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iPhones need to be unlocked to be used in Canada.  The best unlocking tool seems to be Pwnage currently, but it only runs on Mac.  Of course I am not giving up my Vista installation, so here’s the procedures to dual boot Windows Vista and Mac OS X Leopard the Dell 640m/E1405 system.

1. Get a Mac OS X x86 distro.  I got the “Kalyway 10.5.2“, available from major torrent sites.
2. Make sure the Windows Vista DVD is on hand, to fix the Master Boot Record after installation.
3. Create a partition within the system, either a different disk or on the same disk. Format it while in Windows, so that the Mac installation will be able to see the partition.
4. Install the Kalyway distro onto the spare partition, being careful to choose “Customize” before install, and make sure to select the Intel GMA driver under Graphics.
5. After installation, it probably shows a HFS partition error and no OS will load.
6. Boot up the system using Windows Vista DVD, choose Repair, then choose the command prompt.
7. Enter the following:
   diskpart
   list disk
   select disk n  (n = disk number)
   list partition
   select partition n  (n = partition number of your VISTA)
   active
   exit

   bootrec.exe /fixmbr
   bootrec.exe /fixboot

8. Exit the repair utilities and restart the computer.  Now Vista should load normally.
9. Download and install EasyBCD.
10. In EasyBCD, add an entry for Mac OS X, using automatic settings.
11. Dual-boot menu should pop up at restart.  Choose the Mac installation, and at the next menu make sure to choose the Mac install too.

Microsoft may silently push SP1 to computers running Vista, so better remove those “non-SP1 compatible” cracks such as the Paradox OEM Emulator crack. Continue reading »

The long-waited Windows Vista SP1 (through Windows Update) is officially released, but not everyone can get it now. Why? According to Microsoft, there are 8 causes, including one like “because you already have SP1 installed”.. duh.

For many Dell laptop computers, the Dell’s driver for the SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC is the culprit for blocking the SP1 update. Go here to grab a more recent update that will allow SP1 through Windows Update. After the update, restart the computer and wait a few hours, and then you should see SP1 available.

Every time I disconnect my USB hard drive or USB flash physically, my other USB devices (most noticeably my USB wireless network adapter) would stop functioning, but a disable/re-enable or unplug/re-plug would get it working again. Today I googled this problem to death and still couldn’t find anyone who has this same problem. The closest problem that I found is “USB port may stop working after removing or inserting USB device“, while in my case the removing would influence all other ports, and in my case the port is still “reusable”. Still I tried the solution, and IT WORKED! Continue reading »

After researching this problem for a day, I have come to the conclusion that there’s no one-and-for-all solution. Some people have luck with a certain setting while some other users do not gain anything from that same setting. However a hotfix works for both of my computers – a Pentium Celeron desktop and a Dell Core Duo laptop. Continue reading »