Unincorporated Minds

Sometimes repairs stop being about a quick fix and become a vendetta. This is one of those instances.

Recently, a Toshiba Satellite L305 was given to me for repair. The OS had been accidentally removed, but the person had the Vista 32-bit recovery disks. I figured no problem, I can do this in a hour.  Well, the recovery went find until disk 2 went into the recovery process and hit about 30%. I received a 10-FC12-0017 error.  A search of the net found nexperts (net experts) divided between bad recovery disks or bad hard drive.

The hard drive wasn’t acting or sounding bad. Plus ,my friend had said the only reason she ran the recovery disks originally was because the touchpad wasn’t working. It’s ok to laugh. I assumed the HDD was fine since she didn’t complain of operating issues.  So I figured it was the recovery DVD’s, as they had some serious scratches on them even after I cleaned them.

The L305 had a 64-bit processor so I figured, let me try my OEM 64-bit Vista disk.  It actually installed fine with no errors.  However, I had no valid product code and the product key on the bottom wasn’t validating.  So I knew I had to use the recovery disks.

Toshiba has quite a racket with these recovery disks. It’s $25 for a new set. I wasn’t about to go that route. 

I booted freedos off a CD and made sure all the partitions on the drive wiped before attempting a new recovery, With a raw drive, I attempted the recovery again, using the recovery disk to setup the partitions. It failed again.

At this point I was frustrated. I also think Vista sucks. I re-wiped the drive with freedos and attempted an install of windows 7 32-bit. It is what I had laying around. It failed with a “cannot install on this hardware error.”

At this point I knew something was up. I then ran CHKDSK on the drive and it took damn near 8 hours to complete.  I ran the recovery and it failed again.

So extremely frustrated, I put a spare SATA drive in it, and ran the Vista recovery disks. 

After about 14 hours of attempted recovery, the OS came to life.  So error 10-FC12-0017 on a Toshiba recovery, is a bad hard disk.  Save yourself the trouble and just replace the HDD.

What is most frustrating about this is the touchpad never did work, it was bad. The owner opted for an external mouse instead of paying to fix it.  It didn’t work during the recovery. That should have been my clue that more hardware (like the HDD) could be damaged.

And that is one of the lessons I learned.  The other lesson is, check the disk before running a recovery (something I normally do anyway for computers I don’t know the drive’s history).  The third lesson is never detour from your usual practices because you are doing a favor for someone.

I hope someone finds this helpful.

Also, if you aren’t reading this at http://beavmetal.blogspot.com, you should be.

This is a quick article on how to download videos from youtube (or any other supported site) and batch convert them into mp3 files.

First, how do you get the videos downloaded from youtube? I use the software from http://www.downloadhelper.net/   . It is a Firefox plug in.  Unfortunately, I have not found a Chrome equal.  SO I used Firefox for this task.

Using Download Helper, you just select download from its toolbar when you find your desired video.  You can select between flv and m4p file types.  I choose flv as personal preference.

Now the real reason for writing this, step 2: converting the video to a mp3.  I spent a portion of today trying out freeware that is supposed to do this easy task.  It all pretty much angered me.  Let me tell you what I tried so you don't go down the same path:

Freez FLV to MP3 - Not Free, can use once before getting a registration prompt. If you don't register, the program closes.  It also wouldn't batch encode more than 30 items.
FLV2MP3.org - It kept giving me 0 byte mp3 files.
A file from richapps.de: It wasn't a batch converter.

The program I ended up using, was VideoLan player.  It is an absolute favorite program of mine. There is no batch conversion feature of VideoLan.  However, a quick and dirty BAT file will do the trick.  I found the following code on the videolan help wiki and changed it for flv files.

Create your BAT file (How to create a bat file) in the top most directory where you downloaded your FLV files.  I plan to use this frequently so I called mine vlanFLV2mp3.BAT. It will convert all the files in that directory and in all the sub-directories below it. For instance, if you downloaded the flv files into C:\Documents and Settings\MYPC\Desktop\FLV and then have sub-directories of musical artists, you would want the BAT file in that top ..\Desktop\FLV directory.


Here is the code you need to past into the BAT file:

@ECHO OFF
REM ########################################################################
REM # A Windows XP cmd.com script to batch convert flv files to mp3. #
REM # #
REM # Copyright (C) 2008 Andrew Boden #
REM # (boden@graduate.uwa.edu.au) #
REM # #
REM # This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify #
REM # it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by #
REM # the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or #
REM # (at your option) any later version. #
REM # #
REM # This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, #
REM # but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of #
REM # MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the #
REM # GNU General Public License for more details. #
REM # #
REM # You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License #
REM # along with this program. If not, see .#
REM # #
REM # Version 1.0 (June 27th 2008) #
REM # Uses VideoLAN VLC 0.8.6h (www.videolan.org) #
REM # Gracefully handles commas and apostrophes in file names. #
REM # Not aware of any other characters needing graceful handling. #
REM # 512kbps encoding with 44100 sampling. #
REM ########################################################################

@ECHO OFF
FOR /R %%G IN (*.flv) DO (CALL :SUB_VLC "%%G")
FOR /R %%G IN (*.flv.mp*) DO (CALL :SUB_RENAME "%%G")
GOTO :eof

:SUB_VLC
SET _firstbit=%1
SET _qt="
CALL SET _newnm=%%_firstbit:%_qt%=%%
SET _commanm=%_newnm:,=_COMMA_%
REM echo %_commanm%
CALL "C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc" -I dummy -vvv %1 --sout=#transcode{acodec="mp3",ab="512","channels=2"}:standard{access="file",mux="raw",dst="%_commanm%.mp3"} vlc://quit
GOTO :eof

:SUB_RENAME
SET _origfnm=%1
SET _endbit=%_origfnm:*.flv=%
CALL SET _newfilenm=%%_origfnm:.flv%_endbit%=.mp3%%
SET _newfilenm=%_newfilenm:_COMMA_=,%
COPY %1 %_newfilenm%
DEL %1
GOTO :eof

:eof


This is the original code, it might be easier to copy.  Remember to change m4a to flv if using the linked code.


If you already have all of the software, it isan easy 2 step process. 1: download all the videos you want. 2: run the bat file.

I am posting this because I couldn't find a solution to the problem online while I was working with ICVERIFY 4.0.  It is a relatively dated program used to process credit cards.  Basically it is just a GUI on top of a few SQL databases.

In the past, if some one changed or lost the admin password to the user manager and forgot it, deleting the UserDB files from the SQL directory and reinstalling the app cured the problem.

However, yesterday, I was doing a new install on a XP machine. I choose a custom user name and password for ICVERIFY, as is an option, then completed the install.  When I went to open ICVERIFY, it thew back an error saying invalid user name password. After making sure I wasn't making a typo, I tried the default password and it didn't work.  Neither password would let me into User Manager either.

So I did as above, deleted the database files, uninstalled user manager, rebooted, then reinstalled. I tried to let it use the default login info this time.  I kept getting errors saying invalid login basically.

There was a great deal of trial and error after that.  I won't go into it.  However, my fix is the following: Uninstall ICVerify, User Manager, and the MSDE.  Go into Windows Explorer and delete the ICverify data, and the SQL data.  Use Regedit, to remove any instance of ICVERIFY, UserDB, and the SQL path.

Now, I was using a user account that was set as a local admin.  But after removing all that info, I went into my actual local admin account and reinstalled everything.  Worked fine for all users on the machine after that.

Last note, don't bother with calling their tech support line anymore.  I called today and once about 3 years ago.  Prior to today, I got a English speaking person who was well acquainted with the software and solved my problem quite quick. Today, the tech support number got me to what was obviously a 3rd party, English as a second language shop. Dude actually made it worse poking around turning off services and crap.  When he couldn't solve the problem, he gave me the "Oh you don't have a 2nd tier support contract, please buy one to continue" speech.

Anyway, I hope this helps someone out there.

Do you have old Books, VHS, DVD, CDs, Cassettes, or computers you need to get rid of?

I have been involved with book redistribution/recycling most recently.  But I can also make sure other old media you want out of your house gets the love it deserves.  It won't end up trashed or pulped (unless it's authored by Rush Limbaugh).  I'm happy to come pick it up if you are in a 60 mile radius from  me (Springfield-ish area).

I can also make sure your old computer gets either a new life or properly recycled.

Let me know if you have some stuff you don't want.  I love transforming unwanted items into a good day for someone. :)

Did you notice that I added some tabs right below my logo on this site.  I recently started selling books on Amazon.com and am still selling on cafepress.com.  I also have books to trade on swaptree.com and titletrader.com.  I have added links to each of those in that section.  Please check them out.  If you are a member of any of those, leave your link in the comments :)

I went shooting last week.  My dad gave me an old 22 single shot rifle and I've been dying to see how it shoots. My cousin Steve and I loaded up a small arsenal in my trunk and headed over to Vandalia Tactical.  Between us we had 3 old rifles/shotguns, a derringer, and a compact 25. Vandalia Tactical is a really nice range.  They have a load of guns, ammo, and accessories for sale.  They are not the cheapest on ammo. Can't blame them though, if I had a range, I'd make sure my prices were higher on ammo too. They weren't super high, maybe a dollar 2 or higher than elsewhere.  It did make us decide not to shoo the two 25 caliber hand guns we brought with us.

Also, if you need pink 38 rounds, they have them.  Yes, I said pink. Nothing pisses off a macho bad guy more than getting snuffed by a girlied-up bullet.  Although, putting pink on a 38 round is like putting a dress on a MMA champ. All looks aside, it'll still take you out.

Having never shot a shot gun, I wanted to have at those first. I'm a pretty good shot, even with the first round.  There is a definite difference in kick between the short brass and the long brass cartridges.  Couldn't tell a difference in the carnage to the target though.  We shot a single shot and a 4 +1 pump shotgun.  The single shot was an antique in that it was over 30 years old.  It kicked like an angry mule, but was accurate as hell.

We moved to our antique 22 next. His was a store branded Mauser and mine was a Sears & Roebuck branded rifle. Both shot really well.  They were like cap guns compared to the shotguns. I was more accurate with mine (even though it hadn't been fired downrange in 30+ years) because it was a slightly shorter and easier to wield barrel. Both had excellent grouping (for my shooting skill), but the sights were a bit.  We were both glad they didn't blow up in our faces.

The old shot gun left a huge bruise on my shoulder though.  It was worth  it.  The whole day was fun.

My place has an enclosed front patio that leads to the front door. Yesterday, As I was leaving to run errands, I noticed hundreds (no exaggeration) of lady bugs on the walls and ceiling of my enclosed patio.  It was quite a sight.  A creepy sight.