Birmingham PC Repair

SSD v Raid 0 Array

2011-01-21T13:25:00.000-08:00

1. OCZ Vertex 2e
2. 2x Seagate ST3500418as
3. P5Q Deluxe ICH10R

top photo is normal Raid array
bottom is the SSD Drive

no need to compare boot up times as the SSd is miles ahead

Black Ops Config - Lag free

2010-12-31T01:18:00.000-08:00

This is a decent config for call of duty black ops !

been experiencing lag since installing the game but hey i think many people have been experiencing the same

i been able to increase FPS from 75 to over 150 in some parts of a map

it is mass improvement !

*PLEASE NOTE THIS IS NOT MY WORK AND WAS POSTED ON THE STEAM FORUMS*

Black ops Config

Acer Aspire 5000 Overheating FIX

2010-11-01T05:06:00.000-07:00

Though this board is not so different to the the HP DV & compaq range of 64 bit X2 AMD cpus I have titled this blog specifically for AMD x2 powered Aspire Laptops

Basically the laptop is cooled with one heatink & one fan and is suppose to cool both simultaneously trouble free years after manufacture

Upon receiving laptop from client, symptoms included lock ups, random power downs & BSOD

Powered up laptop and used core temp & Prime95 to test idle & stress load Temps - ambient was 20C whilst the PCB was showing 40C

idled at47 - 55c based on OS cpu load
Stress test for 10 mins revealed temps rising to over 95C
the max temp rating for this cpu however is suppose to be 95C
this does not mean this is oki and will kill the laptop within months

Stripped down the laptop to find usual fluff stuck in fan and dust build up on mainboard and heatsink, quick clean with dyson hoover and went about stripping laptop down further

mainboard & heatsink after laptop stripped down

CPU & GPU and suspect dry thermal paste due to constant high temps

Time to clean both the Heatsink & cpu, gpu surfaces of thermal paste, dirt & dust to make sure the new paste does the job

Rebuild laptop and let the paste bed in for a good hour then stress test then let it settle back down after a good 10 min blast

the results are

not bad outcome

idle temps have dropped around 10C and stress test temps max out around 75- 84C

however this does not show the true story as basic web browsing and office applications keep the cpu temps up at around 60 - 65c pre fix - now the temps struggle to get above 50c thus reducing fan cycle and increasing battery legnth not forgetting less stress on the rest of the laptop components

Firefox running slow ?

2010-10-14T03:58:00.000-07:00

the later versions of firefox seem to have serious slow down issues concerning the loading of pages

when in use with XP SP3

initial concerns relate to possible DNS issues - time outs - connectivity & packet loss

if in doubt revert back to previous Service pack to compare performance

Crucial ballistix & IX38 Quad GT

2010-10-07T13:31:00.001-07:00

Upon a recent investigation i have found that crucial ballistix pc2-8500 is not compatible with the abit ix38 quad gt

symptoms include the odd bsod pointing towards hard drive failures & faulty memory

memtest86 and Microsoft's own mem tester will show no errors then a bsod and immediate memory test will pick up errors

memory was tested in budget mobo and came out clean

replaced board with an asus p5q and memory is clean [has been for a week now]

put generic 6400 ddr2 in suspect mobo and it has been stable for a week also

crucial will replace this memory free of charge as it has a life time warranty as it has had a chequered past concerning reliability.

pls be aware you will be stuck in an never ending cycle of RMA'ing this ram until you change the board

as for the mobo itself well there is 100 page forum threads dedicated to compatibility issues alone

How to Debrand Sky DG834GT router

2010-03-11T12:33:00.001-08:00

Firstly Follow these steps

http://www.kitz.co.uk/routers/skyDG834GT_flash.htm

once the router has been flashed to a generic Netgear firmware the fun begins

we then download a custom firmware from either ubergt or dgteam, after extensive testing i found dgteam firmware to be the best in terms of sync speeds concerning Bethere/O2 Connections

we source the firmware image direct from the DGteam site

http://dgteam.ilbello.com/index.php?pid=5

rev 0848 firmware offers the best sync speeds compared to others though the latest images offer same sync speeds there has been reported issues with dynamic ip allocation, works fine on static ip addresses though :)

to flash dgteam firmware log into your router and click on router upgrade, make sure you either flash via ethernet cable or homeplugs, no wireless connections !

once flashed it is advisable to reset the router using reset button on the back

the standard settings for Bethere/O2 LLU is

ADSL Settings
IPOA - no username or password
Multiplexing Method : LLC Based
VPI : 0
VCI : 101
Basic Settings
No user or password required
Does Your Internet Connection Require A Login : No
IP Address : Get Dynamically (unless using static)
DNS Address : Get Automatically From ISP (unless using OpenDNS Servers or the like)
Use this MAC address : BeBox's MAC address (if having trouble connecting)

to check on your connection stats / adjust SNRm go to

http://dmt.mhilfe.de/

if your Dg834 is working already on your adsl2+ connection then i would advise to use the backup / restore option within the router web GUI to keep a copy of your connection / network / wireless settings before you flash to custom firmware !. once flashed you can then use the restore option

O2 ADSL2+ LLU

2010-03-11T12:01:00.000-08:00

As discussed in my previous blogs I have now finally made the transition from Virgin media [cable] to O2 adsl2+

Luckily I signed up to O2 when Quidco were offering £125 cashback if i signed up to a 12 month contract at £22.50 a month

The other deal I got is that i have a free BT line that was installed two years ago courtesy of Entanet who offered me the chance to trial the new adsl2+ 21cn product, what Entanet or BT did not realise is that the line is still active 18 months after the trial finished so I cheekily applied to have O2 adsl2+ provisioned on a line I do not own nor pay for !!.

So a tad over £12 a month for a BT line and 20MB adsl2+ is a cracking bargain!!.

i am sure virgin media could not match that

Here are some stats from the Dg834GT router flashed with DGteam firmware [was initially a sky router].

O2 provided me with a O2 branded Thomson tg585n router but it is utter pants, firstly the Firewall does not work correctly nor can you configure it, also functionality of the O2 firmware is non existent, forget the O2 II box with the publicised vulnerability, the O2 III box is just one big bag of shite, you ring up O2 and they do not support networking lol, and you can see why

the Exchange hardware uses a broadcom chipset so it makes sense to use a netgear router with a broadcom chip and what better than the DG834 series with optional SNRm adjustment using the DMT tool

check out my other blogs on how to flash a SKY branded Netgear dg834gt

My apologies

2010-03-11T11:55:00.000-08:00

I feebly offer my apologies as to why it has taken 6 months to blog

the past 6 months have been very challenging not only due to the economic climate but also the emergence of competitors as more and more [so called] IT professionals find themselves out of work

google maps looks like it has developed a severe case of acne when you type in ' birmingham computer repair' :p, i am sure it was not this congested a year ago

anyway enough moaning

Virgin Media Contracts

2009-09-20T11:37:00.000-07:00

I was recently advised by some friends off www.adslguide.org that new legislation from Ofcom state that any service provider can only charge u a maximum of £120 if you decide to end a contract early [within 12 months] minus your present bill :)

I was also told that VM are offering new & existing customers their new flagship 50mb product at a reduced price of £28 a month excluding £50 installation fee's and a new 12 month contract.

This tempting offer must simply point at the fact the new flagship product will shortly be the attention of traffic shaping though on a different network to existing broadband products I find this quite baffling, personally I have felt traffic shaping to be a massive hindrance. For example whilst during the day I need to download a Linux distro I have to wait 5x times longer than usual due to being capped though I have not hit my download limit, this was more severe on the 20mb product hence why i downgraded and new 12 month contract. I am only 6 months away now from reaching the end of the contract and I might be tempted to try the 21CN ADSL2 products on offer, I was a trialist last year for entanet's 21cn product and I must admit I was happy with the latency and sync speeds, I was syncing at 19MB with an attenuation of 17DB and a 10DB SNR level so further scope for tweaks

anyway the initial purpose of this blog was to clarify how upset I am at how Virgin media automatically reset 12 months contracts if you decide to downgrade or upgrade your package deal, I think this tactic was to offset the apparent loses at the new Ofcom ruling imo and since Telewest merged with NTL and were bought out by Virgin they have always had the same attitude, f*ck existing customers, we will focus on capturing new customers. Telewest were probbably the best ISP [if u had cable in the area]back in the old days with no traffic shaping, high service levels and excellent latency for gaming

Computer Freezing a computer fault ?

2009-08-10T07:36:00.000-07:00

I was called out a week or so ago to a customer who had previously taken her computer to a so called expert who advised her that the reason behind her computer problems [computer would lock up after a minute or so after booting or under stress conditions] was due to heat and that she had fan problems and suggested her computer needed replacing or along those lines

within a few minutes of investigation i noticed that infact the computer was operating fine, no evidence of fan failure or noisy bearings, HD seemed to be fine with no corruption neither was the computer freezing, XP reported no software problems nor hardware problems, my suspicions then moved from software to a possible hardware fault, as the computer was only a few years old the bios offered the facility to show realtime voltage and temps, once again the temps were fine and that associated with a 478 celeron, voltages seemed a bit low but hardly under the ATX thresholds, now to eliminate any further problems i tested the ram within a dos environment and it came back clear so i then went to stress test hardware components within xp and bingo, as soon as cpu usage hit 100% the computer locked up, i tried again and it locked up immediately

To finish this article a new PSU and an hour later the computer was operating stable, she was charged 50% less than her previous quote, it always helps to get a second opinion and unfortunately the likes of PC world give PC repair a very expensive name

Virgin Netgear WGR614 MOD

2009-08-05T10:40:00.001-07:00

It has been a few weeks since I have updated this section so my apologies

Recently I have been asked how to remove the firmware from a virgin branded WGR614 Netgear wireless router, the problem is not so much the crappy branded firmware but the removal option to allow telnet and subsequent generic firmware flash

now I do not advise anyone to do this as your breaking the T&C from Virgin as they still own the equipment, whether modem, cable box or router. Trust me they hire subcontractors to go around customer's houses to collect the equipment several months after leaving virgin media on the likelihood that you will;

a) sell it on ebay

b} chuck it in the bin

they will invoice you if you cannot give it back !

anyway enough of my baffle

1. firstly you need

http://rapidshare.com/files/71670434/telnetEnable.zip

2. Login to Windows using an account which has administrative privileges (needed for sending custom crafted network packets which this tool does).
3. You will see a Microsoft Word document, which contains screenshots and instructions in korean language, a firmware update (you don't need this) and the telnetEnable.exe tool
4. Get the MAC address of your Netgear router. You can look it up on the web interface of your router (Maintenance -> Router status -> LAN port -> MAC Address).
5. Copy or type the MAC address to a text editor such as Notepad, Wordpad or write it down.
Remove any minus signs ( - ) or colons ( : ), replace all characters by their upper case representation (a -> A, d-> D etc.)
6. Copy the result of your editing to the clipboard and return to the command line window.
7. Type (without quotes) "telnetenable.exe", the IP address of your router (e.g. "192.168.1.1"), add another space (" "), paste the contents of the clipboard, and append " Gearguy Geardog". These are the default username and password for telnet console access (they differ from those of the web interface), you need to modify them appropriately if you changed them previously. The result should look similar to this: telnetenable.exe 192.168.1.1 000FB5A2BE26 Gearguy Geardog
8. Now press Enter to run the tool. It should return to the shell pretty quickly with no error. If it takes a long time and returns a 'send failed' error message, just try again.
9. You should now be able to login to the router via telnet from any computer in your local subnet (including the one you just used to activate the listening mode). To do so, type the following (no quotes): "telnet", append the IP of your router and press enter (e.g. telnet 192.168.1.1)
10. You should not be prompted a a login and password, but if you do the login is Gearguy and the password is Geardog - Correct character case is important here.
11. After successful authentication you will be presented a prompt such as: U12H09400 >
12. Then type “burnboardid U12H094T00_NETGEAR”
13. Then type “reboot”
14. After that, you can log back into the router via its web interface and flash it with the generic netgear firmware.
15. After flashing reset the router by holding in the reset button on the back of the router until the “Ѵ-“sign on the front starts blinking.

be aware you need to use Internet explorer to GUI into the router not firefox as the router will refuse the flash

funnily enough I had this problem when flashing some hax0rware firmware via firefox

good luck !

Conexant ADSL Router Vulnerability

2009-08-05T10:39:00.001-07:00

I remember back about 4 years ago when BT Wholesale ISP's were supplying contracted customers with Conexant routers with the CX82310 chip, now with any customer they are advised to change the default passwords to deny external access via telnet, what the customer nor the ISP's knew was that you could telnet on a high port number such as 2** and gain access without even offering a password, this only came to light several months or even a year after distribution and no doubt even now some customers are unaware of this, this security exploit basically gave anyone complete access to the router

quite serious stuff if the Router was part of a business network

in other words my advice is always spend time learning about your new router or modem as it could cost you your data

OSCommerce integration problem

2009-08-05T10:35:00.001-07:00

I been helping out a small businesses who has experienced problems concerning ebay / paypal integration into their existing sites using oscommerce

the problem revolved around his site that use frames and pay pal's insistence relating to security issues, more so compatibility

This is how it would look if making it appear within the same window:

the first problem was getting paypal to work in frames thus opening in a new window, below shows what to do

in catalog/checkout_confirmation.php, around line 123, find this code: echo tep_draw_form('checkout_confirmation', $form_action_url, 'post');

replace with the following: echo tep_draw_form('checkout_confirmation', $form_action_url, 'post', 'target="_parent"');

editing the above code should solve the problem of a website using frames

thanks to neil from http://www.neildavison.co.uk for allowing me to publicise this problem

Welcome !

2009-06-03T15:36:00.000-07:00

Mobile Pc repair service i n Birmingham & Solihull

MPS Computers is based in Birmingham and was formed back in 1998 purely to support home users and small businesses cope with the leaps in technology concerning internet and network installations. MPS computers has 10 years experience diagnosing computers problems whether software or hardware and to efficiently rectify problems based on the customers requirements. We specialise in delivering / offering competitive, efficient solutions to our clients whilst offering 100% satisfaction