Category Archives: Guides

Any guides that GEEK! create will slot into this category.

EI System 1201 (DSG Retail) and RAM

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I own an EI System 1201 as one of my laptops, as I thought it was an excellent budget buy. I bought it in June ’08 with Vista Home Premium… and sadly 1GB of RAM. Vista and 1GB RAM don’t mix, trust me.

Anyway, I googled some RAM for the system and many sites are telling me that it only has 1 RAM module. However, I’m not totally sure of this. I’ve taken the back off and this is what I saw:

Image 1

Image 2

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that is two slots.

Many sites are claiming that it is one slot only, but I think there may be another one hidden underneath it.

I am also trying to get clarification on whether the maximum memory is 2GB. I’ve seen this site, Ei Systems Laptop Memory :: 1201 Laptop Memory :: Offtek.co.uk, the Memory Superstore, which claims that there is a 2GB module avaialble for the system.

It’s all very blurry for me – can you get 2GB in by either getting 2x 1GB modules or 1X 2GB module. If you’ve got any experiences in installing memory in this laptop, please post a comment? Have you ever got 2GB in?

Update 7.2.09 – Thanks very much to Mark (see comments) who has now can confirmed he can upgraded his EI System 1201 with a 2GB PC5300 667mhz of RAM, and that he is relatively sure there is only one slot. So my mistake if I got that wrong :).

Update 21.2.09 – Have ordered a 2GB piece of RAM for the laptop from Crucial, so will report back when I have it delivered and installed. Wish me luck.

I can confirm the RAM upgrade was successful.

Overheating in Dell laptops

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I was helping a friend fix a laptop that was constantly overheating. To be a little more specific, it was a Dell Inspiron 1300 laptop that is about 4 years old now. It would constantly shut down on random occasions, and we couldn’t work out why.

In the end we guessed that it was probably just a problem with a fan either not working or a blocked fan.

We took apart the back of the laptop, and had a look at the main fan.

And you would not believe what we saw – several millimeters of pure dust and fluff! It was horrifying. There was probably 3 or 4 years of dust and dirt bunged into a small gap in the fan space.

So we got some pressurised spray designed to blow out dust and took it all out. Worked perfectly afterwards.

But if you are experiencing problems with overheating, Dell may tell you that its just a case of sending the laptop to them and having a new motherboard fitted. Rubbish. All you need is a small screwdriver, some dust remover, and about 10 minutes of time. You should find the laptop works much better afterwards.

Web browsers… is there still one leader and one leader only?

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The web browser “war” still rages on.

It’s been going on for years. What is the best web browser? I don’t think there will ever be a final decision, although I would think most people would agree that Firefox has to be the safest and easiest way to browse the web.

The dreaded Internet Explorer is still used by millions. The reason for this is that many people just don’t know about Firefox or other web browsers. They just stick to whatever comes on their Windows PC. I suppose, if you were a computer novice, you’d just do the easiest thing and stick to Internet Explorer. Such a shame… if you use IE, you don’t know what you are missing.

Firefox is still extremely popular. It’s got just what everybody wants. A reliable, safe, fast browser that can be customized beyond belief. It is an extremely good browser – I’m using it to write this post now. It does exactly what it claims it does. It is very easy to use, I can trust it for any online payments, and I can use a huge range of plugins to make it do whatever I want it to.

With new web browser, Google Chrome, has Firefox got a challenger? Well, it has got a range of clever features. For example the tab management is very good. Instead of using just one process to manage all of your tabs, it splits each tab into a different process. This means that if one tab crashes, you don’t have to close the whole browser. And it does this without becoming a RAM-hog. Add to that it’s lightning speed launch times and Glass design (in Vista Aero), it does add up to be a relatively good browser. Google does have work to do to it, I mean it does have problems. My biggest problem is that it just doesn’t render some pages properly, and it claims that some pages are unavailable when they aren’t really.

What about Apple Safari? Well that’s good too. It has its ups and downs. I would only use it on a Mac, since I’m not a fan of the Windows version. It just seems rather pointless in Windows when you could just use Firefox, which is much more reliable and usable.

Opera? No way. I’ve never liked Opera. Again, it comes down to the same thing – why have it when you can have Firefox which is much safer and reliable. I don’t like Opera’s interface, and overall I just think it’s a no-go.

So, if you want an answer. It still remains – there is only one leader – Firefox. It just can’t be beaten for its safety, reliability, speed, and customizability. And those, I think, are the four keys to a web browser. Maybe, one day, a browser may become as good or even better than Firefox, but I think you be safely assured that it’s not going to be anytime soon.

Windows XP and Internet Connection Sharing

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I’ve just spent 2 hours helping a friend to get Internet Connection Sharing working on Windows XP, and we still haven’t got it done!

He’s just got a Xbox 360 and he’s trying to use ICS to connect the Xbox to his computer via ethernet. In the end we just gave up and I told him to just move his router so he can plug his Xbox directly into the router rather than having to go through the PC and the dreaded Windows Firewall.

But things like this just explain why I don’t use Windows XP anymore (with exception to the very odd occasion). It’s just a pain – with Vista it’s just one click. XP is just not user friendly and its really complicated compared to Vista.

Ok Vista has it’s issues, but come on, why do people hate it so much? Ever since I got my Vista laptop I can’t live without it, and I wish people would just give it a chance.

I’m not going to bother explaining the several procedures we attempted to get it working because we’ll be here forever. But if you’re going to try to connect your Xbox to the internet via your PC… just don’t bother. Get a wireless adapter for the Xbox – I mean go through this and I think you’ll be a little more convinced the £50 is well worth the money. Or at worst, just connect the Xbox direct to your router. Or get Vista :).

Just don’t use XP. If you’re still using XP, I really recommend you take another look at Vista – it’s got a hell of a lot better since launch.

Windows Live Messenger and the annoying spam “viruses” (Warning and fix)

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Don’t you find it annoying when a contact (its a computer, not the real person sending you the link) sends you a link that looks perfectly realistic and you download it to find it’s actually a messenger “virus”.

I was a victim of one today and they are absolutely mind boggling. You don’t initially know they are what they are, but when you do they are enough to send you insane.

I had one of the most annoying ones today. You may want to know this as a warning. If you get a link from someone saying the following:

foto http://site.facebooky.net/ and then what looks like an image link with your email address on the end, do NOT open the link or download the attached file.

It’s one that spams all your contacts with the same link but with their email address, and then freezes your mouse so their is nothing you can do about it. When it’s finished driving all your friends mad with spam links, it hands the mouse back for 5 minutes, and then repeats itself again.

In the end I decided all I could do was wait until it wanted to spam everyone again, and then turn off the wifi adapter so it couldnt send any messages. Once it decided it couldn’t send anything and handed the mouse back, I checked the task manager for suspicious files.

One file in particular caught my eye: fxstaller.exe

A quick Google search found that this was the file causing the problem, and that many other people were having the same issue.

The file hides itself away in C:/Windows and although Windows reports it being there, it wont show up since its hidden. The best way i decided to kill it was (in Windows Vista) open up the start menu, search fxstaller.exe (but NOT pressing Enter) and when the file was listed, right click it and delete. And that ended my woes.

If you have the issue, that’s how you fix it.