Category Archives: Computer Hardware

How to Boot from USB on an Asus CM1855 UEFI Equipped Computer

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My user recently bought two Asus CM1855 computers and asked me to install Windows 7 on them. I tried to boot the machine from a USB drive with my Windows 7 installation files. To my surprise, I could not select my USB drive as an option. This machine has the new UEFI firmware which I am not familiar with. After a bit of fiddling, I was able to figure out how to boot from the USB drive. Here are the steps:

  1. Turn on the power and press DEL key immediately. You might need to press DEL key repeatedly and make sure you see the UEFI screen. As you can see that only the internal drive is shown on the Boot Priority list even I have the USB drive connected.
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  2. Click on Advanced Mode
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  3. Click on Boot, scroll down and change the OS Type to Other OS
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  4. Press F10 to save settings and reboot.
  5. Press DEL again when the system boots up. The external USB drive is now an option to choose from. Press F8 to choose the USB drive to boot the machine from.
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Xsan: Volume Cannot Start After Volume Expansion Failure

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We have more and more users switching to Mac. While the Macs are user friendly, their server products are not that great to use. We have a Xsan setup at work. I spent a lot of my time trying to add more disks to it to expand the existing volume.

The RAID is a Promise VTrack E-Class RAID subsystem. I bought 8 x 2TB drive modules to fill up the empty bays. I created an array out of the new drive modules through the web admin interface of the RAID. Then, I used Xsan Admin to try expanding the existing volume with the new array. The process failed miserably. The volume could not start any more. There is an article on Apple’s support site telling you how to revert the volume to its original state. Here is the part regarding returning a volume to its previous state.

To return a modified volume to its previous configuration:

  1. Quit Xsan Admin.
  2. Delete the file /Library/Filesystems/Xsan/config/<volume>.cfg from each of the volume’s controllers.
  3. On each controller, rename the volume’s previous configuration file /Library/Filesystems/Xsan/config/<volume>.cfg.backup to /Library/Filesystems/Xsan/config/<volume>.cfg.
  4. Open Xsan Admin and start the volume.

This should return the volume to the state it was in before you tried to expand it.

The actual backup config name is different. The name is something like <volume>.cfg-old. Other than that, the instructions are spot on, and I was able to restore the volume following them. Knowing that I could restore the volume after a failure, I tried to expand the volume again. The expanding process failed again, and this time, I was able to restore the volume. However, the volume could not start again.

I tried and tried and tried, but the volume just could not start. I finally called Apple Care, and they wanted $700 to help me resolve the problem because we did not have a service contract. No, thank you. I’d prefer to find the solution myself.

Google search did not help much because not a whole lot of people have used the product. In the end, it seemed like all hope was lost. I decided to forget about expanding the volume, and instead, I built a new volume of the new drives. After the new volume was up, I wanted to rename the old volume so that the new volume could use the old name. Surprisingly, after I renamed the old volume, the then non-starting volume started again!

The precious lesson learned here is that if you have an Xsan volume that is not starting for whatever reason, you could try renaming it. This has saved my user $700. :-)

“Menu access is disabled” for HP Color LaserJet CP2025dn

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We recently got a few HP Color LaserJet CP2025dn printers. I first set one up and set a password for it. When I moved the printer to a different network and tried to set up the network again using the LCD panel, I found that I was unable to do it. There was a message displayed on the panel.

Menu access is disabled

I then realized that whenever you set a password for the printer, the LCD panel access is locked. You can only configure the printer through the web server on the printer. However, since the network was different, I could not access the web server on it. My only option was to reset the printer and configure it from scratch. To reset the CP2025dn, do the following:

  1. Turn the printer off.
  2. Hold down the right arrow and the X button while turning on the printer.

That was it. After resetting the printer, I was able to configure it with the new network setting.

How to Clean Clogged Inkjet Print Heads

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Inkjet printers are so inexpensive nowadays, sometimes it is cheaper to buy a new one rather than getting it fixed. However, it is not good for the environment.  One common problem for inkjet printers is when the print heads get clogged up. On some printers, you can just replace the ink cartridge; for others, you have to clean the print heads. The printer usually has a utility to clean print heads. The clean utility can help you when the print heads are lightly clogged. It doesn’t always work. In this tutorial, I am going to show you how to clean the clogged print heads when the utility fails to work.

What you need are a syringe (injector) with a long needle and some ammonia. You can buy the syringe from Ebay and ammonia from any supermarket.When you buy ammonia, make sure that it is the clear kind, without added color or other ingredients.

Let’s get started.

  1. Mix one part of ammonia with one part of hot water.
  2. Fill the syringe with the ammonia solution.
  3. Remove the ink cartridge according to your printer’s instructions.
  4. Put some napkins or towels under the cartridge to prevent the ammonia solution from dripping . Use the ammonia solution to flush the connector(s). There may be multiple connectors for your printer, so make sure you flush them all. In this example, there are two connectors.
  5. Wait for a moment and let the ammonia solution work its magic.
  6. Insert the print cartridge back. (Optional) If you have an empty cartridge, you can fill it with the ammonia solution. Insert this cartridge instead of the original cartridge.
  7. Repeat steps 3~6 for all the colors you want to clean.
  8. Use the printer’s print head clean utility to clean the print heads.
  9. If you used an ammonia cartridge in step 6, now replace it with the original cartridge. Print a test page and see if the print heads are clean. If not, repeat the steps 3~8.

Here is a test page I printed before cleaning.

The print heads for light magenta and magenta were clogged and could not print at all. Here is a test page after cleaning. The light magenta and magenta were printing again.

ASUS Goes Green at CeBIT

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ASUS has gone green, showing new green technology and innovations at this year’s CeBIT. Manufacturing processes have been changed to be more conservative, and various products have been tweaked with to be more energy-efficient. More packaging of their items have become recyclable. Products they have revolutionized include their notebooks (made of bamboo, which is a remarkably renewable resource), their Eee PC 1005PE (which uses little energy and has a mercury-free LED-backlit panel), their EeeBox PC EB 1501, motherboards (ten million of which can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 210,000 tons annually and also reduces radiation exposure), and Designo LED Monitors.

Perhaps in the future, more and more companies will follow suit, to revolutionize the world’s green technology in hopes of maintaining what resources we have.

ASUS Eee PC 1005PE-PU17 10.1 Netbook, Intel Atom N450, 1GB, 250GB HDD, 802.11n, Bluetooth, Webcam, Windows 7 Starter (Blue)ASUS Eee Box EB1501-W0167 Intel Atom N330(1.60GHz) Dual Core 2GB DDR2 NVIDIA ION graphics

[via ASUS]

Intel Matrix Storage Console 8.9 and iaStor Event ID 9 Logs

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When I built my i7 workstation, I used the Intel ICH10R controller to build a RAID 5 RAID. The RAID runs fine for 5 months. I have run into a lot of troubles with the RAID starting since one month ago. It started when I first noticed my RAID got degraded. While I was trying to figure out which disk went bad, I found that I did not have Intel Matrix Storage Console installed. The console program is used to manage the RAID on the system. Without it, I cannot identify the failed hard drive and replace the hard drive. The newest version at the time is 8.9, so I installed the newest version.

After I installed the console program, I was able to find out which hard drive is the cause. I removed the problematic hard drive and tested it. The hard drive was indeed bad. I RMAed the drive and sent the drive back for a replacement. The synchronization of the RAID took several days after I inserted the replacement hard drive back to the system.

Just when I thought the case is over, the RAID got degraded a few days later when one drive fell out of the RAID. I took out the “bad” disk and replaced it with a spare disk.  However, the drive identified by the console program passed diagnostic tests. So, it’s probably not a hardware problem. I then checked the system log and found a lot of isStor Event ID 9 events.

Log Name:      System
Source:        iaStor
Event ID:      9
Level:         Error
Description:
The device, \Device\Ide\iaStor0, did not respond within the timeout period.

All the drives are of Seagate 1.5GB SATA drives(ST31500341AS). I suspected if there is a problem with this particular hard drive and the Intel ICH10R controller. I found there are quite a few users reported problems when they used these drives in a RAID cofiguration  in Seagate’s forum. I was led to believe the problem is the firmware of the hard drive and the only way to get around it is to replace all the drives because you cannot update the firmware of the questioned hard drive to the firmware that works.

While I was investigating my options, the RAID got degraded again. This time a different disk was identified. This disk also passed the diagnostic tests. I was about to purchase replacement hard drives. Fortunately, I stumbled upon a post that solved the problem. (I do not have the link to the post right now.) One user has suggested possible problems with Intel Matrix Storage Console 8.9. Installation of the old 8.8 version might fix the problem that the drives fall out of RAID for no particular reason. The RAID has been stable ever since I installed version 8.8 about two weeks ago. I did get one iaStor Event ID 9 in the event log, but no hard drive falls out of the RAID. I am keeping my fingers crossed for now. I’ll update the post for future “development”.

Brother Laser Printer “Toner Life End” Message

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When I purchased my Brother Laser Printer HL-2170W, I was aware of the notorious premature “toner life end” problem. The printer has a sensor for the toner, it would stop printing when the toner is low. The problem is often times the printer stops working even when the toner is perfectly fine.

My printer stopped working when the page count is only about 650 pages. To get around this problem, there is a trick that you can do it by yourself. Here are the steps.

  1. Follow the printer’s instructions to take out the toner.
  2. There is a round hole to the right side of the toner. Use a strip of non-transparent tape to cover this hole. If you do not have non-transparent tape, you can tape a small piece of paper there instead.
  3. Insert the toner back to the printer.