The Ultimate Boot CD

I have just discovered this neat bootcd, that is a collection of your favorite tools, such as

Prime95: CPU/Ram stress utility
Memtest86: Ram tester
CPUid information
System information
CPU benchmarks
3d benchmarks

Many bios, harddisk installation and diagnostic tools as well

You can see the entire list and download it here.

Download the .iso and burn it using your favorite burning software, I prefer imgburn.

Find the source of BSODs

Do you ever receive the dreadful blue screen of death at random times and cant quite figure out how to solve the issue because you can't understand the blue screen? So do I actually, but I have this program I like to use called WhoCrashed from Resplendence Software, you can download it here. Basically the program checks for drivers which have been crashing your computer and directly says the exact driver file. It checks your dump files that windows creates when a BSOD error happens, but those files are confusing for human to read directly.

When you run the program (You have to run it as administrator, right click > run as administrator) you press Analyze, it will then spit out the log, something like this, I had a BSOD recently, you can see the WhoCrashed analyzing it here,

On Tue 7/21/2009 1:54:36 AM your computer crashed
This was likely caused by the following module: atikmdag.sys
Bugcheck code: 0xD1 (0x0, 0x2, 0x1, 0xFFFFF88003F1DFD9)
Error: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\atikmdag.sys
product: ATI Radeon Family
company: ATI Technologies Inc.
description: ATI Radeon Kernel Mode Driver


Which was my ATI drivers, maybe I should update them >.<, You can also click on the links that the log provides, yes this an actual example :)

Like all BSODs, there is no simple answer, most of them are from driver issues, but some maybe from hardware. WhoCrashed is a program which can make fixing BSOD errors alot easier!

HOW TO: Update your sound card drivers

Updating your sound card can be very easy, and sometimes very hard especially when you don't know what sound card you have. Hopefully, this article will help you update your sound card no matter what problems you encounter.

To start off, lets figure out what your sound card is, ok?

1) Right click My Computer - Manage
2) Open Device Manager in the left window pane
3) Open Sound, Video, and game controllers

Here you can see multiple devices, or maybe none at all! So how do you determine which is yours?
If you go to your volume control - right click - view playback devices, you should see the default playback sound input have a big green check

(Skip the below step if your sound card is detected)
But what if my sound card isn't detected in device manager you may ask
Well, luckily, I have this program called everesthome, this program can detect all kinds of hardware that device manager, doesn't have implemented yet, sadly. Download the program and install it

1) Launch Everest Home > Multimedia - Now scour through the tree to find your sound card, hopefully its something you recognize,

Another way to find your sound card is to open up your PC case and look at sound card directly, if you still can't find it or its integrated check your motherboard manual it should tell you what sound card is in there.

Now you know your sound card name so now its time for some updating
If you don't have a well known card such as creative, finding your sound card can be difficult especially if you have the integrated intel cards. Updating should be fairly easy to do, as long as you find your card.

1) Go to google.com
2) Type in your soundcardname + drivers + downloads (example creative sound blaster x-fi + drivers + downloads)
Hopefully the first link will be the model of your sound card and something related to driver updates
3) Dowload the correct drivers for your operating system and run the executable (In vista run as administrator)
4) Now, to see if your sound card is successfully updated, go back into device manager and right click on your sound card and go to properties, then check the driver tab for the correct date! If it is fairly new, congratulations you have updated your sound card!

HOW TO: Update your video card!

Video card manufacturers release driver updates every now and then, such as nvidia.com or ati.com, which are the most commonly used video cards on the market. Along with the video card are drivers, updating your drivers can be very useful to improve performance, updates can include tweaks, fixes, optimization, and even added support to video games. Sometimes, updating drivers can be a very bothering task, especially if you don't know what kind of video card you have. I will teach you how!

First: Figure out what your card is!
1. Press start
2. If you are using vista, go to step 3, if you are using an OS older than vista, click run
3. Type in dxdiag

Now the Directx diagnostic tool will appear
There is a lot of information in this screen, what we want is the driver name and the driver date,

4. Click Display 1
5. Write down the Name of the card, (example mine says ATI Radeon HD 4800 SERIES)
6. The Date of the driver is on the right, (mine says 5/15/2009), if it is fairly new to the recent update, you don't have to update, but still it is advisable to do so!
7. Now if it is an nvidia.com or ati.com you are in luck! Click on the corresponding sites and fill in the correct information from your Driver name,( you can find out your OS by double clicking on My Computer)
8. Download those drivers and run the installer!

Now what if my driver name is not ati or nvidia you may ask,

Well, this can be solved, you wrote down your driver name right? Good!
1. Go to google.com.
Pick option A or B for step 2
2a. Type in your driver name and then type + driver, example (ATI Radeon HD 4800 SERIES + updates), this will shorten your search to include driver + your card, this is very useful finding it.
2b. Type in the manufacturers website into site + driver name + (driver downloads): (example site:intel.com + intel GMA 950 + driver downloads), this will shorten your list to your download, hopefully
3. Now the site you need to pick is hopefully your manufacturer, intel.com etc,
4. Click on the site, look for the download link for your OS and install those drivers!

Is this article useful? Are you still have problems? Please comment them! I will be glad to assist you

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