Windows 7 Release Date
Monday, August 31, 2009
We've been being asked this a lot lately- when will Windows 7 be released?
From MS's site:
Windows 7 will become generally available on Oct. 22, 2009... ...The actual start date for the program will be announced when it is ready for consumers, and partners are ready to provide details to customers.
Labels: microsoft
posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 11:17 AM,
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Emergency Control of Internet?!
We recently read about a bill on CNET that "appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency".
Several Internet companies, telecommunications companies and civil liberties groups have expressed concerns.
In our opinion, the current state of the bill is completely unacceptable.
The people writing the bill say "We must protect our critical infrastructure at all costs--from our water to our electricity, to banking, traffic lights and electronic health records".
From a Network Engineer's point of view, those networks should not be shared on the Internet to begin with, and even if they are, how is shutting down the Internet going to help? This is just wrong on so many different levels.
posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 9:15 AM,
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Tax Rate Increase
We were all hoping state sales tax would go down this year.
Unfortunately, the exact opposite happened.
Effective September 1, 2009 NC State sales tax will increase by 1%. The new rate (for Wake County where we are located) will be 7.75% instead of 6.75%.
We still do not collect any tax from out of state customers.
posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 7:09 AM,
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ASUS P5VD2-VM-SE PCI.SYS error during Windows Setup
Thursday, August 20, 2009
When installing XP on certain motherboards, including the ASUS P5VD2-VM-SE, you will encounter a bluescreen error which may read something like:
***stop 0x0000007E ( oxc 0000005, oxf9a380bf, oxf9e84208, oxf9e834208, 0xe9e83f08
*** PCI.SYS address f9a380bf base at f9a31000, date stamp 3b7d8ssc
Solution:
Use an XP disk with SP2. The original OEM disks do not support something on certain boards, likely the PCIe or VIA bus.
posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 10:39 AM,
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Nortel Execs get a raise?
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Nortel Networks, who filed for Bankruptcy in January and lost $136,000,000.00 in June decided it was a good time for the remaining execs to get a $100,000/yr raise.
We feel bad for all of the people in the area who lost their job. Many of these people are losing benefits while the execs give themselves raises. We seriously doubt those people will ever get an executive position again.
Labels: Nortel
posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 1:53 PM,
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Pocket PCAudioVox XV6700 LCD Repair
We had an AudioVox Pocket PC XV6700 come in for repair this week. We do not specialize in the repair of pocket PCs but we're happy to work on them. This one had a smashed LCD & digitizer. We were able to repair it at half the price of a replacement phone.
posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 8:51 AM,
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Sony laptops with defective nVIDIA GPU
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Some of the following SONY VAIO laptops may develop a video problem, related to the nVIDIA GPU failure. Affected models may develop problems such as distorted video, video artifacts, strange characters or a blank screen. Sony will repair these models at no charge if they develop a GPU problem for 4yrs from the date sold.
Affected models:
VGN-FZ11*
VGN-FZ18*
VGN-FZ21*
VGN-FZ31*
VGN-FZ38*
VGN-AR11*
VGN-AR21*
VGN-AR31*
VGN-C1Z*
VGN-C2Z*
VGC-LM1**
VGC-LM2**
VGC-LT1**
VGC-LT2**
At this time Sony does not have an announcement on their website. But if you have a model, that has a problem, go to the Vaio support site, enter your model #, serial #, you should see information pertaining to your free repair.
posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 10:40 PM,
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Lenovo ThinkPad T61p nVIDIA GPU Problem
Some ThinkPad T61p laptops use the nVIDIA Quadro FX 570M. These machines are prematurely failing with video problems. The 570M is also known as the nVIDIA NB8P-GL.
Sony, Apple, Dell and others are offering free extended warranties. IBM has done this in the past but as of right now Lenovo is not offering to repair the affected models.
posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 9:18 PM,
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nVIDIA NB8P-GL = nVIDIA Quadro FX 570M
If you have a laptop with a nVIDIA NB8P-GL GPU you have a nVIDIA Quadro FX 570M.
The nVIDIA Quadro FX 570M uses the nVIDIA G86 core.
The G86 core GPUs are well known for the nVIDIA GPU problem which you can read more about here:
http://absoluteraleigh.com/blog/2008/12/nvidia-gpu-problem.html
Labels: nvidia
posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 9:11 PM,
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Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor Beta
Saturday, August 08, 2009
Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor Beta is available here:
http://tinyurl.com/mnmj8u
The MS site reads: "Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor scans your PC to see if it's ready for Windows 7, and tells you about any known compatibility issues."
posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 9:57 PM,
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Wanted: MSI inverter
Saturday, August 01, 2009
An MSI laptop was in earlier with a bad part. It is a small inverter and should be easily obtained and readily available, yet this laptop left our shop un-repaired. We called and stayed on hold for 2+ hrs before being disconnected. We left messages. We emailed. Our customer got involved and tried to contact them. After 10days of effort with absolutely no human contact our customer bought a system from us and put his on an external monitor (the internal display is black due to the bad inverter). We simply want to know if the part was available and how much it was.
Labels: MSI
posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 9:21 PM,
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Buyer Beware: $299 laptops make it to Raleigh
Some of the local chain stores have new laptops for $299. They are new and shiny and have a widescreen, but that is where the good news ends. To make a long story short, most of these laptops come with a 2Ghz Celeron processor, come with (and are only capable of) running Windows Vista. This basically means the machine is going to be painfully SLOW. Please don't send your student off to college with one of these cheap machines as they'd be better off with a pencil and a calculator. A decent used machine will be much faster. A good used laptop will still run $300-$400 or even more if you're buying a ThinkPad. Right now we're selling quality T60s right around $500 depending on configuration. A good 2yr old T61p can still command $1,000.
If you are in the market for a new laptop plan on spending at least $650. Lenovo and Toshiba both have some good deals and are worth comparing with the HPs, Dells and others. Try to find one with a warranty longer than 1yr. Memory is cheap so the machine should have 4GB RAM, a nice sized hard drive and a few hours of battery life. If you'll be running Vista get a good, fast processor.
Keep in mind, most of the 3rd party warranties are not what they're hyped up to be and some of these warranty companies magically go out of business once in a while.
posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 9:17 PM,
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2009 Sales Tax Holiday
Computers up to $3500 sold in North Carolina are exempt from sales tax from 8/7/9 - 8/9/9. Stay tuned for more news and sales coming up next week.
Want to know what else is exempt? Visit the NC DOR's website here:
http://www.dornc.com/taxes/sales/salestax_holiday.html
posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 8:53 PM,
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