It seems HomePlug certified powerline networking components aren't as interoperable as it would first appear.  I've been using Devolo Homeplug dLAN 200 desk units for a number of years now and they have been trouble free and constantly out perform wireless networking in terms of speed.  I recently bought another Devolo dLAN 200 unit to expand my network to enable streaming video to a Windows Media Extender.

I assumed it would be a case of just connecting it to the mains and using the Devolo dLAN configuration wizard to set all the units up with a new encryped password.  I soon realised that this wasn't the case.
The dLAN configuration wizard didn't even detect the new unit on the mains network.  After looking through the manual for a while scatching my head searching for a non-existant troubleshooting guide, I spotted a paragraph that mentioned that older Devolo products using firmware 1.x need their firmware upgraded in order to work with newer models.

Upgrading the firmware has now made all my dLAN 200 HomePlug certified devices compatible!  Thank God for standards

Like a lot of Windows fans I pre-ordered Windows 7 and built a new PC ready to install it on; I chose a motherboard (MSI DKA790GX) that, like many on the market, has a hardware RAID controller on-board allowing you to take advantage of redundancy with RAID 1 and/or benefit from faster disk access with RAID 0.  Read more about RAID.

I had already installed Windows 7 before I remembered I wanted to set-up a RAID 1 array.  I tried to get the RAID array working with Windows already installed but soon realised I would have to set it up prior to installing Windows 7 because Windows kept hanging on boot-up because it was lacking the RAID controller drivers.

The supplied manual doesn’t explain how to get RAID up and running unfortunately.

RAID Controller Set-up

So here’s a quick guide to installing hardware RAID on a motherboard that features a RAID controller.  These steps assume you are performing a clean Windows 7 install rather than an upgrade, and they might differ depending on your system set-up, but the general principles should be the same.

1. Download the RAID drivers for your motherboard from the manufacturer’s website and save them to a memory stick.
2. Back up all your important data!
3. Turn your PC off and unplug it.
4. Install 2 hard disks preferably with identically capacity into your PC.
5. Turn on your PC, press the delete key or F2 key when prompted to get to the BIOS menu.
6. Find the option to select the RAID mode, save your settings and exit BIOS.
7. On reboot you should see a new menu option to enter the RAID controller settings.  Enter the key combination when prompted to get to the RAID controller menu.
8. Create a new RAID array selecting either RAID 0, or RAID 1.
9. Select the disks that will form the array, save the settings and exit.
10. On reboot press the delete key or F2 key when prompted to get to the BIOS menu.
11. Check the boot sequence of your PC and ensure your optical drive is top of the list.
12. Insert your Windows 7 disk into the optical drive and exit the BIOS.
13. On reboot press any key when prompted to boot from the optical drive.
14. Windows 7 should start installing.
15. Select your localisation settings and click next.
16. Click “repair your computer” and click the ”load drivers” button.
17. Insert your memory stick and browse to the correct driver and install.
18. Exit back to the Windows 7 install menu click “Install now” and on the next screen click “Custom (advanced)” to perform a clean install.
19. When you are asked where you want to install Windows 7 you should see that the 2 RAID hard disks are now visible as just 1 drive.
20. Add a partition to the new drive so Windows with be able to recognise it.
21. Continue installing Windows as normal.

Yesterday my aging desktop PC decided not to boot, and instead displayed this helpful error "CMOS Checksum Error".
In order to get it to boot into Windows I had to press Delete to go into the BIOS settings and change the configuration from "Halt on all errors" to "halt on no errors".  Upon saving the BIOS settings and restarting the error disappeared.

Sometimes though a PC with a dead CMOS battery will boot as normal but forget the date and time on each reboot.  This can lead to odd effects.  For instance I tried to logging into my webmail only to be told the SSL licence wasn't valid, not because it had expired but because my computer thought it was 2001!

CMOS Battery at Fault

Once I got into Windows I got a few "Windows has found new hardware" messages and my system clock had reverted to a day in 2001.
As soon as I saw my clock had forgotten the time and the date, all evidence pointed towards the CMOS battery being at fault.  Its funny how a simple little battery that most people don't even realise existed inside their PC can bring a computer to its knees.

Locating & Changing the CMOS Battery

In a desktop PC the CMOS battery is fairly straight forward to find.  They normally look like a large wrist watch battery, with CR2032 lithium batteries being the most common.  A simple search on eBay will find you a cheap replacement.  Just be careful removing and fitting anything on a motherboard, because any static electricity on your body could fry delicate computer chips.

On a laptop or notebook they are more difficult to find and generally more expensive.  On my Dell Inspiron you need to lift out the main battery and pull out a small flap to locate the CMOS battery.

Location of CMOS battery in Dell Inspiron laptop

My Dell just so happens to take a 7.2V 15mAh Ni-MH CMOS battery, which again, performing a quick search on eBay will find you a replacement.

Fitting the new battery in either case is very straight forward.

Read more about Installing a CMOS Battery here.

If you haven't already heard about Freesat then you should look into it, I'm not referring to the free satellite service from Sky, but the new not-for-profit organisation set up by the BBC and ITV to help distribute digital TV to areas of the UK where Freeview signals are not strong enough.
If you also own a new high definition capable flat screen TV or are looking to buy one you should also investigate Freesat. Not only will it allow a greater percentage of British population to receive digital TV for free, it also carries free high definition content. Currently BBC HD and ITV HD channels, which are far superior to their standard definition channels.

Essentially you need a satellite dish and a new set-top box or Freesat capable TV to receive the broadcasts. The Freesat service uses the same satellite as Sky, so it is apparently possible to use a Sky dish and plug in a Freesat tuner instead of a Sky box.

According to a sales assistant in my local Richer Sounds every retailer stocking Freesat equipment has to be a registered Freesat installer and they charge a set fee of £80 to install the service for you. This install price is set by Freesat and should be the same for each registered installer.

Panasonic have announced the first TV with a Freesat tuner built-in which should be launched in time for the Olympic games, which should be broadcast in HD on the BBC HD channel.

Can Freesat and Sky Co-exist?

What I'm wondering is, can Sky and Freesat be picked up with the same dish simultaneously? If you have a quad LNB on the dish and a additional run of coaxial cable to the Freesat box?

If so, you could have high definition TV in more than one room and you wouldn't have to pay Sky's multi-room fee, you also get to keep Sky in one room so you can pick up those channels not available on Freesat, like Living TV etc.

I asked this question to the sales guys at the Panasonic stand in the Bluewater shopping centre who were demonstrating the new Freesat capable panels and although they'll admit that you can use a Sky dish to receive Freesat, they're not sure about the 2 services co-existing.

If they won't co-exist maybe they can be switched? After all how many people want a second dish stuck to their house?
Personally, I could make do without the garbage US TV shows Sky broadcasts, but it might upset my girlfriend if she's unable to watch her shows :-)

USB flash drives have increased in capacity in leaps and bounds since I last purchased one. In the few years since I bought a Crucial 128MB Gizmo!, the price of flash memory has been literally free-falling, due partly to economies of scale and the mass adoption of flash-based mp3 players.
The size and sheer variety of these devices is astounding, but what I wasn't expecting when I inserted the drive was for a Launchpad application to start running, pre-loaded with special software!

I had in fact purchased a 4GB SanDisk U3 Smart Drive. U3 is a technology developed by SanDisk which effectively creates a platform for developers to build applications that install directly onto the flash drive rather than the host computer. This means that not only can you take your data with you, but you can take your applications too!

When you insert your U3 Smart Drive into a USB slot on any computer, the U3 Launchpad is loaded, which is effectively like the Window's start menu, but instead contains menus to configure the drive, run installed applications and access your data. Nothing is installed on the host PC, so you can take your applications and data with you and its all secure and synced with your data on your PC back home.

The software that's available includes Skype, Firefox, Opera, various password safes, Thunderbird, OpenOffice... The list goes on. Some applications are free, while others cost a small amount of money, but most have downloadable trials. Here's a full list of U3 software.

Watch the video below for a quick guide to the U3 Smart Drive technology.