The PUBlisher

Lian-Li PC-A60C Copper Limited Edition Case

The ultra-limited edition Lian-Li PC-A60C is definitive proof that sex sells. This super sexy case delivers not only a super optical sexification experience, but is guaranteed to get you massive attention from the opposite sex! Or at least the upmost admiration from your peers!

The chassis of the Lian-Li PC-A60C is a hybrid hard anodized aluminum case with pure copper highlights. Starting with drive bay covers, down to the motherboard tray, a real plus when you consider an aluminum case is basically a giant heat sink, the PC-A60C delivers the perfect copperization of case componentry.

Limited to a mere 40 production, and a scant 10 cases allocated to Xoxide customers, you had better jump on the Anniversary Edition Lian-Li PC-A60C Case quick! It is a rare chance to own such a limited and rare case, and an even rarer chance that such a case is put on sale in such a way that just anybody can click the order button!

Specifications:

* Chassis Material: Hard Anodized Brushed Aluminum, Copper
* Motherboard Form Factor: Standard ATX
* Drive Bays:
o 5.25" External: 4
o 3.5"External: 2
o 3.5" Internal: 5
* Expansion Slots: 7
* Cooling:
o 1 x 120mm Front Intake Fan
o 1 x 80mm Rear Exhaust Fan w/ Air Duct
* Front I/O:
o 2 x USB2.0
o 1 x IEEE1394 Firewire
o 2 x Audio
* Dimensions: 210 x 450 x 490mm (W x H x D)

Need a new case, buy a Lian-Li !

$419.99

Download CrossLoop 1.14 for Windows

CrossLoop simplifies the process of securely working with friends located in different physical locations and across different network environments. CrossLoop enables you to see the screen and control the mouse and keyboard on a remote computer. It is as if you are working side by side at the same PC.

You can get up and running with CrossLoop in under 2 minutes. Simply download and install the application and it will automatically configure itself to your network environment.
PC Requirements

CrossLoop requires Windows 98 or later, 128 MB RAM or greater, 2 MB hard drive space and a broadband internet connection.

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Phoronix - ASUS Motherboard Ships With Embedded Linux, Web Browser

The good folks over at ASUS have sent over the P5E3 Deluxe, which is based upon Intel's new X38 Chipset and continues in the usual ASUS fashion of pushing new (and often unexpected) innovations onto the motherboard. Without spoiling the review of this motherboard that will be published shortly, the ASUS P5E3 Deluxe is one of the most innovative motherboards we have seen to date and it packs one very exciting and unusual feature. Embedded onto the P5E3 Deluxe is a Linux environment that features a Firefox-rebranded web browser and the Skype VoIP client! Within five seconds of turning on this $360 USD gaming/enthusiast motherboard, you can be using Linux and surfing the Internet. On this motherboard the feature is known as ASUS Express Gate, which is powered by something called SplashTop. SplashTop is an instant-on Linux desktop being created by DeviceVM. SplashTop isn't even launching for a few more days (October 10), but in this article we have more details on this embedded Linux environment as well as screenshots and our thoughts with what will hopefully come next for this Linux environment.

Some images:

Check this interesting product and article at Phoronix

OCCT Perestroïka 1.1.1 available !

OCCT is a must have stability test that also includes support for a lot of voltage/temperature monitoring software, like Everest, SpeedFan and others.

If you overclock on a x86 or x64 OS, you need to run this torture test.

FEATURES

32 Cores support
A sound file is now played when an error is detected
OCCT is much faster when stopping tests

TEST

RAM mode is now limited to 2GB and will take up to 90% of your total available memory

MONITORING

Core Temp Support
Sensor names are now displayed in the lists with Everest
Much better Everest support !

HARDWARE DETECTION

New CPU support (C2Q,...)
Vista64 support (you only need Administrative rights for it to work !)

INTERFACE

New option : "Sound" : sound file played when an error is detected

BUGFIXES

Graphs are now always generated when monitoring is configured
Temp and "My Document" path is now correctly detected (was failing in some cases)

TRADUCTION

Chinese support (traditional and simplified)
Esperanto support
Brazilian Portuguese support

Download Page

Also available on majorgeeks

CBC.ca - Marketplace

Their dorky company names and their cute little cars give off an air of friendly, helpful competence. But do the people who make computer house calls actually know what they're doing?

As Erica Johnson's hidden-camera investigation reveals, most of the time the answer is "no."

With the help of experts from Humber College Institute, we modified a computer to simulate a common hardware failure. Then we called in the nerds. The result? Only three of the ten technicians who saw our machine managed to correctly diagnose the problem.

Click the image below to view the video:

Timeout Detection and Recovery of GPUs through WDDM

A common and annoying symptom of video card driver problems on Windows Vista is the "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" error message. You can find rants about it on almost every single tech/Vista related forum on the net.

I was searching for more information about it and found an interesting Microsoft article that explains why it happens, how to control it using regedit keys and so on.

Original Microsoft Article from November 13, 2006

Introduction

One of the most common stability problems in graphics is when the system appears completely "frozen" or "hung" while processing an end-user command or operation. Users generally wait a few seconds and then reboot the system by pressing the Power button. Usually the graphics processing unit (GPU) is "busy" processing intensive graphical operations, typically during gameplay. This results in nothing being updated on the screen, thus appearing to the user that the system is frozen.

This paper briefly describes the timeout detection and recovery (TDR) process in Windows Vista. It also documents the registry controls so developers can easily debug problems.

Timeout Detection and Recovery

Windows Vista attempts to detect these problematic hang situations and recover a responsive desktop dynamically. In this process, the Microsoft Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) driver is reinitialized and the GPU is reset. No reboot is necessary, which greatly enhances the user experience. The only visible artifact from the hang detection to the recovery is a screen flicker, which results from resetting some portions of the graphics stack, causing a screen redraw. Some older Microsoft DirectX applications may render to a black screen at the end
of this recovery. The end user would have to restart these applications.

The following is a brief overview of the TDR process:

1.	Timeout detection: The Video Scheduler component of the Windows Vista graphics stack detects that the GPU is taking more than the permitted quantum time to execute the particular task and tries to preempt this particular task. The preempt operation has a "wait" timeout—the actual "TDR timeout." This step is thus the "timeout detection" phase of the process. The default timeout period in Windows Vista is 2 seconds. If the GPU cannot complete or preempt the current task within the TDR timeout, then the GPU is diagnosed as hung.
2.	Preparation for recovery: The operating system informs the WDDM driver that a timeout has been detected and it must reset the GPU. The driver is told to stop accessing memory and should not access hardware after this time. The operating system and the WDDM driver collect hardware and other state information that could be useful for post-mortem diagnosis.
3.	Desktop recovery: The operating system resets the appropriate state of the graphics stack. The Video Memory Manager component of the graphics stack purges all allocations from video memory. The WDDM driver resets the GPU hardware state. The graphics stack takes the final actions and restores the desktop to the responsive state. As mentioned earlier, some older DirectX applications may now render just black, and the user may be required to restart these applications. Well-written DirectX 9Ex and DirectX 10 applications that handle "Device Remove" continue to work correctly. The application must release and then recreate its Microsoft Direct3D device and all of its objects. DirectX application programmers can find more information in the Windows SDK.

Error Messaging

Throughout the process of GPU hang detection and recovery, the desktop is unresponsive and thus unavailable to the user. In the final stages of recovery, a brief screen flash occurs that is similar to the one when the screen resolution is changed. After the desktop has been
successfully recovered, the following informational message appears to the user.

The message is also logged in the Windows Vista Event Viewer. Diagnosis information is collected in the form of a debug report that is returned to Microsoft through the Online Crash Analysis (OCA) mechanism if the user opts in to provide feedback.

Registry Keys

The following registry keys are documented for testing purposes only. These registry keys should not be manipulated by any applications outside targeted testing or debugging.

•

TdrLevel: REG_DWORD. The initial level of recovery. The possible values are:

•	TdrLevelOff (0). – Detection disabled.
•	TdrLevelBugcheck (1) – Bug check on detected timeout, for example, no recovery.
•	TdrLevelRecoverVGA (2) – Recover to VGA (not implemented).
•	TdrLevelRecover(3) – Recover on timeout. This is the default value.

•

TdrDelay: REG_DWORD.
The number of seconds that the GPU is allowed to delay the preempt request from the scheduler. This is effectively the timeout threshold.
The default value is 2.

•

TdrDdiDelay: REG_DWORD.
The number of seconds that the operating system allows threads to leave the driver. After a specified time, the operating system bug checks the system with the code VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE (0x116). The default value is 5.

•

TdrTestMode: REG_DWORD: Internal test usage.

•

TdrDebugMode: REG_DWORD: The debugging-related behavior of the TDR process.

•	TDR_DEBUG_MODE_OFF (0) breaks to kernel debugger before the recovery to allow investigation of the timeout.
•	TDR_DEBUG_MODE_IGNORE_TIMEOUT (1) ignores any timeout.
•	TDR_DEBUG_MODE_RECOVER_NO_PROMPT (2) recovers without break into the debugger. This is the default value.
•	TDR_DEBUG_MODE_RECOVER_UNCONDITIONAL (3) recovers even if some recovery conditions are not met (for example, recovers on consecutive timeouts).

Next Steps

Graphics hardware vendors:

•	Ensure that graphics operations (that is, DMA buffer completion) take no more than 2 seconds in end-user scenarios such as productivity and gameplay.

Graphics software vendors:

•	Ensure that the DirectX graphics application does not run at a low frames per second (FPS) rate. As the FPS decreases, the likelihood of the GPU getting reset increases. If the application is running at 10 FPS or lower and a complex graphics operation is about to start, then a flush can be inserted.
•	For running benchmark tests on low-end GPUs, use the aforementioned registry keys that control the TDR timeout. Remember that they should not be used in production systems because it would affect overall system stability and robustness. Use these keys only as a final solution.

System manufacturers:

•	Work with the graphics hardware vendor to diagnose the TDR debug reports.
•	Remember that any system that uses the aforementioned TDR registry keys to change the default values is a Windows Logo Program violation.

Resources

Queries: If you have questions that are not answered in this document, send e mail to directx@microsoft.com.

Windows Driver Kit
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/DevTools/WDK/default.mspx

DirectX Developer Center on MSDN
http://msdn.microsoft.com/directx/default.aspx

Windows Logo Program Requirements Suite, Version 3.0
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/winlogo/hwrequirements.mspx

Windows SDK
"DirectX for Windows Vista"
http://windowssdk.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms681824.aspx

Register your eVGA card and win a free copy of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars !

EVGA | Quake Wars - Enemy Territory

Buy a select EVGA e-GeForce 8600GTS and above video card ONLY from the list of participating e-tailers below and receive a FREE copy of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars ™ with registration. To register your product, enter your serial number below, and upload a copy of your invoice/receipt or email a copy to etqw@evga.com. To qualify, your purchase date must be on or after September 28, 2007. Remember, there is a limited supply - first come first served! Instructions are below, please read the full terms and conditions to see if your purchase qualifies.

EVGA Graphics Cards Qualifying for the Free Bundle:

GeForce 8600 GTS
GeForce 8800 GTS 320 MB
GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB
GeForce 8800 GTX
GeForce 8800 Ultra
Participating e-tailers:

amazon.com
buy.com
dell.com
mwave.com
newegg.com
tigerdirect.com
ncix.com
tigerdirect.ca