10Dec
A few days ago the fan on one of the XFX nVidia GeForce 8800GS Alpha Dog cards in my gaming rig died. There are a pair of them in a SLI configuration and when the fan died on one, it overheated and shut down the system. As a safe gaurd, the system would not turn on with the bad card installed.
At first I thought it was the power supply. I got a RMA on the Ultra 650W power supply and got a 750W upgrade. After replacing the PS, the system would still not even post. So as part of troubleshooting, I stripped the system down to minimum components (No hard drive, single memory stick, one video card). The system booted with one video card installed, and started beeping at me with the other card installed.
I contacted XFX to get my 1 year old video card replaced/fixed. I an RMA for the card and XFX determined it was a faulty card. No sooner that I got the email from XFX about the faultly card, the other card went bad. I actually heard the fan come to a screeching halt. XFX informed me that they no longer make the 8800GS card and offered me a free upgrade to the GeForce 9800GT! Before they even knew the second card went south, XFX offered a free RMA upgrade to a 9800GT for the second card since they were in an SLI configuration. So kudos to XFX for standing behind their products and offering great service.
Tags: Gaming, GeForce, nVidia, SLi, XFX
22Nov
According to a survey commissioned by the CNET UK, 60% of Xbox 360s have had hardware failures. According to the survey 47% of Xbox 360s have failed within the first year of purchase. I have personally become part of this statistic. I have gone through 3 Xbox’s within 2 years. I was able to return the faulty Xbox to Best Buy under their warranty plan. At some point I discovered that you could mod the Xbox to read game backups. After the third Xbox, the BestBuy warranty expired and I thought Microsoft may have fixed the issue so I modded the Xbox. Well a few months after that, I got the RRoD again. Now I was stuck. No store warranty and no Microsoft warranty since I modded it. After looking online for a fix, I found this long term solution. This worked for a while but I got RROD again. I am considering getting an Xbox 360 Arcade
since it is $199 now and has HDMI output. I’m going to give it one more try and then might get a PS3.
Tags: rrod, xbox 360
20Nov
My wife updated her World of Warcraft Add On Healbot to version 3.2.2.7 and her main character icon on the top left disappeared. She needed to revert back to Healbot version 3.2.2.5 to get it to work without the character icon disappearing.
Tags: World of Warcraft, WoW
24Jun
If you have purchased a graphic intensive PC game recently, such as Cryisis, you realize that your computer runs the game like a choppy YouTube video. In order to get a better gaming experience you need to get the latest hardware, so a $60 game may end up costing you hundreds in hardware upgrades.
Years ago when computing power was extraordinarily expensive, you had a server like a mainframe do all the number crunching serve out results to “dumb” terminals. What if the graphics and physics calculations of today’s games were subcontracted to servers that did the heavy lifting. As computer power reaches pennies per Ghz and unlimited internet bandwidth increases steadily, the next evolution in gaming is in game streaming and subscription.
Imagine subscribing to the latest graphically intensive game that just came out over the internet. With the streaming model, video is streamed to your desktop while the game is running on a remote server at high resolution and with high game details on. That means your PC doesn’t have to run the latest hardware to play the game the way it was meant to be played. A recent article has revealed the OnLive will attempt do just that.
Of course this would only work if you have the bandwidth to support it. The internet backbones are currently being upgraded, but higher internet speeds will likely cost you more as well. Another road block would be the ISP’s proposed cap on your monthly bandwitdh. If the unlimited internet bandwitdh model changes, entire business built on internet communcations will suffer, including the upcoming game streaming.
Tags: Gaming
28May
I likes exercising with the Wii Fit but it’s not really a work out. We went out looking for the EA Active, but we found the Everlast 3″ Aerobic Step
on the shelf in the Wii section instead. This Wii Fit board accessory turns the Fit board into … well a 3 inch aerobic step. With the attachment, the regular Wii Fit step exercises is intensified. It’s a great way to have a fun workout and actually feel like you actually worked your muscles. I highly recommend this accessory if you are using the Wii Fit to try to get in shape. Note: Do not do the body test with the step accessory attached. The Wii Fit will miscalculate your weight by 50 to 70 pounds!
If you’re wondering about the design on the board, it is a cover or skin for the board made out of neoprene. It feels very nice under your feet and softens your steps. The one we got was the React Board sleeve found at BestBuy.
We like the Everlast 3″ Aerobic Step so much that we were thinking about getting the Everlast 2lb dumbbell Wii remote attachment for the next level.
Tags: accessories, wii fit
22Apr
I might have won a few battles with my xbox but I’m afraid I have lost the war. Aftter I thought i had fixed the rrod problem, it came back and I don’t think there is anything else I can do at this point but to buy a new xbox. I was thinking of getting an Xbox Arcade system. It is cheaper since it doesn’t come with a hard drive, but I can use the drive from the old system. The Xbox Arcade also has a HDMI connection which is a plus. I would also swap the DVD since it is flashed with the iXtreme 1.51 firmware. I am probably buy it from BestBuy since they have a good protection program. I am missing Halo Wars.
18Apr
This is f#%k’n ridiculous. I got the red ring of death on my 360 again after I thought fixed it. The fix did work for a while so it was a surprise to me when it happened. I was playing Halo Wars
the other day and the game froze. I thought no big deal. Then it froze a few more times and more frequently, which is a tell-tale sign that you are going to get a RRoD soon. Well it did happen and I was pissed. I was about to go out an buy a new one, but I thought to my self that I should just try to tighten down the screws a little more. The worst case is I crack the chip and buy a new Xbox 360
(the new models have HDMI connections).
For some reason, I had the easiest time taking it apart this time. At this point I have done it enough times that I feel like Forrest Gump disassembling a rifle. After it was stripped down to the motherboard, I let the sucker overheat and tighten down the screws on both heat sinks. I got a little more than a quarter turn out of each screw which leads me to believe I was being cautious the first time around. It started up and I couldn’t believe I brought it back to life.
I guess this fix really does work. Well, while it was open I figured I would update the DVD Rom firmware to iXtreme 1.51 to fully and utterly void my warranty.
Tags: hack, Halo Wars, rrod fix, Xbox, xbox360
18Apr
My Xbox 360 RRoD again, but I was able to recover it and I updated the DVD ROM firmware to boot! I installed the iXtreme 1.51 (which has the ability to read new format games) using the Jungle Flasher beta utility. I downloaded the utility and the iXtreme bios as a torrent off the Pirate Bay, however the utilities are available off of Xbins. The package includes the original bios for all the possible Xbox drives since you will need to go back to factory default bios to install the iXtreme 1.51 bios. You can not update to the new version of the bios from an older one.
My drive is the Hitachi 78FK. Each drive has its own procedure for flashing the bios. I had the iExtreme iXtreme 1.4 flashed, using the Maximus utility, before I got the RRoD. In order for the Hitachi drive to be flashed you need to connect the DVD drive to your computer using a SATA connection and because the power connector on the xbox dvd drive is special you need to have the power connected to the xbox 360 to power the DVD drive. You can get a connectivity kit to make this part easier for the next time you need to flash the drive The DVD drive then needs to be put into “Mode B”. For the iXtreme 1.4 firmware I used a Slax 2 linux distribution to get the drive in mode B. But the Jungle Flasher utility took care of that from a single utility. I was able to put the drive in mode B, flash the drive with the original bios, and the flash it with the iXtreme 1.51 firmware. It took me a few tries to get it working right. I needed to installed .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 and install the IOPort drivers, but after that it worked great. This is all documented with screen shots in the installion manual. Good job to Team Jungle for getting this all in one tool working.
Now I can go back to playing Halo Wars
Update 5/4/09: Jungle flasher 1.59 is available
Tags: DVD, hack, iXtreme, Jungle Flasher, xbox 360
15Apr
My wife and I occasionally play World of Warcraft, but she is much more of a WoW-head than I am. I often hear from her that it is difficult to get a good cohesive guild and that makes playing end-game content a frustrating process. That’s when we came to the conclusion that there should be an e-Harmony or Chemistry.com for guilds so you can ensure your guild members will be compatible with each other. I created a proof-of-concept site using an open source social networking framework Elgg. Then I went to see if someone else has already had this concept, and of course they beat me to the punch again.
The site WoWHeadhunter.com is a place where those recruiting for a guild can screen potential guild mates based on the culture of the guild. Built more like a job site like Monster.com, those looking for a guild can search through recruiting guilds based on their class and server. The site uses some logic based on the guild culture to determine if you are a fit for that guild. Guild culture is determined on whether the guild members are Reckless / Deliberate, Sociable / Competitive, Fun /Serious, and Learners / Veterans. You can then apply to the guild and begin interviewing with the guild. Guild leaders post the classes they are recruiting and the requirements of applicants.
The site and has been reviewed by GameSpot and WoW Insider and has the concept that I was going for, except my twist would have been to make it more like a Facebook for WoW players and Guilds. Well at this point I feel I have missed the boat and will not continue to develop this any further. I am glad to have played around with Elgg since it gives me ideas for other projects. What do you think about continuing development on this concept?
18Mar
I bought my Wii Fit for the Christmas holiday and I have been getting a surprisingly fun workout. I have found that every so often, especially while stepping on the board, the Wii Fit would get disconnected and I get the message “Communication has been lost, hit “A” and power button on the board”. I changed the batteries but that did not help. I did a little research and found some interesting clues to why it might be happening. I had a theory. Since the batteries are at the bottom of the board I thought the vibration of stepping plus the pull of gravity might be loosening the battery connections enough for the board to lose power temporarily. To test my theory I made a shim out of cardboard from a cereal box to hold the batteries firmly in place. This seemed to have done the trick since I have not had the problem since.
Print out the template and trace the pattern on a piece of thin cardboard from a cereal box or shoe box. Cut out the darken shapes on the template. Place the cardboard on the battery cover. The tabs on the Wii Fit battery cover should fit through slots cut out of the template. I used 2 pieces of cardboard to hold the batteries snugly in place. You can use a piece of tape to hold the cardboard in place.
Tags: wii connectivity, wii fit, wii fit losing connection, wii fit lost connectivity, Wii hacks
