Ashfame | Tech Blog » Hardware

LG Flatron L226WTQ Review

Ashfame — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:54:22 +0000

Finally I am writing a review of my lovely WideScreen. Its a LG Flatron 22inch screen (Model no: L226WTQ) which is one of the best 22″ screen available at such a price. Lets go through its technical specifications first.

Technical Specifications / Features

1680 X 1050 Resolution (16:10 Aspect Ratio)
5000 : 1 Contrast Ratio (Dynamic)
2ms Response Time (Gray to Gray)
300 cd/m² Brightness
170^o / 160^o Viewing Angle
Anti-Glare coating
45W Power Consumption
5.85 kg weight

What I have to say about it?

Its a brilliant screen, definately the best in its price category. The contrast ratio is great. It sparks on colors. Even being a 22″screen, it offers 2ms response time (all other offers 5ms response time) which is good for gaming. I havn’t observed any ghosting effect on it. The viewing angle is great. I can watch movies on it while lying on bed and just tilting the screen 5^o in front. It has a cool rotation mechanism that allows you to swivel it with just a pressure of finger. Inputs include VGA and DVI-D. The latter is HDCP-enabled, so you can connect the screen to a Blu-ray or HD DVD player and enjoy copy-protected movies. There’s no HDMI socket, but you can buy a DVI-to-HDMI adaptor if the need arises.

While I was looking for a good screen that can serve all my needs, I came to know that the best screens are by Dell only but they are a little expensive option in India and moreover there best 22″ screen was available in white color and I wanted one in black color. Considering the price of LG L226WTQ (MRP: 15k INR, I got it in 13k INR), its the best value for your money. You will not regret buying it. The only thing it lacks is that it can’t be switched to potrait mode (not much of a con) like some Dell monitors can.

However, I have a little problem in dismantling the screen both in showroom and in home but thats something one will rarely do. It was free from any dead pixels when I checked it. If you are looking for 22inch screen, then you can blindly go for this one.

Do you own a widescreen? How is it?

Process Lasso – Manage your multi core CPUs effectively

Ashfame — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:55:32 +0000

Many of us uses dual core or quad core processors. The reason being simple that they are better in terms of performance but I would like to point out that the potential of multi core CPUs are not being effectively utilized. The OS are smart enough to use them but we and our programs don’t have much control over their usage.

What is going on in cores?

Like you have a anti-virus scan running on your computer and then you start media player to play music. What happens is that OS assigns one core for anti-virus scan and other core is used for playing media player. If you start another process or application, then it is also assigned one of the existing cores like it happens in single core processors. This is called multi tasking as multiple cores are handling multiple applications. There are rarely any softwares that can run on both cores thus doubling up the speed of the computer as they are yet to be developed. Only Software Simulation is in implementation these days which is not able to tap its full power.

What is missing?

We don’t have any control on the choice that which core will be assigned to which applications and this might decrease the responsiveness of the computer. It doesn’t decrease the responsiveness always but sometimes it happens.

So What can you do?

You can use Process Lasso to manage which core is assigned to which application. I must tell you that if you are a newbie, then Process Lasso is not for you as it might confuse you. Even its help contain many technical terminologies but still if you want to give it a try, then go ahead.

You can take more control of managing the usage of cores by different applications which results in a more responsive environment, set priorities of different processes etc. There are also lots of other options that you can tweak for a more responsive and better working environment.

If you wish to read more about it, then read it on Techtree. Have your say in the comments.

3 creative ways of showcasing your best content on sidebar

MemTest – Check faulty RAM for errors

Ashfame — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:29:06 +0000

Many times it happened with a lot of computer users that they face weird issues on their computer, the reason of which they are unable to find out. In most of the cases RAM is the culprit. Either it will restart the computer randomly or it will freeze the computer or in severe case, faulty RAM stick might not even allow the computer to boot up. Today I am going to share a small software named MemTest (15KB) that can test if your RAM is functioning correctly.

MemTest is designed to find all types of memory errors including intermittent problems. Therefore, it needs to be run for several hours to truly evaluate your RAM. You have the option of running it either till 100% RAM coverage or let it run the test for 1hr or let it run more aggressively by leaving it to run overnight.

A good RAM will completely be free of error and can run MemTest for weeks without any errors. If you find even a single error, then that means either there is a fault with your RAM or your system is incorrectly configured.

It is available for all the versions of windows and it can run on both 32 bit and 64 bit Windows. Vista is also supported by MemTest. The free version does pretty night job of checking your RAM but if you intend to do it on a regular basis on multiple machines, then they also have Pro & Deluxe versions available that offers some extra features over the free version.

Download Memtest (15KB) and if you feel like reading more about it, then here is its manual.

A similar utility for testing RAM under linux is available by the name of Memtest86. They even offer iso image downloads so that you can create a bootable disc but I haven’t tried it. Why don’t you give it a shot and let me know. If you are thinking of buying RAM for your computer, then you might want to read this guide : RAM buying guide. Have your say in the comments.

Opera Mini v4.1 beta launched

Ashfame — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 18:52:27 +0000

My all time favorite mobile browser Opera Mini has launched the beta of their next version which offers feature that can blow you off. Earlier Opera Mini v4 was lacking certain features that have been implemented in this version. If you are unaware of Opera Mini, it is a phone browser which is capable of bringing the power of whole internet into your cell phone. It is also faster and delivers pre-compressed pages so that you are charged less for your data usage plan and pages are loaded faster.

New features of Opera Mini v4.1 are:

Faster Speed

Opera servers have been upgraded so that their response time is increased by 50%. Pages are now delivered faster. Feel the difference yourself.

Find things faster

It lets you search for text within a Web page so you can get to the information you need. Just like you can search for text within a page in your desktop browser.

Get to your Web sites faster

Now Opera Mini will suggest you the URL address as you type in the address bar by tracking URLs from the history and bookmarks. Pretty smart feature in a mobile browser.

Download and upload files

On phones with JSR-75, users can now even upload or download without being directed to the phone’s native browser. Download without leaving the Opera mini browser interface.

Save pages for later viewing

On phones with JSR-75, users can now save pages on their memory so that they can view them later when they are offline. Like you will be out of cellular reception, as in planes, so you can save pages.

Existing features of Opera Mini v4 are :

Sync bookmarks and Speed Dial

You can sync your bookmarks and speed dials between Opera mini (mobile browser) and Opera browser (desktop browser). You will need a account with them in order to do so. Just select Sync feature from the browser and it will be updated with the latest copy of your bookmarks. This makes work easier when you you use internet sometime on computer and sometime on mobile. One of the coolest feature of Opera Mini so far.

View pages in Landscape mode

You have the option of viewing pages either in portrait or landscape mode. Press * # to change viewing mode. It would be better if this can be integrated with accelerometer feature in Nokia N95, Apple iphone etc.

Give your phone a mouse

Yes you have a cursor on your mobile browser too. You can move it and click on any link as you do on desktop browsers. Just push your joystick in any direction and it will run in that direction. It’s the best option that you can have other than having a mouse itself.

Power scrolling shortcuts

You can scroll faster by pressing the shortcuts i.e. 2 for down, 4 for left, 6 for right and 8 for up respectively. Pressing these shortcut keys you can scroll as much as you can see on screen at a time. Very useful on mobiles that don’t have large screens like blackberry phones. Very easy to use even on phones with small screens.

Create custom search shortcuts

You can grab search option on a Web page and then choose â€œCreate searchâ€ within your menu alternatives. Then you can enjoy making frequent searches without having to type in the site link again.

Tools and support for Web designers

Opera developers support web designers who want to make their Web sites look even better to those browsing with Opera Mini. They will assist web designers to look their sites pixel perfect in Opera Mini browser. So, if you are a web designer and your visitors are mobile users then you might want to contact them.

Opera Mini can be downloaded via many options but I would suggest you to download it directly from your mobile. Completely hassle free procedure. Its just a little above 100KB in size.

To Download Opera Mini 4.1 beta, visit mini.opera.com/beta using your phoneâ€™s existing Web browser and click on one of the links to download Opera Mini.

Opera Mini Stimulator
To see Opera Mini in action, use the Opera Mini live demo.

Write protect your USB/Thumb/Pen Drive

Ashfame — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:44:18 +0000

It happens with me many time that I had to copy some files from my pen drive to our college lab and the moment I plugged in my pen drive, it gets infected with dozens of viruses. Yes, its true that our college labs are too infected. Now before I can use the pen drive again, I need to make sure to clean it first so that the virus may not spread on more computers. I scan for my pen drive using NOD32 and no doubt it completely remove all traces of virus but it wastes my time as I always have over 2 GB of files that I carry with me all the time.

So I came to know of this trick of write protecting the drive so that I can safely copy things I want without the worry of virus being copied on my USB drive. Although you won’t be able to write any thing on your pen drive, its still very useful in case you want something to copy from your pen drive and don’t want to get infected. Before proceeding I must tell you that playing with the registry can be harmful for your Operating System (OS) and I advise you to take a backup of your registry in case anything goes wrong. Read how to Backup Windows Registry.

This trick works only on XP SP2 and you need to have administrator privileges.

Open Registry Editor by Start > Run.
Type in regedit.
Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\
Locate the sub-key StorageDevicePolicies. If it doesn’t exist then create it first. Create a new key under Control by right clicking on it so that you don’t create it elsewhere by mistake (as shown in the above screenshot).
Right click in the blank area of the sub key you just created and create a new DWORD value by the name WriteProtect.

Double-click it and set the value data as 1 (and 0 for disabling it).
Click OK, close the Registry Editor and restart the PC.

The drawback of this trick is that you need to remember this trick by yourself and you need to restart the PC after applying this trick. Killing explorer.exe and restarting it will not do the job everytime. I am still looking for any other ways fo protecting your drives and I will post in on my blog if I found a better trick than this one. Share your thoughts in the comment.

[via Techtree.com]

Disable USB Autorun to Save PC from USB Viruses

Ashfame — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:52:45 +0000

Pen drives are very common these days. Everybody has them for their daily data transfer needs and since these are connected to different computers very often, they become a easy carrier of malicious codes (virus, trojans, spywares etc).

How viruses spread from USB/Thumb/Pen drive?

Whenever a USB drive is plugged into a infected computer, virus copies itself to the pen drive and sets it to execute itself when pen drive is accessed by making changes in the autorun.inf. Whenever pen drive is accessed, the autorun.inf calls the executable file of the virus upon which the system gets infected.

How to save your computer from viruses from USB/Thumb/Pen drive?

The most effective method of preventing your system from getting infected is to disable autorun feature of USB devices. DJ tells us about disabling autorun feature on Sizlopedia. He tells us a method in which he uses gpedit.msc and disable autorun feature but the problem is that gpedit.msc is not available under Windows XP Home Edition.

So, I am going to explain how to disable USB autorun feature through registry editing which not only works for WinXP Home but also for any other edition of Windows.

UPDATE : There is a tool for vaccinating against autorun feature too. You better use it. It works far much better than this registry hack.

Browse to the following key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Modify the value of NoDriveTypeAutoRun to ff (hexadecimal)

Although I must warn you that playing with the registry can be harmful for your system and you might end up re-installing your OS. Before making any changes, I recommend reading How to backup your registry?

And if you don’t want to edit the registry then you can download this registry entry.

Download Disable_autorun.reg.

Right Click > Save it on your computer > Run it on your computer.

Press Yes when it asks for confirmation for adding the entry into the registry.

This will now prevent any virus from auto executing itself through a USB drive. In addition to this, you must have a good anti virus installed on the system as this method just stops the virus from infecting the system automatically.

How to safely remove your USB drive when Safely Remove Hardware icon disappears from the system tray

Ashfame — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:00:33 +0000

Many times it might have happened with you that Safely remove hardware icon disappears from the system tray and you are unable to safely remove your USB/Pen drive. Pulling out the USB/Pen drive is not recommended in such a case as it might prove to be harmful for the life of your USB/Pen drive.

There is a setting for the USB drives which tells the OS how to optimize their usage. Either it is optimized for Quick Removal or for Performance. To check it, do the following:

Right click on the USB drive icon in My Computer.
Select the Hardware tab.
Select your USB drive and click on Properties.
Now click on Policies tab.

Optimize for Quick removal

This setting disables write caching on the disk so that you can disconnect this drive without using the Safely Remove Hardware icon.

Optimize for Performance

This setting enables the write caching on the disk so as to improve disk performance. To disconnect this drive, you should use the Safely Remove Hardware icon so as not to hurt your USB drive.

So this tutorial is about how to safely remove your USB drive if the Safely Remove Hardware icon disappears from the system tray when the USB drive is optimized for performance. Otherwise you can safely remove it right away. This works on Windows XP and it should work on Windows Vista too (I haven’t tried it though).

Method #1

Start > Run > Type in RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll

This will bring up the same dialog box which comes when the icon in the system tray is clicked. Now you can safely stop your USB drive and get it out of the USB port.

Method #2

Method #1 can’t be remembered always as to type in everytime you are in a similar scenario. You can try the following steps :

Right Click on My Computer.
Select Manage.
Select USB Mass Storage Device under the USB Controller.
Right Click and Disable it.
Remove your USB drive and Enable it again

If you forget to Enable it again, then you won’t be able to use any of your USB drives unless you enable it again.

Method #3

If you find yourself in the same situation repeatedly then you can make a shortcut for it. Just create a batch file with the content RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll

Executing this batch file will show up the dialog box where you can stop your USB drive. You can even create a shortcut to this batch file and place it where it is easy accessible for you.

Still you need any sort of help, feel free to ask in the comments.

Batteries that don’t need charging

Ashfame — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 10:40:53 +0000

Tired of charging your mobile battery every now and then. We have heard of high performing batteries, quick battery charger and even wireless chargers. Look forward to batteries that don’t need charging.

Tired of mobile phones that always need recharging at the worst moments, researchers in Germany are developing a revolutionary new battery that will never need recharging.

Mobile phones, notebook computers and iPods are all dependent on rechargeable lithium-ion batteries to deliver power. But the German researchers have developed a new class of inorganic ionic conductor with a structure analogous to that of the mineral argyrodite.

A team led by Hans-Joerg Deiseroth in Siegen, Germany, reported in the journal Angewandte Chemie that the characterisation of the most conductive representative of the man-made argyrodite minerals was made of lithium, phosphorus, sulphur and bromine atoms.

In ionic conductors, charge is not transported in the form of electrons as it is in metals. Instead, the charge is transported in the form of charged particles, typically lithium ions. This transport requires materials in which the lithium ions can move as freely as possible.

The individual components of argyrodite can be replaced by a number of other atoms without altering the typical structure of the mineral, according to a report on the physorg.com website.

[Via Tech2.com]

Splashtop – Instant Boot-up

Ashfame — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 14:06:45 +0000

I think its time to see OS booting up in no time like TV do. It is not possible yet and might become possible in future. Instead of waiting for such technology to launch, I give you Splashtop, which can get you online or watching movie in less than 20 seconds or even 5 seconds in some case. Device VM, a startup based in Silicon Valley, has a product that circumvents the everlasting boot-up. The company has recently released a tiny piece of software that, when integrated with common computer hardware, gives users the option to boot either Windows or a faster, less-complex operating system called Splashtop.

It can get you online or watching movie in less than 20 seconds or even 5 seconds in some cases. When you power up your computer, you are greeted with a cool interface where you have the option of booting into your regular OS or enter BIOS setup or power off the computer. It stores few programs like Browser, IM client, Media Player etc on a flash memory chip drive on the motherboard which even works if hard disk fails.

Interested? Well you will also need Splashtop supported hardware to get its functionality. Splashtop is bundled with motherboards, desktops and notebooks by their manufacturers. To watch a documentary or to check supported motherboard, head over to Splashtop’s homepage.

Have your say in the comments.

Review : Microtek 800VA Double Battery UPS

Ashfame — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 17:30:00 +0000

Everybody needs a UPS to protect his/her system on power failures else it can lead to data loss or even damage to hardware. Here is a review of Microtek 800VA Double Battery UPS, which I have been using for over 16months.

Feature Highlights

Extended Input Voltage Range of 135-300 Volts
Smart Boost function for Low Input Voltage
Smart Buck function for High Input Voltage
Over Voltage Protection
Over Load / Short Circuit Protection
Battery Deep Discharge / Over Charge Protection

What we like about it?

Good Backup time (25-50mins) We tested it on a Pentium D 3.0Ghz with 17″CRT while encoding a video, it lasted for 30mins and then it low battery alarm starts beeping.
Can take up loads of a Woofer also, doesn’t restart the computer although connecting a woofer to UPS is not recommended.
Can handle voltage spikes very effectively, immediately switches to battery backup mode on voltage fluctuations
At a price tag of around 2.2K INR, it is a good deal.

What we don’t like about it?

At this price tag, it can’t get better than this.
But still to point out, it lacks software monitoring in which UPS status can be communicated to the OS.

While buying check that you get a manual which has a sticker of your UPS serial number. If its missing, then your UPS is not a original Microtek product. Once you are its owner, then it won’t take you long to call yourself a proud owner.

Bonus Tips :

Before the first time use, it is advisable to charge it for 6~8 hrs for optimum use.
Remember to discharge your UPS completely once every month to ensure good battery life.
Never connect any load to the UPS while it is in battery backup mode. It might reboot the system.

Intel Launches 16 Penryn Based Processors

Ashfame — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 18:47:25 +0000

(Click to enlarge)

(Full details on all the parts, along with quantity pricing and FSB details)

[Source]

Starting from November 12th, Intel will launch 16 new Penryn based processors. The initial launch will primarily be Xeon processors, but one desktop processor, the QX9650 is also being launched. The new Penryn based processors feature Intel’s new 45nm High-k metal gate silion process that features transistors with reduced current leakage: the result? Lower power consumption and increase clock speeds. The Penryn also features incremental improvements to the Core 2 architecture.

The move from 65nm to 45nm involves more than just a shrink of current chip designs. The processors include such additional features as new IntelÂ® Streaming SIMD Extensions 4 (SSE4), which are 47 new instructions that speed up workloads including video encoding for high-definition and photo manipulation, as well as key HPC and enterprise applications. Software vendors supporting the new SSE4 instruction set include Adobe*, Microsoft* and Symantec*.

Additional processor performance enhancing architectural features include:

Enhanced IntelÂ® Virtualization Technology — Virtual machine transition (entry/exit) times are improved by an average of 25 to 75 percent through hardware with no changes to software required.
Fast Division of Numbers â€“ A fast divider roughly doubles the speed over previous generations for computations used in nearly all applications through a technique called Radix 16. The ability to divide instructions and commands faster increases a computerâ€™s performance.
Unique Super Shuffle Engine — By implementing a wider 128-bit shuffle unit, performance significantly improves for SSE-related instructions that have shuffle-like operations. This feature will increase performance for content creation, imaging, video and high-performance computing.

Short Guide for buying RAM

Ashfame — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 11:14:52 +0000

Random Access memory (RAM) is the main memory of a PC where every thing is loaded before it can be processed. Everybody knows there are lots of processes running in the background than it appears. Applications nowadays are resource hungry, they demand like anything. So, your 1yr old PC will not win the battle with stone age tools. Either you upgrade core components or buy a new one. Buying a new PC is not feasible every time, so considerable performance gain can be achieved by addition of more RAM on every PC whose other components are not bottlenecking the system. (I mean don’t expect a blazing fast computer if you have upgraded to 512MB RAM with a Celeron)

Type & Clock of RAM : First of all you need to know what type of RAM (SD, DDR, DDR2) your motherboard supports. Now it is time for you to decide how fast RAM you want and how fast your motherboard can support. Yes, I am talking of the bandwidth they can offer. You might have seen RAM sticks as DDR 333Mhz, DDR 400Mhz, DDR2 533Mhz etc. This clock (mhz) is your bandwidth factor. The more, the better. To know either look at the manual provided with your motherboard or do a little search on google with your motherboard model number. Now you are ready with what type and mhz of RAM you want.

Two things still left for consideration are the latency & dual channel.

Latency is the time delay only after which the data can be accessed in the RAM. So the less,the better. No need to go into the details of latency because low latency rams are 30% to 100% more costlier than high latency RAM. So you need not consider such details while buying RAM for your desktop PC. Just go for branded names like Kingston. They tend to perform better than others. If you tend to go deeper in the latency stuff, I recommend this link.

Dual Channel is like you are running two identical sticks in combined mode, doubling the data transfer rate. This feature needs to be supported by the motherboard. Just insert two identical sticks in same colored module and its done. If you want good performance, go for matched pairs that specially come in a single packaging specially for dual channel performance. They are little expensive from normal RAM sticks but worth it.

Note :

When running two sticks, the whole system will run at the lower clock out of the two supported. For example : 1 DDR2 533Mhz and 1 DDR2 667Mhz will run @ 533mhz if run together. i.e. One will underclock itself

Never try any incompatible stick in your motherboard. Although they might run well in some case but they can also smoke up your cabinet. For example: If your motherboard supports DDR2 upto 667mhz, don’t try the 800mhz stick. Even if it runs then also it will underclock itself to 667mhz. So it will cost more and will give no performance gain. (Don’t go with the vendor)

Buying RAM running greater than FSB is pointless. FSB is how fast data can be transferred between processor and RAM. There is no point of buying a 667mhz stick if your processor has a FSB of 533Mhz.

I hope you will learn something from this. Any queries, suggestions and comments are welcome. Do tell me how you like the article.

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