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WAMP Server - Aestan tray menu has encountered a problem ?

I installed wamp on my xp x64 machine and came across the following error when starting wamp
"aestan tray menu has encountered a problem and needs to close"


SOLUTION

Simply download the microsoft visual c++ redistributable package (2008 sp1) for you platform (x86 or amd64)

Link: Visual C++ 2008 SP1

Nvidia G8400 / 8600 Faults

I created this post a while ago while i owned a Dell Vostro 1310 notebook. It may be dated but some of you will probably be experiencing these problems if you bought your laptop 2-3 years ago.. read on if you must.

Does your laptop have distorted video playback or freeze with random characters on the screen?

NVIDIA lost a lawsuit and availed 2million to replace the faulty chips in the US.. but thats the catch, in the US. That leaves customers in Africa with an expensive door stopper.

Since this is a support blog, I will provide some temporary fixes that worked for me and give insight on a permanent fix.






THE TOWEL TRICK

1. Remove your hard drive, RAM and Battery from your laptop,
2. Wrap the laptop in a  towel or two, Making sure the fan is completely blocked,
3. turn the laptop on and leave it until it turns itself off.

**What does this do? The fault is with the ball solder points between the graphics chip and the motherboard. Wrapping the laptop up raises the internal temperature and kinda melts the joint providing a reconnection.

NOTE: The same trick has been known to sometimes temporarily fix the XBOX360 red ring of death.

BIOS UPDATE

This will only apply if you are not yet experiencing the problem stated above. This does not fix the problem but may prolong the use of your laptop.

Some manufacturers, including Dell and HP, released BIOS updates that keep the fan running longer thereby regulating the temperature of the graphics chip more effectively.

YOU TUBE

If you are comfortable with reballing and soldering, this is your place, there are plenty of example videos online.

HOW I BRICKED IT

Yes, I tried to reheat my graphics chip with an industrial heat gun, just for a few seconds and it was fried.. so please, don't try that

Proxy Settings To Enable Linux Synaptic Access to Network

This took a while to figure out but here is a working solution:

I am running Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx. The location of some of the programs may differ in your version.

1.  System - Administration - Synaptic Package Manager - Settings - Preferences - Network... and choose direct connection to network. I Know this defies logic when trying to connect through a proxy server but trust me, it works.
2. System - Preferences - Network Proxy...once again choose to use the direct Internet connection.
3. Open your Home Folder and under VIEW, enable your hidden files.
4. Find BASHRC file
5. Open and add the following two lines at the bottom:

export HTTP_PROXY=http://LoginName:Password@yourcompanyproxy.com:Port No/

export FTP_PROXY=http://LoginName:Password@yourcompanyproxy.com:Port No/

This should allow your synaptic package manager to access the Internet both the GUI and Command line versions.

Run the following commands to get your Linux up to date.

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

Enhance Your Sound Experience

This is for those with great speakers and a stock sound card. I know how it feels, i was one... Until ...

SRS makes an audio sandbox that turns your sound card into..well, lets just say it wont be the same.

Choose from 4 different preset enhancement technologies with the ability to customise each one to your specific needs.

I have logitech X230 speakers and they sound like they should cost a lot more than what i paid

Download the trial from:  www.srslabs.com/ and enhance your audio experience. Check out your favourite illegal download site for a full version ..lol..

Best Media Player?

Such a thing does not exist but here are a few pointers to enhance your media experience.

Windows Users

Forget your VLC's and KPlayers. The Windows media player that comes on your machine is designed to work efficiently with the other windows components (only makes sense). You just have to tweak it.

Download the latest codec package for your operating system from:

http://www.shark007.net/


This will enable your windows media player to play all the popular media formats. Also keeps your machine decongested.

When choosing your package, make sure you select the correct architecture ie x64 for 64 bit machines and x86 for 32 bit machines.

However, if you love your music, Media Monkey is the best way to go. It sorts out all your library files and has a great interface. It is also one of the best when it comes to Id Tagging and album art.

http://www.mediamonkey.com/


Linux Users

For complete multimedia compatibility in Linux, i recommend MPlayer. if its a compression format, Mplayer will play it, it is that good.

Bear in mind that your installation package will differ with each distribution, ie rpm for Red Hat and source compilation for Slackware.

http://www.mplayerhq.hu/

Be sure to check your dependencies and make sure your kernel is up to date You can download your dependencies from

http://rpm.pbone.com/

Just use the search utility available on the site.

Enjoy...!

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