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How To Fix Windows XP Blue Screen During Install

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BlueScreenErrorIllustration

If you’re trying to install the mighty Windows XP onto your machine and you keep getting a blue screen with an error message on it, then we might just have the fix for you.

This blue screen error message usually occurs just after the Windows XP setup process finishes loading up and says “Starting Windows”.  If your PC utilizes SATA drives then what’s most likely causing the problem is a compatibility issue which can be remedied with a simple setting change in your PC’s BIOS.

  • Boot up your machine and immediately enter the BIOS. This is usually done by pressing a specific key just as your machine turns on (i.e. F2 or DEL).
  • Once in the BIOS Locate your configuration settings for your SATA (Serial ATA) connections.
  • Switch the option for all applicable drives (usually requires all of them) to IDE or “Compatibility” Mode. These are usually set to “AHCI” by default.
  • Reboot and attempt to run the install again.

Hopefully, your blue screen issue will be resolved! If not, you may have other hardware issues preventing the installation from continuing but most likely the issue is with your SATA drives.

How To Set Up Hyper V in Windows 8

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Windows 8 Pro is filled with features that are somewhat hidden and Hyper-V, a virtualization technology, is no exception. This article will show you how to to get up and running with Hyper-V. It’s important to note that Hyper-V is currently only available on Windows 8 Pro and Enterprise editions on the x64 platform (64 bit).

So what does Hyper-V do?

Well, to essentially gloss over it, Hyper-V allows you to create a a virtual machine (PC). You can customize it any way you would like by assigning how much memory, hard-drive space and other hardware features you would like this PC within a PC to have.Once you customize your virtual hardware, you can install whatever operating system on it you prefer; even Windows 95 or earlier if you are so inclined.

This technology has been around for a while and continues to get better. It’s pretty powerful stuff especially when used in large scale corporations, it can save a lot of time, money, and headaches. For the home user it’s pretty much up to you what you want to do with it. Maybe you just want to mess around with it or maybe you have some old games that won’t run on newer versions of Windows, either way you should check it out.

Finding and Installing Hyper-V

Hyper-V is not installed by default in Windows 8 and if you’re not sure where to look, you may never find it. Fortunately, it’s not that hard to set-up.

  • Head to the Desktop in Windows 8.
  • Bring up the “Charms Bar” on the Right-Hand side of the screen.
  • Click “Settings”.
  • Click “Control Panel”.
  • Now Click “Programs”.
  • Click “Turn Windows features on or off”. Here you will find a list of the many features that Windows 8 offers, one of which is Hyper-V.
  • Place a check next to Hyper-V, Hyper-V Management Tools, and Hyper-V Platform then click “OK”.

Windows will now set-up Hyper-V for use. If you can’t seem to locate the application, you can find it quickly by typing Hyper-V into Windows 8 search and then you can make a shortcut.

* Alternatively, you can open up “Run” and type in “appwiz.cpl”, then follow the last two steps from above.

HyperV ScreenShot
Hyper-V Manager

Featured App: ILoveFilm

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Looking for an iPad app that acts as a small light box for tracing?

I discovered ILoveFilm while searching for a free light box app. Even though the name and purpose of this app was to be able to look at negative images from a camera, I have found that using it as a light box to trace my sketches was the best one I could find.

The way it works is super simple, you open the app and you touch the little button to turn on the light. You also have a bar to move up or down to adjust the brightness. Thats it!

ILoveFilm

The one thing that bothers me about using an iPad as a light box, is when you rest your hand on it, the touch screen goes a little crazy and sometimes closes the app and then opens other things due to the multitouch gestures. I found that if you go into Settings>General>Turn OFF Multitasking Gestures, this turns off the ability to use four or five fingers to: pinch to the home screen, swipe up to reveal multitasking bar, and to swipe left or right between apps. Now that the gestures are turned off, resting your hand on the screen while tracing, will not give you anymore problems. Now just make sure the brightness is turned up all the way on the iPad and you are ready to trace!

photo

I recommend this app for small artwork due to the screen size. Other then that, it’s free and extremely simple to use!

Only available on Apple iPad.

How To Understand and Test Your Internet Speed

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Your internet provider says you should be getting a specific speed for the price you’re paying, but are you really getting those speeds? There are many useful sites that you can go to to test your speeds but it’s important to remember that all speeds can vary from test to test.

Speed of internet connection

Varying Speeds

Let’s say that your internet provider is supposed to be supplying you a 12 Mbps connection on your downstream. At times that may test at 10 Mbps or 9400 Mbps. It’s important to note that these fluctuations are usually of no major concern and are a product of “normal” changes in your bandwidth. However, if you find (in our hypothetical situation) that you’re only getting 4 or 5 Mbps, something has likely gone wrong and you should contact your internet provider.

Bits VS Bytes

Don’t be confused by the data rates being advertised by your service provider. All to often do I run into people who are confused about the download rates they are seeing when downloading a specific file. Here is the easiest way to show the difference between 1Mbps and 1 MB/s.

1 Mbps is equal (=) to 0.125 MB/s

Remember this when your looking at the data rate for a given download, the speeds you’re seeing will make much more sense.

Bottlenecks

Remember that just because your connection to the internet is fast doesn’t mean that what your connecting to is. Many servers will only offer a certain amount of bandwidth for you to use when obtaining data from them. This is because the people who set up these servers want to reduce the overall load on their system. One way to get around this issue is to offer content through a torrent, this will allow for much higher data rates with minimal impact to server load. Torrents will be discussed in another article.

Websites to test your speed:

Here are a few websites that I have found to be the best when it comes to testing your bandwidth.

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm “Vengeance” Trailer

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Watch live video from Starcraft on TwitchTV

 

The world premiere of the StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm “Vengeance” trailer features a live discussion with Chris Metzen, Dustin Browder and Jeff Chamberlin, and Kevin Johnson “Cloaken”.