Kids these days

Posted by Michichael on Saturday July 03, 2010 12:58 pm

I'll let the words tell the majority of this story, but some background. Kid ninjas. Kid gets kicked. Kid threatens to hack the server:

 

1. http://i.imgur.com/AoXYT.jpg
2. http://i.imgur.com/kjvMg.jpg
3. http://i.imgur.com/JC4dk.jpg
4. http://i.imgur.com/I0iD8.jpg
5. http://i.imgur.com/gKj8p.jpg
6. http://i.imgur.com/oKENH.jpg

So apparently even though I redacted the private information (namely because I feel sorry for the child) that netted me a forum ban for a week. Not exactly a big deal since I'll just sleep it off. :)

Windows 7 Screen Flicker Fix

VMWare, Crystal Reports, Firefox, and others

Posted by Michichael on Thursday February 11, 2010 11:51 am

If you don't know what I'm talking about here, you probably don't use Windows 7 with VMWare or Firefox. There are a few things that freak windows 7 out, and the VMWare vSphere client is one of them - having it open will subject you to massive full screen redraws, artifacting, and screen flickering - seemingly at random, but often when the program is starting up or you are in the middle of something critical and forgot that it was open, so it freaks out the whole OS.

So far, the only solution has been to disable Aero entirely, which is the root of the problem - some may make the argument that Aero isn't a necessary business component but DAMNIT I LIKE MY EYE CANDY. I crashed out of a very important document as a result of this today and that was the last straw. I vowed to fix it. Imagine my surprise when I did it on the first try.

"But what did you do?!" you cry? Easy - compatibility mode > Disable visual themes.

You see, if you disable desktop composition, which is the "Aero" setting, it turns it off for the entire desktop while the program is running. Not ideal! However, if you disable visual themses in compatibility mode, you're set to go! Here's how you go about doing that..

1. Right click on your program.
2. Select properties.  
3. Select the"Compatibility" tab.
4. Check the box next to "Disable visual themes"
5. Click OK.

Just restart the program and boom! All fixed. If anyone has any questions, feel free to drop me a line below. :)

Windows 7 Screen Flickering/Refreshing? Fix here!

Posted by Michichael on Tuesday August 18, 2009 3:01 pm

So! I decided to install Windows 7 on my work laptop and see how it would perform in a work environment. I'm impressed. It's natively compatible with everything we run except for the VMWare ESXi control panel. Woo! But then I noticed a problem. Often, and even more when doing Firefox or resizing windows, the screen would appear to flicker - applications would disappear from the task bar (but still be open and visible) etc. It was bizarre, but not really a game-ending problem. It got worse and worse so I opted to install the latest drivers from Intel, WMDI 1.1 compatible! You'd think it'd fix it buuuuuuuut no. It doesn't. However, after much dicking around, and finding NO help whatsoever on the internet (Google, you failed me you bastards!) I figured it out. The tips pointing me the right way did come from references to OpenGL, and it took me a while to find the settings in Windows 7, since the "Driver disallows editing of advanced 3d properties". Or some shit like that. Anyway, this doesn't resolve it 100%, there is still some refresh flicker, but it's a huge improvement. Others may find settings that work better.

• Open the Intel Graphics Media for Mobile tray. You should have this installed and running, if it's not, reinstall your graphics drivers from Intel and be sure to enable it (Yeah, it's a hassle and I hate having more than bare minimums installed but it's necessary in this case). Right click and select "Graphics Properties."
• Now, in the Window that popped up, you should see a 3d Settings Button:

•  In the new window that pops up, use the following settings:
  
  • Asynchronous Flip: On
  • Triple Buffering: On
  • Flipping Policy: Flip
  • Depth Buffer Bit Depth: 24 Bit Depth Buffer
  • Force S3TC Texture Compression: On
  • Force FXT1 Texture Compression: Off
  • Driver Memory Footprint: Low
  • Texture Color Depth: 32 bits per Texel
  • Anisotropic Filtering: Off

That's what did it for me. Experiment, comment below if you find better settings!