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How to get ASIO drivers for any Sound Card

November 12th, 2008 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | 2 Comments | Filed in How Tos, Offline, Tech

I recently installed Guitar Rig onto my computer and when I plugged in my guitar, I couldn’t really hear anything but a whole bunch of crackling. I adjusted the settings and I could hear my guitar but there was a lot of latency (time between when I hit the string and when I could actually hear it on the computer). There was still a lot of crackling when I was playing, and the latency was really bad, so I did a bit of research and I found out that in order to get rid of the crackling when you play (and the huge latency issue) you need to use ASIO drivers with your sound card.

Guitar Rig 3 with ASIO

If you click on the file menu, and then go to audio setup, then you should get this dialog box (or do the equivalent in whatever software you are using). Here, in the interface menu on the soundcard tab, you probably won’t have the option for ASIO (if you’re having these problems). If you do have it, select it as the Interface. If you don’t then go to ASIO4ALL, download it, and install it, and then voila, problem solved! (Don’t forget to go back and change the interface to AISO).

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Palm TX Review

November 11th, 2008 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | 5 Comments | Filed in Offline, Reviews
TX image
Palm TX

System Specs

Processor: 312MHz ARM-based Processor
Operating System: Palm OS software version Garnet v5.4.9
Memory: Total 128 MB (100MB accessible to user)
Display: TFT color display with backlight, 320 x 480, 65,000 colors
Audio: Speaker and standard 3.5mm stereo headphone jack
Interface: USB (for HotSync operation), Infrared, Bluetooth 1.1, Wi-Fi 802.11b
Dimensions and Weight: 4.76 x 3.08 x 0.61in, 5 oz. (including stylus and SD card)
Power: 108-32VAC, 60Hz, 100mA (US and Canada only AC Adapter)
Battery: 1250mHa Lithium-ion polymer rechargeable battery (internal – non user removable)
Expansion: SD card slot (Secure Digital), supports MMC and SD cards.

Review

The latest Handheld from Palm is very similar in design to the T5, except for it has a nice sleek blue look instead of the old silver chassis color. Other than that, it is the same, shape and weight.

The device is nice and sturdy, and would probably be pretty tough to break by accident. The case looks like metal, but it is probably just plastic. One problem about this device is that lots of people have trouble with the power button. There is a program you can download here that can reassign your powerbutton to say, the home button, because the main thing that people find with the power button (and that I found too) is that it is very unresponsive and you have to push twice or sometimes just hold it down for a long time.

One of the things you will love about this device is the bright screen. It is perfect for watching movies and videos. What’s also nice is that fingerprints don’t really show up too much on this screen.

The memory is not volatile – meaning everything will not be erased if you run out of juice.

One thing you will be disappointed about with the TX is the fact that the built-in video player cannot play most formats of video you get. What you can do to fix this is to download a very good freeware player called TCPMP and install it onto your palm. When you get it – you don’t have to sync videos (or even music) onto your palm anymore – just put your SD card loaded up with all sorts of DivX or Xvid( yes TCPMP does support these codecs) into your palm, fire up TCPMP, select some files, and then hit play and you’re all set.

There are quite a few games available for Palm OS – including many PC favorites like bookworm. Check out Astraware for lots of games. Also, if you like old games, check out LJP – a multisystem emulator that can emulate NES, SNES, GEN, GB/GBC and more! To use the more recent consoles like SNES and Genesis you may need to overclock with warpSpeed, and free up more memory with UDMH.

Hope you enjoyed my review!

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The Acer is no longer with us…

June 14th, 2008 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | 13 Comments | Filed in Offline, Reviews

UPDATE: I bought the computer- it really lives up to the expectations!

I returned my Acer Extensa yesterday. I’m sure you’ve read about my share of issues with it, and I returned it, because the chance to return it to costco (I had 6 months to return it there) was drawing to a close. 

We did have many issues with it – even though the hardware inside of it was great quality – an ATI Radeon 2400 XT video card which is quite high-end, there was a good hard drive and lots of ram. The problem was, the cooling was awful, and the screen and body of the computer were cheaply made. I tried to hold onto it for as long as I could and considered sending it in for repairs but then I had to scratch that because, if I sent it there, what would happen would be that it would probably say “there’s nothing wrong with the computer” and then there would be a huge waste of gas and fuel and money spent on buying sufficient postage, anyways.

So now I’m searching for a new laptop. I’m looking into HP – perhaps an HP Pavilion dv6753ca “entertainment PC”. It has similar stats, and is at a similar price-point. A bonus is that it has a LightScribe drive which is great for all you people who like being creative – me included. It’ll be great for the Kunadiuns’ next movie.

Click here for an extremely high resolution photo of my laptop.

Here are some other “Plusses” over the Acer:

  1. Some sort of Remote Control is included – it sounds good, because I use my computer to download TV shows off of BitTorrent and then I hook the computer up to the TV to play them. I think that the Remote will have a pause and play button on it, hopefully, which will save me from getting up and off of the couch and running over to the Laptop to pause the show.
  2. The awesome volume controls on the top of the keyboard – I love these!!! They are great, and you need just bearly to tap them lightly to make the sound go up and down – not push down hard – thinking about that though, you could accidentally brush against them and lose your spot in a movie.
  3. HP webcams are Great – end of story
  4. Good reliable Intel® PRO/Wireless 4965AGN Network Connection & Bluetooth™. The Acer didn’t have bluetooth, which is pretty essential to most people, so this is a definite plus.
  5. Mouse buttons are more soft and aesthetic-feel to click and don’t make such a loud annoying noise. The ones on the extensa made a huge noise when clicking.
  6. Two headphone ports – great if you and a friend are listening – much better than sharing a pair of earphones.
  7. HDMI output – this kind of video output it commonly only seen in $1000+ laptops, so this is a huge improvement over the DVI-D output that was in the Acer.
  8. HP QuickPlay media player software and its dedicated menu controls, music and DVD buttons – the only problem is, I hear, is that the “Direct” option of QuickPlay that allows you to watch DVDs without actually even starting up the computer.
  9. Apparently, it has Altec Lansing speakers – a great improvment over the awful ones in that Extensa.
  10. There is more room to expand the memory to 4 GB

Overall, this is a great laptop. I think I might get it. Tell me what you think, readers.

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Validate Windows Media Player – Without Having To!

March 15th, 2008 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | 36 Comments | Filed in How Tos, Offline, Older Posts, Tech

I just installed XP onto my laptop and so now that I have my dual-boot set up, I wanted to upgrade me Windows Media Player installation. The problem is, when I finally installed it, the Genuine Activator thing wouldn’t work. So I peeked into the Program Files/Windows Media Player folder, and saw a .DLL called LegitLibM.dll (clearly a Genuine Advantage DLL), so I deleted it, and then ran Windows Media Player again. This time, the whole thing worked, and when I clicked on “Validate” (I think that was what it said), it said that there was a problem with the Validation, and then because of that, I think it bypassed the whole thing! This is a very useful trick for people who have trouble with the stupid WGA. I really hope Microsoft goes the Linux path soon :p !

Hope it helped!

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Acer Dual-booting Problems!!!

January 11th, 2008 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | 4 Comments | Filed in Offline, Tech

Ok, ok, I was really stupid! Don’t go posting comments saying how stupid I was!

So here’s the story. I get my Acer Extensa 5420 at Costco, and come home and open it up, and I get all excited, and I’m happy! So then about a week later, I accidentally delete the partition that Vista’s in when dual-booting XP in order to use legacy apps (STUPID ME!). So I try and get a recovery CD from Acer because my built-in eRecovery option wouldn’t work. Here’s a letter I wrote to Acer explaining what happened from then on:

To Whom It May Concern:

About a week after I got my Extensa computer, I wanted to use the built-in eRecovery feature that my laptop was supposed to come with. So when it was starting up, I pressed alt+f10, as I was directed to by the laptop’s manual, but this didn’t work. So, I called acer’s “Customer Interaction Centre”, and I had them send me some recovery CDs. This was when the problems began. Here’s a list of the issues I had with these first cds:

- The CD’s operating system (my computer came with Vista Home Premium – the cd’s recovery os was Vista Home Basic)
- The CD’s language (my computer came with english as it’s main language, but the recovery cd installed spanish, and I couldn’t understand what the computer was saying)
- Wouldn’t recognise a whole bunch of my hardware – including my graphics card, my dvd drive, my card reader, and my wireless internet connection.
- The invoice said my cds were french, but on the cds themselves they said they were spanish. so the invoice was incorrect.

I called in to the customer interaction centre, and gave my order number, and the person there said that the person who had sent me the first set of the disks had, #1 – sent me ones that weren’t designed for my computer, and #2 – they were the wrong language (i already knew this), and finally #3 – they were the wrong operating system (i ALSO already knew this. He said he’d resend the disks.

Now, I have a week of wasted time and money because i have NO access to my computer whatsoever, while I wait for the cds to arrive. The person I was talking to on the phone said they would arrive in two business days!

Finally, after a week’s wait, my cds have arrived to me, and I start using them, only to find out that they are FRENCH! Maybe the person thought that I wanted french cds, because on the first invoice I recieved it said Vista home basic french, whereas the cds were in actuality spanish.

I would like it if someone could kindly send me some recovery cds, with windows vista home premium designed for my acer extensa 5420, IN ENGLISH, please!

Thanks in advance for your help and assistance,

Connor McBrine-Ellis

No one bothered replying for a day, so I get impatient and call Acer’s Customer Interaction Centre, and I get a really helpful person who told me that he’d send me the right CDs, en anglais, s’il vous plait!

I’ll update you on whether these CDs were actually english when they arrive. They’ll arrive in about 3-7 business days because they use FedEx express shipping.

Connor :p

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