I've run out of space on my Dell Precision M50 laptop so a few weeks ago I purchased an external 2.5" USB2 drive case (A$22) to use with a spare 20 GB drive I had lying around.

 

I soon discovered that my Dell was only USB1.1. The difference in speed with using the drive on my home PC (which does have USB2) and the laptop is painfully obvious.

 

My network guy showed me a new firewire/usb combo external drive case that was only A$44. So I snapped one up.

 

However, it didn't work in firewire mode. I kept getting time out issues. I knew that's what it was because when copying large files the drive kept "powering down" for a minute or so before resuming the copy. I'd get about 100 MB chunks of data copied for every burst of activity before the next time out.

 

Even worse Windows Explorer would completely lock up during a scandisk (started from the Tools tab).

 

I did the normal search for new drivers/firmware. The Microsoft site said that Windows Firewire support was up-to-date. Looking up the device name in Device Manager gave me "Dotop 1394 USB COMBO IEEE 1394 SBP2 Device". The company site, http://www.dotop.com.tw, doesn't even list the device so no drivers/firmware there.

 

I searched Google, but it returned very few pages and nothing relevant.

 

My Event Viewer had the following two numerously repeated events:

 

 

Details

Product:

Windows Operating System

ID:

25

Source:

sbp2port

Version:

5.2

Symbolic Name:

IO_ERR_BAD_FIRMWARE

Message:

The driver has detected a device with old or out-of-date firmware. The device will not be used.

   

Explanation

The driver received incorrect configuration data.

Possible causes include:

• A faulty device.
• An old device that does not conform to the Serial Bus Protocol 2 (SBP-2) device specifications.

   

User Action

To resolve the problem, try to reset the device by turning it on and off. If this action does not resolve the problem, the device is probably not supported.

 

Pasted from <here>

 

 

Details

Product:

Windows Operating System

ID:

9

Source:

sbp2port

Version:

5.2

Symbolic Name:

IO_ERR_TIMEOUT

Message:

The device, %1, did not respond within the timeout period.

   

Explanation

The device did not respond within the ten-second time-out period.

The device probably could not handle the amount of data read from or written to it. Some devices time out when you attempt to read or write more than 128KB in one request.

   

User Action

If the device not responding is a disk drive, limit the maximum transfer size on the device.

To limit the maximum transfer size on a device

1. Using Regedit, navigate to the following registry value:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\SBP2
   A list of manufacturers and models is displayed.
2. Double-click the folder for the device.
   You can determine the manufacturer, model identification number, and Logical Unit Number (LUN) by running the Disk Management tool or Device Management tool and then viewing the properties of the disk in question.
3. Double-click the folder for the NodeID for your device.
4. Right-click the Device Parameters folder, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
5. In the right pane, type LegacyFlags, and then press ENTER.
6. Double-click LegacyFlags and then type 1 in the Value data box.

Caution: This bit flag key should only be set to 1.

The SBP2Port device driver must be unloaded and then loaded again. To unload and then load the driver, unplug the device. Wait 30 seconds, and then plug the device back in. Alternatively, you can restart the computer.

If this problem is not caused by a disk device timing out, contact the device manufacturer for a firmware upgrade.

 

Pasted from <here>

 

I applied the registry "hack", but no good. I'm still down for the count (pardon the time out pun.)

 

If anyone knows the answer I'd love to hear it.

I'm a huge fan of Groove Virtual Office (http://www.groove.net.).

 

This excellent app let's me collaborate with others (or myself on multiple PCs) whether I am or they are online or not.

 

It stores data on my local hard drive, all nicely encrypted and compressed, so that I don't have to download the files I want to work on. When I make changes, though, the changes are automatically uploaded as soon as possible to a Groove relay server so that all the other users sharing the same data can get those changes too.

 

 

(If I have the same data on my various PCs then the data is synched up between them.)

 

It's a solid app that just works.

 

The biggest issue I find is that getting people to adopt Groove is hard. For some reason, despite the great feature list, people just don't seem to want to take it up.

 

That is apart from the Groove zealots (like myself) out there. I mean, once converted you're converted.

 

Anyway, case in point today. One guy I had using Groove on a particular project has ceased using it when the project finished. That is despite his enthusiasm to buy Groove for his department. He saw the value, raved about it, used it, and then stopped.

 

Maybe because our joint project finished he just wasn't "in there" everyday and the magic wore off.

 

I would really love to know why Groove doesn't get the following that it deserves.

I recently installed a few games on my Dell M50 laptop only to have them fail to run, to crash out or to just completely garble the display. So, I made sure I was running the latest Dell drivers for graphics, bios, etc. Still no good. I keep reading that it is recommended that I install the Dell versions of drivers, rather than go for the Nvidia drivers. I decided to go against this advice and guess what? It all works now. The Nvidia drivers were almost a year more up-to-date than the Dell. I'm now happy, but I'm waiting for something in my laptop to melt down in recompense for breaking the "dell drivers only" law. We'll see.

I've just started to use OneNote. Seems pretty good.

 

This blog entry has been rendered using it.