Fresh Install of Windows Vista

Last night I did a complete install of Microsoft Windows Vista. I used gParted to repartition and reformat the drive; this got rid of some weird partition that looked like Toshiba had put in place for maintenance or something.

Instead of using the behemoth OEM version of Vista that Toshiba had installed on the machine, I used the Enterprise version of Vista. This installed much smaller. I also turned off some services that I knew I would not need and managed to get the memory usage down to under 700MB. I've actually seen it get to below 600MB after boot up. Plus, I didn't have all of the annoying plethra of icons on the desktop.

Can't Uninstall Nero 7

I can not uninstall Nero 7 from Windows Vista.

"Internal Error:

Custom Action DLL crashed on last call in function 'NeroAg_UnregisterComEx'. The installer must now exit.

Crash Thread ID 3500"

Touch Pad Acting Erratically

The other day I was driving in my truck with the Toshiba Satellite A215-S7422 plugged into a power converter (inverter). When I used the touch pad, the cursor jumped erratically all over the screen with random mouse clicks; programs were starting up and others were closing down, while the actions that I was attempting to complete, I could not accomplish.

There were warnings flashing on the screen about "lo-jack". I'm not sure what that was about; the only lo-jack that I know about has to do with auto theft prevention.

Anyway, this is just another problem with the Toshiba Satellite A215-S7422 and Windows Vista. Beware!!

Battery Power Warning Is Wrong - Not Consistent With Battery Indicator

I received a warning that I had only 11% battery power remaining. However, I knew that that wasn't the case, as I could tell from the battery power indicator that I had about 3/4 of the battery power. I hovered over the battery icon and the pop-up told me that I had 67% left.

This is not the first time that I have noticed this.

Synchronized TSCs - VMware

While running VMware in Windows Vista and attempting to start up a new Windows XP virtual machine, I was prompted with a dialog stating that

"Your host does not have synchronized TSCs. Please read VMware Knowledge Base article 2041."

TSC = Timestamp Counters (TSCs)

Variable Processor Speed - VMware

While running VMware in Windows Vista and attempting to start up a new Windows XP virtual machine, I was prompted with a dialog stating that

"VMware Workstation has measured your CPU speed to be 1665 MHz, but Windows reports that it is 1900 MHz. This may mean that your computer has a power-saving feature that varies the processor speed. As a result, the clock in your virtual machine may run too fast or too slow.

For a workaround, please refer to the VMware knowledge base article at: http://www.vmware.com/info?id=97"

HP Scanjet 4370 Scanner

HP Scanjet 4370 OEM drivers did not work in Microsoft Windows Vista.

I located Vista drivers on HP's web site at http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=457534&prodTypeId=15179&prodSeriesId=457533&swLang=8&taskId=135&swEnvOID=2093

There are two drivers available for download:
- HP Scanjet Full Feature Software and Driver
- HP Basic Feature Driver

Wireless Network Device on Toshiba A215-S7422 Laptop

The Toshiba A215-S7422 laptop computer comes with the following wireless network device:

Realtek RTL8187B Wireless 802.11b/g 54bps USB 2.0 Network Adapter

The following device driver information I pulled from the pre-installed Windows Vista operating system. If you are looking for device drivers for other operating systems, or attempting to write your own, then this information may come in handy:

Manufacturer = Realtek Semiconductor Corp
Location = Port#0006.Hub_#0006
Driver Provider = Realtek Semiconductor Corp
Driver Date 10/4/2007
Driver Version 6.1106.1004.2007
Physical Device Object name = \Device\USBPD0-6
device id = usb\vid_0bda&pid_8197&rev_0200

Product Details Web Page at http://www.realtek.com.tw/products/productsView.aspx?Langid=1&PFid=1&Level=6&Conn=5&ProdID=143

Driver Download Page at
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PFid=1&Level=6&Conn=5&ProdID=143&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false&Downloads=true

If you have trouble with the above links, you can try this search URL for RTL8187B at http://www.realtek.com.tw/search/default.aspx?keyword=RTL8187B

I noticed that Realtek has problems with their website at times and you might get an error page with something similar to the following copy. If you do, the only thing that I can say is to try again later:

路徑:/products/productsView.aspx
作業:ShowMenuContent
訊息:
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: The log file for database 'tempdb' is full. Back up the transaction log for the database to free up some log space. at RealtekCom.BLL.BLBasis.Get_FamModDate() at RealtekCom.BLL.BLBasis.get_GetFamModDate() at RealtekWeb.products.UserControls.ProductsMenu.CheckUpdateCache() at RealtekWeb.products.UserControls.ProductsMenu.ShowMenuContent()

Sound Device on Toshiba Satellite A215-S7422

Realtek High Definition Audio

The following device driver information I pulled from the pre-installed Windows Vista operating system. If you are looking for device drivers for other operating systems, or attempting to write your own, then this information may come in handy:

Manufacturer = Realtek
Location = 3(Internal High Definition Bus)
Physical Device Object name = \Device\0000006d
Enumerator = HDAUDIO
Driver Node Strong Name = oem23.inf:AzaliaManufacturerID:IntcAzAudModel:6.0.1.5464:hdaudio\func_01&ven_10ec&dev_0268
Rollback Driver Node Strong Name = hdaudio.inf:Microsoft.ntx86:HdAudModel:6.0.6000.16386::hdaudio\func_01
Driver assembly date = 8/10/2007
Provider = Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
Vendor website = http://www.realtek.com.tw

Get drivers at http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=14&PFid=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

They now have a driver for Linux kernel 2.6 (they only had 2.4 the last time I checked about a week ago) I'm gonna try and install the driver in RHEL 5, and perhaps OpenSolaris 10.

RHEL5 boot freeze

Here's a screen shot, of the screen at boot; this is as far as it got booting up Red Hat 5.

This is the first time that this has happened.

The events that transpired immediately prior are as follows:

- Attempted to create a virtual machine with Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium as the OS in VMware running on RHEL5. (This attempt was unsuccessful, but those details are for another post.)
- I attempted to put the machine in the "suspend" state. It did not appear to go into the suspend state correctly and I forced power off by holding down the power button.
- When I powered the machine back up, the Toshiba Recovery disc was still in the optical drive and Windows started to boot off of the recovery disc. I powered off again by holding down the power button.
- When I powered the machine back up, I ejected the disc, and then at the GRUB screen selected to boot up Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, and the screen shot shown here shows as far as the boot sequence got.

Here's the copy:

[Linux-bzImage, setup=0x1e00, size=0x1c033c]
initrd /initrd-2.6.18-53.e15.img
[Linux-initrd @ 0x37cf1000, 0x2fe590 bytes]


Memory for crash kernel (0x0 to 0x0) notwithin permissible range
..MP-BIOS bug:8254 timer not connected to IO-APIC
PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 7 of bridge 000:00:04.0
PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 8 of bridge 000:00:04.0
PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 7 of bridge 000:00:06.0
PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 8 of bridge 000:00:06.0
Red Hat nash version 5.1.19.6 starting
usb 3-2: device not accepting address 2, error -110
Reading all physical volumes. This may take a while...
Found volume group "VolGroup00" using metadata type lvm2
2 logical volume(s) in volume group "VolGroup00" now active
VFS: Can't find ext3 filesystem on dev dm-0.
mount: error mounting /dev/root on /sysroot as ext3: Invalid argument
setuproot: moving /dev failed: No such file or directory
setuproot: error mounting /proc: No such file or directory
setuproot: error mounting /sys: No such file or directory
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

RAM Memory Upgrade - from 1GB to 4GB for less than $100 at NewEgg

The Toshiba Satellite A215-S7422 comes with 1GB of memory (RAM). This is barely sufficient for running Microsoft Windows Vista. The specs state that this laptop is upgradeable to 4GB of RAM. So, I found the best deal at www.newegg.com; a 2GB Corsair module for $35 after rebate. I bought 2 and now have 4GB of memory. However, beware, only about 3.5 GB is recognized.

Best Deal on the Toshiba Satellite A215-S7422 - Office Depot

I just wanted to share what I think is the best deal out there right now on a notebook laptop computer; at least it was 2 weeks ago.

The Toshiba Satellite A215-S7422 was for sale at Office Depot for $549 after $150 in rebates. I'm not sure if the deal is still on, but I bought mine about three weeks ago, so I'd imagine that if that sale isn't still on, that perhaps they have an even better offer.

Best Buy offered the Toshba Satellite A215-S7422 for $499 as an in store special only. However, the store in my area did not have any; they were sold out. Can you say "bait and switch".

About This Blog - Toshiba Satellite A215-S7422

This is a log about my experiences with my new laptop/notebook computer.

Manufacturer = Toshiba

Model = Satellite A215-S7422

I purchased it at Office Depot in December 2007.

For an operating system, it came pre-installed with Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition.

For the spces, go: here

I've experienced so many issues that I began documenting them; mainly so that I would have a record when looking for answers and solutions to problems. A blog was a convenient place for documentation as the copy is accessible from any computer that I may be using at any given time, provided the computer is connected to the internet. Furthermore, it is convenient to refer someone else to the blog post, including Toshba technical support. Another benefit to publishing online is that others experiencing the same problems may find the information provided by me to be beneficial to them in resolving them. If you have found your way here, and have found anything useful to you, please post a comment and let me know.

Thanks,
Hyrum