Windows 8.1 update fails 0xC1900101 0x40017

Apparently its the second number that gives the detail - 0xC1900101 means it didn't work and 0x40017 is why - if you have the secret code book.

There is a lot of documentation suggesting Nvidia drivers should be up to date as only the most recent support 8.1.

But that didn't work for me - after two failed attempts I removed my gaming mouse SteelSeries software (forget which website suggested it) and all was well and it updated in about an hour.

One final tip. If you have a failed attempt it does not download the whole 3.5Gb again. If you go to the app store and click download 8.1 it skips the download part and then gets on with it.

Its very difficult to imagine whats in the 3.5Gb of download: 'My Computer' is now called 'This PC' and SkyDrive is slightly more integrated than before. Apparently the metro interface is better but I could not see any difference. And with Classic Shell v4.1 you can now turn off seeing 'apps' in the Start Menu so you can almost completely forget your using windows 8 :)

WM8850 chinese tablet - bigger batteries and broken screens

Some of the newer cheap Chinese tablets available are based on the Via WonderMedia chipset and in particular the WM8850. They are recognizable because they tend to come in this case.

The one I bought has a VIA8850 Cortex-A9;1.7GHz processor, 512MB Ram and 4Gb storage. Searching around I found it was a Benton BT-M708D (Benton was still in the wi-fi list!).

It comes with Android 4.1.1 and a kind of Windows Metro interface which actually isn't that bad.

I had done some research into ROMS for it and there seems to be one, Uberoid available at www.Techknow.me. This is a ROM for a lot of chinese tablets. Using its tools I determined that mine was a Eken_MID7_W70_GSL1680_Z7Z67-030A and I also determine that the wi-fi did not seem to work so I decided not to bother.

I bought it for a friend's kid and bought it well ahead of his birthday to make sure it was OK (I had had bad experience with other cheap Chinese tablets).

Its not bad at all and far better than than the A13 tablets which I had tried before. One problem is there are no accessories made for it that I can find ( don't believe the dimensions advertised anywhere - it is about the same length and depth as a Galaxy Tab to but not as wide, and I modified a case out of one for this tablet.)

The kid loved it but the battery life was very poor, he ended up using it plugged into the charger and then the charger connector (2.5mm) bent and so I bought a new one with a longer lead. Also the screen scuff really quickly and I found that screen protectors for the old Kindle Fire worked very well. Also, he tended to use it without the case and then one fateful day, it was in his bag, the bag hit a wall and when we took it out the screen was smashed.

So I thought I would try and fix and enhance it before shelling out another £50 for a new one.

I MADE THESE MODIFICATIONS AND REPAIRS AT MY OWN RISK AND TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY PROBLEMS YOU HAVE IF YOU TRY IT YOURSELF. YOUR TABLET MAY BE DIFFERENT SO DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH.

There is no Rom manager or recovery avaliable for these tablets and I could not find a download of the factory Rom which I knew was correct. There seemed to be a lot of people with bricked tablets out there from tampering.

Anyway as I was replacing the screen I thought I would do the battery as well. The battery it came with was suppose to be a 2800mAh/3.7V Lithium - but it wasn't. On removing it it is one third of an iPad 2 battery also known as a Samsung PGF2865B3A which is 2310mAh. Also the battery seemed very spongy in use: it would discharge very quickly and then the battery level would creep up again afterwards.. I began to wonder if it was a genuine Samsung.

The Samsung battery is only 2.8mm thick but there seemed to be a bit of extra space in the case so I searched eBay for a bigger one that would fit. I bought what was described as 3.7V 3500mAh 4358107 lithium Battery Rechargeable Polymer Li-Po For Tablet PC from the seller bestuonline . Its dimensions are  107mm(L) * 58mm(W) * 4.3mm(H). It came fairly quickly and it was an easy job to unsolder the old one and put in the new one. * See end - battery did not stay good for long... :(

The difference was unbelievable. After half an hour of youtube and angrybirds which would have reduced the old battery to about 30% the new one dropped steadily to 80%. 

Very pleased but not actually tried closing the case with the new battery yet.. I'm still waiting for the screen,

It is actually the Digitizer that has gone, not the LCD and I managed to find what I hope is the right one from DHGate.com . It was just over £12 with postage and is still somewhere on its way to me. Item - Cheap Front Touch Screen Glass Digitizer Replacement for WM8850 - item # 160990373
http://www.dhgate.com/product/cheap-front-touch-screen-glass-digitizer/160990373.html#s1-1-1|3597684784 
IT MAY NOT BE THE RIGHT MODEL FOR YOU SO DO YOUR RESEARCH - DO NOT BLAME ME IF ITS WRONG

From what I have seen, you have to be VERY careful with digitizers, they tend to be the thing that doesn't work propery on cheap tablets and if you scuff the delicate side, you've ruined it.

Here is the inside view of the removed digitiser for those that are interested. There is what looks like a part number / date Y7Y001/20121229.

Now waiting for the new digitizer to arrive.

The new Digitizer has arrived! Just under two weeks from china, looks like its the correct model, will let you know. 

I used this video on Youtube to guide me. It is for a different tablet but the principles are the same.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUe-YqUZr_E 


The touchscreen had to be removed from the bezil and the new touchscreen stuck in - it all took about 15 minutes.

Put it all back together and it works!

And whats more the new super battery fits as well.

A successful venture that saved £40 and improved the battery life from miserable to reasonable!
UPDATE!!! A month later and the new battery caused loads of problems. Seemed fine at first then suddenly would looks all charge when you weren't looking. Have put the old battery back in.

Software update fails on Galaxy S2 - it could be the battery

I thought I would write about this as I had to go through loads of forums where where people asked a question ' why does my battery drain terribly when I enter recovery' and the answer was 'search the forum, its already been answered, stop wasting our time.'

If you happened to phrase your search exactly right then you might find it, and I eventually did. So here it is:

Your battery may appear to be working fine, but, if you've been using it for over a year, and remembering lithium ion batteries only last for 500 charges, it may not operate correctly in the high current environment of software update or recovery.

Samsung and Rom makers say you should always have a fully charged battery before updating the software and most custom Rom makers say you should have at least 66%. But I was seeing the battery charge drop to 8% after updating and someone I know had the update get corrupted (presumably the battery completely failed for a while) and his phone is still not working.

So the answer is easy - get a new battery. And if your phone is boot looping after a failed update you can try the instructions here to blow the operating system back - (again no warranties whatsoever - use at your own risk)
http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/mobile-apps/how-to-go-back-to-a-stock-android-rom-on-samsung-galaxy-s2-50007880/

Installing the Amazon Mobile plugin for Eclipse for people who refuse to read the instructions

Well if you are like me and you've wasted a day trying to install the Amazon Mobile App SDK Eclipse Plugin I would like to point out something that I didn't do.

There is a page dedicated to the SDK but there is another page dedicated to lucky eclipse users saying how easy it is for them because there is a dedicated eclipse plugin here.

THE SDK IS NOT INCLUDED IN THE PLUGIN!

So maybe this is suppose to be apparent to programmy people. The only reference I could find to it was in the requirements:

• The latest version of the Amazon Mobile App SDK. Versions of the SDK that work with the Eclipse plugin include a spec.yaml file in the tools folder of each of the APIs.
  Make note of your SDK path, because you must provide it when installing the Eclipse plugin.

When you read this (which of course you wouldn't do because you never read the requirements) all makes sense.

So for the lazy:
1.) Download the SDK and copy it to a location you are happy to call its install location.
2.) Follow these instructions for installing the plugin.
3.) Then in:

In Eclipse, on the Window menu (on a Mac, on the Eclipse menu), click Preferences, and then click Amazon Mobile App SDK.
In the SDK Location box, specify the path where you installed the Amazon Mobile App SDK, and then click OK.

Reading this back it seems obvious but I did waste a day not realizing that the SDK wasn't included in the plugin so so might you.

Updated: Computers for the elderly - Windows 8 for the silver surfers

My mother had been moaning for sometime that she found emailing (the only thing she really does on a computer) frustrating. I had set up a Gmail account for her and thought the web interface would be sufficient - not so. Not only was the web interface confusing but windows 7 was confusing too, with its may pop messages that were meaningless to her. 

Then I had a light bulb moment. Could the Windows 8 Metro interface, the one I had berated because of its lack of functionality, be good for an elderly person for exactly that reason. I determined to spend £25 and find out.


My aim is that she will never stray from the metro interface because it is ideally suited to her. There is precious little multi-tasking, you can only do one thing at a time - which is good. You can only have one programme on the screen at a time - which is also good. The screens have very little on them - which is good. Pressing the Windows key will (nearly) always bring you back to the beginning. Excellent!

Installing Windows 8 was easy, after remarkably few checkboxes it sat downloading and installing for an hour or so without human intervention. I chose only to keep personal files as there really was nothing else to keep. Meanwhile I forwarded her Gmail account to a new hotmail account. Hotmail forced me to use a more complicated password :/

Windows 8, once installed, sets you up for a windows live account, sign in with your hotmail etc. This is the first Windows 8 oddity as it only signs you into hotmail, nothing else. I wanted the computer to boot straight into the start screen, no logging in, and that meant changing the account to a local account. (many guides on the internet) and changing it so you don't have to log in. Weirdly you still seem to be automatically logged in to Hotmail (which I wanted) and there appears to be no difference with the other type of account. Oh well, Microsoft moves in mysterious ways.

I was able to organise the start menu; removing all the 'trending' rubbish and travel stuff, and was able to replace them with tiles which were shortcuts to sites she might like. One really annoying thing is the 'Live Tile' feature which changes pictures in the tiles every few seconds. You can turn it on or off, but you can not change the speed of refresh and after about 5 minutes it becomes intolerable so you switch them all off and the screen looks a little less glitzy.

Another problem you can encounter is if you install any software using the desktop. You end up with a pletherer of icons for programmes users were not meant to see like configuration programmes. There seems to be no process for deciding what would be in the start menu like there was in earlier windows. You have to go and remove them all.

Anyway here is my Start screen with just the things she is going to use and a few treats. Now we enter the testing phase. I think she will find this start screen comprehensible and welcoming.. Who knows, I shall report back.

Reporting back
1) you can not have a battery indicator on the start screen (it is a laptop) only on the desktop.
2) no clock.. I tries a clock app and it only kind of worked.

Day 1
Not good. My mother thought it was confusing which I thought was unfair considering there couldn't be much less on the screen.
First problem was there is no wifi notification (infact I think no notifications at all on the start screen). I forgot i hadn't set it up for her wifi and there was nothing to tell me I hadn't. Only found out after the mail did not respond. Not a great start.
One of the tiles was an internet short cut to her favourite cinema. When she went to use it it was hijacked my microsoft and asked he to log into her windows live account. Why!? we were alreadly logged in to receive mail and who cares anyway. That was the second bad start.
We'll do more another day.

Day2 (which is some days after day one)
She was still a bit confused but it was better. I think the complete lack of anything on the screen except for the essentials is a bonus. The inbox confused her even though it works the same way as gmail inbox. Oh well.
We both felt that the text was a bit small (considering the screen was so empty), but as per Windows 7, I was amazed at how little control you have over the font size. I was able to increase it by 125% using DPI settings which was better. Also made the cursor and mouse larger and inverted. You can change the size of the text you are typing by right clicking on the message but we're trying to avoid right clicking because she's a maniac with a mouse.
Internet Explorer shortcuts still default to Microsoft the first time you use them from the Start Screen. Have not found a way round this which is really annoying for me and confusing for my Mum.

But she did admit, guardedly, that maybe it was a bit easier. time will tell.

Day 3
An enormous purpley blue stripe appeared across the screen which said 'this computer will restart in 15 minutes'.... thanks


Day 4
Discover you can not print from Windows 8 email app

New film 'Still Walking' using blender masks

I have just completed a little film for the Butlers which will be on show as part of their appearance at the Flint Microfest, Wiltshire, England.

Flint Microfest will take place at Salisbury Art Centre on the 17th of November and Pounds Arts Corsham on the 18th of November and the Butlers will be walking from one to the other armed with Victorian maps and traditional measuring equipment to record their progress as they go.

Their 'walks' are inspired by Richard Long's artwork 'A Line Made by Walking' (1967) where he got of a train, walked up and down a field for an hour until he had made a path, took a photo of it and went home.

I made the looping walk cycles in Blender using the lovely new Masks feature in 2.64a. I was going to use AfterEffects, but after five minutes of hating AfterEffects I returned to blender as 2.64a was released and the new Masks saved my life. I did need to upgrade my computer as the interface needs plenty of horsepower and it is still buggy so save every time you make a change.

I ran out of time to completely smooth everything out but I'm pretty pleased with the results. It was all shot on a 550D at Frogs Copse in Southampton, sadly under threat of development.  The soundtrack is made from all the sounds we found there.

Still Walking - Following in the footsteps of Richard Long from Larryboy Eutopia on Vimeo.

Windows 8 won't boot - SSDs Gigabyte mobos AHCI UEFI

(edit: This is becoming my most accessed page - so don't forget to complain to Gigabyte because they've obviously done something wrong - if they don't know they can't fix it)

Well I just been in a week of hell as my new computer will only boot on the 5th attempt or so. It was fine at first. I have a Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H motherboard, an OCZ Vertex Plus SSD and a Segate 2T HD.

This all started after I installed the F18 version of the bios, I can't remember which version was on there originally. After that on most attempts to boot I would get 'data can not be read from disk'. Also the SSD (which contains the operating system) would disappear from the boot list in the bios. I think changing the cooler was a coincidence to throw me off the track.

The following worked for me, it may or may not do the same for you so do some research.

I did some research and it seemed I should turn on AHCI (whatever) in Peripherals in the Bios (Sata Mode selection) and that would make good. Well windows did boot and then crashed. One time then I did this and set it back to IDE Windows said I had to use a restore point to get it going.

So further reading and apparently its not straight forward enabling AHCI after you've installed windows 8. There is a link here but the info is wrong in the main article and only corrected in the comments so I thought I would put the correct solution here.

This uses Regedit and you can completely destroy your system with regedit so use with care and I take no responsibility for any damage trying to do the following might cause. Also you need to have installed the Motherboard disk controller drivers.

amended from their website

• Exit all applications
• Go to the start screen and type in regedit.
• If you see the UAC (User Account Control) dialogue box, just click continue
• Locate the the following registry subkey:
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\storahci\StartOverride
  In the right pane, you will find a key labelled O with the value '3'. Double click on this and set the value to '0'
   
• Go up one level to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\storahci\
  there should be a key called ErrorControl which has a value '3'. set this to '0'
  
• Reboot your machine and set Peripherals / Sata mode selection / to 'AHCI'. 
• Save and exit and all should be good.

I shall be monitoring my system. Hope this post cuts down the time it takes you to solve this problem.