It works!!!!! It finally works!!!!!!!

Got my new PSU today. Had to go out and buy 2 Molex splitter cables as the PSU didn't have enough molex connectors for all of my hard-drives, DVD writer, GFX card, fans and snazzy blue lights. Anyway, the computer works fine now!! YIPPEEEEE

Hopefully this will be the last 'techie' post for awhile.

Give me more POWER!!!!!!!!!!!

I nearly gave up trying to figure out what was wrong with my computer. Even Kieran had a go at looking to see what he could find (see picture - YES THE POWER WAS SWITCHED OFF!!)

I got Windows installed earlier, but everytime I started it up, the computer would shut down on me before I could do anything.

It then occured to me - I've just added a new 200Gb drive, and recently I've been getting a message saying that not enough power was getting through to my GeForce 6600GT.

First, I disconnected the DVD drive and started the computer... It worked fine.

I then reconnected the DVD drive and restarted the computer - it crashed on me again.

I disconnected one of my hard-drives and restarted - it worked fine without crashing.

ITS THE BLOODY PSU - Obviously it's not powerful enough. Its only a 350w PSU, so I've opted for a 550W PSU from Novatech. That should arrive Friday hopefully. In the meantime after disconnecting the internal DVD drive, I'm currently using my Laptops DVD drive as a shared network drive which I can access wirelessly from my desktop PC - ingenious!!!

"I canna fix it cap'n... Shes gonna blow"

ARRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!

I'm going to throw this bloody computer out of the window soon! For the past few days I've been having to sort out various problems with my desktop PC. I've had a hard-drive pack up on me, a faulty memory module, and now when I try to reinstall Windows XP, I'm getting this BSOD (Blue Screen of Death).

A quick scan on the internet reveals no definitive solution to this. Some people say it may be due to a faulty PSU, the way IDE devices are configured, right down to a mouse driver!! Infact, Microsoft haven't an idea either. I have tried swapping around my hard-drives and DVD-writer. I've now got my booting drive as master and another harddrive as a slave on my Primary IDE channel, and my new harddrive as Master and DVD writer as slave on my secondary IDE channel. So far so good. I am currently in the process of installing Windows XP and it appears to be working, but I'm not holding my breath as I got this far last night and I thought it was all working ok.

In the meantime, I am having to resort to using my laptop. I shall keep you all posted.

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(sigh) I never had this problem with my Commodore Plus 4 and Commodore 64.

We love the Miggy

After my last post, I don't want to make this blog yet another boring IT Technician's blog, but I've just found a wonderful little program on the internet which I must tell you about which I think is extremely useful if like me you like to emulate the Commodore Amiga on your PC.

One of the biggest pains with Amiga emulation is that a standard PC floppy disk-drive wil not read Amiga disks. However, some wonderful chap has created a little program called ADFREAD that allows Amiga disks to be read by a PC disk drive and converted to an ADF image file for use with most Amiga emulators (namely WinUAE). By using a special floppy filter driver which can be downloaded here, "the driver exposes command-level access to the uPD765a floppy disk controller, making it possible to read/write many non-standard and copy-protected disk formats", as mentioned on the website. This means that by using two standard PC floppy disk drives, installed on the same cable, Amiga disks CAN be read without the need for any hardware modifications or attachments.

It has taken me ages to convert only half of my Amiga disks using CrossDos on my Amiga 1200, transfering them from my Amiga to PC - now I can do it all from the comfort of my desktop PC in half the time.

Of course, you can't beat playing on the real thing, but sometimes emulation is just more practical (besides, I don't think Michelle would appreciate another computer setup taking over the house).

All hail the Commodore Amiga 500 - King of the 16-bit era

Beware... Techie at work......

I haven't been able to post a message recently because I've been having a few problems with my computer. Managed to get it up and running again, although I'm not sure for how long, so I think I might be popping over to Novatech to see what bargains they might have. I never buy a fully built/configured computer. I think its always better to build it yourself - you get EXACTLY what you want, and at a fraction of the price you would normally spend if you were to buy one from say PCWorld, or Currys.

One of the teaching assistants at my school contacted me, asking if I could fit a new harddrive into her computer. Apparently she had taken the PC to a reputable PC repair company and was told that her harddrive had completely failed and needed to be replaced. Now, they were going to charge her £70 for a measly 40Gb drive (I've just bought a 200Gb drive £25!!). Fortunatly she realised that was quite expensive and ended up getting one elsewhere for £20. Anyway she still had to pay £50 just for having a look at it.

Well, I had a look. I took the old drive out and put the new one in. Powered it up - nothing. Now, the two things I thought it could be were that the IDE cable was damaged (which it wasn't by the way), or that the IDE connector which the hardrive was connected to on the motherboard was faulty. I took the new drive out, and put the old one back in again, connecting it to the same IDE channel (secondary) as her DVD Rom. Not ideal, but it worked fine. Her harddrive booted without a problem and now her computer works fine. Now, what the f*$@ was that Computer Repair Company (whose name I shall not mention here) talking about??? They charged her £50 for having a look at her computer, mis-diagnosing the problem, and trying to flog a 40Gb harddrive for £70 when in fact she didnt even need one!!!!!!

BEWARE of IT specialists who haven't a clue what they are talking about!!

Anyway, enough of that...

Yesterday I decided it was time to make my home computer network completely wireless, so I decided to buy myself a Belkin 802.11g 125mb PCI wireless card for my desktop PC to work alongside my wireless tablet PC (Acer Travelmate C110) and router/modem. Got it all setup within minutes and it works like a dream (I just wish I could get our wireless network at school working as well - although thats another story for another time!)

Oh... Me and Michelle sat down and watched Poseidon last night on DVD - absolutely fantastic film, and one which I think is actually better than the original. Highly recommended.

Enough of me waffling on....

Action Biker - The Remix

Another day, another song.

I've been going through my hard-drive looking at the hundreds of unfinished songs I've started to compose but have never got round to finishing.

Ladies and gentlemen.... may I present to you....

ACTION BIKER - THE VINCE CLARKE (GUY FROM ERASURE) SOUNDALIKE REMIX

Action Biker was released for the Commodore 64 (and other 8-bit computers) in 1985 by budget publisher Mastertronic. You played Clumsy Colin (the star of the KP Skip adverts at the time) and had to ride around an isometric 3D town collecting bike parts before entering the bike race at the end of the game.

It was a fab game, and I still like to play it now. Anyway, the game had a fantastic soundtrack by lengendary C64 composer Rob Hubbard

Download the original Action Biker theme tune HERE

My version can be download here

ACTION BIKER - THE VINCE CLARKE (GUY FROM ERASURE) SOUNDALIKE REMIX

Hope you like it. Comments welcome.