Intel CPU Whines ...

I have a Clevo N540R laptop and it has been doing well with one exception it makes high pitch noise occasionally.  I have checked the cooling fan and it seems okay.  After checking all the usually suspects, I ran out of ideas.  Then I hit Google and search for the term "laptop high pitch noise".  Guess what, I am not alone.  This seems to be quite a common problem, and surprisingly it is related to the Intel processor.  It seems it is something to do with the processor goes to C1 idle state.

see: http://superuser.com/questions/121883/any-way-to-disable-specific-cpu-idle-cx-states

Initially I thought, it can't be, can it?  I followed the instructions posted on one of the forum as below:




1) Typing in the command line "regedit", you go to the registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Power \ PowerSettings \ 54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00 \ 5d76a2ca-e8c0-402f-a133-2158492d58ad

2) To enable one or another hidden parameter, it is necessary to find and edit the value DWORD, changing its value SettingValue from 1 to 0.

3) Then, through the control panel – power – in the settings mode select power management processor.
There will be an option disabling idle processor and high pitched noise immediately disappears.

Guess you can guess the result.  My problem went too!

(original solution from : http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1526684)

Permission ... NTFS

Today I came across this handy command prompt tool Xcacls.exe which allows user to view and set permission in command prompt. GUI is great for most situations, but there are time you can do it easier and faster with a single command rather than thousand clicks.


http://support.microsoft.com/kb/318754

WCF and Windows Authentications

Lately, I need to write a desktop application that needs to use a web service protected by Windows Authentication.

Most of the tutorials show you how easy it is to use a web services, and it is really easy till you hit the way of Windows Authentication.  To get around it, you can try to want to check out this blog I found.  It shows you how you can setup BasicHttpBinding to pass the Windows Authentication.

WCF BasicHttpBinding with Windows Authentication & a 2.0 Client

Security Groups and Policies for a Windows User

In Windows environment, resources authorizations are usually done by checking a users security policy.  When you are writing a program, you often need to find out your own security group/ policy, so you can test your program with your own credentials.   However, it isn't always convenient to bother the system administrators to get details of your settings.

In a situation like this, you may want to try the tool gpresult

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/gpresult.mspx?mfr=true

With it, you can see settings about yourself.

v-tools and Access

If you have inherited an Access database from someone, one of the problems you may face is finding your way round.  As things can be done as queries, forms and modules etc., it can be a bit difficult to find your ways.

I have recently come across this tool called v-tools.  It offers many features for Access database, but the one I found it most attractive is the ability to do "deep searches" on all objects.  For example, if you search for the "Orders", it will look for all objects such as tables, queries, modules etc and show you any involved.

Did I also mention it is free?

Routing paramaters in MVC

In .NET MVC, you can access the routing parameters by using RouteData property of the ViewContext object similar to below.

ViewContext.RouteData.Values["id"]

Ubuntu 11.10 ... and its problems

Ubuntu 11.10 seems to be the worst I have tried so far.  Since my graphics card isn't new enough to support the new graphics features, I can tell the visual part of the system.  However, it broke my sound.  Now my system is "silent"

After upgrade, the system failed to detect my


00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)

I am a system user, and I just want a system work.  Guess with Ubuntu ... it seems it is still too much to ask!

Update:

At last I found this website.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=205449

By following the instructions, I at least managed to get sound back (sort of).

For some unknown reason, snd-intel8x0 was backlisted. Once I comment out the snd-intel8x0 in the /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-alsa.conf , I got my sound back (well on speaker out jack anyway. My tower is a business machine with internal speaker. Still have no sound with the internal speaker. Nevertheless, it is a progress)

# blacklist snd-intel8x0