Chatter Of The Squirrel

Creating ODBC for MS SQL Server 2005 Express

Stupid buggery that wasted a good 20min of my life. Installed SQL Server Express, but when creating the ODBC, it can’t open a connection to the local server.

Found the solution here,

“It turns out you must specify the instance after the server name, so in the server name in the dialog box for creating the ODBC Data Source, you must enter it as either: MyServer\SQLEXPRESS or .\SQLEXPRESS”

Wonderful. Why that level of un-intuitiveness ??

Also, to change sa password:

osql -U sa -S servername\instancename

sp_password @old = null, @new = ‘complexpwd’, @loginame =’sa’

go

OR

EXEC sp_password ‘old’, ‘New’, ’sa’

Thermal Goop

Dug up an old discarded notebook.

It was state of the art in its time. But now many years obsolete. It’s still running Windows Millenium, and I can’t reinstall anything on it cos it doesn’t have a CDROM drive.

Tried using PCMCIA & USB CDROMs, but the notebook won’t boot from them either.

It hasn’t been used in a while, so I opened it up. Managed to find a service manual of the notebook, so I managed to get it open without serious mishap. Only losing a screw, broke one claw, and cracked one fragile connector. Nothing critical.

Main thing that needed serviced was the thermal goop.

There’s a crusty yellow cake all around the processor.

Out comes the IPA, and scrubbing ensues. There’s a thick cake on the motherboard controller too, so thick that I had to shave it off like I was whittling wood.

The processor, I’ve got some Arctic Silver 3, super synthetic oil & 70% silver particles goop to interface it properly with the heatsink.

The motherboard controller, is a little harder. There’s a 1mm gap between the controller and the heatsink. Need some kind of thermal pad thick enough to interface them.

A quick check in my storeroom, and I dug up an old CD-ROM drive. As I remember, (from hours spent taking things apart for random reasons), there are these rubber thingies that interface the hot integrated circuits with the metal case of the CDROM to sink away heat.

And I got just enough to do the job.

Managed to put the notebook back together, and it still runs.

Not sure if there’s a discernable performance difference. But there’s great satisfaction in taking care of your hardware.

I’m thinking of ordering a new battery for the notebook to give it a new lease of life.

The specs is very modest. But the fact that it’s still chugging along after so many years leaves me in awe of its engineering. I have a stack of dead Dells that won’t boot up anymore, and some with floppy hinges that’s looking like shit already.

But this dear little thing, it’s worthy. I won’t mind spending maybe RM200 to give it new life.

I’ve already cracked open this one’s dying battery. 8 lithium cells, that I’m not confident that I can find in stock in Malaysia. And eBay is turning up some reasonable leads that doesn’t cost all that much.

Further updates to come…

Looking forward to installing Linux on this via network.

WinXP’s memory problems

Operating systems based on Microsoft Windows NT technologies have always provided applications with a flat 32-bit virtual address space that describes 4 gigabytes (GB) of virtual memory. The address space is usually split so that 2 GB of address space is directly accessible to the application and the other 2 GB is only accessible to the Windows executive software.

Here’s a reason why you installing too much RAM is useless when you’re still running Windows XP. Haven’t really verified this. Gotta check it with Kidd when I see him next. Haha… Won’t he regret not building an AMD64 X2 machine like I did.

Yarr, I have random drivers problems with running 64-bit Windows… But I’ll always know that I have the option to use more RAM, if I ever run anything that needs that much RAM…

Engineered Obsolence

My microwave broke.

The door doesn’t close cos the plastic latch isn’t springy anymore. And if the door isn’t shut, it won’t turned on. Safety feature.

Took the door apart and looked at the latch.

One small piece of plastic snapped off! A small fragile, plasticky hook broke. Damn me if this wasn’t deliberately designed! Just cos they want to shorten the replacement cycle of the appliance!

That’ll work on many poor sods, but certainly not me!

A small drill in a pin-vise. A pair of pliers. A bit of paper-clip cut & bent into a small “L”.

Drill the plastic. Apply superglue. Insert paper-clip.

Industrial conspiracy defeated!