, to be aware of potential incompatibilities and build it yourself. Many see that as a major stumbling block, but really it is not difficult. Another drawback is support. You have to do it yourself.
    The first steps to take are twofold:
    1. What material do you want to edit and how do you want to deliver the results?
    To put it bluntly, if you want to edit material, recorded with a mobile phone, a digital still camera, recorded off the internet from YouTube or similar, recorded from TV, grabbed from the screen, encoded with any unsuitable codec like DivX, XVid, or the like, or ripped from DVD, and that is your major purpose, no need to read this further, just use a consumer application like Windows Movie Maker or Magix for your editing.
    This guide is for people who use a VIDEO camera and want to edit that.
    So for people with video cameras, what is the main format you use? DV, HDV, DVCPROHD, AVCHD, XDCAMHD, other?
    Do you deliver for the web, on BR or DVD or all of those?
    2. What is your budget?
    Once you have answered these two basic questions for yourself can you start the selection process.
    It will require you to read quite a lot about PC's. Good general sources of information are:
    http://www.tomshardware.com and http://anandtech.com
    As a general rule of thumb you can say that the minimum requirements in terms of CPU, despite what Adobe mentions as minimum requirements, are:
    1. For DV: Core 2 Duo
    2. For AVCHD: i7 with HT or dual Xeon's 55xx
    3. For other HD formats: Core 2 Quad
    It generally does not pay to get the fastest CPU, unless you have an unlimited budget. Their price/performance is usually not the best and you will find a step down gives you nearly the same performance at a much lower price. And there is always overclocking, but I'll come back to that later. To give an example, the Core 2 Extreme QX6850 is currently more than 4 times as expensive as the Core 2 Quad Q9550, but does not deliver any noteworthy performance improvement. And both are quad cores.
    To help you narrow down your choices, it is worthwhile to have a look at these charts:
    http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/desptop-cpu-charts-q3-2008/Cinema-4D-Release-10,835.htm l
    Likely a new version for Q1-2009 will come out shortly.
    In deciding on your shortlist, keep in mind that for video editing FSB speed and cache size are very important. First look at FSB speed (the higher the better, so if you have the choice between 1066 or 1333 FSB, always choose the higher one if it fits your budget). Next narrow down your choices by selecting the CPU with the largest cache. 6 MB L3 cache is better than 3 MB.
    Let's assume that after studying all these sites and reading a lot about CPU's, you have made a shortlist of possible candidates, that fit the minimum requirements indicated above, you have to identify what socket the CPU uses. Is it a 775 pin socket (Core2), a 1366 pin (i7 or Xeon 55xx) or a 771 Xeon 54xx or lower (old generation) socket. This will largely determine your choice of motherboard and memory type you need and as a consequence the case and cooling you need.
    In general the chipset on a 775 mobo uses DDR2, dual channel memory, which is widely available and relatively cheap. On a 771 mobo the memory used is FBDIMM (fully buffered DDR2) with ECC (error correction) which is much harder to get and significantly more expensive. On a 1366 mobo the memory is triple channel DDR3 which is faster than DDR2 but also more expensive. For Xeon 55xx based boards memory used is FBDIMM's triple channel with ECC, which is hard to find and costly.
    The main difference between DDR2 and DDR3 is that dual channel requires two populated memory banks for dual channel operation, whereas triple channel DDR3 requires three banks populated. That is the reason that mobo's with DDR2 usually come with 4 or 8 GB RAM and DDR3 mobo's with 6 or 12 GB RAM. DDR3 is faster (at the same specs) than DDR2. To complicate matters further, most 775 mobo's offer 4 memory slots, 1366 mobo's usually offer 6 memory slots and 1366 dual socket Xeon boards usually offer 12 memory slots.
    I see you are losing interest, this is getting way too complicated. Well, I'm sorry but if you want to make an informed decision on what your next system should be, you need to understand these basics or buy a Dell or HP or even Alienware (a Dell subsidiary). And I continue to bore you with these technicalities in order to help you make a good purchasing decision.
    When selecting a mobo for the CPU you have selected, read tests on TomsHardware or AnandTech to help you find the good performers that have the right set of features for your job. Good brands are ASUS, Abit, Gigabyte and MSI for single socket use, for dual socket the best one to check out is SuperMicro or possibly Tyan.
    Pay attention to the features a board offers, like dual NIC's (network interface controller), dual firewire, number of SATA ports, chipset used for the SATA controller, IHCR and/or Marvell raid capability, on board sound, etcetera. Pay special attention to the board layout, where the PCI-e slots are located in relation to PCI slots. I have once built a machine where I knew I had to use a PCI firewire board and due to the location of the PCI-e slot and the size of the video card (dual slot size) the PCI slot was no longer accessible. It caused me quite some headaches to find a PCI-x firewire replacement board, because I had forgotten to have a close look at the mobo layout. Just a warning, so you don't fall into the same trap I did.
    Ok, we have now decided on the CPU and the mobo. Let's have a look at memory.
    General rule: Get as much as you can and don't spend it on higher clock capable versions! You will gain more from slower memory in large quantities, than from faster but less memory, even with 32 bit apps like CS4. One of the side effects of more memory is less use of a pagefile, which is far slower than RAM, so even if the application can not access more than 4 GB, your pagefile use will be much lower with more memory installed.
    Memory is offered with various ratings. Often in marketing jargon these are dubbed as PC3-8500 or PC3-10600 or PC3-12800 up to 16000. This is all hype. The price tag increases significantly with higher numbers but the performance gain is negligent, in the order of 1 or 2 %. Your best bet is to get memory that is suitable for the FSB speed you have. If you have a FSB of 1333, use memory for 1333 FSB (10600), if you have a FSB of 1066, get 1066 capable memory (8500), it is a complete waste of money to get 1600 capable memory if your FSB does not support it. What is important however is to get the best timings you can find.
    The lower the CAS latency, the better. Also look at tRAS (ROW-ACTIVE-TIME) results. These timing figures may give you better performance than spending money on higher clocked memory. On my system I have 6-6-6-18 timings for memory (even when overclocked by 35% and without increasing the voltage), which gives far better results than 9-9-9-27 timings. BTW, timings are usually measured in CAS, RAS-to-CAS, tRP and tRAS sequence. The lower these numbers, the better it is.
    In general get at least 4 GB on a 775 or 6 GB on a 1366 mobo, but you may benefit from doubling these figures if you are multitasking, for instance having PR, AE and EN open for dynamic linking, or changing to PS for text or still manipulation.
    Next: Storage. I point you to a previous guide I made which gives you the basics about disk setup:
    http://forums.adobe.com/thread/427772
    Next cases. I suggest to only look at big towers or server towers, depending on the mobo of your choice. For dual CPU sockets a server tower is almost always a must, decause of the use of e-ATX size mobo's and the requirement for specialized cooling, often using an air duct, which is only available in server cases. SuperMicro is a prime supplier and my personal favorite in terms of build quality, expansion capabilities and reliability. Be aware however that the power supply in those cases are pretty noisy. For single CPU solutions there are many choices, often based on looks. What is much more important however is the expansion room and the airflow in those cases. You don't want to pimp your editing machine with LED illuminated fans, transparent sides and the like. It needs to be functional. Antec, CoolerMaster, Lian Li and ThermalTake are common brands and worth having a look at. Looking at smaller cases with a sexy look will often lead to disappointment in the future, since they often lack the capability to add additional disk drives or burners internally or get so full with equipment, that cooling is going to be a real problem. Do take into consideration that you may need 1 or 2 5.25" slots for burners.
    Warning: COOLING is essential for reliability and longevity of your system. We'll get to that in a minute.
    If you work long form projects, have a multitude of projects or other situations that may require a large number of disks in use or for backup, it is worth to have a look at cases that offer SAS backplanes and (hot-)swappable disk cages. Often on various sites you may find entries to case modding, where you can find other disk cages that allow you to use four 3.5" disks in the space for two 5.25" slots. In my case I had 6 3.5" slots as is was delivered. I have modded my case to now contain 14 3.5" disks just on the front with room for another disk. To avoid disappointment in the future and a lot of work of rebuilding your PC into a new chassis, plan ahead for the storage requirements you may have in the next years. If you start out with 4
    disks now, but expect to use 8 next year, be sure that they fit in, even if it requires different disk cages. Make sure that there is adequate cooling for the disks in the disk cages, preferably with 80 or 120 mm fans in front of the disks and use a replacable dust filter.
    By this stage we have found the CPU, mobo, memory, hard disks and case. Time to have a look at video cards.
    General: CS4 will not significantly benefit from a high end video card. The marketing hype wants us to believe that the nVidia
    Quadro CX will give enormous benefits for encoding H.264, but that is just what it is: "Hype".
    For general NLE work you are better served with more CPU power, more memory and more hard disks and possibly a better raid controller with more cache than with a video card that costs you at least $ 1 K extra in comparison to very good cards. Better spend the money where you benefit from it. SLI or CrossFire is a complete waste of money and only applies to gamers. Everybody serious about video editing will NEVER install a game on his machine so forget about those things.
    If you make sure that you have at least 512 MB on a decent modern video card, you will be hard pressed to see significant differences in performance. ATI Radeon 4xxx and nVidia GT 2xx series are all well up to the task for editing. If you use GPU intensive plug-ins like Colorista or Magic Bullet you may be wise to choose for the more powerful versions of these cards, since these plug-ins are very demanding when rendering.
    These video cards get very hot in practice and especially under load. If your case is very full or you have another card in the next PCI-e slot, reducing airflow to the video card, you may consider exchanging the stock cooler on the video card by a special cooler like the Accelero Twin Turbo from Arctic Cooling to keep temperatures in hand.
    Now go to http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp and use the PSU calculator to roughly decide what your power supply needs to deliver in terms of Wattage. I strongly suggest to get the PRO version (it is cheap!) but it saves you from fatal mistakes. A PSU (power supply unit) is one of the most overlooked and neglected components in a PC and very often the cause for all kinds of mysterious faults, hangs, BSOD's, restarts etcetera. Let me tell what nearly happened to me when building a new PC. I had checked the power supply requirements, checked reviews online and found one PSU that appealed to me, based on the reviews. It was a Zalman 1000 W. Great, looks good and in stock at an attractive price. I then got the pro version and rechecked, with the extra info on the various rails. The Zalman did not have enough power on the 5V rails that I needed. So I had to change the PSU, otherwise I would have been in for a lot of strange, unexplainable and foreall unexpected hangs, restarts and the like, apart from the reduced life expectancy of the PSU.
    Now, we're finally getting somewhere. Only cooling is left, then all the hardware components have been chosen.
    CPU cooling: Again check sites like AnandTech. They regularly perform extensive tests on CPU coolers. Be aware that test results differ widely from site to site, but some of the names to consider are Noctua, Scythe and Thermaltake. It is best to choose a vertical heatsink cooler with 'push-pull' configuration, meaning one fan in front to push the cooling air in to the heatsink and the other fan at the rear to pull out the air. That generally delivers the best cooling performance. These things can be quite heavy so they are not suggested for LAN parties. Install it and leave your PC where it is, otherwise the weight may damage your mobo. When installing the heatsink be very sparing in applying cooling paste (Arctic silver is a good
    suggestion).
    If you have followed my advise in getting a big tower you have room for additional fans in the case. There may not always be holes to attach screws for mounting, but what also works quite effectively is using heavy duty double sided tape to attach fans to a side, on the PSU (if it is mounted at the bottom of the case). Scythe has some very good fans that give a large airflow at reasonable RPM's and low sound levels.
    Once you have built your system you need to decide what OS to use. 32 or 64 bit? The point seems moot now. 64 bit Vista is your best option currently. No driver problems anymore, somewhat decent stability and the use of all your installed memory. Windows 7 is only a RC currently, so I would not advise that on a production machine, but on another machine I would definitely try it. It is as stable as Vista is now, but drivers are still somewhat lacking. XP is out, despite the best stability on a clean and mean system, due to the 32 bit nature.
    After installing the OS, first check your device manager. Make sure that all your devices are working and there are no warnings. Then update Windows, drivers and other system utilities. Then check your hardware, using CPU-Z and HWMonitor, check the cooling and voltages. Your disks should be below 35 C at all times. Then tune your Bios. Once you have completed these steps, proceed with installing your software. Start with essential system tools like Process Explorer, Beyond Compare, etc. and then continue with tuning Windows, removing sh*t you never use on an editing machine, like MSN or Games, setting unneeded services to manual, disabling Windows Defender and installing Symantec Endpoint protection if you have it, and only then start installing CS4 and related programs.
    When all is well, you may consider to start overclocking. TomsHardware and AnandTech have published several articles on how to do that. If you do it right you will not lose stability and may get significant performance gains. It does require more attention to the temperatures in your case.
    When I recently built a new system, my first PassMark (a common benchmark testing program) score was around 3600. After finetuning the system, optimizing Windows and overclocking, I got a PassMark score of 4733.8, which even after a month is still number two in the worldwide ranking.
    For my system specs, look below, maybe you can derive some ideas from it for your next configuration:
    http://www.millcon.nl/Harm/PCResults.jpg
    I hope this has been informative and that you can profit from my remarks.
    I'm sorry this was so long and taxed your patience to the extreme.
    Further suggestions and enhancements are welcome.

    I haven't the faintest idea. I only use DV, HDV and XDCAM-EX/HD and have never tried it with any (RED) 4K material. I assume it should be sufficient to handle that. But let's be honest, when I increased my raid array from 10 to 12 disks, I did not notice ANY performance gains. The limiting factor must be the PCI-e bus or the Areca controller, that just does not show any improvements from adding a couple of disks. Another thing to consider is that the various benchmark programs widely in use show quite different results.
    As an example, here are two images from HD Tune Pro, one for my 2 disk raid0 on the Marvell chip and the other from my 12 disk raid30 array. First of all, HD Tune shows the wrong size, it is not 2199 GB but should be 10000 GB (at least that is what Areca claims as shown in the last picture), second it ONLY performs at around 745 MB/s transfer rate.
    The most noteworthy item to look at is the rapid performance degradation of this raid0 when the disks get fuller. An average transfer rate of 165 MB/s is quite acceptable for a 2 disk setup, but seeing it go down to below 100 MB/s when the disks fill up is bothersome. It will not allow you to handle uncompressed HD at all.

  • Overclocking the i7, a beginners guide

    To give credit where credit is due: This was not written by myself. I have only edited parts of it.
    I found this on the internet, but it was such a great article, that I wanted to draw your attention to it. Credits go to Chad. Thanks for all the effort you put into this.
    What is overclocking?
    Overclocking is a process of making various components in a computer to go faster than their stock speeds. So if you buy a processor (lets say an i7-920 2.66 GHz) and make it go faster (lets say 3.6 GHz), that can be deemed as overclocking.
    HALT! Do not proceed any further until you have read this:
    Dell, Gateway, eMachine, etc... do not overclock very well, so proceed at your own risk. You break it, it is your fault.
    A little bit more of some explanation:
    This guide is intended to explain how to overclock and its uses. It was made for those who have computers (moreover, motherboards and other components) that support overclocking. If you bought a brand of computer like Dell, Sony, Gateway, HP, eMachine, or any other crappy PC (not saying all of them are) that comes for a store like Walmart, Best Buy, or Circuit City, then this guide does not pertain to you. Even though it is possible to overclock these systems with software, it is not recommended nor advised. This guide is meant for anyone who has a motherboard made by ASUS, GIGABYTE, Abit, DFI, (sometimes Intel), or any other well known brand known for their boards and overclocking abilities. But be forewarned, not all boards made by these companies are made to overclock. Check and see if yours does before going any farther than this final line.
    Note: There are ways to bypass hardware overclocking via software, but it is not recommended and can make your PC unstable, even rendering it unable to stay stable till the system is returned to normal. Overclocking software is made for boards that supports overclocking so that changes can be made without having to restart.
    Further notes:
    -Motherboards not designed for overclocking will not go as far in overclocking, become unstable sooner, and heat far quicker.
    -Computers with boards that do not support overclocking do not have adequate cooling.
    Why would you want to overclock if it could be damaging?
    Simple, to get more out of what you payed for. Overclocking is similar to going and upgrade a car's engine by boring out its piston chambers and adding better fuel injection, air intake, transmission, etc..., but there is always a risk in doing so. But it all boils down to one thing: performance. It is hard to fry your system if you are careful and know what you are getting yourself into. If you are careful about what you do, then it is rather hard to do any kind of permanent damage to your system by pushing it to its sheer limits.
    As with any kind of performance enhancement, there is a level of risk involved. The first and foremost danger is heat. Heat will degrade and damage your components beyond repair if left unchecked and will most definitely lower your system's life span. When you overclock, you are making your computer do more work than it is used to, thus it is going to generate more heat, so having a good cooling system is essential. If you do not have sufficient cooling, then your system could and will overheat. Overheat by itself cannot kill your computer though, the only way for that to happen is to repeatedly overheat it time and time again past the recommended temperatures. YOU SHOULD ALWAYS TRY TO STAY AT OR BELOW YOUR CPU's MAX RATED TEMPERATURE! If you go above this, you can risk harming your CPU. Do so at your own risk. Run your CPU at 5-10C above its max temp for short periods only and ONLY for benchmarking purposes only. DO NOT DO IT FOR LONG TERM!
    And as luck would have it, you do not have to be overly worried about your system overheat as there will be signs before you system becomes a fried potato. Random crashes are probably the most common sign. Overheat is easily prevented by the use of thermal sensors which can tell you how hot your system is getting. If you see temperatures that you think is too high, then either run at a lower speed, or get better cooling, which I will cover later on.
    The other danger of overclocking is voltage. Too much, and you can significantly shorten your components' lifespan. A small boost will not do much, but if you plan on a rather hefty overclock, you may want to be aware that it will decrease the lifespan of your computer's components. But this is usually not an issue since most people who will overclock do not use their components for more than 4-5 years and there is a good chance your components will not fail before 4-5 years regardless of the voltages running through it. Most processors are designed to last in upwards of ten years. So most of the time, loosing a few of those years is worth the performance gained for overclocking.
    Disclaimer for my own protection:
    WARNING!!! READ THIS DAMN WARNING!!! I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR YOU WHINE YOU BROKE YOUR COMPUTER SO READ THIS WARNING!!!!!!
    Overclocking can really mess things up, and it wares down your hardware and its life-expectancy. In other words, the more you overclock, the shorter your computer will live (like how an F1 car's engine must be replaced after every other race). If you attempt to overclock, then I am not responsible for any damage or destroyed hardware when using this guide. Follow at your own risk.
    Overclocking
    This guide is meant for beginners and not for people looking to squeeze out every last bit from their processor. That’s when things become extremely motherboard specific. The goal of this guide is to try to make overclocking the core i7 an easy and enjoyable experience. Overclocking your core i7 is a must; if you don’t you’re a chump. This guide will focus more on core i7 920s, but ideas will probably carry over into EE and higher end chips with locked multipliers.
    Recommended hardware:
    1. A good cooler (Do not use stock if you plan to go past around 3.5. You will run your processor way too hot) (Noctua, ThermalRight Ultra Extreme or Megahalem are my preferred ones but read around.
    2. DDR3 1600+ - You can get away with 1333 but with ram being as cheap as it is, why not.
    3. Pretty much any x58 board (although some are better than others, read some reviews).
    4. A good PSU with an EPS(8 pin) plug.
    5. Paper, Pencil, and Patience – Write things down so you can remember your successes and failures. There is not much to play with in terms of the i7, but keeping track of what you tried can eliminate any frustrating experiences and also allow you to go back to a known stable settings.
    Recommended software for stability testing:
    1. Prime95.
    http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft/
    2. Memtest86+ http://www.memtest.org/
    3. Realtemp http://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/
    4. CPUZ - http://www.cpuid.com
    Many people have personal favorites but the above are what I use.
    Not all I7s are created equal:
    1. So you read on a thread that someone hit 4 ghz on a C0 stepping processor with only 1.28 vcore and you’re wondering if yours will do the same. It’s doubtful, but who knows. It may take you up to 1.4 volts at least with a C0. That’s life; if you're unhappy, sell it and buy a D0.
    2. Not all i7s have the same quality IMC (Integrated Memory Controller). Some are more temperamental than others and will refuse to run your ram at its rated speed without a huge raise of qpi/uncore (VTT). This is not common and often it can be a sign of the quality of the ram.
    3. For the most part, D0's overclock higher and at lower voltages than C0 chips, due to refinements in the fabrication process. Late C0 chips benefitted from the same refinements, and random other batches hit 4.0 ghz at really low volts. I have been told that some D0's do not hit 4.0, but most will do so at a lower voltage than most C0's. A D0 is a more desirable chip, but it's not a must and this guide is still useful to owners of C0's.
    4. Toms Hardware article about speed vs power consumption is flawed and based on one really terrible C0 that needed 1.5 vcore to hit 4ghz. Is a D0 at 1.2v at 4 ghz going to consume more power than a C0 at 3.6 and 1.32 volts? No. The D0 will use less. Power consumption at any given voltage will increase about 3-11 watts (avg 5 for every 100 mhz you increase). Something brough to my attention recently though is that this may differ because some chips are leakier than others. A D0 is by no means a guarantee that it will consume less power.
    5. If you want to reach higher clocks, you may need a better motherboard, cooler, chip or whatever. This guide is not for advanced overclockers.
    Key Terms and Settings Quick Guide:
    BCLK – Base Clock - This clock controls your memory speed, QPI speed, and core speed based on whatever multiples for those settings you have. It's the most important part of overclocking the Core i7. It's stock setting is 133
    Uncore – This is basically the speed of everything which isn't your core (i.e. L3 cache, IMC, etc). It should be 2x your memory speed but allows for multipliers higher than 2x as well. Stability will be greatest at 2x.
    QPI – Quickpath interconnect - It's basically the intel equivalent of AMD's hypertransport. It's how the CPU and the X58 chipset communicate. It has multipliers of 18x, 22x, and 24x. The 920 should be left at 18x creating a 9:8 ratio between the uncore and the memory multiplier assuming you use the 8x ratio, which some claim offers the greatest stability. Although people have been able to run it at all sorts of ratios.
    Memory - Memory is calculated based on either a 6x, 8x, 10x, 12x, or 14x of your base clock. I recommend 6x and 8x. Depending on your mobo bios it may be called ratio or multiplier.
    Ram Timings – This guide will only deal with the first four and the command rate. There are other guides regarding these. You can use XMP (intel's memory profile system) to have these values plugged in but it may set your QPI/uncore voltage automatically to 1.35 which may be more than you need (although it will be stable).
    Turbo mode – This enables the 21x multiplier on the chip. Most boards allow you to do this with eist disabled, but some boards require it enabled. See if a newer bios lets you change things.
    CPU Multiplier – On the 920 the range is from 12x – 21x (22x on one core when at stock speeds). It has been found that the 19x and 21x multipliers are more stable than the 20x.
    Vcore – Voltage of your cpu. See below for tweaking instructions.
    PLL – phase-locked loop – Just use the settings recommended below (1.8 – 1.88 is within specification).
    QPI/Uncore (VTT) – This voltage is the VTT although it does play a role in feeding the IMC with voltage enough to overclock your ram, the L3 cache and a number of other things (Specification is that it should be less than 1.35 but when taking droop into account you can go higher, probably 1.4 is safe. Some ram modules have XMP profiles which call for higher QPI so some will argue that this is safe. I'm not going to argue one way or the other.)
    Vdimm – Your ram voltage (Specification says 1.65 max but 1.66 is fine and so is a bit higher depending on your QPI/uncore voltage).
    Important to do before you overclock:
    EIST – Enhanced intel speedstep technology - It's a power saving tech that should be disabled while testing overclocking stability. This should be disabled while finding your OC, but can be enabled after you are stable (Disable if you have stability issues).
    C1E – Another intel power saving technology. Disable while overclocking, enable afterwards.
    Anything Spread Spectrum – Disable it.
    PCIE frequency – Always at 100, but see FAQ questions below.
    LLC - Load Line Calibration - This gets rid of vdroop when enabled and can help stabilize overclocks. It breaks intel spec, but it is highly recommended to enable it, since it will reduce the needed vcore for a stable OC. The argument for vdroop is that it's a standard and reduces voltage spikes. I have not been able to find anyone who's done any damage by enabling LLC and thus disabling vdroop. In an old anandtech review from 2007 they found that it increased power consumption on an X38 asus board; a newer xbitlabs article using X58 found that it actually decreased with more threads or was otherwise the same. This guide pretty much assumes you use it, but like anything else you are taking the risk. Then again, on my board, enabling it doesn't give you any red letter warning like when you maybe tap your vdimm above 1.65.
    All other settings leave at auto unless needed for stability.
    Initial steps:
    If you've played around with any settings before reset your bios to its stock options. There's probably no need to reset your CMOS, but it can't hurt; if you don't know how to reset your CMOS then I suggest you learn to do so. It's unlikely that you will have to as most modern motherboards will usually have some sort of protection against bad overclocks and automatically allow you to reset the bios upon a bad boot.
    Once your bios is at its stock configuration disable EIST, turbo mode, C1, and any other power saving options that may interfere with an overclock as well as any spread spectrum settings. Now, boot into windows (If you want to use the 21x multiplier then go right ahead and set it as long as you can do so without enabling EIST). Open up cpuz, load up prime and see where the voltage goes. This is your approximate vid for stock. The chip may very well run under this voltage, but this is the vid that the bios is seeing.
    From here we have a number of different methods we can try. I always change my BCLK in my bios settings so that anything set to auto will adjust itself if need be, although you are free to use whatever windows based tools you want although beware of any problems they may cause you.
    You should always set your memory to 8x or 6x depending on what you have and your uncore to 2x the memory. Leave the QPI at the lowest setting.
    Set windows not to restart on a bsod (You want to know what the error was): 
    Windows XP and Vista Directions, but it is the same for Win7.
    Method #1: Optimizing for max performance per watt.
    This method takes by far the most amount of time but for many its worth it in terms of its power efficiency.
    Begin by going into the bios and changing your voltage to your vid and setting QPI/uncore (VTT) to 1.25 (I have raised this due to concerns about droop at 1.2) and vdimm to 1.65 (Most boards can't do this; 1.66 is safe, ignore your spaz bios warnings; you are not going to explode anything, although if you do, it's not my fault. Set it to 1.64 if it helps you sleep easier. I recommend at this point to be working with either the 21x multiplier if possible in order to keep your ram as much out of the equation as possible. 20X has known problems and 19x will land you with high ram speeds quicker which will require raises in the QPI/uncore voltage sooner.
    Open up real temp and run Prime 95 with 8 threads and check stability for an hour at least (The more the better. I recommend overnight just to make sure all is good). Record your settings on a piece of paper or email them to yourself. Make sure to have Realtemp open in order to watch your temperatures. Temperatures should not exceed 80-85 during Prime. During normal use for extended periods, they should never see these kinds of temperatures. I like to keep mine below 70 for normal usage.
    After its stable go into the bios and increase the BCLK by 10 and repeat the process. Find the max BCLK for your stock vid (or any voltage, if you'd like by lowering by smaller amounts when you find an unstable clock. This will help you know what you can run at any given voltage.
    See below for known Prime 95 errors and how they relate to your settings (also some settings to try for stability). Once you get to the clocks you want, I recommend running Prime for at least 16-24 hours. I have in fact had errors in the 14th hour so it's good to know that you're truly stable.
    See also below for optimizing your ram settings.
    Method #2: Quick and dirty method for 4ghz aka screw efficiency
    Set your ioh and ich to 1.2, your vdimm to 1.65, your cpu pll to 1.88, and your QPI/uncore to 1.35.
    For D0 users set your vcore to 1.275 and for C0/C1 users set your vcore to 1.4 and BCLK to 190/191 or 210/211 and multiplier to 21 and 19 respectively. Check for Prime stability. D0's should be fine, but C0/C1 still may not make it, at this point your temps may be too high if you're not on water, so I suggest you start working backward in order to hit a much lower vcore or use method 3.
    Method #3: Quick and dirty vcore boosting.
    Set your ioh and ich to 1.2, your vdimm to 1.65, your cpu pll to 1.88, and your QPI/uncore to 1.35. Set BCLK to 190/191 or 210/211 and multiplier to 21 and 19 respectively.
    The D0 chip usually hits 4.0 in the vcore range of 1.175 and 1.25. Try those voltages until you find whats right for your chip.
    The C0/C1 is a much more difficult beast with a much larger range of 1.27 to around 1.4 and up to 1.5 (Do not attempt on air unless you live somewhere really, really cold). Some may not hit 4ghz at all.
    This method is more difficult as some chips may not boot until you give them the proper vcore
    How to use Prime95 to test stability:
    Open up Prime95 and Realtemp to check your idles and loads. Set Prime95 to whatever priority you'd like. I prefer 4 or 7 so that realtemp still updates but some people prefer 10 and will run without a temperature monitor. Either is fine, but I'm always paranoid that my cooler will somehow become unlatched spontaneously. Set windows not to restart on bluescreen by setting [insert settings here] so that you can catch the error (although windows will record it somewhere). Start a mixed torture test and let it run for however long, depending on if you're only doing a temporary stability test in order to raise (about 1 hour) or a true stability test (16-24 hours). Once you've passed Prime95 you can run any other stability test that you want.
    Prime 95 Errors:
    Freeze: Increase the vcore
    Other errors can indicate instability with the chip if they are during small fft (increase vcore by .125) or instability with ram large ftt (Try raising the ioh and/or running memtest).
    BSOD code 101: Increase the vcore. I recommend increasing by +.025 if you get a bsod
    BSOD code 124: Increasese or decrease the QPI/uncore by .25. Depending on where you are in your stability tests you'll probably need to increase it. 1.375 is the max I'm comfortable with although people say 1.4+ is safe. This is for you to determine and research. Don't do anything you're not comfortable with. Intel says do not go above 1.35 so 1.375 with droop and loss is safe and not too far outside specification.
    It is important to note that sometimes QPI can be too high and that might cause this code. That's why it's not a good idea to just set things to 1.35 and hope for the best. If you find that increasing QPI/uncore voltage is not increasing stability, try decreasing it. Just remember of course, to keep track of your settings. I recommend not increasing, unless you have to (Don't be arbitrary about it).
    D0 exclusive BSOD weird 2 letter/number codes: Treat this as a 101 and increase vcore by +.025. Update: It seems that these error codes can crop up for other reasons. Depending on where you are in the process you should take a look at your other voltages. I realize this is vague, but you may need to experiment.
    If any worker fails, especially during small fft then it's cpu voltage. Bump it once or twice. If it fails during large fft then its probably memory error you can try running memtest/upping ioh. I would try running small fft at that point for a good amount of time and make sure its not the cpu voltage. If it passes 8-12 hours of small fft then work on making it pass large fft. Just remember to keep track of your settings. That's not to say that a large fft error won't be the result of cpu voltage, it's just not what I would try. Be methodical. If something allows Prime to run significantly longer then keep it. Significant depends where you are in the process. If your workers fail as soon as you start and a setting change gets you through a test then I'd say its good. If you get crashes during the 8th hour, and the setting change only gets you another 5 minutes in the 8th hour, it's probably just random and not the setting.
    Testing Memory Stability with memtest 86+:
    Personally, I do not run memtest until I actually encounter what could be memory errors( I assume things work until proven otherwise). Begin by setting your ram timings in the bios and setting your QPI/uncore to 1.35 and your vdimm to 1.64-1.66. Do not oc your cpu. Just run your ram at its rated spec to make sure that the ram is stable and not defective. You can also check it again with an oc'ed cpu as well. If it's unstable try raising the ioh to 1.20 or higher. If you are still getting errors try each dimm one at a time and see if you need to RMA (A pain in the *** but necessary).
    Optimizing ram with memtest86+:
    Assuming your ram is stable you can either overclock, lower voltage, tighten timings, or all of the above.
    1. Lowering voltage. Run memtest86 for 20 minutes, if you get errors, stay where you are. Otherwise lower the vdimm by .02 and repeat until you get an error within 20 minutes. Then run it overnight.
    2. Overclocking. You may be able to run your ram faster than you thought. Loosen the timings(make them higher) and then increase BCLK. You can optimize your voltage with the above number one. Depending on the ram, you may be able to overclock quite a bit or not at all. Running your ram at anything above 1066 is in fact overclocking the IMC.
    3. Tightening timings. Timings should be decreased as such. Assuming you begin with 9-9-9 your next step should be 9-9-8 then 9-8-8 then 8-8-8. You can also try 8-9-8 but this is going to depend on your memory. You may need to raise voltages to tighten the timings.
    The usefulness of overclocking your ram is limited. See the useful links sections below to see how certain ram settings will impact your real life performance.
    Frequently asked questions:
    Q: I can't raise my BCLK over some number. How do I fix it? What's the deal?
    A: Not all chips and motherboards are made the same. You can try playing around with voltage amplitude, pll, skew or pcie (pcie is probably best not raised as it can cause damage). This is a question that is better asked on a thread dedicated to a specific board. You may end up being out of luck.
    Q: What are safe voltages?
    A: According to Intel or common knowledge the following are the safe air temperatures:
    Vcore: ~1.4
    QPI/uncore (VTT): 1.35
    PLL: 1.88
    Vdimm:~1.65 (Some will say that you are safe within .5 of your QPI/uncore allowing for a max of 1.85 on vdimm. See the link to the xtreme systems forum below on this subject for a long thread).
    IOH: Less than 1.3
    ICH: Less than 1.3
    Q: My chip is too hot before I can reach 4 ghz. What can I do?
    A: Disable hyperthreading or buy a better cooler (Noctua, TRUE or Megahalems recommended).
    Q: But don't I want hyperthreading?
    A: It's certainly nice to have a feature you paid for, but it sometimes decreases performance and it definitely causes a lot of heat. It's up to you.
    Q: How do I go past 4ghz?
    A: Same way as you got there in the first place. Just keep increasing BCLK. Past this point though it's up to you to do some research on your own.
    Q: What is this multiplier throttling I've heard about?
    A: Some boards will throttle down the 21x multiplier if the wattage becomes too high. The culprits without public fixes are the Asus P6T Deluxe and vanilla (The Deluxe v1 has a bios available on the xtremesystems forum which can be crossflashed onto the v2 which will fix this problem) It really only becomes a problem at high voltages with high frequencies. Other boards have ways of disabling it.
    Q: Why would I want to optimize my voltages?
    A: Save money on power bills and leave more wattage for other devices.
    Q: My chip was stable for X amount of time and now it's not?
    A: Have you added any hardware? How are your temperatures? High voltages and high temps can cause decay and make the chip require more voltage for an overclock. It may also be that your PSU is starting to go or maybe your motherboard is. Do your best to troubleshoot this.
    Q: My temperatures seem really high? Is X degrees ok?
    A: A better question is whether or not you are ok with X degrees. How long do you plan to won this chip? What are your ambients? If your house is 40 degrees centigrade, don't expect your chip to drop below that unless you are using extreme cooling (also try to move somewhere cooler cause that's really hot or get some AC, are you trying to cook yourself?). A cpu well taken care of can last over a decade when run within spec. How long do you really think you're going to keep this chip? A rule of thumb I go by is never push a part that I can't afford to replace if I break it (I do this anyway, but its a good rule nonetheless). Your temps will always get higher than normal when stress testing so do some normal stuff to see if your temperatures are acceptable. Try backing down a bit if you are unhappy.
    Q: I heard this will work or this needs to be this way?
    A: Try it. This is a general guide, not a set of hard and fast rules.
    Q: My computer restarted while priming; how do I find out the error?
    A: If you haven't already, disable bsod restarts in windows. Sometimes, though, it decides to restart anyway.
    Open Computer Management by right-clicking the Computer icon on the start menu (or on the Desktop if you have it enabled) and select Manage. Navigate to the Event Viewer. Note: If you did not disable UAC then you will be prompted to consent to the action you're about to perform. Click Continue. Note: You can also open the Event Viewer by typing Event Viewer in the Search box and pressing Enter, or typing eventvwr.msc in the Run command.
    Also check the results.txt in your Prime95 folder for a log of when it ultimately crashed and what it was doing at the time.
    Q: Whats the deal with PCIE frequency? Can it help break my BCLK wall?
    A: Yes, but I advise caution. Raising this too much can damage things running on the pcie bus or cause them to not work. I would not raise it personally more than a few mhz. You are probably safe at 103, but I take no responsibility of course.
    Voltages/settings you can try to use to increase stability:
    PLL: 1.88
    IOH: 1.2+
    ICH: 1.2
    CPU voltage amplitude: +800mv
    CPU Skew: +300ps
    Command rate: change from 1n to 2n
    You should really check in on your specific board as not all boards have the same settings. Be methodical in testing settings since you want to know whether something helped or hurt by itself before you combine.
    Useful Links:
    http://www.overclock.net/intel-cpus/538439-guide-overclocking-core-i7-920-4-a.html
    Intel Info on the i7
    QPI/Uncore voltage (XS) (Do not take this as gospel try to stay in spec unless you feel like really pushing things)
    Info on multiplier throttling (XS)
    Memory Scaling on the Core I7

    My i7 rig is with a socket 1156 board, an Asus P7P55D mobo, and an 860 CPU. I know the Corsair DDR3 memory @ its stock 1.65v simply doesn't run at 1600mhz like it says on its box - 1333mhz seems to be its stability wall.
    I upgraded my Q6600 and Asus P5B deluxe rig because so many people said to never consider overclocking on an editing rig. Was that over-cautious advice?

  • Lenovo U310: Clean Windows 7 Installation Guide (including Rapid Start and Caching)

    Hi there,
    this is the first time that I am writing such a guide/tutorial/whatever you may call it – there are probably better ones, but though not being a total computer noob, it took me almost one week to get this pretty (now again) little beast running again. So hopefully this helps some others to avoid such stupid downtimes.
    A brief overview on what has happened to my original win 7 Home Premium:
    As some may know, this laptop is very well usable as a “Hackintosh” called Macbook clone. So that’s what I did. It turned out to be nice, but I wanted to go back to Windows after a while, using a clean W7 Pro installation to start over. Actually an easy task, format all drives, install Windows, be happy. Just as I had been doing this for years. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a real challenge. First, I couldn’t “see” my drives during installation (and thus not install), then I got random errors during installation aborting it at different points and finally rapid start and caching didn’t work. Every time I tried to activate them (after Win installation), it crashed my PC. I even found an (official Lenovo!) guide stating to install W7 on the SSD, which worked, but sucks due to space limitations. Oh and another very nice thing: The SSD showed up during WIN installation (but not the classical hard drive) stating it was about 60 GB. So as you can see, I have had a lot of different tries and errors. Why I didn’t use Lenovo Easy Recover? As said before, I erased all partitions…
    Before we start: If you have a good Windows running on the Laptop, do yourself a favor and disconnect the RAID 0 disks using the Intel Rapid Storage Application before(!!!) proceeding. It will make things much easier. And don’t forget to get all you data on an external drive or something.
    Ok, now let’s start.
    1.)    Prepare a USB Stick with the following driver
             http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=21730 (choose f6flpy-x64.zip If you’re running a   
             64-bit system (standard nowadays), take f6flpy-x86.zip if it is a 32-bit Windows, just download and copy them
             into the stick’s root directory) and plug this stick in one of the left side USB ports.
    2.)    You’ll need Win 7 on either a DVD (plus external drive, for sure) or (bootable) USB stick
    3.)    Connect your drive/stick (with W7) to the right side USB port.
    4.)    Switch the computer on, immediately hit FN and F2. That will open the BIOS.
    5.)    In the BIOS, navigate to the very right section (“save and exit”) and navigate the cursor to “load setup defaults”.
             Hit enter to approve.
    6.)    After that, go to the “boot” tab and disable UEFI-boot.
    7.)    Next, go one more tab to the left and set the controller setting to RAID (NOT AHCI or Compatible!!!).
    8.)    Navigate the cursor down to “Intel Rapid Start” and hit enter. A submenu will pop up-
    9.)    Disable the first entry in that window, that will make the rest be disabled as well.
    10.) Navigate to the very right tab, this time hit save and exit.
    11.) The PC restarts.
    12.) Immediately hit FN and F12 to open the boot selection menu. Select to boot from your W7 DVD drive or USB
            stick.
    13.) Click yourself through the whole process of installing Windows 7 until the page comes up where you will have
            to select where to install it.
    14.) Click on “load drivers” and after a few seconds your downloaded driver should be there. Click ok to use them.
            Please do this step even if you can see your drives (SSD Disk 0, 32 GB and HDD Disk 1, 465(<-?) GB) as you
            would expect them – otherwise you’re very likely to get an error during the install process.
    15.) Now erase all partitions on both drives and select the HDD as the drive to install W7 to – NOT THE SSD!!!!!
            Seriously, don’t choose the SSD.
    16.) Windows will probably say that some extra partitions are necessary and so on, click ok and install Windows.
    17.) After the installation has finished and you see your Desktop, I suggest you to proceed with the next steps in the
            following order to see as early as possible if you are on the right way.
    18.) Install the Chipset driver, restart.
    19.) Install the Intel Rapid Storage “driver” and check the box where it asks to additionally install the control center.
            Reboot.
    20.) Go into BIOS (FN and F2) and enable Intel Rapid Start (the one you disabled in Step 8 and 9)
    21.) Boot into Windows.
    22.) Click on the Windows button, type cmd and right klick on the cmd.exe, select to run it as Admin.
    23.) Now you’ll create a hibernation partition on the SSD. (which by now should be completely empty as we’ve
            deleted all partitions in step 15)
    24.) In the command prompt that we have just opened, type: (without quotas, for sure)
    “diskpart” and hit the enter button
    “list disk” and hit the enter button
    Now you should see your ssd as disk 0 and your hdd as disk 1
    If your ssd is disk 0 (that would be standard), write “select disk 0”, otherwise write: “select disk 1”, and hit the enter button.
    Now write “create partition primary size=4096” and hit enter again. [if you have 4GB of ram, type 4096, if you have 8 GB of ram, use 8192]
    Now write “detail disk” and hit enter to see the volume number behind the volume that we have just created (it is 4 GB or 8 respectively, should be easy to find), in my case that was “2”
    Now type “select volume 2” if your 4 or 8 GB volume has number 2 as well, otherwise use the number you found out in step f. Hit enter.
    Finally, type: “set id=84 override” and hit enter for one last time.
    It should now say back that the id has been set successfully.
    Exit the command prompt. (close)
    25.) Reboot
    26.) Install the Rapid Start driver. Reboot.
    27.) Open the Intel Rapid Storage Application.
    28.) Click on accelerate and approve the settings. Two RAID’s will be created. Reboot.
    29.) Install the remaining drivers, have fun with Windows Update and that’s it!
    Good luck to all of you… And hey Lenovo - wouldn't that have been your job after all these posts showing your costumers in trouble? Just my two cents...
    If you want, you can now turn on UEFI-boot in BIOS.
    PS: If, after installing all drivers, you happen to see one unknown device in your device manager – this one belongs to Lenovo Connect Software that came with your Laptop. (Updates FB, Email etc when PC is in sleep mode) If you install Lenovo Connect it’s going to be fine, however, I would not recommend it as it is said to use a lot of energy and cause some other problems. So just live with it, your PC is totally fine without it.
    Kind regards from Shanghai

    Seriously guys, I can't use my 3 days old laptop. Some help would be mostly appreciated. At this point, the network connection issue doesn't show up anymore, it's just a blank screen after reboot. I reinstall windows and do it all over again just to achieve the same result.
    Now couple of things caught my attention: as I load the "6flpy-x64.zip" driver from step 14, I get a message saying I need to install signed drivers, because unsigned ones are likely to mess up the system.
    Secondly, I could not find any Rapid Storage Technology drivers for Windows 7 (particularly for U310 model), so I use the Windows 8 ones (http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/detail.page?DocID=DS031455), which seems a silly thing, yet I know of no alternatives.
    Could it be any of these issues to cause my problem? Or smth else? Please help!

  • If you format in Guid for Intel Macs, Apple partition for PPC Macs for Boot drives, then why do my PPC Hard drives Boot in my 2007 Mac Pro, what gives?

      I recently purchased a 2007 Mac Pro for a song, swapped the CPU's for octo chipsets and proceeded to wait for new Hdd's in the mail. I was told the Hard drives in my old G5 would not be bootable unless they're in Guid format. Disc Utility confirmed to use the specific maps as well and yet all of my 2006 PPC Power Mac G5 Hard drives boot in my MP without a hitch, although a few none universal apps do not work. So what am I missing, does it really matter which Apple partion map to choose from or is this a fluke?...

    all of my 2006 PPC Power Mac G5 Hard drives boot in my MP without a hitch
    Yes, and what version of Mac OS  are they booting?
    >> They will boot the OS that is on them, but not a later one.

  • Guide to installing XP on your Mac without using Bootcamp (kinda)

    Installation instructions for bootcamping your mac with XP
    This method does not use the bootcamp utility in OSX
    What you need:
    A working bootable version of Windows XP SP2  ( see note below ) + product key
    Bootcamp 2.1 drivers for Windows ( can be installed / copied from the original leopard installation disk under windows )
    Windows XP SP3 installer
    Apple HFS+ drivers for XP
    note:          Using a clean version of the XP installation disk is preferable..  specifically the version that came with Service Pack 2 ( saves time installing services packs later ).  Trying to use a unattended slipstream install of XP can result in a disk that cannot be read by OSX bios at boot. So save yourself some time and use a vanilla version.
    warning:      Follow these instructions at your own risk. Any loss of data, bricking your computer or any other form of meyhem originating from using these instructions are at entirely your own risk. Have fun!
    OK! lets get started!
    Burn your windowsXP.iso to a CD/DVD using diskutil application under OSX
    choose open ISO image in diskutil
    right click loaded image and select burn ISO
    ( optional step ) reboot while holding down the 'option' key and confirm that OSX can read your newly created boot
    Using diskutil partition your OSX hard drive
    select the main partition and click the "+" to add a new partition
    adjust the size of the partition as needed
    set to format the partition to 'fat'
    name parition 'Windows HD'
    apply changes
    Insert XP install disk and reboot
    hold down the 'option' key as your mac chimes on restart
    wait until your boot options are display ( you will see the Macintosh HD disk, Windows HD disk, and the XP installation disk )
    using the arrow keys on the keyboard select the XP installation disk and hit enter
    hit any key when the XP installation prompts you to begin installation
    Proceed through the installation process
    when prompted for installation location browse for the newly created partition from step 2 ( usually identified by partition type.. eg: fat, and size of the partition )
    do not reformat the partition..   use it as is.
    during the installation XP will reboot several times.. make sure you hold down the option upon each reboot of you mac.. however from now on select the Windows drive
    enter in your product key when prompted.
    complete installation and boot into XP for the first time.
    Install XP Service Pack 3 ( proceed to step 6 if this installs correctly )
              note:           if you are prompted 'not enough space to install' do as below:
    Click Start, click Run, type “regedit” (without quotes) and then click OK.
    Locate and then click the following registry subkey:    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup
    On the Edit menu, point to New, and click String Value.
    In the text box under the Name column, type "BootDir" (without quotes) and press ENTER.
    Right-click the name BootDir, and then, click Modify.
    In the Edit String Value dialog box, type the drive letter for your system drive, and then click OK.   For example, if your system drive is C: then, type "C:\" (without quotes).
    Close Registry Editor and restart the computer.
    Install Windows XP Service Pack 3 that you downloaded.
    note:           x86 folder is for 32-bit Windows
    x86_64           folder is for 64-bit Windows
      6.   Install bootcamp 2.1 drivers
    note: you can also find the drivers on any original leopard OSX installation disk..  just insert into you CD/DVD drive under windows and the installation will start automatically
      7.   Update bootcamp twice ( reboot after each update )
      8.   Install the Apple HFS+ drivers for XP to gain 'read-only' access to your OSX HFS partition
              a.  Copy AppleHFS.sys & AppleMNT.sys to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\
              b.  Merge Add_AppleHFS.reg
              c.  Restart
    At this point you are done..  final things you can do is to set bootcamp to always boot into Windows first ( no need to hold down the option key ) and install any newer drivers.. i.e. graphics drivers..  other than that.. you can go ahead and enjoy XP!
    Message was edited by: Jamie Telford

    Having just put a 1TB hard drive in my MacBook Pro(late 2008) running Mountain Lion. I, being greedy, wanted partition the drive and have Mountain Lion and Snow Leopard (to run legacy apps) and Windows XP(currently running under Fusion) available on boot.
    My main partition is ML. I repartitioned the 1TB drive and installed SL. SL Boot Camp won't let you install XP unless the SL partition is the one and only. So I followed your excellent instructions to set up XP having created a 100GB FAT partition. I didn't reformat the partition as per your step 4b (unlike the Boot Camp instructions page 8 step 2). However on rebooting into the XP drive it halts with a "hal.dll" error. ["i'm sorry I can't do that Dave" - 2001 A Space Odyssey]
    Other options I've tried have been:
    1 to format as NTFS at step 4b
    2 to use a 32GB FAT partition as recommended in the Boot Camp guide.
    Nothing has worked
    Thought of trying to wipe all partitions and install SL as main OS. Then use Boot Camp to install XP. Finally to add partition for ML and install.
    Maybe no!
    cheers
    Dave

  • How do I install lion on a macbook pro that has a MBR instead of GUID.

    Not sure how that happened. Maybe when I installed parallels and Windows XP, but Lion apparently requires a GUID partition. I've backed up and copied all important files to an external drive. If I reformat the drive for GUID how do I restore Leopard so I can then upgrade to Lion. I lost me original disks. Can I make a boot disk from the current OS?

    As you know you must install OS X on a GUID partitioned, Mac OS Extended, Journaled drive. You do not need to reinstall Snow Leopard in order to install Lion if you have a copy of the Lion installer. If you don't have a copy of the installer then I suggest you re-download Lion but save the installer on your external drive. Here's how you do that:
    Download Lion Again Without Installing Snow Leopard First
    There's an easy method to force a download within the Mac App Store without any tinkering. It seems to be the official method, although I found no description of this in any of Apple's documentation.
    So here's how to do it:
    Open the Mac App Store.
    Navigate to your Purchased page.
    Hold down the Option key on your keyboard and click on your 'OS X Lion' purchase link (not on the 'installed' button).
    You see the Lion product page. It should say 'Installed,' but that button is clickable. Hold down the Option key again and click on 'Installed.' If you don't hold the option key it will tell you there's already a newer version installed.
    Enter your login credentials.
    Download.
    It's important to hold down the Option key twice. Once on the Purchased page, once on the Lion page. You also can't navigate to Lion directly, you need to open it from the purchases page. But if you follow this procedure you should find the Lion Installer within your Applications folder.
    Now, make yourself a bootable DVD or USB flash drive for installing Lion:
    Make Your Own Lion Installer
    1. After downloading Lion you must first save the Install Mac OS X Lion application. After Lion downloads DO NOT click on the Install button. Go to your Applications folder and make a copy of the Lion installer. Move the copy into your Downloads folder. Now you can click on the Install button. You must do this because the installer deletes itself automatically when it finishes installing Lion.
    2. Get a USB flash drive that is at least 8 GBs. Prep this flash drive as follows:
    Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
    After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area.  If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing.  SMART info will not be reported  on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
    Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
    Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
    Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
    Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
    3. Locate the saved Lion installer in your Downloads folder. CTRL- or RIGHT-click on the installer and select Show Package Contents from the contextual menu. Double-click on the Contents folder to open it. Double-click on the SharedSupport folder. In this folder you will see a disc image named InstallESD.dmg.
    4. Plug in your freshly prepared USB flash drive. You are going to clone the InstallESD.dmg disc image to the flash drive as follows:
    Open Disk Utility.
    Select the USB flash drive from the left side list.
    Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
    Check the box labeled Erase destination.
    Select the USB flash drive volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
    Drag the InstallESD.dmg disc image file into the Source entry field.
    Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
    When the clone is completed you have a fully bootable Lion installer that  you can use without having to re-download Lion.

  • The guide to bootcamp assistant states that bootcamp can only be installed on a drive with a single partition. New Macs with Lion preinstalled have two partitions - the second is a recovery partition.  How do I install Bootcamp?

    Late in August 2011 I took delivery of a new 27" iMac with Lion preinstalled.  I need to run Windows as well. Following Apple's written suggestion, I printed off the then current 12 pages of the document "Bootcamp Installation & Setup Guide" which clearly stated that the hard drive you were going to install on had to have on it, before install, a maximum of one partition.  Using finder and disk utility I determined that there was only one partition.  Unbeknownst to me, there was (is) an additional hidden (from those two pieces of software) partition on the disk.  As of machines delivered new with Lion preinstalled, Apple has begun to include a "recovery partition".  In that partition there is a copy of the software necessary to reinstall Lion via a download from the Apple App Store.  Not knowing the partition was there, I cranked up  "Bootcamp Assistant" which nicely offered to repartition my hard drive creating a "Bootcamp Partition" in addition to the existing.  I told it how big to make each and hit the do it button, subsequently destroying my operating system.  Oh, it very nicely told me, after the damage was done, how many partitions were REALLY on the disk and that I could not install Bootcamp cause there were too many partitions.
    Luckily the the Recovery Partition, which at that point I knew existed, was not harmed and after doing some research on another compter, I used it to once again download Lion from the App Store and reinstall. So, I have recovered but am still stuck with the problem:  how do I install Bootcamp in this new environment?

    First you need to seriously back up your Mac.
    A clone is an exact duplicate of your existing Mac HDD. Merely copying and pasting a drive will not make a bootable backup. In case of problems you can boot from an Ext HDD clone and use the utilities to repair, reformat, or clone the Ext HDD back to the internal Mac HDD.  While Time machine back ups are easy you can not boot from it. The best thing to have for any kind of problem is a bootable clone backup on an external drive. Some even have two external backup drives in case one fails. There are two good apps for cloning named SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner.
    In dealing with the recovery partition a simple approach is to clone the Mac partition to an external disk then re-partition the Mac to a single partition (GUID partition table) . Then clone the external disk clone back to the Mac. You will now have only one Partition and Boot Camp assistant sould not object.
    Some have recommended getting rid of the recovery partition while others have advised not to do this. If you have the Lion USB Thumb Drive you do not need a recovery partition so can discard it without concern. There is another way to get rid of the recovery partition if you decide to do it but first be sure to have a backup of your Mac ( I know I sound like a nagging mom but many dead computers have been saved by this simple precaution).
    Use Disk Utility.
    1) Make the Recovery visible in Disk Utility by using a program like Secrets:http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/27025/secrets or MacPilot:http://www.koingosw.com/products/macpilot.php (15 day free trial).
    2) Highlite the Recovery partition and Control click it and select Mount the partition.
    3) With the Recovery partition highlited, erase the partition, you'll get an error message, ignore it.
    4) Now highlite the top identity of the hard drive and select the partition tab.
    5) Highlite the Recovery partition and press the minus sign.
    6) Click and hold on the bottom edge of the partition above and drag it to the bottom, if it doesn't go there automatically, the press apply.

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