Alex Scoble's IT Notes - An Information Technology Blog

Dell no longer selling HP + Exchange admin tool found

I've posted two more items on my ComputerWorld blog.

Click here to get to the first item where I talk about how Dell is no longer selling any HP branded products.

Use this link to go to post about Exchange tool that I found to quickly change all permissions of inbox subfolders of a specific mailbox.

Remote Desktop/Terminal Services Client RDP File Settings

Click here to go to my ComputerWorld.com blog posting on where to go to find settings information for RDP files used for connecting to Remote Desktop or Terminal Services on Windows systems.

Yet Another Poor Vendor Support Experience

Had a disappointing exchange of emails with a support person from Versys today.

Blogged about it on my ComputerWorld blog.

Pretty much bummed me out because I had previously had good experiences with the person who I was dealing with.

I wrote her an email about a problem and she wrote back this long email stating that their systems couldn't possibly be at fault because it wasn't designed that way. Based on her email, she hadn't even seemed to connect to our system to check out the facts of the matter.

Anyhow, it's just another example of how not to treat your customers if you are in any support position. *Hint: the customer is always right until you can PROVE otherwise and even then you are better off trying to do what's possible to make them happy, unless you want unhappy people going around blogging about how your company sucks*

Dell Doesn't Ship Windows CD For Inspiron Laptops Either

A few weeks back, I wrote this post on vendor websites where I also mentioned how I disliked that Gateway didn't ship a Windows CD with my girlfriend's PC and that Dell does ship that CD.

Well, her brother just bought a Dell Inspiron 9300 and guess what it didn't come with. You guessed it! A Windows CD.

Why don't computer companies ship systems with this CD anymore? It's just ridiculous. The Windows CD isn't just for doing a fresh install, it can also be used to do a "repair" install which fixes a lot of problems that can't be fixed any other way. And a XP "repair" install is non-destructive so applications ,other than Windows service packs, hot fixes and updates, don't need to be reinstalled.

Dell does provide the Windows CD for Latitude customers (although they can opt not to have it sent), and it's not like they are paying that much of a premium as most Latitude customers are businesses that get a hefty discount.

Perhaps companies stopped shipping CDs to customers after doing studies that showed that most of them throw them away, or that most customers don't know how to use them. Whatever. I guess they also assume that a computer tech will have the CD with them if they are called to fix someone's PC.

Hey PC box pushers (you know who you are...Dell, HP, Gateway, etc.) do us all a favor and start shipping PCs (all PCs) with support media. At least give the customer a choice to have the system shipped with them.

You are doing a HUGE disservice to your customers when you don't ship the support CDs with the system.

And no, a refresh CD that destructively puts the PC back in shipping condition does not count. In fact, shipping PCs with these CDs is worse, in my mind, than not shipping anything at all!

With a Windows CD, it's difficult for a customer to unintentionally wipe out their whole drive. With a "refresh" CD, it's easy for it to happen, since that is what it's designed to do.

So just include the frickin Windows and driver CDs for all PCs (notebooks and desktops) that you sell! Enough said.

Color Pring Queue Issue Resolved

You can read my Computerworld blog to see how I resolved my problem controlling amount of color prints made to our Canon iRC6800.

Thanks to Andy of Absoblogginlutely for your comment that was the key to the answer.

Note on Silenx Case Fans

I recently posted that my new system was running a bit too hot for my tastes, especially when the weather is warm.

I've resolved this somewhat by adding another 92mm case fan as an intake fan at the front of the case. I also removed the covers for the two card slots below the graphics card.

This keeps the system at a reasonably cool temp when the ambient temperature isn't super hot. I'm still not satisfied with how things are when the weather gets really warm.

I talked a little before about the Silenx case fans that I've been using. I have a 120mm and a 92mm Silenx fan (the 14db models) in my new case and a 120mm and 2 x 80mm models in my old (now my girlfriend's) PC. They are indeed quiet, but don't push much air (not sure that they push the cubic feet per minute that is listed on the website - sure doesn't seem like it to me, particularly for the 120mm fan) and lack the RPM monitor wire. For as much as they cost, I would rather that they offer them as high speed models with a controller as that would be much more useful.

I'm pretty sure that they use Adda fans to OEM as Adda owns the patent for hypro bearing fans. As such, they are certainly high quality fans, but I would personally get a lot more use out of them if they were sold at their top rated speed and included the RPM tach wire.

Anyhow, I'm still on the lookout for a 120x120x25mm fan that is high speed (around 80 to 115 cfm), has the RPM monitor wire and has good noise characteristics at all speed levels. If anyone knows of a supplier of such and a good fan controller rig to use, let me know.

At any rate, I won't be buying Silenx fans again for a normal PC as there's just not enough value add to justify the cost. You are better off buying high quality high speed fans and a multi-fan controller as you can still run your PC in silent mode if you have air conditioning in your PC room or when the weather is cool, but crank up the RPMs if needed. Flexibility is pretty important in my view. I would, however, purchase Silenx fans if I were putting together a home theater PC.

By the way, yes the system is fast. Runs all the games I have at 1680x1050 (native resolution of the Dell 2005FPW wide screen LCD) without any problems with 4x antialiasing and 8x anisotropic filtering turned on, which to me is pretty damn good.

HL 2 Stress Test showed that I averaged 95FPS with those settings and everything turned to High.

New PC Running Hot - Case Fan Research

Took a bit more time than it should have, but I got my new PC together. So far everything seems to be working.

Had to make some extra cutouts in the Acoustipack foam fixed to the inside of the main panel because some of the quick release drive tabs were sticking into the foam making it very difficult to put the panel on the case. As an aside one thing I should mention about the case is that the "tool-less" PCI card slot retaining bracket is a bit flimsy and very difficult to unlatch with a 120mm fan mounted in the back of the case.

Should also mention that the case fans are indeed pretty quiet, as is the power supply fan, but the graphics card fan and motherboard fan are not. The Zalman northbridge cooler won't fit with the graphics card in place and I don't particularly want to risk damaging a $525 graphics card, while negating the warranty in the process, by putting in a different cooling system for the graphics card. By the way, if I were going to do this, Zalman, reportedly, makes a good graphics cooler kit, the VF700-CU.

Back to the point at hand. I have everything working, with the 120mm Silenx fan at the back of the case pulling hot air out, 92mm CPU fan (kept the fan that came with the ThermalRight XP90 as it's supposed to be higher CFM than the 92mm Silenx fan) pushing air onto the XP90 heatsink, and 92 mm Silenx fan in the front pushing cold air into the case. With all this, the CPU temp and case temp during the current warm spell are pretty high. Something like 50-55d C for both CPU and motherboard.

I've been thinking about what to do about this and about the only solution that I can come up with is to get one or more high speed fans in the case and a fan controller (such as Zalman ZM-MFC1, although I don't particularly like the style of the face-plate of that particular model). Problem is finding a high quality high speed, high air volume, fan that has good sound characteristics at high and low speed and that is commercially available with the proper 3 pin connector.

Panasonic has their Panaflo series which is supposed to be good, but their high speed fans are a bit deep at 38mm.

Papst is supposed to make very high quality fans, but I'm having a heck of a time finding somewhere that sells the high speed versions with the proper connector.

Adda is another company that is said to make high quality high speed fans. Dell uses these for their cases and judging from the fact that Adda has the patent on Hypro Bearing fans, Silenx uses their fans as well (too bad they don't sell high speed fans as well, but then I guess they wouldn't be "silent").

So I'm in a bit of a quandary. If anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears. Keep in mind, however, that Delta fans and the Vantec Tornado apparently don't have very good sound characteristics and are right out.

If I find a good solution, I'll let you know.

Parts Received and Notes on Building the PC

Online retailers can be so fast sometimes. Newegg, Silenx and EndPCNoise all got me what I ordered in 2 days. Way cool.

So I started puting things together last night. First impressions...the Ever Case 4252B case is pretty well made for a $37 case. Most edges are curled over to prevent cuts, the construction is sturdy and as I said before, except for the "back" side panel, it is entirely tool-less. By the way, I thought it was very cool that the case has built in "stand-offs" so I didn't have to mount any for the motherboard.

As far as the acoustic matting, it took about 2 hours to put it all in. Comes with 2 thinner sheets, 1 thick sheet, 2 x 5.25" bay foam blocks and 1 x 3.5" bay foam block. One sheet went in the "back" side panel, which now will be a complete pain to ever get off, but luckily the case is designed so this isn't a problem. The thick sheet went on the "front" side panel opposite where the motherboard sits, with a hole cut in it to fit the CPU fan intake vent that comes with the case. The other thin sheet was used for the top of the case and the bottom which leaves extra for any other places where it might be needed.

Also mounted in the Seasonic 600W power supply. This thing is a mammoth. Heavy and solid with a 120mm fan on the bottom to pull hot air out of the case.

Installed the 120mm Silenx case fan in the back of the case, as well, to pull air out of the case.

Anyhow, that's all for now, will post updates as they happen, which won't be until tomorrow evening at the earliest since I'm going out of town. Have a great weekend!

Blackberry Tips Post on Computerworld Blog

I've just posted some tips with links that Blackberry users and IT administrators might find useful.

You can go here to see the post.

Musings on Why Apple Switched to Intel

Woke up at around 3am last night and while trying to get back to sleep, I started thinking about the Apple/Intel affair that's been going around the net lately.

It occurred to me that I haven't seen a lot of people asking if it was IBM's choice instead of Apple's and I was also struck with reasons why IBM would want to say bye to Apple. 120 million of them.

Read my post on Computerworld at http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/node/313 to find out what those 120 million reasons are.