Some Interesting Modding Ideas

I modded my Aspire 4530 AGAIN to control resultant temperature.
Below are some ideas and pictures.


Another mod idea

This time a black anodized Aluminium heat sink (Can be found in any hardware store) is added to increase the mass.
I had to cut and file it to size.
On the plus side it had thermal adhesive tape under it which makes attaching it an easy task.

Microsoft Security Essentials

Microsoft is finally taking responsibility of its OS security.
Microsoft Security Essentials is now Officially Released.
Users have to pass Windows Genuine Authentication before installing.
Download MSE here.
If you have already installed the Beta, the Update to official release should be pushed down via Windows Updates.
The Microsoft Security Essential Scanning Engine is based off its Corporate Counterpart Microsoft ForeFront Security.

Personally I recommend this product as

• It is FREE.
• It is a Microsoft Product hence should integrate well with the Operating System (Other Anti-Virus are known to have false positives and has a history of identifying Windows System Files as Virus killing Windows).
• It is light weight and consumes little System Resources.

Cons

• Have to pass WGA (This shouldn't really be an issue)
• May collect System Information from Systems which MAY BE personally identifiable
  

How to remove Network Adapter Cleanly

Sometime when you reinstall Network Adapters you see the following
"Wireless Adapter #2"
Which is irritating due to the previous driver "Wireless Adapter" not uninstalled cleanly.

Open Device Manager
Uninstall your Network Adapters
Click "View" "Show Hidden Devices"
Uninstall any duplicate entries.
Go to Windows Registry search for the redundant Network Adapter Entry.
For example if your issue is "Wireless Network Adapter #2"
Then do a search in the registry for "Wireless Network Adapter"
For example if your issue is "Wireless Network Adapter #3"
Then do a search in the registry for "Wireless Network Adapter #2" and "Wireless Network Adapter"
From there you should be able to locate "Wireless Network Adapter" and delete the redundant entries then uninstall and reinstall the network adapter and it should take "Wireless Network Adapter" Name.

Disk Cleaning Scheduler

Hi, today I will be sharing a Disk Cleaner Scheduling Script I created.

I took parts of the Temp File Remover Script and combine it with Windows Disk Clean Up.

I also scheduled them to run once a week minimized.

Download it here for Vista
Download it here for Windows 7 (I decided to leave the Prefetch folder alone in Windows 7 since it handles itself well enough.
To install simply Download, Extract and Right Click, run Install.bat with Administrator Permission.

It will create a new Folder called "Clean Disk" in C:\windows (Due to the stupid spacing parsing problem with Program Files) then schedule the tasks.

You can delete the downloaded folders and zip files after that.

To uninstall, Download,Extract and simply Right Click run the Uninstall.bat with Administrator Permission.

I think this will be my final version.

Give your comments.

Thank You.

Edit:
I have updated the script to run as a System Task so the annoying popup that tell you it is cleaning up tempfiles no longer appears.

Acer Aspire 3810TZ Quick Review

I got my hands on one of the new Timeline Series Laptop 3810TZ costing only 899 SGD (around 618 USD)
Firstly you should run Empowering BackUp to backup the 13GB factory image and Software driver to 3 DVDs altogether.
As you know Acer loads their laptop with useless software so I before I used it, I reloaded Vista over the factory default partition.
You can decide to destroy the 13GB Recovery Partition if you are short on Disc Space.

The full specification are as follows.

• Intel Pentium Processor SU2700 (1.3GHZ,800FSB)
• **Note the newer 3810TZ comes with a Dual Core SU4100

• Intel GMA 4500MHD(Up to 732MB shared)

• 13.3" HD LED LCD

• 2GB DDR3 Memory (Single Stick) Elpida

• 160GB HDD Seagate ST9160310AS

• Atheros AR5B93 b/g/n Wireless Network Adapter

More details:

It uses the new GS45 Intel Chipset together with a Ultra Low Voltage Processor U2700 the power savings are tremedous.

Thermal Temperatures are also very low as can be seen.

The red box is the max temperature after I stressed the CPU with Intel Burn In utility.
As you can see the temperature are extremely low thanks to the ULV Processor plus the Laminar Wall Jet Cooling.

As you can see CPUZ has yet to detect this new CPU Correctly.
The Screenshot also shows why this laptop is desirable than most Netbooks.
Firstly it has 64bit support unlike most Atoms.

VT is locked? Meaning there is a way around it? Further Investigation pending.
After investigation VT is not present on SU2700 however SU3500 supports VT as well as SU9400 .
To unlock VT a simple guide is available here

It is interesting to note the particular machine only has a single stick of RAM installed meaning upgrading is NOT problematic at all.

As you can see the low score is due to some incomplete tests like Anti-Aliasing not available on this machine.

Few things to note:

• Acer isn't lying about the 8hr operating life by tapping the shortcut button on the top right corner battery life can reach approximately 8hrs.
• No bluetooth is installed on this system but adding it is possible.
• The Processor on Paper seems pretty weak low frequency,Single Core etc, but in actual fact it will suffice for most applications.
• A clean vista install will make the entire system quicker and more responsive, there is no need to revert to Windows Xp.
• The notebook never overheats.
• It is not likely to encounter hardware issues, however problematic Acer software is a possibility although I didn't encounter both.
• The acoustics is low fan, spin hardly audible but is efficient at thermal removal.
• It is cheap and value for money.
• If you don't need Processor Power this laptop is the way to go.
• It is light and sleek. At 1.6Kg and 1" thin it is highly portable plus the design look pleasant and professional.
• Not recommended if you require a more powerful processor or you want to play games on the laptop.
• For Acer to achieve this thinness the lid was slightly compromised if you press on the lid you could see the temporary color change effect on the Monitor so just be gentle with the lid.
• The Processor is non-upgradable it is soldered to the motherboard using BGA Soldering (Ball Grid Array)

I really recommend this laptop because of the unique features it possess not found in laptops from other vendors (How many laptops do you know of that cost less than 700USD yet has 8hr battery life?).

As of yet no overclocking tools is available to "value add" the processor however in the future when more GS 45 platform based laptop appear the support might be added.

Customize the Aspire Timeline buttons
It is possible to undervolt it using RMClock and overclock using SetFSB.
For the SU 3500 and SU9400 but not the SU2700.
Acer Timeline Fan Control

0x1F for fan off.
0x1A for fan low mode.
0x1C for fan mid mode.

So far I was not able to find the high mode setting. But therefor the auto mode (0x00) is a good alternative untill the correct value is found.

Now enjoy your silent notebook!

Here are the important code lines from my "options.ini":

[Modes]
Auto=0x00
Stop=0x1F
Slow=0x1A
Medium=0x1C

[Schemes]
Auto="Auto"
Example_scheme="Stop, Slow, 40, Slow, 45, Medium, 50, Auto, 53"

Edit: Unfortunately these values are not correct for the battery mode! For Example 0x1F becomes medium mode.

Tweaks
OverClock

Update:
To fully utilise the touchpad please update the drivers at laptopvideo2go.
The Acer Shipped Drivers does not come with 3 finger gesture which the new Drivers at laptopvideo2go enables.

If you happen to encounter a bad BIOS/EFI flash do the following:

1. Put Flashit.exe (DOS) on a Thumbdrive
2. Rename the BIOS/EFI Image file to JM31X64.fd and put it in the thumbdrive as well
3. Plug in the thumbdrive to the powered down machine
   
4. Press and hold 3 buttons Fn + Esc + Power Button (With AC Adapter + Battery plugged in)
   
5. Release when it reads the thumbdrive.
6. After a while you should hear fan spinning furiously after it is done it should boot fine
7. All the above will work provided you didn't screw up the bootblock.
   

For Those Who Hate a Brown Theme

For those who uses Linux on Aspire 4530 you do not have to do much tweaking to get it working, but you might hate the default brown theme you can replace it with Ubuntu Studio Theme

Just run this in terminal
sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-look

This will pull in all Ubuntu Dependencies required as well.

Alternatively you can use other themes for other Ubuntu Derivatives according to your preference.
Reason I don't use Ubuntu is IMO the realtime Kernel is rather unstable and the "support out of box" isn't as good as Ubuntu.

For mainline Ubuntu 9.04 please boot the kernel with the parameters pci=nomsi
otherwise you might encounter a lot of stability issues.

Adjusting Windows 7 Font Size

For some of you guys the Windows 7 default font might be slightly too small for comfort to increase the system font size.
Right Click on the Desktop and choose Personalize.
Select Windows Colours
Then increase the font size for each Window Element by 1 point depending on your Preference.

DirectX User Runtime Updates

DirectX User Runtime for DX 10 & 11 have been released.
Check Microsoft Website for more information and downloads.