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December 10, 2008 • 7:10 pm 0

SnagIt 9.1 Released

A new iteration of SnagIt has been released. Check it out at TechSmith.com

Filed under: Computer Industry, Computer Software, Family, Laptops and Accessories , SnagIt Techsmith

July 28, 2007 • 2:04 pm 23

07/28/07: Because of newer information I’ve edited this post from it’s original form. This post now only includes links to my most recent posts that link directly to the different manufacturers of the SigmaTel drivers or to posts that deliver useful help from myself or others.

Comments are also closed for this post.

Please Read Updates and click the links to them for complete information:

In the post SigmaTel Vista Driver Installation Step by Step I’ve linked to the PDF from IDT, the SigmaTel Audio owners.
In the post Updated SigmaTel Drivers for Vista I’ve checked the SigmaTel drivers as of July 3rd.
In the post SigmaTel RealTek Vista AC97 Drivers I’ve linked to RealTek.
In a new post “SigmaTel and PC Manufacturers” I’ve linked to the 3 biggest manufacturers that have Vista drivers for the SigmaTel audio codecs.
I’ve complied the solutions from comments to this and part 2 in this post: SigmaTel Solutions Part 3
Check out Part II with new info on the SigmaTel drivers straight from the manufacturer.

Technorati tags: Windows, Vista, Microsoft, Windows Vista

Filed under: Computer Industry, Computer Software, Dell, Laptops and Accessories, Microsoft, Technology , About computer software, Computers, Computers & Internet, Dell Computers, General Computer Software, Hewlett Packard, laptops, Microsoft.com, Notebook Computers, PDAs and Laptops, Software, Technology and Software, Windows Vista, Windows/Microsoft

July 26, 2007 • 1:16 am 24

SigmaTel Drivers and PC Manufacturers

Update: I recently checked for newer drivers and found some, along with a few for Sony Vaio laptops. Check out the links here

Some searching has come up with the following SigmaTel drivers for Vista:

Please carefully check the computer models and motherboards to insure that you are downloading the proper drivers. Before installing the new drivers you should first uninstall the drivers already on your system, reboot your computer and then install the new drivers.

Technorati tags: Vista, Sigmatel, Windows Vista, Intel

Filed under: Dell, Laptops and Accessories, Microsoft, SigmaTel , Audio drivers, Computers, Dell Computers, Gateway Computers, Intel, laptops, Notebook Computers, Notebook/Laptops, Windows Vista, Windows/Microsoft

December 16, 2006 • 11:07 pm 0

WiFi Security Hole?

I just stumbled across this article in TechWeb “Why Didn’t Microsoft Update Everyone With XP Wireless Fix?” and was wondering why I hadn’t heard about it from any of the mainstream sources that I normally see this from. It seems that the Microsoft Security article was written/revised on November 21, 2006, which is over 3 weeks ago. Microsoft hasn’t pushed the hotfix and seems to call it a in a round about way a feature.

Here’s the scoop from MS:

In Windows XP with Service Pack 2, Wireless Auto Configuration tries to match preferred wireless networks to wireless networks that broadcast their network name. If no network matches a preferred wireless network, Wireless Auto Configuration sends probe requests to determine whether the preferred networks are nonbroadcast networks. In this manner, a Windows XP wireless client advertises its list of preferred wireless networks. An observer may monitor these probe requests and configure a wireless network by using a name that matches a preferred wireless network. If the wireless network is not secured, this network could enable unauthorized connections to the computer. (Emphasis Added) The Wireless Client Update lets you configure wireless networks as broadcast networks or as nonbroadcast networks. Additionally, Wireless Auto Configuration sends probe requests only for nonbroadcast networks.

So basically someone could get your list of preferred networks and if unsecured could gain access to your computer. Even though they can’t access a secure network at that point, there are programs designed to find passwords for secure networks. I personally don’t think it is a big deal if you are using WPA2 and a good password scheme, I can’t emphasize enough GOOD password scheme. A lot of this depends on how well you have secured your wireless. In the past I’ve given people the benefit of doubt, but that has come back to bite me. Now I go with the lowest possible denominator and assume that anyone who asks me doesn’t have good security until I’ve questioned them in detail.

In conclusion, I believe it would be in the best interest of every wireless user to download and apply this hot fix.

Filed under: Computer Industry, Hacking, Internet, Laptops and Accessories, Microsoft, Technology , About computer software, Computers, Computers & Internet, laptops, Microsoft.com, Notebook Computers, Notebook/Laptops, Windows/Microsoft

November 23, 2006 • 12:49 pm 19

SigmaTel Drivers & Vista Update 3

Update 2/8/07: In a new post “SigmaTel and PC Manufacturers” I’ve linked to the 3 biggest manufacturers that have Vista drivers for the SigmaTel audio codecs.

Update: 1/12/07: I found that I had to uninstall the current drivers, reboot and then install the downloaded driver for a clean install.

I’ve gotten a lot of hits on both parts 1 & 2 of this topic. I’ve also gotten some good comments and some people that are having real problems with the SigmaTel drivers. I have not experienced the headphone problem after reinstalling the drivers with Windows Update. On the other hand I’ve had a lot of people comment with their solutions. So, to put them all in one place I’m adding them here in this blog, instead of the comments area.

1. For an Intel motherboard goto the Intel site and under the download section select your motherboard. For my Intel mobo (different to yours) the latest Sigmatel driver is dated 8/8/2006

2. Had hella probs with audio tried the update through windows tried re installing old drivers and nothing worked almost gave up then i tried unistalling my audio drivers then reinstalling after restart and Ive got sound out of my headphones cant believe it! Uninstall your audio drivers start from scratch then reinstall old drivers from resource cd or dell site.

3. I installed Vista on a dell D600 laptop and also couldn’t get sound via my headphones. The problem was nothing to do with drivers – by default the ‘headphones’ level was muted for the audio device! Go to ‘Sound’ in the control panel and then click on ‘properties’ for the sound device (’SigmaTel C-Major Audio’ in my case). Click on the ‘levels’ tab and scroll down to ‘headphones’. click on the little speaker icon to un-mute headphones!

4. I’ve got this sorted on the Inspiron 6000 now – I’ve installed the Realtek AC’97 XP drivers (for my Sigmatel C-Major) and that has fixed it, although it took 3 attempts to get through the install process.

5.

a. Right click on the speaker icon, select Playback Devices.
b. Click Speakers one time (should say something like SigmaTel Audio CODEC Working).
c. Click on properties, go to Levels tab.
d. Click on Input Monitor.

Your input is enabled, then just go to Recording tab and select as default the input you’re going to use (line in, microphone, rear mic) This should resolve the issue, it’s the same in XP only the Input monitor is a lot harder to find in Vista! They did a great job hinding it aparantly, don’t you miss the days of being able to just hit properties? Anyway, took me 1/2 hour to find this, and then it was an accident. I was getting volume (run my HD DVR sound through the sound card and the DVI cable through the monitor) according to the Recording properties just no sound coming out. Be aware, I found my first BSOD shortly after getting the sound to install

Hope this takes care of your mic issues and also helps others who may have had the same driver install issues I came across Dimension E521: 160gb SATA HD, 16x DVD+-RW, 1024MB DDR2, SigmaTel High Definition 7.1= Surround, NVIDIA 7300 LE 256MB, INTEX PC TV Capture, Vista RC1

Thanks to David, Kirk, Alex, Graeme & Michael for these helpful solutions.