How to fully Uninstall / Remove Drivers

When changing a graphics card, sound card, or network card sometimes removing the drivers properly can be a bit of a pain. It can also be a problem when updating drivers to the newer versions as often the uninstall program will not fully delete all of the driver components and will often cause the new drivers to not install correctly which can cause crashes and sometimes even blue screens of death.

There are a couple of free programs out there though that will help you fully remove the drivers so that when installing the new ones you don't hit any problems along the way.

Firstly you will need to download Driver Sweeper once you have downloaded it simply install it and then leave it until you have started the task of removing the old drivers. (Remember to get the new ones ready on a CD or on your desktop before you remove the old ones)

Once you have decided on which drivers you are uninstalling you need to go to the uninstall panel on your computer. Find the drivers and then right click on them and click uninstall/change. Go through all of the setup program until the drivers are uninstalled.

Uninstall or Change a program window

Once you have removed the drivers that you wanted to get rid of it is time to fire up Driver Sweeper. This program will remove any remaining files/registry entries that were left by the driver uninstall program. Select the names of the drivers that you are trying to remove. In my case it was;

Nvidia - Display
Nvidia - PhysX

Driver Sweeper - Select driver window

Once you have selected the drivers that you are removing (Already removed using the uninstall or change a program window) you need to click analyze. This will scan your computer for any remaining files and registry entries that were connected to the driver. Once it has finished you will find a program panel like this come up.

Driver Sweeper Scan Results

Once you have seen all of the files and registry entries you simply click on the "Clean" button in the bottom right hand side of the screen. Once this task has been performed it is now time to install your new driver.

Thanks for reading, Jack-O-Bytes

Budget Intel Socket 1155 Motherboards Review

In this post I am going to be briefly looking at some the cheapest socket 1155 motherboards that there is. Socket 1155 is the newest socket offering from the CPU giant Intel. It supports all of Intels latest CPU offerings including the 2nd generation of Intel's Core i7 CPU's. I am going to start by looking at the cheapest 1155 motherboard that eBuyer features on their website.

Biostar H61MGC- http://www.ebuyer.com/product/274290

The Biostar H61MGC is the cheapest 1155 motherboard that there currently is on sale. Priced at an amazing £39.60 ($63.82) This is clearly a Budget motherboard and is well worth a good look at when building a 1155 Setup. The motherboard it self has no real stand out features. It only has 2 RAM slots, It doesn't have a Legacy PCI slot or IDE plug. It only has one PCI-E x16 slot. However it does feature onboard graphics which has DVI output and VGA output this means that you could plug it into any monitor including HDMI ones by using a DVI to HDMI adapter.
The H61MGC does come with solid capacitors in the CPU VRM area which means that voltages to your new Core i3, i5 or i7 will be very smooth and well regulated. It supports a maximum power of 95w which is enough to power the i7 2600K, It can also support the cheaper Pentium offerings as well which shows this board can support both high speed expensive hardware as well as lower speed cheaper hardware. It only has SATA 2 however which is a bit of a let down, It most likely won't effect many people however as at the moment the only things that come close to maxing out the bandwidth of SATA 2 ports are SSD drives and not many people use them.
Overall the Biostar H61MGC is a very well priced offering from Biostar and I would recommend it to anyone that simply wants a computer that is good for high speed internet and also some light gaming if fitted with a graphics card.

MSI H61M-E33-B3 - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/260862

The H61M-E33-B3 from MSI is a lot more of a rounded motherboard. It has more of the new features that the new Core series supports. It costs quite a bit more than the Biostar however priced at just over £50 ($80) Having looked at this motherboard the first thing that I noticed was the amount of high quality solid capacitors. This is a good sign as this usually means that the manufacture has not skimped on the quality part of this motherboard to gain extra specifications. The next thing I noticed is that it features a Legacy PCI slot as well as two PCI-E x1 and a PCI-E x16 slot as well. It only has 2 RAM slots like the Biostar but that can be expected at such a good price. It can support upto 16Gb of RAM if you can find the compatible 8Gb RAM sticks.
The H61-E33-B3 also only features SATA II which is a bit disappointing but it is a budget board and remember that not many people max out the bandwidth on SATA II anyway. It supports CPU's upto the i7-2600K just like the Biostar and can handle the slower cheaper Pentiums as well. This board also has a Native HDMI output as well which shows that it was built for HDMI output. I would say that this motherboard would be great paired with an i3 or i5 and put into a media center PC as it also features 8 channel audio output with the 6 needed sockets.
Over all the MSI H61M-E33-B3 looks like a great quality budget board with good features for an amazing price and I wouldn't hesitate to recommended it to anyone looking to build either a budget gaming PC or a Media Center PC.

ASUS P8H61-M - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/261401

The ASUS P8H61-M is the cheapest ASUS board that I could find for socket 1155. It does come with more features than the H61MGC and H61M-E33-B3 and that is to be expected as it costs just over £60 ($96) Having looked at the P8H61-M I noticed that the board is full of ASUS's well known quality, It has only Solid Capacitors, Anti-Surge protection which protects your hardware from Electrical surges, and C.P.R which ASUS claims to help recover the origional BIOS settings should an overclock fail and the board not boot. This sounds like a very useful feature for those people that are always trying to push their components for the best performance they can get.
The P8H61-M supports the same CPU's as the other two budget boards and also only features SATA II again just like the other boards. It has the same card expansion slots as the MSI H61M-E33-B3 and also features only 2 RAM slots. It also lacks the feature of USB 3 which is disappointing as well.
On the positive side this board does have a HDMI output and also a S/PDIF output which the MSI and Biostar are lacking. This shows that ASUS are aiming the P8H61-M at the Media market as S/PDIF is a Digital audio out plug which is the best way to transmit HD audio.
Overall the ASUS P8H61-M seems to be aimed at the media market again but there is no doubt in my mind that a board of this quality couldn't easily handle some gaming work as well so long as it is fitted with either a i5 or i7 processor and a decent graphics card. Who ever said budget gaming was a bad idea?

Gigabyte GA-H61M-D2-B3 - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/261350

My final board is the Gigabyte GA-H61M-D2-B3. This board is the same price as the ASUS and for that I would expect the same sort of features as well. The first thing I notice about this board is the 2 RAM slots. Once again another board that can only have 2 RAM sticks in it. The next thing I notice is the CPU VRM area. It is packed with high quality chokes and capacitors and also features Lower RDS mosfets lowering the power usage and heat output than standard VRM's. The final thing that stands out on this board is the fact that there is no legacy PCI slot, only 3 PCI-E x1 slots which I think may cause some people to shy away from this board as many PCI-E x1 cards a more expensive than PCI cards that offer the same features.
The GA-H61M-D2 also supports the same CPU's as the Biostar, MSI and the ASUS and can support the whole range from the Pentiums to the i7's. What I don't understand with this board is that they haven't included a HDMI output which is very disappointing, They also haven't included the full 6 3.5mm sockets that is usually required when usinging 7.1 audio.
The GA-H61M-D2 also only supports SATA II and USB 2.0 which is also quite disappointing considering they haven't got a HDMI port either.
My overall descision with the GA-H61M-D2 board is that I don't know what audience Gigabyte was aiming this board at. It can't do proper multimedia as it doesn't have a HDMI socket and it also doesn't feature S/PDIF audio output. The quality of the VRM is better than the ASUS's but personally I wouldn't buy it over the ASUS as it seems that it is just lacking features and for the same price it is not worth it.

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Budget AMD AM3 Motherboards

Budget AMD AM3 Motherboards

Many people these days are looking for computers that are in a certain price range. If you are looking to build a PC in the budget range from around £200-£300 ($300-$500) then these motherboards will work very well for you. They are from good quality manufactures such as ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI and most feature Solid capacitors for better voltage regulation to the CPU.

MSI GF615M-P33

I am starting with the MSI as it was the cheapest AM3 motherboard that I could find from the more reputable and respected motherboard manufactures. It has a 4.5 star rating on the eBuyer website which is where I personally source my computer components from. It features an AMD socket AM3 and supports CPU's that are upto 125w. This means that this little Micro ATX budget motherboard can support many of the AMD 6 core CPU's upto the 1065T. This is very very good support for a motherboard that costs just over £34 ($54) It doesn't support any amazing features such as UEFI BIOS or onboard HD video but it will work for many users that only need a simple office computer. Technically with the PCI-E slot and the support for an AMD Hex Core cpu you may even be able to make a budget gaming computer out of it. I say well done MSI for providing such a great motherboard at such a competitive price.

ASUS M4N68T-M LE

ASUS have really managed a lot with such a small budget with this board. Getting one at such a good price is a bonus really. I found this board at the price of £35 ($56) The ASUS M4N68T-M LE has some pretty basic features if you compare it to high cost motherboards but it has all you need really if you are thinking of just building an office PC or even possibly a low cost gaming machine. It features 4 SATA ports which is enough for most people. It has a PCI-E slot so you can put any modern graphics card into it.
The main problem that I see with this board is the fact that it only has 2 DDR3 RAM slots. I suppose this can be expected on a board like this though. The audio is 8 channel HD but when you run in 8 channel you will loose the other two 3.5mm jacks as they turn into audio outputs for the different channels. The board supports CPU's upto the massive power house of the Phenom II x6 1100T. This means that is can power AMD's best AM3 offering. Overall ASUS have managed to make an amazingly cheap motherboard which can power the best CPU AMD offers on it's AM3 platform and also have basic things such as onboard video and 4 SATA ports. Great board.

Gigabyte GA-M68MT-S2

I am not sure what it is about Gigabyte but they always seem to have very neat looking boards. The look of good build quality and quality components. I think it may be the color scheme that makes it look neat and tidy but then again I am not sure. Anyway, This board is a great board. It costs just under £37 ($59) and it is build by one of the leading motherboard manufactures, Gigabyte. Recently some people have been saying that Gigabyte are better quality boards than ASUS but I personally think they are about level now.
This board has basically the same features as the ASUS board that we looked at above. It has 2 RAM slots which is usually sufficient now that you can easily get hold of 4GB memory modules. It has 4 SATA ports and features onboard VGA graphics. It also has the same 8-Channel HD audio that the ASUS has. This board however can only support up to the Phenom II x6 1090T not the full blown 1100T that the ASUS supports. The build of this board is the main feature really. It has solid capacitors in the CPU VRM's and also has Dual BIOS so that if one fails the other one can take over and repair the failed one.


MSI 760GM-E51

Having looked at a fair few full budget motherboards I decided to move up a few steps and show you a board that feature HDMI onboard. This tidy offering from MSI really looks pretty good. It costs a little over £44 ($70) It features 4 RAM slots and has 5 SATA ports (one of which is mounted as an E-SATA port on the back) The board looks like it has been built using good quality parts, The CPU VRM has fully solid capacitors and it also features solid coils which offer better voltage stability. This board also features the ability to unlock the hidden cores in AMD CPU's and also a flick switch overclock setting which increases the FSB automatically. It has built in 8-Channel audio and also has built in HDMI which makes this board great for using as a cinema system computer. Overall a great board by MSI for such a good price.

Thanks for reading everyone, I hope this has made your decision of budget AMD motherboards easier and better. Jack-O-Bytes

ASUS P8Z68-V Pro Z68 Chipset Motherboard Review

When Intel brought out the P67 and H67 chipsets, many enthusiasts complained that the features of one or the other were only available on one or the other, but not both. Intel has heard the community and is therefore launching the Z68 chipset. As usual ASUS is among the first board makers to offer a board featuring this latest chipset. The ASUS P8Z68-V Pro promises to be an interesting first look at this new chipset

Introduction

You’ve probably owned ASUS built products without even knowing it. It makes everything from motherboards to monitors, to consumer electronics, and more. Founded in 1986 ASUS has become one of the largest consumer electronics manufacturers in the world and is probably the largest motherboard manufacturer on the planet, surely when it comes to retail box packages.
The ASUS P8Z68-V Pro is based on Intel’s brand new Z68 Express chipset. Less than six months ago Intel launched two chipsets. P67 and H67.

The former was targeted towards mainstream and some enthusiast users. This chipset offered the ability to overclocked multiplier unlocked K series parts with impunity. At least, through turbo multipliers. The H67 chipset on the other hand featured support for Intel’s Integrated Graphics Processors, or IGPUs which are part of the Sandy Bridge core processors’ dies. Furthermore Intel’s quick sync feature was tied to H67 and anyone who might have wanted to take advantage of these features had to choose between using the IGPU’s and Quick Sync or overclocking. This didn’t sit well with many enthusiasts and of course, many people made their opinions on this well known. Well if Z68 proves anything, it’s that Intel has been listening. No longer must you choose between the feature sets of P67 and H67. You can now have both feature sets and more. And when we say "more" there is a LOT more.

Read More - http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/05/11/asus_p8z68v_pro_z68_chipset_motherboard_review

Asus prepares to unleash its Radeon 6970 DirectCU graphics monstrosity

ASUS displayed a huge new graphics card based on the AMD Radeon HD 6970 GPU. The EAH6970 DirectCu is perhaps the largest among the company's graphics cards that use a "direct-copper" GPU cooler in which heat pipes make direct contact with the GPU die. Such is the size of the cooler, that the card requires three expansion slots in your system. To make optimal use of the expansion brackets, ASUS wired out all TMDS links from the GPU, yielding a display connectivity consisting of two DVI and four full-sized DisplayPort 1.2 connectors.

The GPU cooler makes use of a large aluminum fin array which uses at least three 8 mm thick copper heat pipes. The aluminum fins are cooled by the airflow of two 120 mm fans. The card uses 2 GB of high-speed GDDR5 memory over a 256-bit wide memory interface, it packs 1536 VLIW4 stream processors. The card also seems to be using a 9-phase VRM that allows software voltage control. Power is drawn in from two 8-pin PCI-E power connectors.

www.customdesktops.moonfruit.com

Kinect Hardware Coming To PC's

Kinect developer says that "games are just the start" for Kinect sensor.

The gesture-controlled PC of the future is inching closer, as Tamir Berliner - one of the founders of PrimeSense, the developers of Microsoft's Kinect motion-tracking peripheral - announced that the company is selling development versions of the technology to other developers.

Following some already impressive hacks, incluing an air guitar mod, gesture control for web browsing and, ahem, some more adult-orientated efforts, PrimeSense are making the code which controls the sensor open source, allowing developers to use the device however they please.

"It will all be open source so you can take it and port it to any device", says Berliner. "When we founded the company we set out to change the computer industry with movement games, but we did not have the Wii to prove us right. Now we see that computer games are just the start."

The first company after Microsoft to license the technology is Asus, whose own Kinect-a-like called the Xtion lets users browse their PCs media files with hand gestures.

 www.customdesktops.moonfruit.com

ASUS Introduces All New Super Alloy Power Graphics Cards

Pump up your graphics muscle with ASUS Super Alloy Power graphics cards. The Super Alloy Power technology uses a special alloy formula which is highly-magnetic, heat-resistant and anti-corrosive to deliver a 15% performance boost, 35℃ cooler operation and 2.5 times longer lifespan.

 www.customdesktops.moonfruit.com

ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 Review

In terms of the 890GX and SB850 this motherboard is packed with features. This motherboard includes USB 3.0, eSATA, Core Unlocking, 1394 Firewire, Dual 16x Graphics slots and gloss blue aluminum coolers to help keep the chipset and VRM's at a stable temperature. This board also features on-board graphics using the HD4290 graphics chip. This graphics chip is no way a gaming chip but it is a lot better than some of the graphics that Intel are using on their boards. This board also makes use of 128mb DDR3 sideport memory to help speed up the on-board graphics. You can also use the onboard video as support for a discrete graphics card in what AMD call Hybrid CrossfireX mode. However unless the discrete card was slow itself then this would probably not offer much of a performance boost anyway. This board features 8+2 power phase. This will not mean much to most people that want to just use their computer but any one that is into a bit of overclocking will notice that this arrangement is more stable than lower phase power circuits. Another great feature that ASUS has included is the ASUS Express Gate. This is a mini operating system that the motherboard loads into if you want to just quickly check your email or have a quick look at something on the internet. This feature works really well as it loads a lot faster than a windows operating system. This board is also capable of running the quad and hex core CPU's that AMD are offering at the moment so you will not be short of power with this board.

This is the architecture that the 890GX Chip-set Uses

In conclusion ASUS has delivered a very high quality feature rich board for a the small price of £99.99 which is very much worth it. The only problem that I found with this board is the lack of a PS2 mouse port.

www.customdesktops.moonfruit.com