Game crashing on atioglxx.dll

I have been seeing all kinds of posts with crazy solutions to ATI driver crash issues and blue screen problems impacting a particular ATI .dll file.

ati2dvag.dll infinite loop problem for example.

Of course look to see that you have the latest drivers. This doesn't always work however and removing and re-installing is worth trying but likely won't work either. The method I suggest is to replace the offending file with either the latest version of that file or a older version. The re-install doesn't hit that file because it is locked by Windows and is being used. If you boot in safe mode you usually can't get the setup for the driver to work. So boot up in safe mode and follow my procedure.




This is a OPENGL problem and the new opengl doesn't seem to work in many games on Vista.

The fix is easy:

Goto C:\ATI
then to the 8_7 files
search for CMD
then

cd C:\ATI\SUPPORT\8-7_vista32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_65998\Packages\Drivers\Display\LH_INF\B_66369

(this just happens to be the location of this file for this example
on a XP machine I found the file ati2dvag.dl_
C:\ATI\SUPPORT\8-6_xp32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_64783\Driver\XP_INF\B_64997)

expand atioglxx.dl_ atioglxx.dll

and copy the new atioglxx.dll to c:\windows\system32

replace your newer file

You don't have to be the brain to manage partitions for free.

EASEUS Partition Manager Home Edition FREE
http://www.easeus.com/




As Partition Magic alternative, EASEUS Partition Manager Home Edition is a FREE comprehensive hard disk partition management tool to let you enjoy for free with all the powerful functions: Resize and Move partitions, Create, Delete and Format partitions, Hide and Unhide partitions and much more. What's more, EASEUS Partition Manager works perfectly with hardware RAID. Your data is completely protected during all operations. Why not free download EASEUS Partition Manager now to enjoy it like the commercial program Partition Magic?

More choices for free Anti-virus

http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

Avast is a great choice for a free anti virus solution for home non-comercial use only. It also comes with anti-spyware & anti-rootkit protection as well.

I'm still a big fan of FreeAV because it works so well and doesn't take up too many resources. FreeAV doesn't include the anti-rootkit and anti-spyware features. I handle these myself with products that focus only on revealing rootkits and anti-spyware.

http://thinkbiggar.blogspot.com/2007/10/i-feel-sick-quick-guide-to-anti-virus.html

All is Quiet, or is it?

http://www.wireshark.org/
The bad guys want to use your PC for there illegal activity so they won't get caught. Have you ever had that feeling that your being watched? How about being used? This much I can tell you, everyone is being watched and more people than you can imagine are being used. I hear the numbers are as high as 40% of all windows based PC may be hijacked.

Wireshark is a network sniffer that will capture everything off your local LAN. I wouldn't use this at work or anywhere you invade the privacy of others. You need to get your ip address of your machine and monitor activity or capture activity when the machine is idle and not in use.

If nothing is happening you can generate some activity such as web browsing to get a feel for what you should expect to see. If you leave it running during times when you are suspect you can confirm your suspicions one way or another.

http://www.wireshark.org/

You can install a firewall to help give you an idea of what is leaving you PC but these guys are good at turning these tools off without your knowledge.

So you have to fight these guys from the trenches.

This is what they say about the program:

Wireshark is the world's foremost network protocol analyzer, and is the de facto (and often de jure) standard across many industries and educational institutions.

Wireshark development thrives thanks to the contributions of networking experts across the globe. It is the continuation of a project that started in 1998.

Features:
Wireshark has a rich feature set which includes the following:
Deep inspection of hundreds of protocols, with more being added all the time
Live capture and offline analysis
--Standard three-pane packet browser
--Multi-platform: Runs on Windows, Linux, OS X, Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and many others
--Captured network data can be browsed via a GUI, or via the TTY-mode TShark utility
--The most powerful display filters in the industry
--Rich VoIP analysis
--Read/write many different capture file formats: tcpdump (libpcap), Catapult DCT2000, Cisco Secure IDS iplog, Microsoft Network Monitor, Network General Sniffer® (compressed and uncompressed), Sniffer® Pro, and NetXray®, Network Instruments Observer, Novell LANalyzer, RADCOM WAN/LAN Analyzer, Shomiti/Finisar Surveyor, Tektronix K12xx, Visual Networks Visual UpTime, WildPackets EtherPeek/TokenPeek/AiroPeek, and many others
--Capture files compressed with gzip can be decompressed on the fly
--Live data can be read from Ethernet, IEEE 802.11, PPP/HDLC, ATM, Bluetooth, USB, ---Token Ring, Frame Relay, FDDI, and others (depending on your platfrom)
--Decryption support for many protocols, including IPsec, ISAKMP, Kerberos, SNMPv3, SSL/TLS, WEP, and WPA/WPA2
--Coloring rules can be applied to the packet list for quick, intuitive analysis
--Output can be exported to XML, PostScript®, CSV, or plain text

Turn your PC into a super computer to save humanity

As a PC enthusiast I have way too many PCs. Even if you just have one PC would it be nice to put some of that Uber hardware to good use and to benefit humanity?

I was reading an article about a university group called Vision Lab of the University of Antwerp who created a computer designed to do tomography calculations which out performed the CalcUA on campus costing 3.5 million dollars. The CalcUA is the most powerful super computer in Belgium. (Tomography is the analysis of 3D medical images)

To read more about this click here: http://www.dvhardware.net/article27538.html

What is amazing about this machine is that it can be constructed for about $3800 from parts found on NewEgg.com.

AMD Phenom 9850 processor + Scythe Infinity CPU cooler

4x MSI 9800GX2 graphics card

4x 2GB Corsair Twinx DDR2 PC6400 memory

MSI K9A2 Platinum motherboard

Samsung Spinpoint F1 750GB HDD

ThermalTake Toughpower 1500W Modular PSU

Lian-Li PC-P80 Armorsuit case

Windows XP 64-bit

This got me thinking about some of the distributed computing projects out there.

Remember the Seti project? The search or extra-terrestrial life in the universe. This project uses a distributed computing method to use your home PC to help analyze white noise data from space in an attempt to find defined patterns that could indicate the existence of life on planets other than earth. I consider this a complete waste of time considering many factors but if your geeky enough you might enjoy participating.

Then I though about protein folding. Which has real world benefits and could result in the cure for deceases as well as help us create many advancements is drugs such as antibiotics. This can also have commercial benefits as well.

Check out the web site: http://folding.stanford.edu/



Here is a video explanation:
http://zdpub.vo.llnwd.net/o2/ziffdavisplayer/flvplayer2.html?show=PCMAG&movie=135

As it turns out they have a version of the folding simulation software that supports advanced GPUs such as the Nvidia 8600 and up as well as the ATI 3750 series on up. My 6 Ghz machine folds at 60 iterations per second. Using the GPUs to run the calculation brings this to super computing speeds of 1300 iterations per second. This can be further tweaked to run on multiple GPU cores depending on how your hardware is configured.

Link for the latest graphical client I am using:
http://folding.stanford.edu/English/DownloadWinOther

The nvidia 8600 cards show they are not supported until you load the CUDA display driver. This is much newer display driver from Nvidia than the one currently available for download.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_get.html

This worked on both my 8800Gt and my 8600GTX cards.
One note about the display page for nvidia; it will not show your user name and shows you a test protein is selected. You can ignore that. Its best to run the application minimized anyways.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folding@Home

For multi cpu support you copy your folding@home folder creating multiple folders. The shortcut in your start menu points to a folder in you application data folder. You can change this to point to the other folder created in the Program Files directory. Then you change the shortcut to include the "-gpu N" flag (N starts at 0)

Your extra parameters in the advanced page of the systray clients, or the advances settings of the console clients. Again N starts with 0 not 1, so your primary display is 0, the next is 1, etc. Each client if you are running more then one needs a different -gpu and a different machineD, and a different working directory, so follow the instructions for multiple clients.

Here are 2 tools that can give you more insight on what is going on with your progress.

http://www.blogger.com/http://fahspy.com/index_eng.shtml// - you point to your folding at home folder. You can monitor multiple folders for multiple GPUs with this tool.

http://fahmon.net/

My stats are here: http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=userpage&username=vbiggar

MIT open courseware on the subject of Protein Folding

I'm on the DL.TV team 57391, feel free to join.

Don't get caught with your pants down!!!

I did an article on routers from old PC junk.

This is no Clark Kent but some might say is sexier than Lana Lang. Lets face it if your on my sight your too much a Geek and too poor to ever have a shot at her anyways so we might as well get excited about something we can have at my favorite price, FREE.



The monowall concept has evolved into a commercial product that is available free for home use. This is slightly different than the monowall approach in that is sits in front of your NAT home router. It is runs right out of a Red Hat linux distribution which brings you more features with a more power set of networking tools. How do you like the sound of virus scanning before the virus even reaches your machine.

Lets say your kids are on the internet and have infected a computer from the latest game hacker site. Now your internet traffic slows down and you internet connections and bandwidth are being used to commit crimes without your knowledge.

Maybe your just paranoid and would like to know why your connection just slowed down or why your application just locked up. The first step is to ensure your system is clean from virus and rootkit activity. And if they are smarter than you and the experts you need to know whats coming and going on the network. Maybe you just want to pinch off that Bit Torrent traffic that they say is uploading at 6kbps but you can now see is really moving at 300kbps.

	Provides core server applications - mail, web, VPN, backup, file and print services...
	Protects network and data - antivirus, antispam, firewall, intrusion prevention...
	Enforces Internet usage policies - content filter, peer-to-peer filter, bandwidth manager...
	Simplifies management and monitoring - system monitoring, software updates, mail backup.

Clarkconnect provides several very useful networking tools. Along with several daemons, you have the ability to limit bandwidth, filter traffic, etc. Listed below are some popular network services:

• Samba
• Apache
• SSH
• Squid
• mySQL
• ProFTP
• Squirrel Mail
• Snort

SAMPLE SYSTEM SPECS:
Keep is simple to save power and money.

• AMD Athlon 750 MHz
• 512 MB PC133 SDRAM
• 20 GB IDE Hard Drive
• 10/100 On-board NIC
• Intel Pro 100+ NIC <- Very compatible - since this faces the DSL 100mbs is many times more bandwidth than you DSL provider will allow up and down stream.

Download a ISO and install it to a fresh hard drive on that old junk PC.
http://www.clarkconnect.com/downloads/

Google, I love you.

Google does for phone what it did for your email. They remove the shackles and set you free.

http://www.grandcentral.com/home

I tell everyone who is nailed down to a single provider for email to get onto a online service. Yahoo and Hotmail have become unmanagable with spam. Besides that, Yahoo delays the receipt of email. When you are waiting for a email for a password code or a response you have to keep clicking the check mail button to refresh you page which forces you to refresh the ads as well. My email is delayed from 1 to 20 minutes. The same query in GMAIL I will receive the message instantly. This kind of manipulation has caused me to stop using Yahoo for anything important.

Have you ever been at the checkout of a store and forgot your discount card? They say punch in your phone number. Most of these cards have phone numbers from years ago. Imagine if you could have one number for every phone for now and in the future. Imagine if you could actually take control of and filter your calls.



http://www.grandcentral.com/home

Google has acquired GrandCentral Communications, a company that provides services for managing your voice communications. GrandCentral is a service that lets users integrate all of their existing phone numbers and voice mailboxes into one account, which can be accessed from the web. This is similiar to services provided by may VOIP companies like Vonage.

GrandCentral offers many features that complement the phone services you already use. If you have multiple phone numbers (e.g., home, work, cell), you get one phone number that you can set to ring all, some, or none of your phones, based on who's calling.

This way, your phone number is tied to you, and not your location or job. The service also gives you one central voice mailbox. You can listen to your voicemails online or from any phone, forward them to anybody, add the caller to your address book, block a caller as spam, and a lot more.

You can even listen in on voicemail messages from your phone while they are being recorded, or switch a call from your cell phone to your desk phone and back again. All in all, you'll have a lot more control over your phones.

Screen Callers
Know who's calling and screen unknown callers
ListenInTM Hear why someone is calling before taking the call
Call Record Record calls on the fly and access recordings online
Block Callers Unwanted callers won't be able to reach you anymore
Notifications Receive voicemail notifications via email or SMS

Ring Different Phones
One number that rings different phones based on who's calling
Greetings Personalize your voicemail greetings by caller or group
RingShareTM Go beyond the ring and choose ringback tones for your callers

WebCall Button
Let people call you from a web page without showing your number
CallSwitch Switch phones in the middle of a call
Click2Call Call from your addressbook and save your typing
Mobile Access Visual voicemail for your mobile phone