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The Ramblings of Master D. Homie

Number of devices exceeded the maximum limit of devices per quad

clock July 1, 2013 22:15 by author Master D. Homie

I recently re-experienced a problem with a RAID controller that was extremely frustrating. The most frustrating part was not remembering what the resolution was so I am posting this to help me remember.

RAID Controller BIOS Version 2.07.00 (Build March 31, 2009)
?A -0 (Bus 6 Dev 0) Intel(R) RAID Controller SROMBSASMR
FW package: 11.0.1-0051

Number of devices exceeded the maximum limit of devices per quad
Please remove the extra drives and reboot system to avoid losing data
System has halted due to unsupported configuration.

If you contact Intel Technical Support, then will insist that the problem is a the backplane firmware or even a defective backplane or the same for the RAID controller. If you have the current firmware and you are fairly certain that the backplane is not defective, AND IF YOU HAVE A CURRENT RESTORABLE BACKUP, then you might consider the following operation to help determine if a defective hard disk is causing the problem.

The cause of this error message was due to a hard disk drive malfunctioning. The drive causing the problem was a Seagate ST31000340NS with a firmware marking of SN16. Once the single defective physical disk was removed, the controller will allow access the RAID BIOS Console.

An orange light was present on the drive slot indicating a failure, but it doesn't usually require removal to access the RAID BIOS Console.



How to Provider Unlock an AT&T Wireless Phone within the United States

clock June 24, 2013 22:25 by author Master D. Homie

I recently performed this procedure successfully with very little effort, but it seems that this is difficult for some people to accomplish so I am posting it here with the hope that it will assist someone experiencing difficulty unlocking an AT&T phone.

  1. Obtain the IMEI Number from the phone
    1. Usually inside the battery compartment under the battery
    2. Alternate method is the go to the dialer on the phone and enter *#06# and it will disply the number on the screen
  2. Call +1 (800) 331-0500
  3. Ask the AT&T Representative to provide the unlock code for the phone

The phone must not be obligated to any current or expired contract for AT&T to provide the Unlock Code.

Besure to keep the unlock code for possible future use.



Loose Ends

clock March 29, 2009 04:39 by author Master D. Homie

I have noticed I leave final updates out of my blog posts recently. Hopefully this post clears up some of that.

Vehicle Problems: Replaced the spark plugs & wires. – Let this be a lesson to you (and me), don’t drive a car 100,000 miles without replacing the spark plugs! Duh.

eVGA 6200 LE Display Adapter: eVGA replaced the card with the exact same model. I guess they had some in stock… no free upgrade :)

Rats: They went away… then came back. They don’t scratch around under the house anymore, but I know they’re still around cause something is getting into the garage and destroying plastic bags on the floor. Time for traps.

That pretty much wraps it up for now.



You’re Kidding … Right??

clock March 28, 2009 12:46 by author Master D. Homie

Zune is 2½ years old and doesn’t work with Windows Media Player? OMG Why!? The Zune software is terrible! You cannot search for songs by folder. This is what you call “Seamless Computing”, which William Henry Gates III has been talking about forever. Is this an anti-trust “hot spot” or something? I say “This is just dumb”.



GPT Disk??

clock March 22, 2009 23:49 by author Master D. Homie

After adding a hard disk to my computer today, I found out that you can't have more than four MBR disks in your Windows operating system (even x64 versions!) and that MBR partitioned disks have an upper limit of 2 Terabytes! Normal (x86 & x64) Windows operating systems (Pre-Vista SP1) cannot boot from GPT partitions. It is unlikely that the standard version (32-Bit) of Windows XP will ever boot from GPT partitioned disks.

What does this mean? Unless Microsoft fixes/patches this for Windows XP, your boot drive cannot be larger than 2 terabytes. Since this size of hard disk is already in the market, I found it interesting enough to comment on.

Resources Below:

Windows and GPT FAQ

Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) and Unified EFI (UEFI)

Everything you want to know about GPT for Microsoft Windows with Itanium Processors



EVGA Update

clock March 6, 2009 19:29 by author Master D. Homie
After returning the 7600GS display adapter for repair, EVGA sent me a replacemnt. The replacement was a 9600GT! All the major vendors now have a lifetime warranty, but it still makes me happy. I just sent them an old AGP 6200 LE card for the same problem. Who knows what I'll get back :)


EVGA Explosion

clock February 10, 2009 21:19 by author Master D. Homie
My EVGA 7600GS PCI-E display adapter failed last Friday while I was at work. I have deduced that an explosion must have occurred because several capacitors have physically "popped". I have noticed this as a trend with EVGA display adapters in the last few months. I am happy to say that the display adapter that I won from Nvidia at the Microsoft/Intel Ready to Rock Roadshow will be replaced at no charge through EVGA's RMA program. Even though I got the card at no cost... I think I'm finished purchasing EVGA display adapters at work. We switched to XFX because all the major distributors stock XFX and they have the Double Protection Warranty.


Wii Update... Okay so it's more than an update... I just couldn't stop!

clock January 10, 2009 23:13 by author Master D. Homie

Our family recently played Wii Fit together and it said I lost 6 pounds in 65 days. I guess that's good since we just went through the holidays. The sad part is… the last time I played was 65 days ago. J My wife challenged me to perform The Tree yoga position after I said I could do it... Big mouth! I guess I got what I deserved, but I did it successfully. After playing the Wii for a few minutes, I always get sucked in… so I tried a Ski Jumping balance game. That was a lot of fun especially when you FAIL! Wii Fit is like a collection of mini-games that you play for a few minutes each to help build strength, balance, focus, and endurance. It gives you a little workout and it’s loads of fun.

Wii

We receive Error: 32002 every time we attempt to update the Wii to the current version. My kids can play games using the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection without any problems. We can access the Everybody Votes Channel & the Check Mii Out Channel. What I don't understand is why I even need to tell the system to download the update. The stupid Wii Connect 24 should just download it for me and then ask me if I want to install it. Then I wouldn't need to take the Wii somewhere with a faster Internet connection. For as cool as I think the Wii is... this is the only thing that really bothers me.

Since I am such a whiner about Nintendo's stupid broken crap, I will list the things we love about the Wii.

  •  We can send messages (even audio messages with Wii Speak) to other people we know who also have a Nintendo Wii and it shows our Mii character as the sender.
  • We can download/purchase classic games we played years ago for NES, SNES, N64, Sega Genesis, Turbo Grafx 16, and NEO GEO through the Virtual Console.
  • We can also play our Nintendo GameCube games in the Nintendo Wii. Just slip the media into the Wii and Blammo!
  • Gadgets... OMG the Gadgets!! (Wii Wheel, Wii Zapper, Wii Speak, Wii Remote, and coming soon: Wii MotionPlus)
  • They keep adding new features (Wi-Fi Enabled Games, Wii ChannelsWiiWare, and the Wii is now a DS Download Station for the Nintendo DS). Some of the games even come with their own channel, which means you don’t need the media every time you want to play the game. Mario Kart for Wii also shows you where in the world you care playing against… very cool.
  • The Wii Remote is certainly something unique. I have never seen anything quite like it. The delayed reactions of the Wii Remote controller really bugged me at first. Now that I have got used to it, they are releasing the Wii MotionPlus add-on with Wii Sports Resort. The add-on will remove the delayed reactions... very exciting!

What I think they should add or change (not whining):

  • The ability to earn Wii Points or Coins by using the features they keep adding and/or when you register games you have purchased.
  • Integrate Wii MotionPlus into the latest generation Wii Remotes.
  • Supply standard AA rechargeable batteries with the Wii Remotes & some kind of base station for charging them. (These things just gobble up the juice!)
  • Put more Wii Consoles in the marketplace. A person still cannot purchase a Wii without feeling lucky (Either it’s really this popular or Nintendo sucks at producing these things... maybe they like it this way...keeps it mysterious). An employee at Walmart in Bellingham, WA told me that they received 249 Wii Consoles at Noon on December 23rd, 2008 and by 6:00PM the same day, all but one were gone!

DS

Our oldest just told me that her new game called Animal Crossing: Wild World can connect to the Internet and talk to her friends. Each person must know an identifying number to access each other over the Internet. Then I discovered that the Nintendo DS only supports WEP only wireless encryption. Lame! Evidently there is a new version called the Nintendo DSi that will support WPA & WPA2, however... it appears to be limited to new services.

Club Nintendo

Recently, Nintendo changed the “My Nintendo” portion of their website to “Club Nintendo”. You can now receive coins for registering your purchased products and completing a survey. Then you can acquire Nintendo products with your coins. Some of the products are exclusive to Club Nintendo like the item we ordered. We ordered the Nintendo Game & Watch Collection for DS, which is a DS recreation of some ancient handhelds. I played the ancient recreation and found it as annoying today as it was back then… must practice!

***Update to the Update***

As I was updating my blog, I was asked by my daughter if she could update the Wii and I said sure.... knowing that the update will fail with the previously mentioned error. This must be the 17th time we attempted to update the Wii. It worked!!! We updated the Nintendo Channel and started trying the DS Download Play demos until about 1:00AM.

 



Rodents & DRM... Gone too far!

clock November 22, 2008 23:54 by author Master D. Homie

Every time my computer booted after changing the mainboard I received the following message: "The Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service service terminated unexpectedly". That message was also entered into the Windows Event Log as Event ID 7034. Microsoft cannot even deal with their own licensing complexity in a reasonable manner. The action of changing the mainboard in my computer triggers an automatic denial of use? Give me a break Microsoft! Microsoft Article ID: 891664 (see below) explains what happens and why. Looks like they automatically assume I am stealing something so they just shut off the service instead of promting you with a question like... Did you just change your mainboard? Thanks for that.

Cause of the Problem - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/891664

This issue occurs because the Windows Media DRM system maintains information based on the hardware configuration of the computer. If certain components are changed, Windows Media DRM may not work because it may view the change as an unauthorized attempt to move protected content to another computer.

This issue may occur if you have made one or more of the following changes to your computer hardware:

  • You recently changed hardware components, such as the CPU or the motherboard.
  • You modified any one of your computer's Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) settings that affect hardware components, such as disabling CPU hyper-threading.
  • You moved the hard disk drive from one computer to another computer.

I found the answer to my problem here: http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/251647.aspx. I decided to search for "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\DRM" in Google to find more information. This led me directly to the Microsoft support article referenced above.

I have a negative opinion about DRM (Digital Rights Managment) because "they" do stuff like this.

As for the Rodents portion of my post. I have some (yes more than one). They MUST die! The things are under the bathtub or something scratching around. It's driving the cat (Nytro) crazy! Kinda fun to watch the cat, but not my idea of fun knowing that I have rats under the house. Must be that time of year... getting too cold to be outside for the poor little critters. Damn they're loud! Time to go watch some TV. I'll deal with the rats tomorrow. Bwuahahahah!

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!! STOP SCRATCHING OR YOU CAN DIE NOW!!! I DON'T EVEN WANT TO SEE WHAT THEY ARE DOING DOWN THERE!!!



Motherboard & CPU Update... Complete

clock November 16, 2008 03:26 by author Master D. Homie

Since Windows Vista is hardware agnostic, I thought any storage controller driver installed in the system by default would allow me to boot from it. Whoops! STOP 0x0000007B was the error of the day last weekend after installing the new mainboard. As Microsoft Article ID 922976 clearly states, I must enable AHCI prior to attempting to boot from a drive using an ACHI controller. So... Old board back into the machine... change the registry... new board back in... Re-Activate Windows... All good. The new CPU runs so cool that the front fan and rear fan don't even run when I'm not taxing the machine.