Random freezing, audio stutter and hard lockups in certain configurations of a Windows 7 x64-based system with an Atheros AR9285-based WLAN card

Problem: A system with an  Atheros AR9285-based WLAN card experiences random freezing, audio stuttering, blue screens (STOP errors), and/or hard lockups.

Possible reasons: A driver update for the Atheros AR9285-based WLAN card was installed. This driver, offered in Windows Update (id:  20301637) may be causing system conflicts (possibly interrupt/resource conflicts) that cause the system equipped with an Atheros AR9285-based WLAN card to experience lockups, audio stuttering and lockups that require a hard reset.

Solution: Uninstall the update and/or roll back the driver in Device Manager. If you haven’t installed the driver update in Windows Update (id:  20301637), avoid it or install it and be prepared for possible issues.

Special Note: Please note that I was having this issue personally with similar Sandybridge-based systems with the Intel H61 chipset, and you may or may not have issues on different kinds of systems with differing CPU/ALUs, and chipsets, and possibly between 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Part of the nature of system problems is that they may not exist on a different system. I published this problem-solution just as a precaution for anyone who experiences random, momentary freezing, audio stuttering and lockups that has a Windows 7 x64-based system with the Atheros AR9285-based WLAN card and its update (id:  20301637) installed.

Other: Relocate Google Earth cache to a different partition or drive

Google Earth relies on having two types of caches: a memory cache and a disk cache. While using Google Earth, these caches store bits and pieces of different kinds of data: terrain, Street View and map data. A few minutes toying around on Google Earth can result in quite a bit of data in the disk cache. For SSD users (where unnecessary writes isn’t the best thing to do to an SSD) as well as the users who are looking to conserve disk space, moving the cache to a bigger, non-SSD drive or partition can be beneficial.

Here’s how to go about moving the cache:

1. Open Google Earth. Once there, navigate to the File menu, and choose Server Sign Out.
2. Navigate to the Tools menu, then choose Options. Once the Options menu appears, look for the Cache tab. Click it, and within the Cache tab, choose the ‘Delete cache file‘ button.
3. Locate the cache folder. It is in this location: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\LocalLow\Google\GoogleEarth. Right-click on the folder and ‘cut’ it.
4. Next, paste the cache folder into the desired drive or partition. Be sure you know the exact path. For example, my system has an SSD drive for the system (Windows installation + programs) and a mechanical drive for my files, which is denoted as the H: partition. I made a folder on the root of my mechanical drive “H:\” named GoogleEarthCache. So, my path in this instance would be “H:\GoogleEarthCache”, but yours may differ.
5. In a command window with administrative privileges, we’re going to link to the moved cache folder. Do this by entering in, keeping the quotes and replacing <username> with your username, and changing the path of the destination:mklink /J “C:\Users\{username}\AppData\LocalLow\Google\GoogleEarth” “H:\GoogleEarthCache\GoogleEarth”

The cache will then be relocated to the drive or partition of your choice.

Adjust fonts easily–to your liking–in Ubuntu

The default font setting, Ubuntu at 12 point, takes up a bit of screen ‘real estate’. I can deal with a smaller font, which looks a little better, let’s say at 10 point. While it is possible to change the font in Ubuntu by means of third-party utilities (e.g. Ubuntu Tweak), it’s quicker and easier to just have a small little script to do it for you. This will change the window text, the titlebar text, the shell/text editor text and the desktop text.

As an example, I have my font set at Droid Sans, which is a good, nice and sharp-looking system font, at 10 point. Use any font and size to your liking, but be sure the font is installed on your system (Droid Sans, the font used in my example, is NOT installed in Ubuntu by default, install it by typing into a Linux shell window: sudo apt-get install ttf-droid).

Here is the script, below bold font. Paste it into a text editor, change the variables for the font name and size to your specifications, save it as a shell script, and enable executable permissions for the script, then run.

#!/bin/bash
# Set custom font and size

gsettings set org.gnome.nautilus.desktop font "Droid Sans 10"
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences titlebar-font "Droid Sans Bold 10"
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface document-font-name "Droid Sans 10"
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface font-name "Droid Sans 10"
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface monospace-font-name "Droid Sans Mono 10"

Again, be sure you have the font installed before you run the script.

Obtain a quick glance of resource usage in Unity (Ubuntu)

I must know about my system’s vitals–CPU cycles, memory usage, disk I/O and network I/O. A trained eye can tell if everything is at its peak or if there could be trouble.

I ran across a small indicator applet that places itself on the Ubuntu Unity panel, much like what was available in GNOME 2 as an option.

To install it, type into a Linux shell window:

sudo apt-get install indicator-multiload

After Aptitude (apt) does its thing and installs the .deb package, you can then start the resource monitor by typing in indicator-multiload at the shell prompt. The indicator applet will “daemon-ize” by default and be available each logon from thereon.

By default, it only adds the CPU indicator, but you can add other indicators by clicking on the indicator and selecting Preferences. From there, choose from the various indicators.

Disable hiberfil.sys (hibernation) in Windows 7 or Windows 8 for more space

Personally I find it hard to see hibernation as really useful. Most users put their machines to sleep. The difference between hibernation and sleep is that sleep requires the memory (RAM) and various system components to remain powered to retain open files, programs and settings; whereas, hibernation saves all of that stuff in a big file called hiberfil.sys on the system drive, and the user can pick up where they left off, even if the machine is unplugged and put away in a storage closet for ten years. This can take up disk space and, in some instances, pose to be a performance issue in a negative way.

Disable hiberfil.sys by opening an elevated (Administrator) command prompt and type the following:

powercfg -h off

…and several gigabytes of disk space will be reclaimed with little effort.

Prevent Windows from waking up from sleep due to keyboard or mouse action

Problem: Machine(s) randomly wake up (resume) from sleep due to unintentional movement of the mouse or press of a key on the keyboard

Possible reason(s): By default, Windows allows keyboard or mouse to wake the machine.

Solution: Disable this action by opening Device Manager. Once there, find the Keyboard on the Device tree, and open the properties. In the Power Management tab, deselect Allow this device to wake the computer. Repeat the same steps for the mouse.

Copy Group Policy Objects for non-Active Directory environments

You can apply Group Policy to all machines in an environment with only a couple of PCs without the use of Active Directory. To do this, you want to create your “model” Group Policy on a Windows physical machine or virtual machine, preferably a new install for best results.

After all group policies are to your liking (or satisfies the requirements for the application of the machine), go to your ~\System32 folder (i.e. C:\Windows\System32) and locate the ~\GroupPolicy folder. Copy it, and then paste it to the applicable machines’ ~\System32 directory, replacing the default ~\GroupPolicy folder, if any.

Note that this is for a simple environment (i.e. a small office) that doesn’t require the robust Windows Server/Active Directory solutions. I do not recommend this for more complex setups–for that, Active Directory is more efficient in the control and delegation of Group Policy.

Also note that you must have the Professional (or above) version of Windows 7, or the Pro version of Windows 8. Group Policy is not facilitated in the consumer versions (i.e. Windows Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, and the standard version of Windows 8).

A custom ISO of Ubuntu Linux reimaged with Remastersys does not have Internet or network access

Problem: A custom ISO of Ubuntu Linux reimaged with Remastersys does not have Internet or network access.

Possible reason(s): According to the developer of Remastersys, recent versions of Debian-based OSes have altered the method hostnames are resolved. Unless you want users typing in IP addresses to do anything with the Internet or network, it needs to resolve IP addresses to hostnames.

Solution: Before attempting a reimage of an Ubuntu install for deployment, be sure to locate the remastersys configuration file in /usr/bin/remastersys.

To do away with this problem, just type into a Linux shell window:

sudo gedit /usr/bin/remastersys

and once Gedit (your text editor) opens, locate this string:

$WORKDIR/dummysys/etc/{resolv.conf,hosts,hostname,timezone,mtab*,fstab}

Remove only

resolv.conf

in this string, and save. You can then create an .iso of the install and deploy, without any worries of apparent loss of Internet or network access.

A Windows 7 install restored from a Windows Backup system image does not boot

Problem: Windows 7 does not boot after restoring from a Windows Backup System Image

Possible reason(s): The boot sector is not available on the image, even though it was backed up when the Windows Backup-System Image utility was used to image the system. This could be because it was installed on a new drive (or system) that hasn’t had an install, or because an OS not compatible with Windows 7 bootcode (i.e. Linux) was installed prior to the restore.

Solution: After restore from Windows Backup/System Image completes, open the command line in System Recovery Options (on the Windows 7 install media) and type the following:

bootsect.exe /nt60 {all_or_systemdriveletter} /force /mbr

Then restart the machine and it should boot to the restored image.

(Note: do not type “all” for dual-boot situations. Type the drive letter designation for Windows, i.e. ‘c:\’.)