I installed an extra 2GB of memory in this thing a few weeks back, and ever since then it's been running a bit slowly. Not usually noticable, but when watching 720p video it totally fails to keep up.

I've just dropped it back down to 1GB and it's fine now <_<

It wasn't running dual channel or anything clever, and the new memory is the same speed as the old one. It passes all tests fine, and never gave me any errors or crashes... just made everything slow!

It was the same under XP, Windows 7 and Ubunto so it's not an OS or software issue.

Grrr.

Yet another "job" to try and fix...

*edit* just put the 2GB stick in by itself and that's fine too. I guess it just doesn't like non-matching memory, which is annoying. I think most of my machines have ended up with odd combinations in and been just fine.

That's two sticks of ram for eBay then - I still have the one from the netbook to get rid of too.

LOL WTF?

It seems like I actually tried the 2GB module first, then put the 1GB back in and nearly eBayed my new module :lol:

Looking at the prices on eBay, if I actually sell the sticks I could even make a profit. I best list them tonight... right after I put the 2GB back in <_<

Doorbell

Some may remember my doorbell upgrade. Basically, I replaced the faulty bell-push with a new one which was illuminated by a 12v bulb. Since the bell operates on 3 volts, this required some cunning tricks but I was very pleased with the results...

Except, it never worked properly.

I've now found out why.

There is nothing wrong with the doorbell or my clever little circuit!

The brand new bell push has a resistance of almost 1ohm, which limits the current too much for the bell to actually ring! WTF? It's not supposed to have a high resistance, it's supposed to be a switch!

The only solution to this is annoyingly complicated. I'm going to have to put a relay in the circuit, and there's not really enough room in the box. I think I have a very small one somewhere, but it needs to handle 2 amps.

Grrrr.

Doorbell 2

Well, I was wrong. It wasn't the bell push - it was a dodgy connection at a screw terminal. This is good, because it's now fixed and my bell works properly for the first time in about 5 years :lol:

PC Upgrade

I decided to install all available updates for XP on this machine, including SP3.

Now, I knew there was a danger of it going wrong - but I wasn't quite prepared for what happened.

It killed my VistaXP theme. That's not the end of the world, but it also managed to set every single colour to black. I had black writing on black buttons on a black background that lit up black when you pressed them.

I couldn't edit the settings, because the entire dialogue box was black.

I had to log on as a different user and hack around the registry to fix it. This took me quite a while to figure out. You have to "load hive" to access the other profile. I then exported my working colour profiles, edited the registry name and re-imported. Unload the hive, reboot and voila - I could see again :)

My VistaXP theme still didn't work though. That turns out to be down to a new version of uxtheme.dll that came with SP3. I patched it to a cracked version, and finally all is well again :D

I think it may be a little quicker now, so that was 6 hours well spent. <_<

I shall be sure to ring it when we come round next :D

Wow :o Did Hot Black Desiato design your updates?

Kewl!! :lol:

I was thinking it was Disaster Area.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1113231/quotes

If you've not read the books, listened to the plays, watched the series and seen the films - then shame on you :P

Yeah "Disaster Area" is the band, HotBlack Desiato is the lead singer and it's HotBlack Desiatos Stunt Ship that Zaphod is referring to when he talks about the colour scheme :D HotBlack is spending a year dead for tax evasion.

I've read the books, listened to the radio shows, watched the series and seen the film, I could quote most of HHGttG and RatEotU from memory :shame:

LOL, that told me. I'd forgotten his name. I'm always forgetting names. I can't actually remember anyone's except Ford thingy.

Not knowing what you meant, I Googled it. The first reference was an estate agent with a very black website - not a single mention of H2G2! I guess I know where they got the name from now :shame:

http://www.hotblackdesiato.co.uk/

There is a real "Restaurant at the End of the Universe" as well, although I'm not sure where it is. I was put on to HHGttG by my dad when I was about 8 and have been an avid fan ever since, I'm the same with Monty Python, my gift for remembering song lyrics also lends itself to names, large sections of films and shows, things people say etc etc ad nauseum......

It's borked again :(

I had to unscrew it from the wall to paint, and now it doesn't ding any more.

It's so infuriating! I know all the parts work, but when you join them together they don't.

I'm expecting a courier tomorrow, so I need to fix it now!

have tried to use a hammer to fix it

always worked on the starter motor of my old Fiesta

I have ENORMOUS amounts of faith that'll you'll get it fixed.

Wanna ring duh doorbell :P

It is so :D

I must have rotated the bell slightly while I was moving it around. It's now back to optimum ringing position.

Whoop-Whoop :D

Ring ya laters ......

Door bell failure again on Friday <_<

I just unscrewed it from the wall, and it works fine when it's laying on the floor!

I've soldered all the joints and put it back up, and it's ringing louder than ever. I really should have soldered it properly the first time :shame:

I can't decide whether to use:

"If a job's worth doing, it's worth getting someone else to do it"

or:

"If it ain't broke, fix it 'til it is"

You Choose :D