Tech Tips

11 March 2013

Darksiders and Thrustmaster Dual Power

So when trying to use my Thrustmaster Dual Power with Darksiders in Steam, it would just spin me in a circle.

After some googling I found XBOX 360 Controller Emulator.

I simply downloaded the App from: http://code.google.com/p/x360ce/downloads/list

I placed it in the Apps directory: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Darksiders\"

Run it and it will ask you if it should create:

xinput1_3.dll
x360ce.ini

Allow it to create both.

I use the following configuration:

Left

Trigger: Button 6
Bumper: Button 5
Back: Button 9
Start: Button 10
D-Pad: DPad 1
Stick Axis X: Axis 1
Stick Axis Y: Inverted Axis 2
Stick Button: Button 11

Right

Trigger: Button 8
Bumper: Button 7
Y Button: Button 4
X Button: Button 2
B Button: Button 3
A Button: Button 1
Stick Axis X: Axis 6
Stick Axis Y: Inverted Slider1
Stick Button: Button 13

If it says that it cannot find msvcp110.dll, download and install the trial: http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/downloads

Windows 8 ABIT IP35 Pro

When installing Windows 8 64bit on my IP35 Pro, everything worked out of the box except raid monitoring and I wanted the sound software. However, since ABIT is now out of business, I had to find them on the vendors website.

Intel Matrix Storage Console:

Intel - IATA89ENU.exe

Realtek Sound Driver:

Realtek - 64bit Vista, Windows7, Windows8 Driver only (Executable file)

Hope this helps someone out there looking for it.

Update 2016-06-28:

Apparently Windows 8.1 update broke the Intel Raid utility. I was getting the following errors when trying to use it:

The Raid Plug in failed to load because the driver is not installed correctly

The serial ATA plug-in failed to load because the driver is not installed correctly

The solution was to simply install the updated utility. Intel

18 November 2012

Eliminating UAC prompt for individual programs

Here is how I was able to stop the annoying UAC prompt in Windows 7 everytime I started Fraps without disabling it completely.

Download the Windows Compatibility Toolkit from: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=7352

ApplicationCompatibilityToolkitSetup.exe
And install it

Open the Compatibility Administrator (use 32 bit for 32 bit programs and 64 for 64)
Click the Fix Button which will bring up a wizard

Type the name of the program (eg. Fraps)
Click the browse button and select the program
Check the RunAsInvoker box and nothing else
Click Next twice and then Finish

Click Save

Type in a name for the database, I used Fraps
Select a location/name for the save, I used the same directory as the program and fraps.sdb

Exit Windows Compatibility Toolkit
Start an elevated command prompt

Click the start button
Type: cmd
Right click on the cmd result and select "Run as administrator"

Navigate to the directory you saved the sdb file to
Type: sdbinst Fraps.sdb
You should see the following result:

Installation of Fraps complete.

All done! Enjoy your starting of the program without UAC prompts!

Source: http://pcsplace.com/windows-vista/how-to-turn-off-user-account-control-for-individual-programs-in-vista/

03 November 2012

Windows X11

To install a X11 window manager in windows, I used Cygwin and made sure to check the X11 options when installing.

To start the X11 window manger open a cygwin terminal and type:

xwin -multiwindow

You can then use X forwarding in PuTTy to open Linux Guis on windows! Each window will have windows native minimize, maximize, and close buttons.

28 October 2012

Upgrade from Xubuntu 10.04 LTS to 12.04 LTS

Here are the couple things that I found that I had to fix when upgrading from Xubuntu 10.04 LTS to 12.04 LTS:

I was not getting DNS resolution

```
sudo vi /etc/resolv.conf
```
add:
```
nameserver 192.168.1.1 
```

UPDATE: the above does not last you should instead:

```
sudo vi /etc/network/interfaces
```
add:
```
dns-nameserver 192.168.1.1
```

My VNC session was not loading a window manage (giving a failure to load gnome message -- I also got a trash not supported error and application crashes when starting xfce4-session)

vi ~/.vnc/xstartup
make sure it has:
```
startxfce4 &
```

When running synaptic from the application menu, it would ask for a password then fail to load

```
xhost +localhost
```

noip2 was removed and not in the package list

```
cd /usr/local/src
```

sudo wget http://www.no-ip.com/client/linux/noip-duc-linux.tar.gz

```
sudo tar xf noip-duc-linux.tar.gz
```
```
cd noip2-2.1.9-1/
```
```
sudo make install
```
```
sudo /usr/local/bin/noip2 -C
```
```
sudo vi /etc/init.d/noip2
```

change:

DAEMON=/usr/local/bin/$NAME

CONFFILE=/usr/local/etc/noip2.conf

```
sudo /etc/init.d/noip2 start
```

27 October 2012

Creating/Mounting/Burning ISOs in Linux

Creating an ISO:

First make sure everything using the cd/dvd drive is closed
Unmount the cd/dvd drive:

```
sudo umount /dev/dvd1
```

Create the copy:

```
readom dev=/dev/dvd1 f=disk1.iso
```

Verify the copy:

```
md5sum /dev/dvd1
```
```
md5sum disk1.iso
```

If you are getting read errors, you can use safecopy:

```
safecopy /dev/dvd1 disk1.iso
```

Mounting an ISO:

sudo mount -o loop -t iso9660 disk1.iso /mnt/iso

Burning an ISO:

```
wodim dev=/dev/cdrw -v -data disk1.iso
```

01 October 2012

Toshiba L875D-S7232 Review

Here are my thoughts on my newly purchased laptop, a Toshiba L875D-S7232. Overall I am very happy with my purchase, but will definitely be looking to upgrade to a SSD at some point.

Pros:

17.3" 1600x900 screen
A8-4500M Processor
6GB of 1600MHz RAM
HD 7640G Graphics (defaults to 512MB use)
The Silver and Black color makes the laptop look professional
Good Windows Experience Index Scores (scale 1.0 to 7.9):

Processor: 6.7
Memory: 7.0 (out of the box; 7.2 after updates)
Graphics: 6.7
Gaming Graphics: 6.7
Hard Disk: 5.9

3DMark 06: 4693
Price: $479.99 + tax at Staples
Boot Time is 2-3 minutes including login and browser launch

Cons:

No Hard Drive Activity LED (I replaced with a software one: http://sourceforge.net/projects/activityindicat/ )
The shiny black plastic surrounding and under the keyboard shows dirt and fingerprints easily
Norton 30 day trial - I uninstalled and replaced with Avast Free Home - http://www.avast.com/en-us/index
Power Plug does not have a separate ground
No Spot for a second hard drive
It appears that video driver updates must come thru Toshiba instead of AMD, but this seems to be common with notebook APUs

Other Thoughts:

Toshiba Software Update Page
Island Keyboard may take some getting used to
Function keys (F1-F12) default to their function use (change screen brightness/volume etc.)

Was able to change this behavior thru the pre-installed Toshiba HWSETUP Utility

Comes with Office Starter (ad supported Word and Excel)
On Med/High settings at 1600x900 I get between 40 and 60 FPS (capped by vsync) in DDO
On High settings at 1600x900 in Battlefield Play 4 Free I get ~30FPS
Side exhaust does get quite warm
Battery Life seems to be around 2.5-3 hours

Update 2016-07-06:

Toshiba disabled virtualization in the bios. I am disappointed that they did this on a mid-range laptop to try to force more high end laptop sales.