The M756MRT chip is a leading BIOS component that’s designed to help your computer to correctly connect the various different components of your PC into a centralized structure, which can be read and utilized by your PC. Designed by the “PC Chips” company in Taiwan, M756MRT is continually being used to help various “Main Board” manufacturers to protect their investments, and produce a reliable & effective product for your system. We’ve found that although there are a lot of problems that can possibly be caused by this chip, downloading a replacement driver / firmware is one of the best ways to increase its capacity & ability.

If you want to update the drivers for the M756MRT chip, it’s recommended that you look to download the official driver from the Internet for it. This will not only make sure that the application is able to get the most out of the program, but will also ensure that your computer is able to read all the files that are required to help it run. The only problem is that downloading the driver for this chip from the Internet can be a big problem for a lot of people, considering that the PCChips.com.tw website (the official site of the manufacturer of this chip) is often offline. The best course of action is to obtain the driver from the Internet somewhere – which we’ve been able to do with a specific piece of software.

If you’re facing problems with the chips on your PC, or have some sort of issue with the M756MRT chip itself, then you may wish to turn to using a program called a “driver update tool”. This is a type of software that’s able to scan through your computer, identify the drivers that your system requires to run; and then use those to try and make your PC run much smoother. More specifically, a program called “Driver Finder” is typically one of the most popular types of driver updater tools that can update the M756MRT drivers on your PC.

To use automated driver update software to help install the latest M756MRT driver, you should first download the likes of “Driver Finder”, install it and then let it clean out any of the possible problems that your PC may have. This will not only ensure that your computer is able to correctly process the files that it requires to operate with the hardware, but will also make sure that your PC is continually ensuring the smooth process of running with this driver working properly.

Source:http://www.booshnews.com/2011/04/01/m756mrt-driver-update/

When new hardware is installed on a Windows Server, there are a number of options to consider, such as which driver to use and whether to utilize Windows Update for the driver. There are options for specifying this behavior.

For standalone systems, the Device Installations settings option from System properties can dictate behavior for device installation. Figure A shows this option for standalone systems.

If the option needs to be centrally managed for a number of computer accounts, Group Policy can configure this centrally. Device installation behavior can be managed in Group Policy in the Computer Configuration | Policies | Administrative Templates | System | Device Installation section. From there, the Specify Search Order For Device Driver Source Locations value and a number of other behavior values can be configured to dictate how drivers are installed on servers. In the case of disabling Windows Update, enabling this value is shown in Figure B.

It can be very important to set this type of configuration for client systems as well as server systems. Storage systems, for example, may be very peculiar on supported versions of drivers for devices such as fiber channel host bus adapters (HBAs) that work with a storage processor driver that manages multipathing.

Other devices such as tape drives may have specific driver requirements for interaction with HBAs, SCSI, or SAS controller interfaces. On the client side, printers can be the primary target on driver revision control. This same area of Group Policy can be used to specify additional options on device installation behavior.

Source:http://www.zdnetasia.com/disable-windows-update-for-device-driver-installation-62205161.htm

Drivers are one of those computer areas you should always try to stay on top of. Keeping them updated is important, just like defragging your hard drive every month, but the reality is it’s easy to let such issues slip.

Driver Genius 10 aims to make driver renewal a snap by providing an automated system for finding and updating those little files which drive your devices, so never again will the latest 3D shooter be subject to corrupt textures or tearing because you’ve forgotten to ensure your graphics card drivers are bang up to date.

The program is a simple and slimline affair, with a main menu which consists of a big scan button, and a ‘check for updates’ button.

Driver Genius maintains an extensive database of the most current drivers for all common hardware, and it updates this over the net upon installation.

You can then click scan, and within ten seconds a full report will be returned of how many drivers are on the computer, and how many of them are out of date.

The list of outdated drivers can then be browsed, allowing you to decide which ones to update, or you can leave them all ticked and download the lot.

Driver Genius doesn’t deal with beta versions; it’s only officially stamped driver files that it recognises.

Once you set it downloading, you can leave the program going in the background as it runs through grabbing each file, using the fastest and most local server it can find to retrieve them.

After the driver packages have been downloaded, another click sets the installation of each separate driver running.

The program automatically offers to set up a system restore point with each installation, which is a wise precaution in case anything should go wrong.

Incidentally, the user can back up all current drivers using the program’s restoration menu, which duplicates every single driver with a choice of storage methods including ZIP file or self-extracting EXE. Should any mishaps occur, you’re pretty well covered, in theory anyway.

Fortunately, in our test run of the program, no big issues reared their heads, but some minor points did. One of the 23 outdated drivers which the program uncovered was our sound card.

With the new driver downloaded, we clicked to install it and the Realtek package launched itself, informing us that it would now uninstall the existing driver and require a reboot; then we would have to run it again to install the fresh driver.

We did so, but when we rebooted and re-ran the program, Driver Genius told us that the new driver had already been installed.

Of course, we knew it hadn’t, although Windows had installed a default HD sound card driver on reboot itself.

Anyway, we ran the Realtek installer again, which put the proper driver in place, but a computing novice might have been confused by what went on here.

Similarly, when it came to updating our graphics card driver, Driver Genius just launched the Nvidia package.

There was no mention or warning that you should really uninstall your existing graphics card driver before you install a new one, or you’re probably storing up trouble for the future, which again isn’t too novice-friendly.

However, these were the only two issues we came across in terms of driver installation, and otherwise the program worked well in terms of finding newer drivers for other bits and bobs, such as our ethernet and hard drive controllers, along with various Intel chipset drivers.

Despite the odd hiccup, and some slight strangeness such as the help option not functioning, the program is easy to use anyway and pretty much self-explanatory.

There aren’t many options available, or indeed needed, but one useful new feature is a driver scan scheduler, which can be used to further automate the process of keeping your drivers regularly up to date.

Source:http://www.itreviews.co.uk/software/s952.htm

The X-Mini 2nd Generation Capsule Speaker. New, larger 40mm driver delivers superb sound clarity.

It has retained all the best features and characteristics of the first generation.

The second generation is better than its predecessor but battery life is similar to the first generation that is 11 hours playback.

Despite having a small form, but has a reliable enough ability as portable speakers.

Compatible for iPhone, iPhone 3G/3GS ; iPod: 3G, 4G, Classic 120GB, Classic 160GB, Classic 80GB, Mini, Nano 1G, Nano 2G, Nano 3G, Nano 4G, Photo, Shuffle, Shuffle 2G, Touch, Touch 2G, Video ; Nokia: 5300, 5700, 6300, N95.

Source:http://www.computerriver.com/x-mi-x-mini-ii-2nd-generation-capsule-speaker-perfect-music-video-player.html

Embedded systems development consultants Pebble Bay has announced that it has been working with medical device manufacturer LiDCO Ltd, a leading supplier of minimally invasive haemodynamic monitoring equipment. Pebble Bay has provided software development services, enabling an updated version of the LiDCOrapid product to use a wider choice of card readers.

LiDCO makes a range of products that use a novel, non-invasive technique to measure the flow of blood from the heart. The LiDCOrapid product is based on PC-compatible hardware running the QNX Neutrino real-time operating system.

The previous version of the LiDCOrapid monitor was controlled by a smart card via a serial link. In the new version, LiDCO have moved to a new USB-interfaced card reader, taking the opportunity to adopt a standard protocol and software component to provide the interface to the card readers, therefore abstracting the system and application software from specific details of the card reader interface.

LiDCO chose to adopt the Personal Computer/Smart Card specification (www.pcscworkgroup.com), and needed to port the existing PC/SC-Lite Linux implementation to the QNX Neutrino operating system to support their application.

Although they have the required expertise in house, LiDCO chose Pebble Bay for this project so that their staff could focus on development of the application software.

“We initially carried out a short consultancy project to investigate the technical aspects of porting the existing PC/SC-Lite software stack, including support for USB-connected smart cards, to the QNX Neutrino 6.x real-time operating system,” said Ian Willat, Managing Director of Pebble Bay.

“During this consultancy, we determined what we believe to be the best approach to carrying out the port, bearing in mind LiDCO’s requirements, the technical differences between Linux and QNX Neutrino, the likely amount of effort involved in carrying out the port, and any risks we have identified. We then documented the results of this consultancy in a technical report.”

Pebble Bay then carried out the port of PC/SC-Lite and the other required software components to QNX Neutrino for LiDCO. The project included testing the ported software at its site, followed by delivery and acceptance at LiDCO’s office in London.

“We found Pebble Bay to be very easy to work with, and their project management kept things running smoothly throughout the engagement. Pebble Bay’s expertise in working with USB, device drivers and real-time operating systems meant that we were in safe hands, which was demonstrated by the ease with which our application software integrated with the ported PC/SC-Lite they delivered.”

As a result of Pebble Bay’s device driver development work, LiDCO’s system can now support a wider choice of card readers, with little or no change to the application software. In addition to this, with LiDCO and Pebble Bay working in parallel, it meant that development time was minimized and alongside Pebble Bay’s previous experience in working with USB device drivers, allowed them to identify and mitigate the risks associated with the port early in the project.

“I am very pleased to report that this project ran very smoothly,” stated Ian Willats. “There were some technical challenges associated with the way the USB bus was enumerated and the devices configured. However, our in-depth expertise of USB protocols and device drivers allowed us to solve these quickly and without slowing down the project.”

Source:http://www.cambridgewireless.co.uk/news/article/default.aspx?objid=39031

LCD monitor nowadays are very popular since it offers more advantages, including its lower level of radiance.

Besides, the price is also getting cheaper day by day, so people more people could afford this monitor easily.

Before buying a certain device, it will be better for you to make sure that your selected LCD monitor is compatible with the system of your computer.

Then, can learn the way to attach this monitor to your system properly. You can get those simple steps in this article.

First, you need to check video card port of your computer. Commonly, almost all types of video cards will support monitors in LCD analog type.

However, installing LCD monitor requires you to provide a video card with Digital Video Interface (DVI).

This certain video card allows you to be able to attach the monitor to your computer system.

Second, you need to learn more about the manual of the monitor. It is very useful to let you know more about the cables that should be connected to the system.

Usually, this kind of monitor is completed with two cables. One of those cables will be the connector of the monitor and the CPU system.

Then, another one will be the connector between the monitor and the power source.

Third, you need to plug in those cables. View the screen right after the operating system of your computer is detecting the monitor automatically.

Mostly, operating systems will automatically install the necessary drivers needed for the LCD monitor.

However, if the operating system does not perform the automatic installation, you can install the drivers manually with the installation CD that is included in the package of your monitor.

Fourth, you can use the on-screen display controls provided in your monitor to set your monitor.

Set the contrast and brightness as well as the color of the monitor to your liking level.

The last thing is adjusting its angle so you can look down at the screen conveniently.

Now, you can start working in more convenience with the LCD monitor in your computer system.

Source:http://www.booshnews.com/2010/09/30/some-hints-in-attaching-an-lcd-monitor/

AMD and Valve have partnered to deliver the latest ATI Catalyst driver updates to gamers using AMD or ATi graphics card directly from Valve’s Steam online gaming platform.

According to the companies, PC gamers will be informed about any driver updates available for their hardware via the AMD auto-notification feature available on the Steam platform.

The atest Steam Hardware Survey had found that around 87 per cent of Steam gamers using DirectX 11 platform were using AMD’s ATI Radeon or ATI Mobility Radeon gaming hardware.

In a statement, Jason Holtman, director of business development at Valve, said: “PC gamers demand the most of their gaming hardware and providing these updates automatically will help ensure those playing via Steam are playing at optimal performance.”

The first ATI graphics update currently available from the Steam platform is for the ATI Catalyst 10.9.

The move is a part of AMD’s Gaming Evolved initiative, which revolves around offering a state of the art gaming experience to PC gamers using AMD hardware.

Source:http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/9/16/steam-provide-amdati-driver-updates/

If you have any Asus product that contains hardware such as a motherboard or multimedia audio controller then you should go in for the Asus driver download so as to keep your computer running at full steam. New drivers are introduced regularly to remove bugs and improve performance, and the Asus driver download will ensure that your hardware matches up to the latest operating systems without any glitches.

Upgrades are necessary for improving performance

As manufacturers including Asus keep on developing new products and also keep on adding features to existing ones, upgrades can help you keep up with the latest features that will help your computer to perform much more efficiently. Often, certain drivers might not have installed properly, leading to slow execution of programs or repeated errors. A driver upgradewill help solve the problem quickly. While an Asus driver download will help install missing drivers or upgrade outdated ones, you can also upgrade your multimedia audio controller drivers so as to run the latest in audio and video programs without any problems.

Why upgrade your Multimedia Audio Controller?

If you have an older multimedia audio controller then you might be hearing odd pops or unwanted sounds while playing your favorite video games or while watching videos on your computer or laptop. In such a case adriver upgrade will solve your problem even if you have shifted to the latest operating system from Windows. Similarly, an Asus driver download will help to upgrade your graphic card drivers so that they can now be ready to play the latest video games or audio files without emitting any unwanted sounds.

Searching for the right upgrades can be a tedious job

Not anymore, since you can easily get your Asus driver download that can include driver downloads for your motherboard and all other cards made not only by Asus but by any other company. You can also download the right multimedia audio controller driver from the very same website. A single product known as “Driver Helper” can scan your Asus or any other computer for faulty or missing drivers and install them within 2 minutes. The Driver Helper has a base for drivers that can easily upgrade more than 100,000 different devices including Asus products.

Now, instead of searching for and managing each driver upgrade manually, you can do the same automatically by visiting a single website, which will allow you to conduct your Asus download and also download matching multimedia audio controller drivers without wasting any time or energy. This Robot softwares is guaranteed to conduct a 100% search of your computer’s devices within minutes and present you with a list of drivers that need to be downloaded to run some products or improve the performance of others.

You need not worry about your hardware getting outdated or not functioning at all due to faulty or incomplete drivers. Your Asus products including all others can now perform efficiently when you do a simple Asus driver download over the Internet or get your accessories to perform crisply by installing the right multimedia audio controller driver with the help of Driver Helper.

Source:http://technology.ezinemark.com/go-in-for-the-asus-driver-download-to-keep-your-computer-running-at-full-steam-16803cbf028.html

One of the major benefits of Valve’s Steam platform is that it keeps everything up to date automatically. Getting games running with the latest patches is no longer a hassle and happens as an almost completely seamless process. Now that same luxury has been extended to video-card drivers.

AMD has announced a partnership with Valve to deliver the latest ATI Catalyst software to PCs using Steam. This will mean that updates should be delivered to your computer as soon as they are released whenever you fire-up the program.

Corporate VP Ben Bar-Haim noted that, “AMD Gaming Evolved and Valve share the belief that ‘Gamers Come First’ – we now have the opportunity to work together to help ensure the best possible experience for PC gamers”.

Valve’s Jason Holtman added that, “PC gamers demand the most of their gaming hardware and providing these updates automatically will help ensure those playing via Steam are playing at optimal performance”.

Presumably the drivers will still be available for direct download from the company’s website, though making them available through Steam just means that there’s one less thing to worry about.

This move is a part of the GPU-maker’s ongoing ‘Gaming Evolved’ program that the company claims will help to foster the PC gaming-market by working with gamers and developers.

Source:http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=26459

CalDigit, a practically new company for our ear has just launched their first dual interface (USB 3.0 and FireWire 800) AV Drive for both Mac OSX and PC Windows 7.

The CalDigit AV Drive is hard drive storage featuring SuperSpeed PCI Express card that you can use it on your laptop to add the USB 3.0 functionality, and the AV Drive also featuring a fast spinning 7,200RPM hard drive to get the optimum transfer speed.

CalDigit AV Drive also Time Machine-ready, which mean you can make it as your Apple iMac or other system’s fast backup support, and AV Drive also capable of doing carbon copy cloner, and it has an intuitive RAID tools.

There is an optional rack mount kit available for CalDigit AV drive.

In case you want to mount three of the AV drive together, you can use this mount kit to reach the goal.

CalDigit AV Drive is now available in 1TB and 2TB for $199 and $299, respectively.

Sourcehttp://www.hardwaresphere.com/2010/09/10/caldigit-av-drive-usb-3-0-and-firewire-800-drives-releases-for-mac-and-pc/

ATI Catalyst 10.8b HotFix Drivers were released last night, so be sure to grab them if you need them!

This Hotfix is mainly for the PC game Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X so if you don’t play this game title there is no real reason to update.

Also be sure that you have the latest Catalyst Application Profile installed as well.

You can download and install the ATI Catalyst hotfix from here for Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

Source: http://www.legitreviews.com/news/8992/

CHIP DESIGNER AMD has released new versions of its yet to be rebranded ATI Catalyst drivers.

While the Catalyst 10.8 drivers are basically designed for those who are looking for better performance while playing StarCraft II there are some interesting hints at upcoming graphics attractions from AMD.

Buried amongst the drivers are some codenames of graphics cards that might be released someday.

These include “223, CAYMAN GL XT (6700), NI CAYMAN 224, CAYMAN GL XT (6701), NI CAYMAN 225 ,CAYMAN GL XT (6702), NI CAYMAN 226, CAYMAN GL XT (6703), NI CAYMAN 227, CAYMAN GL PRO (6704)” and shedloads of others.

The NI references have Toms Hardware baffled. All it thinks those could refer to is Northern Islands based technology.

But all we know about the next generation of ATI, er, AMD graphics gear is that it is all called Southern Islands, while Northern Islands will come later. And if you ask any New Zealander they will tell you that the South Island is a bit earthquake prone at the moment.

Leaving all that aside, the new ATI Catalyst drivers provide anti-aliasing for StarCraft II, City of Heroes and City of Heroes Going Rogue, as well as some new application profiles for Crossfire users and some performance enhancements for some games.

There are improvements to 3D accelerated graphics in web browsers that supports OpenGL ES 2.0, enhanced video options and performance enhancements for Eyefinity Quad ATI CrossFireX configurations. µ

Source:http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1732115/new-version-ati-catalyst-drivers-appear

Would you like to automatically update your drivers? Driver Update Robot has the world’s largest driver database that is constantly updating. Its fast scan is guaranteed to identify the right driver for your PC system.

Did you know? Driver Update Robot is top-rated automatic driver software with large database that contains more than 100,000 hardware devices – and the latest hardware drivers for all of them.

If you have a missing, outdated, or corrupted driver, you need Driver Update Robot to clean up the mess.

Driver Update Robot automatically installs the latest official drivers for your computer – including legacy drivers not available anywhere else.

With its perfect scan and massive database, it’s easy to see why Driver Update Robot is downloaded over 20,000 times every single day – it’s simply the best way to install drivers on to your computer.

Any system running Windows XP or Vista (all versions) can benefit from Driver Update Robot, since its database is constantly updated with the latest drivers.

When your hardware’s manufacturer releases a new driver, Driver Update Robot is the first to know about it – and you can be the first to have it.

Unlike other driver update products that operate from a static or rarely-updated driver database, Driver Update Robot’s servers are constantly spidering the web looking for new drivers.

Driver Update Robot usually finds freshly-released drivers within 24 hours, so you’re always up to date.

Only Driver Update Robot has the Driver exporter, an advanced tool that lets you find updates for computers that aren’t connected to the Internet.

The Exporter means that you can use Driver Update Robot on a freshly-installed computer that doesn’t have network drivers.

Driver Update Robot is guaranteed to detect 100% of your system’s devices.

Optimize your computer with the latest drivers from Driver Update Robot. Download it now and get the latest official drivers for your PC!

Pricing and Availability

Driver Update Robot v2010.09 works under WinXP, WinVista, Win7 x32, Win7 x64, Win2000, WinOther, Windows2000, Windows2003, Win98, WinME, Win95, Windows Vista Starter, Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Home Basic x64, Windows Vista Home Premium x64, Windows Vista Business x64 and is available for $29.95 (US).

Licensed users are entitled to the fully-functional copy of the product.

Source:http://www.webnewswire.com/node/579473

You can get “Driver not installed” error when you try to print after upgrading to Windows 7, when the printer is in order, while Windows Vista? This problem occurs because the drivers are obsolete and can be easily solved by downloading and installing the latest printer drivers. In this piece, we will explain the drivers, then are the steps in the process of downloading and installing the new one.

Printer 101

Windows neededcertain type of software to talk to the printer, this is the driver software. Without the right codec, the Windows printer you can not talk to. Sometimes when you have many updates or Windows Update to a newer version, you must upgrade to a newer version of printer driver functions correctly.

How to download and install the latest printer driver

The first thing to do is take a good lookon your printer brand and type and model of printer. Some printer manufacturers: Canon, HP, Lexmark, Epson and Samsung. Examples of models: HP Deskjet D2660, Canon Pixma MP560 and the Lexmark S605 Interact. Make and model of printer will be somewhere.

Before After identifying the make and model on the site and find the manufacturer’s website.

According to the manufacturer’s website, you can choose where to go. ForFor example, the Canon, “that you need, select” Consumer & Home Office “, while the Epson Web site you choose. Printers and All-in-One

Third From there you should select and support the driver, or a similar menu, the menu and select from a menu.

Fourth Now you can use your model. It’s the All-In-One Printer? Laser Printer? These are all things you need to categorize may know,

what are the ways in which their producers canPrinter.

If you see the fifth driver, you can place you remember to save. Also met the business view of the file type. You end in exe?

Sixth If the file is saved, the executable file, just double click you have a few steps more to go on file and updated on the latest printer driver. If the file into something else landed.

Go to Start Seventh.

8th Select Control Panel.

Ninth devices and printers.

10th Right clickand open the printer properties.

11 Select the Hardware tab.

12 ° Click Properties.

13 Click the Advanced tab.

14th Click New Driver.

15th Follow the steps in the Add Printer Driver Wizard.

Easy way to update the latest printer drivers

Technology is always looking for ways to make life easier. Today we have software that goes through the process to find, download and install the latest printerDriver for us. In both cases, it is a good idea, the safest and most effective way to learn in order to update your computer.

Source:http://www.mf4350d.info/as-the-last-driver-update-for-your-printer-after-you-install-windows-7.html

Some users have been confronted with a confusing issue after downloading a driver for their printers from driver update software.

A common problem that occurs is the user is notified that the driver is still out of date or the printer is not working. Before throwing out the printer, there are a couple of things users can do manually to fix the problem and get immediate value out of their updated driver.

First, users can disconnect the printer and its cables from the computer. Then, opening the Control Panel from the Start menu will bring up the System option. After selecting System, users need to open the Hardware tab and click Device Manager.

The Device Manager offers a category labeled Portable Devices, which will present a list where the user will find the malfunctioning printer. Once the printer is located in the Portable Devices section, users can right-click on the printer and select Uninstall.

After uninstalling the printer, users can then return to the driver update software and download the driver they requested, following the installation instructions. After updating the driver, reconnecting the printer to the computer should present a properly functional printer running on an updated driver.

Source:http://www.drivershq.com/News/KB-Articles/Multifunction-Printers-Installation/106/773.aspx

Driver Magician Lite identifies all the hardware components on your system and extracts their drivers in order to let you back them up to a new location.

Then when you format and reinstall/upgrade your operating system, you can restore all the “saved” drivers just as if you had the original driver diskettes in your hands.

Here are some key features of “Portable Driver Magician Lite”:

· Back up device drivers of your computer in four modes.

· Restore device drivers from backup in one mouse click.

· Update device drivers of your PC to improve system performance and stability.

· Uninstall device drivers

· Live Update device identifier database and driver update database.

· Detect unknown devices.

· Back up more items such as My Documents and Registry.

· Restore more items from backup.

· Get detailed information of the hardware drivers.

· Clone all drivers to an auto-setup package (.EXE), so you can restore drivers without installing Driver Magician.

Requirements:

· Pentium 166MHz

· 32 MB of available RAM

· 3 MB of hard disk for installation.

Source:http://www.hyderabadnews.net/portable-driver-magician-lite-3-66/

My computer crashed and had to reinstall protools.

Didn’t follow instruction to the “t” and when my computer detected the hardware and wizard launched and automatically found drivers for hardware.

Now Protools won’t launch.

Tried to uninstall and start over and i can’t get program to launch.

Any suggestions? Its been couple of years since i bought and used the program and don’t have a clue how to get support.

Source:http://www.protoolsusers.org/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=0&func=view&catid=3&id=23381#23524

The mythical Torx screws, cross and delight of every Mac user will no longer be a problem with this professional screwdriver.

Its tip fits perfectly and allows you to loosen the firm grip and speed without hurting all the Torx screws hidden in your Mac, or laptop.

Firm grip, reinforced toes, replace the HD in a MacBook or PowerBook is having a walk this screwdriver.

Kingdom to Set Notebook screwdrivers, a set is indispensable for those who want to maintain your computer without damage.

Source:http://www.buydifferent.it/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=27&products_id=145

One of the highly debated subjects with Windows and Linux is with device support. The two have different methods of how drivers are created and implemented into the operating system. With Windows, Microsoft writes generic drivers to help ensure that users can get up and running, then 3rd party supplied drivers can be installed to optimize performance.

With Linux, drivers are all included with the Linux kernel, and devices are detected and the appropriate drivers are then activated on the fly. There are no 3rd parties to contact for drivers (unless a proprietary driver is needed, in which case it has to be manually installed, similar to Windows; this is rare but sometimes necessary).

I’ve found that driver support in Linux is excellent. But you may have seen somebody exclaim that their PC just isn’t supported with Linux, and rumors have circulated around for years that Linux just doesn’t have good hardware support. This is not entirely true, however. You have to consider the order of events of hardware and software.

The hardware comes out first, then software is modified to adapt to the hardware. If you run out and buy the latest and greatest hardware, there’s a good chance that there will be something that isn’t supported by the current version of the Linux kernel. However, it doesn’t take long for the kernel development teams to eventually implement drivers into the kernel.

With Windows, it is more prevalent and the manufacturer of the hardware devices try to ensure drivers are available for Windows customers to download and use, around the same time the hardware is released.

When Windows 7 first came out, Windows fanboys immediately exclaimed that hardware support was excellent now over Windows XP, because you could install Windows 7 and all of the drivers were present and you could be up and running very quickly.

What I would point out to them is that Linux was the same way. However, what they did not realize is that eventually, Windows 7 would age and newer hardware would come out, and the old issues of Windows XP not supporting hardware out of the box would also happen with Windows 7, and sure enough that became true.

Overall, I’ve found that Linux is much easier to set up, because a majority of the time no 3rd party drivers are needed. Personally, I use a 3rd party driver for my nVidia video card because nVidia has chosen to keep the driver proprietary, and the Noveau (free open source nVidia driver) is still being rapidly developed to catch up to the nVidia supplied one. Even installing a printer in Linux requires no installation CD.

Recently, I attempted to help somebody with a Windows XP laptop and an AT&T mobile broadband card. I installed AT&T’s custom software for using the card, along with the AT&T drivers.

Everything worked, but a day or so later I was informed that Windows XP was prompting for an administrator password when the laptop was booted up.

It seems that Windows still needed administrator access to install something even though the card had been working. This same behavior in Windows XP can happen with USB printers.

Take a working USB printer, unplug it, and plug it into an alternative USB port. Does it prompt for an administrator password? Chances are it will, unless you are running with administrator privileges which is not recommended for security reasons.

Linux bypasses these device installation issues with drivers that are all included in the kernel. The kernel itself loads modules and drivers as needed, without any interaction with the user needed.

So for the above example, I was able to take the AT&T card, plug it into a laptop running Fedora Linux 12, go to the NetworkManager applet in the upper right corner, and connect to the AT&T network with two clicks. Linux automatically detected the card and activated it, without any interaction necessary, and all in about 10 seconds.

No driver installation, no proprietary software installation, no extra work, no administrative rights popups, and no worries about issues popping up on the road.

Source:http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/the-open-source-revolution-10014902/device-support-in-windows-vs-linux-10018141/

NVIDIA HAS A curious take on the causes of their latest financial meltdown, one that doesn’t seem to mirror what is happening in the rest of the industry. The almost 20% drop in expected revenue announced at the last minute seems to be a largely self-inflicted wound.

If you read the release here, Nvidia states what we all knew was coming, that their Q2 revenue would crater. Nvidia says it will be down from an expected $950-970 million to $800-820 million. That is a nearly 20% drop, and it comes less than a week before the end of the quarter. It is astounding that that Nvidia financial folk didn’t realize this before, even more so if you know their channel problems. It is almost like the company was trying to mislead investors, but such an honest company would never do that.

Officially, the tanking in the consumer GPU business happened because of economic weakness in China and Europe. In the GPU world, that means consumers buy cheaper machines without discrete graphics. Since Nvidia triumphantly abandoned the chipset market, they no longer have any parts to sell to these customers. This is not money that will ever come back to them until they can convince the market to up ASPs by significant margins. When was the last time that happened in tech again?

More importantly, and this will be a continuing theme of the article, AMD and Intel saw no such weaknesses. In fact, DAAMIT’s ATI division saw continued product shortages only on their highest end cards, not a sign of weakness at all. When one company in an industry sees problems, and the rest do not, is that a problem caused by prevailing economic conditions?

The other official problem was increased memory costs, something that hits low end and low margin products especially hard. Nvidia has warehouses full of obsolete low end parts, so this one seems a little more plausible. At first.

If you look a little deeper, you see two problems. First, ATI showed no such weakness, in fact, it is quite the opposite. Their HD5000 line has had an unusual price increase, and it has been sustained in all but one specific product SKU for three quarters. In the graphics card industry, this is unheard of.

To make matters more problematic, Nvidia’s entire line from $198 MSRP down, is obsolete. Last September, the first DirectX 11 graphics card was released, and by early 2010, ATI had a top to bottom DX11 lineup. Nvidia’s cheapest DX11 card costs $199, and prices go up from there, a vanishingly small market segment in terms of units. This means they can only compete for 10% or less of the market with non-obsolete parts.

If you look at inventory, that obsolete product pile starts to show up in painful ways. At the end of Q1, ATI was selling everything they could make, only shortages of wafer starts by TSMC capped sales. If ATI could have gotten more wafers, they would have sold more cards. Nvidia on the other hand had inventory build up.

Nvidia blamed this on packaging times and related issues, but a quick check shows that the value inventory spike is likely more than the value of the entire run of parts that spike was blamed on. Curious. Given the vagaries of the Nvidia Q1 conference call where that blame was laid, it is unlikely that there will ever be clarity on this point.

A much more likely explanation is that the obsolete products mentioned above, all but the top two products from Nvidia at the end of Q1, simply stopped selling. To fix this lack of sales, Nvidia looks to have tried the same trick that failed so miserably the last time they faced such a problem, stuff the channel with lower-end G200 parts.

If you recall, before the launch of the GTX470 and GTX480, Nvidia forced retailers to buy several junk cards for every non-obsolete card they wanted. This is called channel stuffing, and from what we gather, it lead to an almost total stoppage in orders later in Q2. Nvidia knew this would happen, but they did it anyway to forestall Dear Leader from having to face the analysts with bad news during the company’s Q1 call. Once again, the hope was that some miracle would save them.

The last time Nvidia tried this was during the 65nm to 55nm transition. The company promised that all sales by a certain point would be 55nm, and they achieved that with fire sales and dumping. The same backlash hit Nvidia a few quarters later, orders stopped, and their results tanked. In an eerily familiar fashion, their competitors did not suffer the same fate that time either. I guess this is Santa Clara financial slang for ‘economic weakness in Europe and China’.

Once again, the same failed trick is having the same miserable results. The channel is stuffed, distributors and retailers are not buying more, impending new products only heightened the worry for retailers, and sales tank. If it was anything else, like prevailing economic conditions, ATI and Intel would be having the same problems. Surprisingly, they simply are not.

To make matters worse, sources in both Santa Clara and the far east tell SemiAccurate that Nvidia is canceling wafer starts on 40nm. ATI can’t get enough, the industry is on massive allocation, and Nvidia is giving up some of those precious wafer starts. Ironically, these excess wafers will probably go to ATI, a company who’s products do not seem to be affected by those darn prevailing economic conditions or RAM fluctuations. Imagine that!

In the end, the Nvidia earnings warning has two causes, an utter lack of competitive products, and ham-handed channel stuffing. If there are any macro economic conditions that would account for their almost 20% drop in revenue, it would have been reflected in AMD or Intel’s earnings. Both companies reported weeks ago, and both had unusually strong sales. So much for prevailing conditions or seasonality.

Nvidia will likely try to spin analysts towards a future facing direction during their Q2 conference call in two weeks. The problem there is that the company lacks anything to make that future bright. Apple just dumped Nvidia like we said a year ago, the chipset revenue is gone for good like we said even further back, and the main volume product lines they are selling are obsolete.

With the GF106 and GF108 launches in about a month, some of this will be rectified, but the whole GF100/104/106/108 line is unlikely to ever be financially viable. Nvidia has no laptop parts coming this year, and is unlikely to have any competitive mobile parts until late 2011 when TSMC gets 28nm parts out in volume. To top it off, ATI will have a refreshed HD6000/Southern Islands line out before the end of 2010, upping the competitive bar.

Nvidia has no real future in consumer GPUs, products that account for approximately 60% of their income. By the time the company has a competitive architecture again, huge swathes of the market will be obsolete due to CPUs with integrated graphics. While there may be blips from here on out, Nvidia’s future is not looking viable, much less bright.S|A

Source:http://www.semiaccurate.com/2010/07/29/nvidias-mistakes-catch-bottom-line/