Rufus - How to create bootable media with ISO files

If you have a flash drive or disc from which you want to access a program when booting up in BIOS, the data can be saved in an .iso file - which acts as a virtual drive. The .iso image file holds the data in binary format. However you cannot download an .iso file and simply copy it to a flash drive, the standard way in Windows Explorer. To save an .iso file to a flash drive, use a free utility named Rufus, which is available here. Use the portable, or standalone version, which does not need to be installed:

[FWIW, I scanned it using Bitdefender and it was clean.] Rufus will run from the downloaded executable file and give you the option to select which flash drive you want to add an .iso image to

Rufus may take 15 minutes or more to copy an .iso file to flash drive. I used it to add the .iso file for Hiren's BootCD PE to the flash drive - it downloads from the site as a single file, 'HBCD_PE_x64.iso'. [Hiren's includes several data recovery tools, and I needed to use it to check if the drive of an old laptop I was decommissioning had been successfully wiped.].

It will take Rufus longer than an hour to add a 3 GB file to a flash drive.

When the Hiren Boot .iso file is added, you will see multiple files and folders.

I inserted the flash drive into the laptop that I wiped, and pressed F12 [the laptop was a Toshiba - other hardware may require another function key] to enter BIOS - the firmware. The flash drive was recognized:

. . . .Hiren's BootCD PE successfully ran:

HP 600 Series Printers - troubleshooting blowbacks with faded ink

If you happen to be using printers from the HP 600 series, HP M601, M602, M603, M604, M605, M606, M607, and so on, and the printer is sending out blowbacks for which the ink is too faint for legibility, consider that there may be a mechanical problem with the printer that a layman can fix.

Today, when I sent jobs to my HP M601 printers, I consistently got print-outs for which the ink was very faded. So for example, I was getting print-outs of the quality of these on the right, rather than those of the more standard quality on the left.

Under printer preferences, on the Paper/Quality tab, if EconoMode is selected, try unchecking this box and attempting to print out additional pages and see if you get a better result.

If this doesn't help, check and see if your HP printer includes an option under Printer Preferences on the Services tab under Device Servies to clean the printer.

. . . if no such option is available, open up the front of the printer and remove the ink cartridge. Check and see if a roller bar like that in the below photo is loose. This padded roller bar with the light blue cog and a black piece of plastic on the left side, has a tendency to become misplaced when the printer is moved. If it is not in the correct position, printouts may come out too light.

Without any special tools, you should be able to position this roller back in place like this:

Slide the knob at the right end into the slot in the white bracket affixed to the printer, and then place the opposite end with black piece faxing down.

Tonight, I shifted this roller bar back into positition, and the HP 600 series printer printed out hard copies at an normal resolution.

checking VRAM in DirectX

A Windows operating system uses an API (application programming interface) called DirectX to allow programs installed on your PC to work with the video and audio of your computer. You can bring up the diagnostics tool for DirectX by going to Run and entering: dxdiag

The DirectX Diagnostic Tool will have tabs for each set of monitors and speakers connected to your computer. A tab named 'Render' will display information for the dedicated graphics card on your PC. It will show the VRAM for your PC - the amount of computer memory dedicated to graphics:

The very first tip of the night on April 12, 2015 warned to never try to use Trial Director or other presentation software for a courtroom electronic presentation without confirming that your laptop has sufficient VRAM. Trust me, I know from bitter experience that video clips for deposition designations with multiple segments will not play back correctly on a laptop without sufficient VRAM. The current version of Trial Director requires a graphics card with 4 GB of dedicated graphics memory. See the specs posted here.

Use the DirectX Diagnostic Tool to check how much VRAM the monitors and projectors you are connected to will require.