I just purchased a 500GB Seagate FreeAgent Xtreme, hoping to take advantage of the super-fast eSATA port on the back of my ASUS P5B Deluxe motherboard. Sure I could have easily used the USB2 or Firewire 400 ports on the drive for a quick plug and play, but I wanted the blazing speed of eSATA. I've spent the last couple hours trying to get this thing to work right, so I figured I'd jot down my notes here in case any one else comes across the same problems.

First problem, the JMicron JMB363 SATA controller wasn't enabled in my motherboard's BIOS, so the drive wasn't recognized. Easy enough: just go into the BIOS (hit DEL on bootup) and navigate the menus to Advanced > Onboard Devices Configuration > JMicron SATA/PATA Controller, and set to 'ENABLED'. Set the JMicron Controller Mode to 'IDE'.

With that enabled, Windows should now detect your drive. You should be able to see it under My Computer or in Disk Management as a Healthy Online drive. At this point, everything works fine as a drive, but I ran into a problem with the Seagate Manager software: Under the 'My Drives' tab, I received the error 'No drives detected.' Bummer. I ran Windows Update to make sure all my drivers were current (they were) and checked the ASUS site to see if there were any BIOS updates (there weren't). At this point I was ready to give up on eSATA and just use the Firewire port. But after some detective work on the Seagate site, I found out that the JMicron JMB36X drivers need to be v1.17.46 or higher in order for the drive to work with Seagate Manager. Because this motherboard is a few years old, I was running an older driver. So after a few minutes of searching the JMicron site for updated drivers, I downloaded them, installed, rebooted, and PRESTO, my drive now works with Seagate Manager! Now all I need is a 'Mission Accomplished' banner.

One caveat to updating the JMicron JMB36X drivers: I had to re-activate my Windows install. So buyer beware for those of you running a 'stealth' copy of Windows XP.

Reference:

• Seagate Knowledge Base: Seagate Manager won't see my Seagate FreeAgent drive
• Seagate Knowledge Base: Special notes for using FreeAgent XTreme with eSATA
• Seagate Technology - Serial ATA (SATA) Troubleshooter
• JMicron Driver Downloads

Here's a step-by-step guide to installing a network printer in Windows XP without having to install all the additional crappy software that vendors force onto your system. Often times installing all this additional software will compromise the stability of your system, slow it down, or both. These steps will bypass the vendor's install disk and install only the drivers.

1. Click: Start > Printers & Faxes
2. Click: Add Printer
3. The Wizard will start, click Next
4. Select "Local printer attached to this computer" and uncheck "Automatically detect and install my Plug and Play printer" then click Next
5. Select "Create a new port:" and choose "Standard TCP/IP Port"
6. This will start another Wizard, click Next
7. Type in your printer's IP address, eg: 192.168.1.104
8. Check "Always print to this device, even if its IP address changes" then click Next
9. A summary of your settings will show, click Finish
10. You'll be back at the "Select a Printer Port" window. Select your newly created port from the "Use the following port" dropdown, then click Next
11. Now you need to select your printer Manufacturer and Printer Model. If your model does not show, put your printer driver disk in your CD-ROM and click the "Have Disk" button. Browse to your CD drive and select your printer's model. Once your Manufacturer and Model are selected, click Next
12. Now name your printer, it's probably best to accept the default. Choose whether or not you want to use the printer as the default.
13. Chose whether or not to share you printer. Since this is a network printer, don't share it. You'll want to set it up to print directly from each of your machines.
14. Print a test page and you should be good to go!

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Now playing: My Bloody Valentine - What You Want
via FoxyTunes

My 3G iPod got stuck with the Apple logo on its screen. The way to fix this is to put the iPod into Disk Mode and restore it from there. Here is how:

1. Reset the iPod by holding down the Menu and Play buttons simultaneously.
2. As soon as it reboots, hold down the Fast Forward and Rewind buttons simultaneously.
3. Your iPod will now be in "Disk Mode" and you should be able to plug it into your computer, open up iTunes, and restore your iPod.

I have an old 3G iPod, and all of a sudden it would not show up in iTunes when connected to my computer via Firewire or USB. It did show up in Finder. After some research, the only way I found to fix this is to format it using Apple's Disk Utility. WARNING: Doing this will wipe everything off your iPod. You won't be able to recover the files off your iPod, but at least you'll be able to use it with iTunes again.

1. Connect your iPod you to your Mac.
2. Open up Disk Utility (Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility).
3. Select your iPod in the left-hand window pane.
4. Click the "Erase" tab, accept all defaults, then click the "Erase" button.

Your iPod will now be re-formatted, and you should be able to plug it into iTunes and Restore the updated iPod software.

UPDATE: For PCs, you may be able to do something similar with Windows' Disk Manager. I haven't tried though, so I can't verify, but I bet it would work on Windows too.

My nightly backups kept failing with the following error:

Retrospect has encountered a serious error:
Assertion failure at tree.cpp-2528
 
A log of this error has been written to the file "assert_log.utx".
 
Please dell Dantz about this problem.

As with all Retrospect problems, the fix is easy. Simply remove X:\Retrospect Restore Points\RestorePoint.rbc (where 'X' is your external drive's letter) and let Restrospect re-create it. This will often take several hours, so be patient. Once Retrospect has finished re-indexing everything, your backups should resume as normal.

Any time I have had a problem with Retrospect, it can always be fixed by re-building the .rbc file.

A couple years ago I posted about a fix for Delayed Write Failed errors when updating an iPod on Windows XP. While my suggestions in that post worked for the most part, I still encountered the error from time to time.

So it's been a couple years and now I NEVER receive this error. Here's how I did it:

I used to connect my iPod to my PC via USB. However, I had purchased an external Firewire hard drive which required me to install a Firewire card into a PCI slot on my machine. The card had 4 Firewire inputs, and I needed to free up a USB port for some other peripherals that needed them. So I decided to move my iPod connection from USB to my new Firewire card (Koutech KW-582V2 - cost me $21 bucks from NewEgg).

Ever since then I have NEVER received the Delayed Write error. So if you're having trouble updating your iPod and get the "Delayed Write Failed" error, perhaps it is your USB connection. Try moving your iPod to another USB port, and if you're using a USB hub, try bypassing the hub and plug your iPod directly into your computer's USB port. If THAT doesn't work, try a Firewire port. If you don't have one, grab yourself a Firewire card. You can get them cheap and are much more valuable than all the hair you're pulling out trying to fix your Delayed Write Failed.

I was receiving the following error after completing the setup for Retrospect Express HD with my Maxtor OneTouch External Hard Drive:
Can't save setup, check the selected drive to make sure there is enough free space.
I had plenty of space on the drive, so I knew this couldn't be accurate. After some research I found out that my config file was corrupt and it was an easy fix: Remove or rename the RestorePoint.rbc file in the Retrospect Restore Points folder on your external drive. Open up Retrospect Express HD and it will re-create a new config file, as well as re-create all your restore points. This can take a very long time (hours) but once it's done you'll be back up and running like new.

(Source: http://forums.dantz.com/)

The population explosion of gadgets and their connectors on my desktop had finally pushed me to make the jump to a wireless desktop. I was looking for a few things: simple keyboard/mouse combo, minimal bells & whistles, nice look & feel, and something that just works. Since I don't need an espresso machine or back-massager built into my wireless desktop, I was pleased to find the sexy Logitech diNovo Media Desktop: Sleek, stylish, simple, and of course, wireless... without all the fluff!

I did my research and read plenty of positive and negative reviews, but most of them seemed to revolve around problems with Logitech's software and driver package for the diNovo's media center controller capabilities. I wasn't looking for any of that, so I decided to gamble and invest in the admittedly expensive ($158.89 from NewEgg.com) diNovo.

Below you will find my completely non-official, non-technical, stream-of-consciousness review of the diNovo.

I was up and running in no time. Simply plug in the USB-Bluetooth dongle, power up, and everything was instantly recognized and installed by Windows XP. A quick 4-hour charge of the mouse on the handy cradle and everything was good to go. Keep in mind, I simply did not care for any of the extra bells, whistles, buttons, and features that the diNovo offered, I was only interested in the keyboard and mouse operation. So if you want all that extra crap, you will have to install all the Logitech software and drivers which, apparently, cause people all sorts of problems. Just know that the keyboard and mouse themselves work great as plug-and-play devices in XP, and don't require ANY third party software installation to operate right out of the box.

The mouse is a bit heavier than my old Microsoft optical, which concerned me at first, but now I don't even notice it. The extra weight even actually helps a bit with super-fine mouse navigations, as it gives more physical feedback to your hands than a flimsy lighter mouse. The buttons click and the wheels scroll, which is all I needed, so this laser mouse gets an A grade from me.

I have had absolutely ZERO major problems. Granted, I never installed any of the Logitech drivers, as I only need a simple keyboard and mouse combo. If you want all the bells and whistles, I imagine you'd run into some potential problems, but if you want just a simple keyboard and mouse like myself, this is a great investment. In the month I've been heavily using the diNovo, I've only had one issue with Bluetooth where my keyboard lost connectivity. I had to pop out the batteries and re-insert them for my keyboard to become responsive. Sometimes when returning to my desktop after being idle, it takes a split second for they keyboard and mouse to kick on and become responsive, but it's hardly even noticeable. Once the Bluetooth reconnects, everything is back to normal. It's a worthy trade-off in my opinion: trade a little instant gratification for extended battery life.

I do have a few minor gripes, but they can probably be attributed more to my personal idiosyncrasies than anything else. I don't like the fact that the keypad is separated from the keyboard. I'm assuming they did this so that you can use it as a remote-control for your media center, but I'm not using any of that junk. It is quite annoying that when I move my keyboard around the keypad doesn't come with it. This also leads to another gripe. I like my keyboard slanted towards me, so I open up the little legs on the bottom to elevate the top a bit. Of course the separate keypad doesn't have any legs, so it sits flat while my keyboard sits slanted. It's fairly annoying that a product that supposedly spent so much effort in the style arena didn't think this through, because now my otherwise elegant media desktop looks like a stupid non-matching set of pieces. This could have easily been solved by either giving the keypad its own legs, or making it possible to attach it to the main keyboard. Ahhhh well, nothing's perfect I guess.

PROS:

• Wireless!! Duh.
• Mouse is re-chargeable and has never let me down even after extended (10+ hour) usage. Simply pop the mouse on its charging cradle before you go to bed and you'll always have a full charge at your disposal the next day.
• Mouse has an LED indicating battery charge. There are 3 bars and I've never seen it go below two bars, even after a full day's use.
• Laser mouse is more accurate that old-style opticals.
• Mouse "heft" makes it feel like an actual tool rather than a cheapo piece of plastic. The extra weight helps with pointer-detail stuff.
• Look and feel is top notch. No bulbous buttons or monstrous extrusions where they need not be. Minimalist stylings look great!
• Laptop-style keys: Although it is a full-sized keyboard layout, the keys themselves are the thinner and softer laptop style. Quieter and easier to type on. More my style.
• Built in calculator in the keypad is a plus. I've found myself using it more than XP's calculator.

CONS:

• Keypad is separate from keyboard (personal preference). They should have at least made it attachable so that you have an option.
• Keypad doesn't have its own feet to slant it towards you a bit. So if you slant your keyboard you end up with an un-even layout.
• Keypad screen is not backlit. It's difficult to see unless you're in bright light or you're 2 inches from the screen. Of course a backlit screen would suck the battery to death, so I don't mind too much.
• Slight half-second delay when waking from idle battery-saving mode. Not a big deal.

Now my only hope is that this baby lasts long enough for it to be worth what I paid. The last Logitech keyboard I bought crapped out after about 3-months. Lets hope that the diNovo can redeem the Logitech name in the eyes of this beholder.

I just installed FreeBSD 5.4 on my Abit AA8-DuraMax, but I've run into some troubles with my networking. It seems that the on-board NIC doesn't properly detect when a cable is plugged in. ifconfig shows it as "status: no carrier"

I know it's not the router or the cable, because they both work fine on other machines. The 8100S chipset is listed as supported on the FreeBSD 5.4 Hardware compatibility list, as well as the man pages for the re driver.

Some other weirdness: If I plug the ethernet cable from the BSD machine to another machine's NIC, it is properly detected. It only doesn't detect when connected to my router. Also, if I manually set the card to 10baseT/UTP using ifconfig's media parameter, it also works. It doesn't work on autoselect, or any other media setting besides 10baseT/UTP.

Anyone have any ideas? Some info:
ifconfig:
--------------------------------------
re0: flags=8843<up ,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
options=18<vlan_mtu ,VLAN_HWTAAGGING>
inet 192.168.1.31 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
inet6 ...
ether 00:50:8d:eb:e5:be
media: Ethernet autoselect (none)
status: no carrier
lo0: flags=8049<up ,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x4Relevant dmesg:
--------------------------------------
re0: <realtek 8169S Single-chip Gigabit Ethernet> port 0xee00-0xeeff mem 0xfbfff000-0xfbfff0ff irc 16 at device 1.0 on pci1
miibus0: <mii bus> on re0
rgephy0: <rtl8169s /8110S media interface> on miibus0
rgephy0: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, 1000baseTX, 1000baseTX-FDX, auto
re0: Ethernet address: 00:50:8d:eb:e5:bepciconf -lv:
--------------------------------------
re0@pci1:1:0: class=0x020000 card=0x1039147b chip=0x816910ec rev=0x10 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Realtek Semiconductor'
device = 'RTL8169 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter'
class = network
subclass = ethernet
 
pciconf -r pci1:1:0 0:0xff
--------------------------------------
816910ec 02b00007 02000010 00002008
0000ee01 fbfff000 00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000000 1039147b
00000000 000000dc 00000000 40200110
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000000 f7c20001
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000

Note: Be sure to read my Update to this post

When trying to update my shiny new iPod via iTunes on Windows XP, I kept getting the following error:
Delayed Write Failed
Windows was unable to save all the data for the file x. The data has been lost. This error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please try to save this file elsewhere.

The iPod would lockup and I'd have to reset it to get it to work again. After some research I found the cause: Write Caching was disabled on my hard disks. Because iTunes tries to push as much data as possible as quickly as possible, Windows was unable to keep up, resulting in the error.

To enable Write Caching on your hard disks:

Start > Control Panel > System > Device Manager > Disk Drives > Properties > Policies > Enable Disk Caching

Note that this option was unavailable to me (grayed out), and after some research I realized it was because I had the Intel Application Accelerator installed, which turns OFF write caching and prevents you from enabling it. So after a quick uninstall of Intel Application Accelerator and a quick reboot, I was able to enable Write Caching on my hard disks, and now the error is gone and my iPod is updating as expected.