ATI Radeon 4670 Monitor Scaling Issue with Hanspree HF257 Monitor

Hi there, Scott Mutterer in Bluffton South Carolina reporting in for Y'all Tech.... I recently purchased a new video card for my Compaq SR5710F computer, after a bit of research and some bargain hunting, I chose an ASUS EAH4670 from NewEgg.

Only $59.00 after rebate for a PCI Express card with a great chipset, 1GB of Ram, support for DirextX10.1, HDMI output and support dual monitors was my dream. I'm proud to report that that dream has come true for me today!

As for my purchasing experience, I have nothing but good things to say about Newegg. The card shipped on time, I received timely email notifications of the products arrival and got some cool free stuff to boot!

Upon its arrival, I found that the card installs quickly and easily into the PCI express slot my computer is equipped with. Window 7 Ultimate 64 Bit recognized the card and all by itself and downloaded a driver for both the Audio and Video upon it first boot.

The first boost in performance I noticed was that my Windows video index score climbed from 3.1 to 6.7!! That helped to raise the computers overall experience rating to a whopping 5.1! (Growing for a tiny 3.1) The 5.1 rating is the ceiling thanks to my little Athlon x64 2 processor. I should upgrade, but why bother; I’m actually a Mac guy at the core...

What didn’t go well you may ask?  I struggled with getting the latest version of drivers for the card; ASUS’s web site is VERY slow when it comes to downloading things. After about 4 hours the 99Mb driver and utility file completed its download.  Next time I’ll likely go straight to ATI’s web site. I have since learned that ASUS really just puts the chip on a card and cools it properly, ATI does all the development and distribution for the drivers.

Once the drivers were updated, I was left with a weird problem. I couldn't get the image from the computer to scale to the monitor properly. I had black bars all the way around my desktop and all the configurations I tried on the monitor didn't fix the problem. I messed with it for about a day and after deciding that I couldn’t take it any longer, called Hanspree for support. Yes, I am a tech, yes, I did call for support. Part of being a tech is knowing when to ask for help so problems don't take forever to resolve. As it turns out, my call was answered quickly by a nice fellow out in Irving CA. Just as soon as I described the problem, he was quick to respond that he knew of a resolution.

Turns out, the new software that ATI adds to the computer adds a control panel for Scaling the image size to the monitor, by default; the software scales the output at a ratio of about 8% smaller than the available screen size, hence the bars around the picture.  The technician sent me an email outing the changes needing to be made and as soon as I read it and applied the suggestions, a tear of joy came to my eye.

After owning the card now for 3 weeks, I am very pleased to have made my purchase.

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Online Back Solutions - Mozy Vs. Carbonite...

I recently had the opportunity to demo two of the major players in the online backup arena. Ill keep my review short and simple. I picked Carbonite. Its interface is very easy to understand and if you want the details, there all there right in front of you. I love that they simply place a green or yellow status light on your folders to indicate if they are backed up for you. Pricing is excellent as well, currently only $54.99 for a single computer to have unlimited storage space is a great value. Sign up today, you'll sleep better at night. Promise!

Test For Echo...

check 1, 2... Texted from my iphone, yo!

Lukewarm Deal at Best Buy

Hello, I was doing some computer work for a friend this weekend and the opportunity arose to update my hard drive. I was on the hunt for a 2.5" SATA drive whose cost per GB could justify replacing the nearly full 250GB HD in my Macbook Pro.

Around these parts if we want computer parts fast, we have two choices; BestBuy and Staples.

I stopped by Staples in Bluffton first because I enjoy that its less noisy and often times there's a great bargain hidden in there if you know where to look for it.

Before to long I found that the going rate for a USB 2.0 500GB SATA drive is about $109.99. Though the product itself is packaged and sold as an external USB drive, all we need to do is grab a screwdriver, (or one of mom's good butter knifes) pry it open and inside we find the same internal drive that typically sells to $40 more!

I shopped around in the store for about 20 minutes looking for a good deal, or at least something better than the going rate. No such luck. Since I didn't feel like I had enough capacity options to make a decent decision, I left the store knowing what they had should I need to come back.

I next found myself at Best Buy reviewing the portable hard drive sections. If nothing else, Best Buy had more drives to choose from. Additional brands, storage capacity and sale prices kept me hunting there for about 10 minutes until I stumbled on the what i feel is currently their best deal... The Western Digital "My Passport, Essential 500GB". With a clearance price tag of $99.99 taunting me just slightly above where the product was hanging, I closed my eyes and slowly reached my hand out for one... SUCCESS! It was mine!

I wasted no time in heading for the door to get checked out and start on my way home. I love a good deal and nothing makes me happier than wasting most of a day watching apple status indicators tell me when i can start enjoying life again...

I slammed the car into park in the garage, dove like Luke Duke out the window, rolled into the Kitchen and reached for Mom's butter knives. I wasted no time in cracking it out of its case so I could identify what model hard drive WD had used inside the unit. Turns out its a 5400 WD Scorpio Blue. Tom's Hardware has a great review of the drive here... It's better than average 2.5" drive and the price I purchased it at is comparable to what the internal drive costs alone from Newegg.

All in all, I got what I wanted, when I wanted it. Not a bad sunday!

Hello from St. Augustine!

Melissa and I spent the night at a wonderful hotel here in the heart of St. Aug. It's called the Bayfront Inn and as the name suggests, it has a wonderful view! I thought the beds were very comfortable as well. We may return someday...

We came for a simple night away from home with a plan to see a concert and it turns out they launched a shuttle for us. Hooray!

Im done.