Celebrating Birthday with BSODs and Risking a Deep Fired GPU

March 8th, 2010 marks my 20th birthday. No cakes or whatsoever, since I don't actually find celebrating my own birthday to be something significant. The day just passed on normally, although I do get the occasional wishes as I meet people. And my Facebook page got stormed that day with all those wishes, rapidly filling up my wall. I'd appreciate all those wishes even if I don't give a damn.

Instead here, right on that day the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) makes an appearance on my PC for the first time since I've upgraded to Windows 7. Given the clue, 0x0000007f, I found out that the culprit was the new ZoneAlarm firewall I just installed on 7th. The previous COMODO Firewall appears to be too paranoid even at relatively low security settings that it often interrupts whatever I'm doing. Windows Firewall seems to be the main target for hackers, so I need an alternative. But as I found out that ZoneAlarm has issues with Windows 7 x64, I'll have to revert to Windows Firewall.

At first I thought it was the NVIDIA driver 196.75, which is reported to cause malfunctioning within the cooling fans, ultimately leading to some deep fried GPUs. I installed it right on the day it was released, and the next day my classmate came to deliver the news about the driver. Way more horrifying than all those horror movies I've seen (they failed to give me a real scare), I immediately downgraded to 196.21. I was pretty lucky as my roommate played Dark Sector on my PC with 196.75, and nothing bad happens. Still, can't risk frying my own 9600GT. Guess I've learnt here not to try new stuff on day one. Try it on day ten instead.

Two days later comes those BSODs which horrifies me, given the scary news. But a sigh of relief since I don't have to crack any more money for a new graphic card, and all is well now. Revo wasn't so lucky though, his 8800GT fried, but for a different reason. Probably going for GF100 this time.

Why can't I copy files larger than 4GB into my thumbdrive?

In today's era of broadband, high quality multimedia content and huge storage capacities, single files reaching gigabytes wasn't uncommon. So it comes to the occasional need to transfer these large files via thumbdrives, flashdrives, pendrives– whateveryacallit.

And Windows simply gives you an error similar to this: "Not enough space in drive G:\". Oddly enough, you obviously have more than enough space, sometimes even double the available space. What the–

For the impatient, here's how you fix it:

1. Backup all the files inside the thumbdrive.
2. Right-click at the drive, and select Format...
3. Select file system as NTFS
   
4. Click start.

After formatting, you should be able to copy the large file into the thumbdrive. And remember to copy back the backup files, if you need it.

Now here comes the explanation. The default file system for thumbdrives are FAT32, which has a 4GB file size limit. NTFS, on the other hand, has a 16TB file size limit. For more detailed information, please visit your nearest wiki.

Another option is to select exFAT, however it will be unusable to Windows Vista before SP1, Windows XP before SP2 and update KB955704, Windows prior to XP, as well as devices other than PCs.

Upgrading to Gigabyte GA-M720-US3

Almost two months ago, my PC broke down. After doing some diagnostics, I've determined that the motherboard, abit NF-M2S, a rather cheap board was the culprit. The PC just goes off at certain points, regardless of software. I can't even get Windows 7 installer working.

I decided to buy a new motherboard as soon as I get my money, almost two weeks ago. After a little research, the GA-M720-US3 is chosen for it's price and features. At RM280, its pretty rich in features. A beefy NVIDIA nForce720d chipset, 6 SATA ports, 4 DDR2-1200 slots, supports AM3, AM2+ & AM2 CPUs, a PCI-e 2.0 slot, SPDIF outputs (digital & optical), a couple of IEEE 1394 (Firewire) ports, 8 USB 2.0 ports, and a 7.1 onboard sound system. Oh, and it features Gigabyte's Ultra Durable 3 Classic, which means it has 2oz copper PCB, solid capacitors, and DualBIOS.

What If....?

Sometimes I envision of something in the tech world, and wondered if it really exists. The following will show a few of what I had envisioned.

Windows Audio DSP

Many audio players these days features support for third-party plugins and DSPs, most notably foobar2000, WinAmp, and even Windows Media Player itself. It would be nice if Windows itself would feature these audio-enhancing DSPs, regardless of audio drivers, as it would improve every sound output regardless of software. Of course, the DSPs should be configurable on which application to ignore, or include. A good starting point is to include the basic Balance/Treble/Bass controls, an equalizer, and perhaps my favorite noise sharpening DSP.