April 2008 – Pieter Viljoen's Blog

Getting Vista to go to sleep

I noted my troubles with the Intel GMA drivers, the Intel DG33TL motherboard, and Vista SP1 blue screen crashing in my earlier post. Since I was running the 15.8 version of the Intel GMA drivers, and Microsoft KB948343 indicates that, based on the driver version numbers, these newer drivers should not be affected by SP1,Continue reading “Getting Vista to go to sleep”

Installing Vista SP1 with an OEM key

I received my new Lenovo ThinkPad T61 notebook, pre-installed with Vista Ultimate, but also with 3rd party software I did not care for. I wanted a clean Vista install, and that is exactly why I made sure to order the recovery media with the notebook, thinking that this will include an OS install DVD. ItContinue reading “Installing Vista SP1 with an OEM key”

Intel DG33TL motherboard

This article was originally posted here. Introduction: After my bad experience with the Abit F-I90HD motherboards, read about ithere, I purchased two Intel DG33TL motherboards. Although these boards do not have HDMI onboard, they do have HDCP compliant DVI,and by adding an ADD2 HDMI board you get HDMI and audio over HDMI. The Good: OnboardContinue reading “Intel DG33TL motherboard”

Microsoft Expression Media / iView Media Pro to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom converter

This article was originally posted here. Introduction: Because of severe performance problems I experienced with both iView Media Pro and Microsoft Expression Media, I decided to switch to Adobe Lightroom. Unfortunately Lightroom does not understand catalog sets nor does it understand people tags, so the transition is not that simple. After I could not find a simple,Continue reading “Microsoft Expression Media / iView Media Pro to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom converter”

Abit F-I90HD motherboard

This article was originally posted here. Introduction: I was very excited to find the Abit F-I90HD motherboard for use in my HTPC,primarily because it had an onboard HDMI connector. I purchased two boards, but I ended up returning them both because of problems. Instead I purchased two Intel DG33TL boards, read about that experiencehere. TheContinue reading “Abit F-I90HD motherboard”

Antec Veris Fusion Black HTPC case

This article was originally posted here. Introduction: I purchased an Antec Fusion Black case to replace my aging HTPC. The case looks very nice, until you turn on the LCD display… The Good: The case looks very nice. The construction is solid. The Bad: The two included case fans do not have speed monitoring wires,Continue reading “Antec Veris Fusion Black HTPC case”

Philips digital photo frame

This article was originally posted here. Introduction: I have been looking for a digital photo frame for a while, and from what Iread the Philips Photo Framemodels appear to have very good image quality and good features. I bought a Philips 9″ wood border model 9FF2CWO. The Good: The frame looks very nice. The imageContinue reading “Philips digital photo frame”