laptop - ATI Radeon HD 4650 poor performance in battery mode

I have an AHTEC Sense XHLB2 (a relabeled version of the Compal HLB2) that has a VGA ATI Radeon HD 4650.

When I switch off the power plug and run into battery mode the perfomance of the laptop is severely affected. After running some benchmarks I found that the VGA results are something between 35% and 200% slower.

How can I avoid the change of the VGA performance even If this makes my battery life shorter?

EDIT: Changed typo from 6450 to 4650.

Answer

ATI graphical cards on laptops are relying on the PowerPlay "technology".

It adjusts the frequencies from the GPU and its memory, to save power. You can deactivate this option in the Catalyst control center which should be installed with your drivers:

If you deactivate it simply, the card will be on maximum performance all the time. You can also enable it, and choose yourself which performance level should be used depending on the power status (if I remember good, there is also an intermediate step between max and min, on ATI power management, which could be eventually enough for some programs, and would allow to save power compared to the maximum, in battery mode).

Find and rename a folder Windows Batch

I have multiple directories with names of artists and within them can be one and many directories with names of albums. Example

Michael Jackson\Invincible (Album)
Michael Jackson\Thriller (Album)
Luciano Pavarotti\'O sole mio (Single)
Queen\Bohemian Rhapsody (Single)

I would like to rename all the folders that have " (Album)" and simply leave them the name of the album.

Leaving the previous example as

Michael Jackson\Invincible
Michael Jackson\Thriller
Luciano Pavarotti\'O sole mio (Single)
Queen\Bohemian Rhapsody (Single)

I have this code but I don't know how to search for folders that contain " (Album)" and delete that.

@echo off
setlocal disableDelayedExpansion
for /d %%A in (*) do (
    set "folder=%%A"
    setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
    REM rename folder
    endlocal
)

The truth is that I've never done anything so complex.
If anyone could help me, I'd really appreciate it.

Answer

A command to "search" for folders containing "(Album)" would be:

dir *(Album) /s /b /ad

See dir /? for more information. This could be the list to use in the for loop.

Just tried and this should work:

@echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
for /f "tokens=*" %%f in ('dir /s /b /ad "*(Album)"') do (
    set "filename=%%~nf"
    ren "%%f" "!filename:~0,-7!"
)

iTunes on Mac: How to use an external music library on a NAS (Windows share)?

I have a large music collection of mp3-encoded CDs stored on a NAS (Windows share). I can access the drive via SMB on the Mac. I'd like to change my default iTunes music library without importing the files to the local disk.

Please could somebody describe the procedure how to change that in iTunes. I see some options, but I'm not sure and I don't want to jeopardize my collection. Are there any caveats?

Answer

Hold the option (alt) key when opening iTunes and you'll be prompted to either create a library or choose an existing library.

You can then select the iTunes library that you have stored on the NAS share.

This method may require that the NAS share contains a iTunes library file. If it does, then you might be able to copy the default one created when iTunes starts for the first time and move it over to the NAS share.

The when you add music to iTunes, it will be written to the library file stored on the NAS share. YOu can turn off the options to make iTunes keep you music organised and turn off the copy files to iTunes Music Folder to prevent it from moving or creating dupes of your music files.

cooling - Why is my computer fan so loud?

Recently my home desktop computer has been reacting a lot more to heat levels. The fan starts maxing out just about any time the CPU is used, and it's very loud. It didn't use to do this - only in the last year or so (it's about 3 or 4 years old). I've removed all the dust I can find, but Speedfan shows it's running at about 130 degrees, and when it goes a tick above that the fan goes crazy.

Any ideas? Can the heat sink fail over time? Do I need to get better/quieter fans?

I'm not looking to put a lot of money into this system, so I'm hoping for any low cost ideas.

Answer

It sounds like the bearings on your fan have worn. The cheapest solution is to buy a new fan.

Remove the old one and take it down to your nearest computer parts shop and get one the same size and rating and with the same plugs to replace it.

windows 8 - Append to System PATH variable without including the User's PATH variable

Imagine the following environment variables:

System PATH = C:\Windows
Bob's User PATH = C:\Users\Bob

In a command prompt the PATH command returns C:\Windows;C:\Users\Bob

After running setx /m PATH "C:\Node;%PATH%"
System PATH = C:\Node;C:\Windows;C:\Users\Bob

In a new command prompt the PATH command returns C:\Node;C:\Windows;C:\Users\Bob;C:\Users\Bob

Another user, Alice, logs in.
Alice's User PATH = C:\Users\Alice

On a command prompt the PATH command returns C:\Node;C:\Windows;C:\Users\Bob;C:\Users\Alice

Bob has a duplicate path in his PATH variable, and Alice has Bob's paths in her PATH variable.

Is there a way to append to the System PATH without polluting it with the current user's PATH?

Answer

In Windows 7, you can look up the System Path with

reg query "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment" /v path

If that still works on Windows 8, then use that to build the new value.

You'll have to figure out how to parse the output of reg query. 
Here's something that might work:

for /f "tokens=1,2*" %a in ('reg query "HKLM\…\Environment" /v path') do set currentValue=%c

where

• the 'reg query "HKLM\…\Environment" /v path' string
  is the reg query command (given above) enclosed in single quotes.


• a, currentValue, and c are variable names. 
  You can choose whatever variable names you want,
  with the constraints that the a and the c must be single letters, two letters apart
  (e.g., you could use n and p, or x and z).


•                             for /f "options" %variable in ('command1') do command2
  runs command1, parses the output, assigns value(s) to the %variable(s) (%a, above; but see also below) and executes command2.



• tokens=1,2* means that %a gets the first token (word) of each (remaining) line,
  %b gets the second word, and %c gets the rest of the line.

  
  
  
  
  • The first word is path (the value name).
  
  
  • The second word is REG_EXPAND_SZ (the value type).
  
  
  • The rest of the line is the value.
  
  
  
  

  (You could just use tokens=2* and then currentValue=%b.)

So, after executing the above, you should be able to do

setx PATH "C:\Node;%currentValue%" /m

• If you do this in a script (a .BAT file), use %%a and %%c.


• Be sure to test this with echo commands before you do it with setx.

Keyboard types by itself

I'm helping my sister and here is the issue she told me about:

When she puts the typing marker in a typing bar (i.e Google search bar) it automatically starts to type a certain key (to be exact "s") in a sequence. It doesn't stop no matter what. If typing option is available that's what happens.

Any one familiar with that issue? Is it a virus? For now I recommended her to check the keyboard circuit and to clean it (that recommendation I took from here about a bit different problem involving similar properties).

Thanks ahead

Accessing secpol.msc on Windows 7 Home Premium?

How do I get access to secpol.msc the Local Security Policy Editor from Windows 7 Home Premium.

Do I need to install or enable this for accessing it on Windows 7 Home Premium?