WARNING: Let me start off by warning you: Windows XP is NOT SUPPORTED on this computer. This does not mean that you won’t be able to install Windows XP, that actually installs just fine. It means that HP does not provide drivers for Windows XP, only for Windows Vista and Windows 7, which then means you’ll be stuck with no graphics drivers, no sound, no wired or wireless networks, and so forth. It’s very annoying, but nothing that can be helped.
With that said, let’s get on with the good news: You can install Windows XP on this computer and still get all your drivers! It’s a shitty job, and it has taken hours (if not days) of research just to find drivers that work, but the end result is worth it. Somewhat. Just know that some of the drivers are for Windows Vista, others are designed for an entierly different computer, and some have been modded to work with Windows XP. If you encounter system instability and/or bluescreens, it’s best to just give up and go back to Vista. There is no official support for this.
I’ll assume that you’ve already installed Windows XP on your computer, and has gotten as far as the desktop. You’ll also need a working computer to download the drivers on, and a memory stick to transfer the drivers to your Pavilion.
Chipset and Ethernet driver:
You should start with this one. It’ll install the drivers needed for your chipset, as well as your wired network driver. If you have the option, disable the “Display Driver” checkbox. Let the install finish, then restart your computer.
Display Driver:
Your best bet is to just download and install the official nVidia drivers for the 8400M GT that sits in your laptop. Just click through the install, and restart your computer.
Sound Driver:
This one needs a bit more work. First of all, make sure you install Windows XP Service Pack 3, which can be found here. Change the language of your download as needed. The reason we install the service pack, is that it includes the Microsoft UAA-architecture which is needed for the driver. Of course, you could just download and install the UAA-driver stand-alone, but you will eventually install Service Pack 3, so why not do it right away? Anyway, I digress. After the service pack is done installing, install your audio driver. Do NOT use the setup.exe that comes with the zip file, you’ll have to install the driver via device manager.
Wireless Driver:
For the wireless driver, we’ll be using the Broadcom Wireless Driver designed for a DV9000Z CTO. Don’t worry, it’ll work just fine. Download and install.
The rest:
You’ll want to download and install the HP QuickLaunch Buttons driver (you might have to install .NET framework to get QL to work). Get the Ricoh 5-in-1 Card Reader driver here. The modem and touch pad driver can be downloaded via Windows Update (Start Windows Update -> Custom -> Hardware tab. Select modem, Synaptics touchpad and anything else you see). Finally, download the HP Integrated Module here, and install it.
After you install the HP Integrated module, all the drivers should be in place. Now it’s time to install all Windows Updates, find an anti-virus program that suits you, and so forth. Enjoy your HP with Windows XP!
Spotify just recently opened in the US, everyone rejoice! For those of you who don’t know what Spotify is, here’s a short summary:
Back in October 2008, a Swedish company launched a new DRM-based music streaming software called Spotify. With this software, you could stream endless amounts of music from the catalog of selected major and independent record lables, such as (but not limited to) Sony, EMI and Universal Music.
Over the years, the music library of spotify has grown extensively, now sporting about 15 million tracks, with approximately 10 000 new tracks being added per day! It also has a playlist function, the ability to scroblle tracks to Last.fm without using the Last.fm software, the possibility to import and play tracks from your computer, and apps for several mobile platforms!
Anyway, as I have a LOT of invitations just sitting around, I thought I’d give a few of them away for the occation. This is a first come, first served basis, so if I run out, I run out. Nothing that can be done about it.
Below you’ll find a list of availible invitation codes. Grab whichever you like, but make sure to post in the comment section which one(s) you take, so that I might edit them out. Makes it easier for others that might be looking for some of those invites. To use your invite, go here.
UPDATE: All invite codes have been taken. If you still want an invite, check back later. Some more codes might magically appear.
UPDATE 2: A very nice user by the name of Andy donated a few more invitation codes! Thanks a bunch Andy, your contribution is appreciated.
In the newer versions of VideoLAN’s great media player VLC, there appears to have surfaced a very annoying bug: The cursor won’t auto-hide when watching full-screen video. A lof of theories as of why this bug excists have popped up, but there doesn’t seem to be a definite answer just yet. There are, however, two simple fixes you can try. Hopefully, one of them will work just fine for you.
Disable the tray icon: This is the solution that’s most likely to work. To disable this, go to Tools -> Preferences (CTRL+P), then Interface Settings. Check the “Disable systray” box. Now re-start VLC and see if the problem still persists.
Minimize/exit µTorrent: I know it sounds weird, but this has worked for a lot of people. If you have µTorrent running, try to either minimize it, or exit the program completely. Re-start VLC to see if it has worked.
As Kev stated in the comments, going to Tools > Preferences > Show All > Video and change “Hide cursor and controller after x seconds” to 800 ms should also fix the problem.
If nothing works, and you really want this problem fixed, download VLC 1.0.5. It seems to be the last availible version where the bug was not present.
There’s a pretty annoying error that can happen with virtually any Mobile Broadband software: Suddenly one day, your software refuses to connect, giving you a “Connection Failed!” (or something similar) error message. This can be very frustrating to solve, and at times pretty time consuming. It could be anything from faulty hardware to corrupt software. What I’ve noticed most of all though, is that the winsock might just need a reset.
If you ever get this error, try this out:
If you’re on Windows XP: Windows Button +R -> write “cmd” without the quote marks, and press enter. If you’re on Windows Vista or Windows 7, the command line might need elevation. If that’s the case, then press the Windows-button, write “cmd” without the quote marks in the search field, right click cmd.exe, and select “Run as Administrator”.
To reset the TCP/IP stack to default: netsh int ip reset reset.log
To reset the Winsock entries to default: netsh winsock reset catalog
Reboot your computer.
After your computer is up and running again, try your mobile broadband again. If it now connects, that’s awesome. If it still refuses to work however, there can be a multitude of errors. I’d start with calling your mobile service provider, and take it from there.
On some occations, the wireless switch on a laptop might not respond anymore, causing the wireless network to stop working. The card in iteself is working, the drivers are there, but the hardware switch doesn’t want to turn it on, thus making it appear to be not working.
There are several possible solutions for this. Depending on your brand of laptop, there might be software who can help you with this (Launch Manager for Acer-branded laptops for example), or you could just try to uninstall the network drivers, restart the computer, and let them automatically re-install. What I would try first though, is the Windows Mobility Center.
Introduced in Windows Vista, the Windows Mobility Center can control various aspects of your laptop. This includes power management, audio control, and indeed, wireless power options. If the hardware switch for your wireless network is not responding, you should check the Mobility Center to see if you can turn it on there.
To access the Windows Mobility Center, press Windows Button + X. A new window will appear, looking like the image below.
To enable the wireless network card, press the button below your wireless symbol. With some luck, it should now start working again. This will unfortunately not work for you in Windows XP, so if you’re still using that OS, you’re gonna have a harder time troubleshooting this error.
Anyone who has ever installed Windows on a computer knows what a pain it can be to find all the drivers you need. In some cases, you might even be stuck with an “Unknown Device” and a yellow question mark, and unless you already know what device this is, you’ll most likely have some trouble identifying said device. This is where the PCI Database comes in handy.
As you can see on the image above, you’re presented with a simple search – one search box for the vendor and one for the device. Now, what to put where, you might wonder? That’s fairly simple. First of all, double click your unknown device (or whichever device driver you’re missing). Next, select the “Details” tab, and you’ll be presented with something much like the image below.
In the “Vendor” search box, type in what comes between “Ven_” and “&” (in this case, 1217). In the “Device” search box, type in what comes between “Dev_” and “&” (in this case, 7130), and voila, you now know what device you’re dealing with, and who manufactured said device. Note that these are individual searches, and you will have to search twice, one for the vendor and one for the device. Also, the PCI Database won’t produce download links, just tell you what device is it. Trust me, you’ve come a long way just know what devices you’re dealing with.
If you’re looking for a quick and dirty way to format an external hard drive to FAT32, look no further! This is confirmed working, and it does the job quickly!
Download this little handy tool called guiformat. Extract the .exe file and run it. You will be presented with this image:
If you’ve come this far, the rest is pretty self-explanatory. Don’t forget to check the “Quick Format” box, as it will be painstakingly slow if you don’t.
Should your anti-virus software flag this program as a trojan or anything else, ignore it. It’s 100% safe. If you’re really paranoid, you could run it in a sandbox environment, and you’d be even safer!
I will not take credit for this program at all, it was done by someone over at Ridgecrop Consultants.
Warning: This is my personal opinion about the band, and should not be concidered as facts about them in any way. Don’t like it? Don’t read it!
Ever since Avenged Sevenfold released their second album, “Waking The Fallen“, it feels like they’ve taken a step back with every subsequent release. While I do agree that 2005′s “City of Evil” is a pretty damn good album, the fact that they dropped the screaming vocals and heavy riffs in favour of lighter and more melodic singing and playing just didn’t sit right. Their next release – the self-titled “Avenged Sevenfold” album – fared even worse than “City of Evil” did, sounding a lot more mainstream and a lot less like the Avenged Sevenfold I used to know, and had few – if any – memorable songs.
Their latest release, “Nightmare“, was greatly influenced by the fact that band member and friend Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan passed away December 28, 2009. While his death was very tragic, and he will be missed both by the band and long-time Avenged Sevenfold fans, I will still say that this album was rubbish. Apart from the title track “Nightmare“, which was alright, and “Welcome To The Family“, which was good, it was mostly coloured by sappy emotional crap which was completely unlistenable.
The time for redemption has come though, with their newest track which was paired with the Call of Duty: Black Ops map pack “Call of the Dead”. Titled “Not Ready To Die”, this is the first track since the release of “City of Evil” that made me press the repeat button. It’s a pretty solid track, and if anything, it made me get my hopes up for the inevitable sixth album, which hopefully will be miles better than the last couple of releases.
I was just faced with quite the annoying problem: A computer that had seemingly random BSOD’s, even in safe mode! I’d get errors like 0x0000008E, 0x000000D1, 0x0000001A and so forth. To make matters worse, the computer would at times not recognize my memory sticks, block user profiles, and any attempt at running a commercial (or at least known) virus removal tool resulted in another BSOD. After countless of hours spent ruling out memory errors and hard drive failures, there was really only one solution left: this is a virus, and a nasty one at that.
If you’ve had (or is having) a similar experience, you know how frustrating it can be to get rid of a bad virus infection. In this case, it was a rootkit. To get rid of it, I downloaded and ran TDSSKiller, which found and removed a rootkit and a boot sector virus. Next, I ran ComboFix to find and eliminate any remaining threats. After these two scans, the computer was back to normal.
Of course, just because you’re having BSOD’s like the ones I described, you shouldn’t jump to the conclusion that you have a rootkit. However, if you’ve spent time running Memtest86+, Drive Fitness Test and other tools to exclude hardware errors, and your computer is behaving like the one I have, you very well might have a virus. If that should be the case, you might want to do what I did. If it helps, great. If it doesn’t, keep on searching, and you’ll find the answer soon enough. Google’s funny that way.
There are times, that Windows Vista (and Windows 7, in very rare cases), while shutting down, corrupts the user profile entry in the registry. This prevents you from logging in the next time your computer is started, and you get a error message telling you that “The User Profile Service failed the logon. The User Profile failed to load.” While the cause of the corruption is unknown to me, the solution isn’t.
To fix this problem, you need to manually edit the registry. While this might sound scary to some, it’s quite simple and very safe as long as you follow the steps as follows.
Enter safe mode. To do this, press “F8″ after the POST-screen during start-up. When the menu appears, select “Safe Mode”. To make sure that you get this menu, you can press F8 with short intervals from the second you start your computer.
Once you’re logged in to safe mode, press the Windows-button + “R” to get the “Run”-box. In the run-box, type “regedit” without the quotes, and press enter. If you get a User Account Control dialogue, press yes.
Navigate your way to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\ProfileList\. In the ProfileList category, there will be a number of categories. Look for two identical ones, which may be named something like “S-1-5-23-9356677557-4164301041-3670085791-1000″. One of the is your original profile, while the other points to a temporary profile. Your original profile will have a .bak behind it.
Rename the temporary profile to “YOURPROFILENAME.temp” and remove the .bak from your original profile.
As you can see on the image above, you’re presented with a simple search – one search box for the vendor and one for the device. Now, what to put where, you might wonder? That’s fairly simple. First of all, double click your unknown device (or whichever device driver you’re missing). Next, select the “Details” tab, and you’ll be presented with something much like the image below.
