Ever since I got my Sony Reader, I’ve been very happy with the reading experience, but of late, it has not been seeing as much use. This us due to a few things.
The first thing is that it has been getting increasingly hard to get ebooks for my device, at least legally. I used to get my books at Waterstones.com, but they are no longer selling to Norway. The only sites I have found that do sell to Norway, either do not carry the books I want, or are selling them at a premium, making them considerably more expensive than their paper counterparts.
The second thing is that the battery life has become much shorter than it was, and annoyingly so.
The third thing, which has annoyed me from day one, is how heavy the device is.
The fourth, and last reason, is that transferring books was kinda clunky, even though I found software that did it considerably better than Sony’s own software.
So, what did I get, you ask? Well, the review is coming next week…
Category: Hardware
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Getting a new eBook reader
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The Asus Eee 1101H reviewed
I recently decided to get a new laptop. My old laptop was looking like it was going to kick the bucket soon, and I wanted to exchange it sooner, rather than later. I was originally planning to get a high-end Dell, but looking closer at the contents of my wallet, I decided to forego the high-end one for now, and rather go for a cheaper netbook-style computer. In the end, I decided on the Asus Eee 1101H, opting for a large screen and decent specs.
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Resolving Userenv Event 1085 and SceCli Event 1202
Hardware errors come in many shapes and sizes. Some are innocuous, others more serious. Not all of them are easily detected. Over the course of the last three years, I have seen one, which displays any of the following symptoms:
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Resolving "Cannot load BTrez.dll- NW" errors
I had a client call in the other day, telling me that her computer would freeze up and display error messages whenever she opened Windows Explorer. The error message said
Cannot load BTrez.dll- NW. Checking BTrez.dll with ProcessLibrary, I found that the error referred to a problem with the drivers for Bluetooth. -
More model-specific errors
Over a year ago, I wrote about uncovering model-specific errors. True to form, all of the models I have seen lately have had some sort of standardized error.
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Resolving Stop: 0x7b errors
Here’s what happened: I had three computers to install, same make and model on each of them. I hooked them up to the network, and started the RIS install. Files load to the computer, no problem, then the computer reboots.
Immediately after the setup starts, the computer goes to bluescreen, claiming a Stop: 0x7b error.
Checking around the web a little, I find that a 0x7b stop error is caused when the “configuration is missing a component that is required to boot your device”.
Adding to this the knowledge that the computer was running a SATA hard drive, I went to the BIOS, where I found that the computers were set to Enhanced mode for the drive in question.
Now there’s your problem. It cleared up nicely as soon as I switched to Compatible mode. -
Fixing a jumpy Synaptics Mousepad
I’ve had a problem with the mousepad on my laptop getting “jumpy”. Whenever I’d use it, and subsequently take my finger off it, it’d jump an inch and a half or so upwards to the right. This was annoying to say the least, and I decided to try and find a solution to it.
I’ve only tested this solution with Synaptics mousepads, and so I can’t vouch for whether it’ll work with others.
What I did to solve the problem, was uninstall the mouse, and reinstall it using the same drivers. Here’s how I prefer doing it:
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Logitech VX Nano – first impressions
I’d been wanting to get a new mouse for my portable computer for a long time when I actually did. Up until last week, I’ve been using your regular two-buttons-and-a-scroll-wheel kind of mouse, and I wanted a little more functionality when on the road. I’m used to using one of Logitechs larger mouse with my desktop computer, and wanted something like that, only smaller.
I remembered a product test I did a while back, of Logitechs newest portable cordless, with their smallest receiver yet, called Logitech VX Nano Cordless Laser Mouse for Notebooks. I also remembered liking it, so I decided to go for it.
Functionwise, it’s great. The scroll-whell has two modes, (almost) friction-less and regular. It has backward and forward buttons, sideward scroll, and a total of five programmable buttons. Comfort is also excellent. It lies very well in the hand, and the gripping pads on the side makes it very comfortable to use.
The greates feature is the receiver though. It is small enough to fit in the back of my laptop, even when it is docked. It is to me the epitome of plug-in-and-forget.
The conclusion is simple; though not cheap, this is an excellent little bit of kit, which works beautifully. It is definitely the best mouse in this size I’ve ever tried, and I am very content. -
Uncovering Model-specific errors
Most models of computer have one or two errors that you classically begin to see within about a year of their release. Be it motherboard issues, harddrive failures or simply keyboard malfunction, they all have them. The problem is that for each new model, there’s a new standard error. Some are shared across a range of similar models, whereas some are specific to a batch of computers.
These errors are something that you learn to live with; you learn to roll with the punches as it were, and to diagnose them. The problem here, is of course that what you see (the symptoms) isn’t always what you’ve got.
An example of this is HP’s nc6220 series computers, that presents itself with a Non-System Disk or Disk Error, leading users and supporters alike to assume that the harddrive is dead. Of course, this is partly because a previous model, the nc6000, had a large batch of bad drives that would kick the bucket after about a year or so.
With the nc6220, the error is not, however, in the harddrive, but on the motherboard, more specifically located in the harddrive controller. Other symptoms include slow boot, slow or no access to BIOS and inability to boot from a CD. The ultimate test is, of course, to put the harddrive into a different computer, and test it. If it boots, you know.
With IBM and Lenovo’s T4x-range of computers, the classic problem is a different one, but none the less annoying. Here, too, the motherboard calls it a day (or life if you will), but the symptoms are no output to both the on-board and any external monitors that might be connected.
Personally, I prefer motherboard failures, because, although annoying and time-consuming, the user does not end up losing data, which they would with a harddrive failure.