Asus H81M-K network disconnections - solved.

You are experiencing random Ethernet problems on a machine based on this motherboard, i.e - disconnections (cable unplugged even though it's plugged in, cable not detected as plugged in), limited connectivity, or sometimes even the connection seems stable (network cable recognized, IP address is correct) - there are still internet connection or LAN connection issues. The reason may be related the faulty NIC driver that comes with this motherboard.

The best way to stabilize your on-board NIC (Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller) performance is to downloaded the latest driver from Asus, and after it's installed do the following:

• Go into Device Manager and double click your NIC card in the list of devices.
• In the Power Management tab - untick the "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" option.
• In the Advanced tab - Disable "Energy Effecient Ethernet" and "Green Ethernet"

This works for other motherboards that share the Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller.

New USB devices or existing devices stop working in Windows 7/8

Recently I started noticing a widespread problem with certain machines not being able to accept new USB devices or they would have certain existing devices stop working (driver-wise). This may be related to a certain PUP called SafetyNut that is a subapplication that comes with Ask.fm toolbar.

If you are unable to use any new USB devices that your computer hasn't recognized before, or suddenly things like your lan or w-lan card stop working and have a driver problem inside the device manager - it may be due to the aforementioned problem.

The simple way to resolve this is to uninstall the Ask.fm toolbar.

A more thorough solution would be to run a malware cleaner, and disable the SafetyNut service (yes it actually runs as a service, which is recognized as a malicious service), clean the discovered PUPs and uninstall the Ask.fm toolbar.

Turn an IBM X3100 M4 Server into a workstation.

This is a neat little server that comes from IBM that officially doesn't support Windows 7. In this post I will guide you through making it run Windows 7 using the built in LSI Raid controller and a RAID mode.
If you decide to use AHCI mode however, it becomes easier (as it is supported by Windows 7), but you will be missing a performance (or stability) increase you'll get with the RAID.

The LSI raid controller on this server does not have drivers that support Windows 7 - only Windows Server 2008 (R2). There's also a great many driver packages available from IBM for this controller, so choosing the right one is quite time consuming. After 4 different failed driver packages I finally found the right one that would enable the RAID controller inside the Windows 7 installation PE. I have uploaded it HERE.
Just unrar and copy it onto a flash drive and browse to it during the installation (when it fails to find any hard disks).

Once the system finishes installing - most of the drivers will be installed, the only ones that won't be are the Chipset and the onboard video (Matrox G200ER2). Download the driver for it here.
Chipset drivers are available here.

Computer goes into standby mode (sleep mode) right after Windows logo animation ends.

What can you do if your computer goes into standby mode right before it reaches desktop while starting up? Do you check the hardware for issues? Do you run error correction on the hard drive? Do you re-install Windows?

This occurrence happens 3 times out of five, so eventually the computer does reach desktop and works fine from then on until the next restart or shutdown, which made troubleshooting more difficult. Disabling standby mode in bios or windows still generates errors doesn't let you start-up properly. I went as far as to reformat and re install Windows, it started fine a few times right after completing installation - but then went back to this routine of going to sleep right after windows logo animation ends.

The solution was quite simple! A STUCK deeply sunken "Sleep" key on the keyboard! I HAD to take pictures.

As you can see - the lighting is dim in the room so it doesn't really catch your eye right away. It's also quite a rare key on the regular keyboards.

Abnormal PC shutdowns may come from a very unusual problem.

What do you do when your PC shuts down all of a sudden? Do you check your power connections and cables? Do you test the power supply? Do you check for overheating? What if all of the above checks out fine?

A couple of weeks ago I have ran into a very unusual problem with a Gigabyte G41 with DDR3 motherboard. It was only 2 months old, and when it got to a certain temperature (around 40 degrees C) - the PC would shut down. It was very hard to detect because if the room was air conditioned and wouldn't let the board warm up to this temperature - the machine would run for hours and hours.

Replacing the mobo did the trick.

So if you get a machine that shuts down abnormally after an hour or so, and all usually responsible components check out fine - it may very well be the mobo.