O.T. Computer Cleaning Maintenance:

Mark Twain wrote:
Here's the shrinkage:

http://i60.tinypic.com/2dqvj9u.jpg

http://i59.tinypic.com/zk4ok7.jpg

http://i62.tinypic.com/wvea36.jpg

How do I create a backup partition starting at
the end of J: ?

I'll do a backup with Macrium of the 160GB HD
tomorrow just to make sure its current.

The 320GB is ordered.

Hopefully the situation of a Dell factory restore
will never happen again! I did that once and it was
a nightmare.

Robert

You have a good chunk of space now. 1718GB.

A good partition management tool, should have
a "Create Partition" option. Have a look around
the menus in that tool, to see if one is
present.

*******

I find it just as easy, to exit the Partition Management
tool, and use Disk Management in Windows. (diskmgmt.msc)
In Disk Management, you click in the unallocated
area and select "New Partition" from the short menu.
You can define it to be NTFS, assign a label such
as BACKUPS, and so on. Just be careful to select
"Perform a quick format" tick box. Using quick format,
that avoids the drive visiting every sector on
the 1718GB area. Only the metadata for the new file
system is written, which takes a minute or two.

In the upper part of the Disk Management window,
there may be a notation for the partition that
is in the process of being formatted. If you need
a progress indicator. But it shouldn't take too long.

If you neglect to tick "Quick Format", the operation
could take a couple hours with the disk LED on the
whole time.

And that's the thing about big disks. Make a mistake
in the planning, or the execution of a plan, and you
may need to wait hours for an outcome. With some
of the new disks, the wait can be six hours. For
certain large RAID arrays, some of the operations
take all week (seven days). You don't want to forget
to tick any tick boxes when working on projects like
that :-)

Paul

Since were going to open up the 8200 and
be exchanging HD's and such did you want
to test the other Seagate 160GB and Western
Digital 40GB HD's?

Robert

I had an update to NVidia which failed and
then I tried to create a Partition but said
it must be formatted first.

http://i59.tinypic.com/2mccei8.jpg

http://i60.tinypic.com/2m78dwi.jpg

http://i57.tinypic.com/24e87f8.jpg

http://i60.tinypic.com/21l8xsn.jpg

Robert

Mark Twain wrote:
I had an update to NVidia which failed and
then I tried to create a Partition but said
it must be formatted first.

http://i59.tinypic.com/2mccei8.jpg

http://i60.tinypic.com/2m78dwi.jpg

http://i57.tinypic.com/24e87f8.jpg

http://i60.tinypic.com/21l8xsn.jpg

Robert


On the formatting behavior, I've been seeing some
of that too. I define a partition in Disk Management,
Disk Management seems to be formatting it directly,
but there is a race condition. The "raw partition"
is getting recognized by the operating system, before
Disk Management is finished processing it. That causes
a dialog suggesting you format it, to pop up. While
at the same time, Disk Management, in its own window,
is also formatting it. It's just harder to see in
Disk Management, as the status is in the top section
of Disk Management.

You can dismiss the request to format, for that
second tall rectangular box. As by the time
that thing pops up, the original format is
finished.

You can test this, by going to My Computer,
looking the the new K: partition or look
for its name, and right-click in there, and
create a blank text file from the menu.
That will prove that you have just created
a file on the partition, and therefore, it
was formatted by the first step. And a second
formatting operation is totally unnecessary.
A partition cannot hold a file (by Drag and Drop
or by creating one), unless it is formatted and
a file system laid out there.

I don't know if some security update did this
or what happened. But I don't think it always
did that. I don't think I've seen that on my
Windows 7 laptop. But I have seen it on my
squeaky clean new Windows 7 SP1 installation.

*******

The error 2738 is here. The poster here, claims
the AV software did it, and it's some previously
altered registry key breaking the installation.
It's not the fact an AV is "active", it's some
damage that an AV can do to the registry,
disturbing a "normal" value.

https://forums.geforce.com/default/t...rus-for-this-/

Now, I've never seen a driver like the one you're
using. Does the entire installer back out, if
one component fails ?

The dialog on the screen says you were attempting
to install 353.30.

You can use "devmgmt.msc" (the Device Manager",
click the Display Adapter. right click and do
Properties on it. The Display Adapter will show:

Driver Provider: NVIDIA
Driver DateL x/xx/xxxx
Driver Version: 6.14.11.7519
Digital Signer: Microsoft Windows ...

Now, the number is the important part for this discussion.

The driver release in this case is 175.19.

Notice that the number is parsed a bit differently,
to make a driver version from it. The last
five digits or so, is what is used today for a version.

Why I want you to check the number, is to see if the
entire driver installer backed out, and you're still
running a previous version or not.

Rebooting the computer, would give a chance for the
driver to be reloaded, so you have some idea what
driver it is using now.

There are a couple ways to roll back the driver,
assuming the current driver attempt 353.30 is
still there.

1) Use Device Manager, click the Display Adapter,
find the video card, right click and select
Properties. If you then click the "Driver" tab
on the top bar, you may see a "Roll Back Driver"
button just above "Uninstall". Roll Bacl Driver
works to a driver depth of 1. You can only go back
one release. I've never tested this.

2) You could look in Programs and Features (since this
is Windows 7). There might be an entry like
"NVidia Drivers" in there. But the damn thing won't
show the release number.

So somehow, you need to verify what driver is
currently running. I think doing a reboot of
the 8500 is probably safe at this point. NVidia
probably managed to have *some* driver running.
Then you can use Device Manager, Properties, check
the driver number "6.14.11.7519" type value,
and use the lower five digits or so to figure out
what driver is currently running the video card.

Note that the NVidia dialogs don't exactly line up.
One dialog says the error happened during PHYSX
installation. The main installer panel claims
ShadowPlay failed, which might be the next thing
it was going to install.

PHYSX uses the array of processors on the graphics
card, to do physics calculations for particle
trajectories in games. The idea was, you could
have a 3D explosion in a video game, the physics
calculation would work out the direction and velocity
of particles. If they collided, the collision might
be elastic or inelastic. New direction and velocity
would be worked out. The PHYSX driver can also run
on the CPU as far as I know, so there is more than
one option to get game support of that type.

The original PHYSX was an add-in card with a single
big chip on it. And the chip did the calculation.
NVidia bought the company, and moved the physics
computations to the shader processors. So now, you
don't have to buy the add-in card. I think as well,
for partitioning, you can buy two video cards,
one can do physics, and the second could render
the game video signal.

The ShadowPlay feature is for recording the image
of the game on the screen, as a video file for later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Shadowplay

And while the dialog box claims the driver for that
failed to install, I think it's more likely the
physx one failed.

I don't have a good answer for you. I would check
in Device Manager, what version of driver is running,
and see if it put back the old driver or not. I like
to keep my video driver files in a folder somewhere,
so if a re-installation is needed, I can get the driver
situation back to where I had it. And that covers
cases where the previous driver absolutely needs to be
reinstalled.

You must have a kickass video card on the 8500,
for that stuff to agree to install... I doubt such
a video card installer would be very happy with
my old hardware (no shaders).

Paul

Mark Twain wrote:
Since were going to open up the 8200 and
be exchanging HD's and such did you want
to test the other Seagate 160GB and Western
Digital 40GB HD's?

Robert


Not at this point.

You have to save some of these projects
for a later rainy day :-) I think I have
a couple 40GB drives here, that I don't have
written on them whether they're working or not.
They're good sitting right where they are.

Paul

You're right, and to test it and did create
a Word document and saved it in My Documents.
The Drive letter is 'I' not K.

The reason is because when it first asked me
'J' would be easier to read than 'I' on a
computer. So I guess it defaulted.

Regarding the video driver; I just followed the
NVidia pop-up which appeared when I logged on
the Administrator's Account. The video card is a
NVidia GEForce GT 620 Here's my driver version:


http://i60.tinypic.com/2mfja7r.jpg

Robert

While rummaging around I found I had this:

http://i60.tinypic.com/2j1545e.jpg

http://i58.tinypic.com/2q2edu0.jpg

Robert

When ordering the 8500 I thought that a (1)TB HD
would be sufficient but I wanted to maxed out the
RAM(12MB)but by doing so I got Win 7 Professional
instead of Win 8 which I didn't want. I also upgraded
the video card they offered.

I'm not a gamer but I reasoned it might help with
resolution and viewing videos etc.

Robert

Although it shows an older driver version,
in the Add/Remove program list it shows the
update took:

http://i62.tinypic.com/jg6tc5.jpg

So why is it not reflected as the latest update?

Robert

I also found these:

http://i61.tinypic.com/1zyimww.jpg

http://i58.tinypic.com/1h740x.jpg

http://i60.tinypic.com/opd254.jpg

http://i58.tinypic.com/20h1ojq.jpg

I tried using the adapter once but for some
reason it didn't work? It wasn't compatible
with the 8200 or something?

The gray USB cord came with my Sony FD-92
camera to upload pictures to the computer. Now
I just use the flash stick inserted into the
SD/RS port on the 8500.

Robert

Mark Twain wrote:
You're right, and to test it and did create
a Word document and saved it in My Documents.
The Drive letter is 'I' not K.

The reason is because when it first asked me
'J' would be easier to read than 'I' on a
computer. So I guess it defaulted.

Regarding the video driver; I just followed the
NVidia pop-up which appeared when I logged on
the Administrator's Account. The video card is a
NVidia GEForce GT 620 Here's my driver version:


http://i60.tinypic.com/2mfja7r.jpg

Robert

Driver 353.30.

So it didn't back out the driver it was installing.
That's the version number of the thing you were installing.

That means the features PHYSX and ShadowPlay might
not be installed. The ShadowPlay is likely to only
be used by the NVidia software, as other softwares
are not going to know about it.

You could roll back the driver from Device Manager,
using the button. At this point, I don't know if that
is worthwhile or not. Maybe the previous driver was
sorta half installed to ? How many of these NVidia
updates have you installed ?

Paul

Mark Twain wrote:
While rummaging around I found I had this:

http://i60.tinypic.com/2j1545e.jpg

http://i58.tinypic.com/2q2edu0.jpg

Robert

USB2 to SATA/IDE.

Yes, this could be used with the 40GB and the 160GB
IDE drives.

You would need to examine the jumper, and it will
likely require "Master" or "Master Only", as
seen on the jumper table on the drive label.

It might mention the jumper setting in the instructions.

The weakest part of kits like that, is the quality
of the adapter. On a few brands, the drive can get
damaged (you check Newegg reviews, to see if anyone
is unhappy with the included adapter).

Paul

Mark Twain wrote:
I also found these:

http://i61.tinypic.com/1zyimww.jpg

http://i58.tinypic.com/1h740x.jpg

http://i60.tinypic.com/opd254.jpg

http://i58.tinypic.com/20h1ojq.jpg

I tried using the adapter once but for some
reason it didn't work? It wasn't compatible
with the 8200 or something?

The gray USB cord came with my Sony FD-92
camera to upload pictures to the computer. Now
I just use the flash stick inserted into the
SD/RS port on the 8500.

Robert


Yes, the 8500 front panel, duplicates this device.

It should have worked on the 8200. Now that you have
a USB2 card, you could test it again if you want.
The device should have worked on a USB1.1 port,
and would have been slightly slower there.

But if the 8500 handles things for you, this
one can stay in the box. As a duplicate. And
I don't know what happens if you connect two
of these to the computer. That issue has
never come up. I presume it works OK, but
don't know that for a fact.

Paul

Mark Twain wrote:
Although it shows an older driver version,
in the Add/Remove program list it shows the
update took:

http://i62.tinypic.com/jg6tc5.jpg

So why is it not reflected as the latest update?

Robert

You can see there is no NVidia ShadowPlay listed.
And with their goofy numbering system, I can't tell
if the PHYSX is the current one or not. Looks like
it is. Even though there was that error. Maybe
the installer error happens after the driver files
were loaded, and only some "post-processing" step
failed. I expect when the PHYSX installer thought
it failed, it didn't run the ShadowPlay step.

And if you installed that driver again, it should
jam up on the PHYSX step again. I don't think the
driver is clever enough, to notice that only
ShadowPlay needs to be installed, and just
install that one for you.

So if you wanted a chance of fixing it, you'd
have to follow that complicated recipe I
linked to. And is it worth it ?

Paul

Mark Twain wrote:
When ordering the 8500 I thought that a (1)TB HD
would be sufficient but I wanted to maxed out the
RAM(12MB)but by doing so I got Win 7 Professional
instead of Win 8 which I didn't want. I also upgraded
the video card they offered.

I'm not a gamer but I reasoned it might help with
resolution and viewing videos etc.

Robert

95% of that NVidia driver, is a waste of time for
your intended purposes :-) Most of the driver
content, helps gamers.

And it's too bad the driver content is so
complicated. If NVidia used their old
"tick box" scheme they used with their chipset
drivers in the past, it would be easier to
pick and choose sub-driver pieces, and try
and finish the install.

But at this point, I suspect the PHYSX driver
will keep getting stuck on the registry key
issue. And it's a registry key not owned by
the owner of the computer, which requires
changing the ownership, adjusting the registry
setting, and changing the ownership back
(gee, thanks Microsoft).

As for the driver rollback option in Device
Manager, that would likely only rollback one
of the items in the Programs and Features list.
Rather than rolling them all back. And this is
what happens when NVidia fools around with
the driver model.

If the computer works to your satisfaction,
you can leave it like this. If you're a neat
and tidy guy, you would follow (or at least
examine) whether the GUID keys mentioned
here are present.

https://forums.geforce.com/default/t...rus-for-this-/

Then re-install the driver again. 278MB.
The installer can be unpacked with 7ZIP (for
a look), but I couldn't see that registry key
being used in there (by any simple means). Just
looking at the files, the main installer is probably
tripping up, rather than the folder of stuff for
PHYSX.

http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/86504

The mess may have been left, by some previous
version of Avast. And that's why some step of
the PHYSX driver got stuck. Although why the
PHYSX driver needs or should fool with such a
key, that's kinda weird.

Paul