Category Archives: Hardware

Windows Vista Business Double Clicking On Single Click

Hardware, Software

In July 2007, I was fortunate to win a copy of Windows Vista Business at a Gold Coast .NET User Group and it wasn’t until January 2008 that I installed it when I was re-establishing my geek prowess. Since that time, I’ve had very mixed opinions about Windows Vista – some have been really positive and others have been quite negative.

Within the last month, I’ve been having a problem with my Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer optical mouse. At whatever interval it feels inclined, whenever I would single click – Windows Vista would register a double click. It would then take several single click attempts before Vista Business would finally register a single click and not another double click. As you can imagine, if you’re mouse is registering double clicks nearly all the time – doing some of the most fundamental computer tasks becomes very difficult and tiresome.

In case software settings within Windows Vista or another program had gone astray, I went through a few different sections of basic Windows configuration to restore default settings such as Folder Options (single click to open an item) and also restored the mouse settings via the Control Panel without any success.

Virtually all of the problems I’ve been having with Windows Vista have been related to hardware driver support in some manner. With that in mind, I also tried uninstalling the current version of Microsoft IntelliPoint and separately changing my mouse drivers back to a standard mouse – neither of which helped. I thought something may have changed on my computer with a Windows Update or some other software. To rule out an incompatibility with my older version of the Microsoft IntelliPoint – I downloaded and installed the latest version via the Microsoft Download Centre but the double clicking symptom persisted.

This evening I connected an original optical Microsoft IntelliMouse which has been absolutely punished from gaming. While it was completely crusty from living in the bottom of a big plastic storage container for an unknown amount of time – the single double clicking issue seems to have vanished for the moment.

While the problem isn’t showing up at the moment, I don’t think that it is my original mouse that is causing the problems. Searching online shows that there are a lot of people having a similar problem – however after reading through a lot of different web sites, I didn’t come across a clear root cause.

Frustrating.

Incompatible Compatibility

General, Hardware

I recently wrote about the lack of backwards compatibility when I needed to replace the cutting blades on my lawn mower.

To make sure I hadn’t missed anything at Bunnings, I dropped in there briefly on Saturday with one of the old mower blades to see if I overlooked the correct set in my last trip. I can confirm that there was only one set of blades matching my description, which I purchased last time.

Ironically, I found another set of Rover blades that weren’t the correct version/model that fit perfectly – go figure.

Backwards Compatibility Failure

General, Hardware

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve noticed that our lawn mower has been cutting the grass a little less efficiently. It’s easy to spot when your mower blades are getting worn down, you’ll notice that your cutting width is narrower than normal and you’ll often leave a trail of grass behind you – similar to what happens when your grass catcher is full.

Before heading down to pick up a new set of mower blades from Bunnings, I checked if there was any particular type I should be buying for my Victor lawn mower. To my surprise, it was stamped into the steel on the blades themselves that they were type X – which I thought would make this process very straight forward.

Arrived at Bunnings and I had no idea that the various lawn mower manufacturers could have so many different variations of their lawn mower blades. Just within the Victor lawn mower range, I think there must have been between five and ten different types. I sort though the different packs and pick up two packets of the appropriate type and assume that it’ll be smooth sailing from here on in.

After going through the painful process of removing the first of the old lawn mower blades, I compare the new to the old and feel confident that it’ll go back together nicely. At this point, the fine folk at looking after backwards compatibility of the Victor lawn mower blades clearly had a fuzzy brain day – as the bolt didn’t fit through the disc that the mower blades are attached to. At first glance, it looked nearly identical – the same half moon shaped bold, similar thread, similar length and thickness – however the new bolt was about 1mm too thick!

As you can imagine, the bolts for lawn mower blades get quite worn as well. The packaging rightfully suggests that you replace all of the old parts with fresh parts, however for the moment I’m going to be forced to reuse the old nut and bolt.

Betting Man

Hardware

As most of you’ll be aware, I went through a bit of a horror run with my desktop computer and have only recently got it all back together. While my computer was out of action, the last component that I needed to get fixed/repaired was my Asus GeForce 8800GT video card, as it was making a really high pitched squeal. After getting it repaired and overcoming a little PEBKAC – it was all working as expected.

In the month since having my desktop working again, I’ve been seeing a rather strange thing taking place – my computer appears to go to sleep and won’t wake up when requested. This problem has happened 3 or 4 times in the last month and each time everything is locked up – even the keyboard lights won’t respond and it requires a hard reset to get back into Windows.

It happened again last night and I went hunting for the problem again, which I wasn’t able to track down previously. I’d checked the different event logs within Windows hoping to see some sort of application or system level error reported to narrow down the search but to no avail.

Curiosity got to better of me and I had a look at the hardware again and got a very rude shock when I burnt the tip of my finger on my Asus GeForce 8800GT video card. It appears that the fan on my video card is not spinning all the time, which leads me to think that my machine is hanging when it is getting too hot.

I couldn’t believe it when I realised that last night and was thinking to myself, what were the chances of that happening. If I were a betting man, I certainly wouldn’t have even taken a long shot punt that I’d have another problem with the video card between now and when I replace it in another six months to a years time.

In an attempt to see if that is what is causing the problem, I’m going to try and find one of the utilities that monitors the heat of different components in a computer. With a bit of luck it’ll confirm or dispell the theory and I’ll be able to get it fixed.

A Series Of Unfortunate Events

Hardware

Back in the middle of September, I wrote about faulty products and customer service and followed it up with a short story about the installation problems I had with my CoolerMaster power supply. After another six weeks, I’m happy to report that I finally have a working desktop again!

Thankfully the replacement for the dead on arrival power supply only took two weeks to arrive and not 5-6 like the original replacement. Unfortunately, after plugging everything back together I received a different but equally high pitched squeal from my computer. Taking my computer to pieces component by component, it ended up being the Asus video card. It turns out that when I plugged in the faulty power supply, it some how damaged the video card.

A trip back to the computer shop to have it replaced, approximately a month in waiting and I have it back in my hot little hands. Excited that I might be getting my main computer back, I leave work a little early to go and pick it up and get home to have the same thing go wrong. To rule out something else on my end, I ask Jacob to check it on his home machine and he had the same thing happen.

First thing on Saturday morning I go back to the computer shop and tell them that the repair work wasn’t successful and ask them to expedite the replacement and they were more than happy to help me out. Just as I was about to pull into the garage, I get a phone call from the computer shop telling me that they’ve just put the video card in two different machines and it worked without fault. I was actually in disbelief but relieved at the same time – so i immediately returned to the stop to collect the video card.

Saturday afternoon, i disassembled my machine again and after putting it all back together – as certain that the sun will rise tomorrow – the video card worked without fault. A little bit of fiddling later and I had all of the computer back together and in working order again.

It was great to have the laptop available across the last few months but I’m very happy to have my main computer back as I was really beginning to miss the speed and screen real estate. Next time when I put my computer back together, I’ll be sure to be a little more thorough as it was clearly a case of PEBKAC when the video card was returned to me.