Patching the DSDT table for 8510p to reduce fan noise

Following the previous post, here are the steps that worked on my Vista SP1 x64 notebook.  Please note this is for reference only, this could damage your machine.

1. Download the Microsoft ASL Compiler v3.0.1 and install it on your notebook.
   
2. Start a command prompt using "Run as administrator" to make sure you have the correction permissions.
   
3. Create a working directory, I used C:\DsdtPatch.
   
4. Copy asl.exe from C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft ASL Compiler v3.0 to your working directory.
   
5. Extract your current AML data from your registry.  It is located at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\ACPI\DSDT\HP____\8510x\00010000.  You need to extract the binary data in the key 00000000 to the file system.  I've written a quick and dirty .Net program to do that.
   1. Unzip ExtractDsdt.exe into your working directory.
   2. run ExtractDsdt, a file 8510x.orig will be created.  Make a backup of this file.
      
6. copy 8510x.orig 8510x.aml
   
7. asl /u 8510x.aml, the file 8510x.asl will be created.
   
8. Open 8510x.asl in notebook.  Now we begin our patching.
   
9. Search for the following (note the pattern could be different for your machine).
   
   For my F.0F BIOS the original values are
   
   Name(C357, Package(0x6)
   {
       0x64,
       0x4b,
       0x3c,
       0x32,
       0x1e,
       0x0
   })
   
   I found it easiest to search for "Package(0x6)" from notepad, that should take you to the right section, check that there are 6 hex values within the braces and within the _TZ_ scope.
   
   Each value should represents the % fan speed at each temperature trip point in hex.  I changed mine to.
   
   Name(C357, Package(0x6)
   {
       0x64,
       0x4b,
       0x32,
       0x1e,
       0x14,
       0x0
   })
   
   Save your file after your changes.
   
10. Now we can compile our updated 8510x.asl back to 8510x.aml.  Execute asl 8510x.asl, I ignored the warnings, but if you get errors, go back and check your syntax.  If you get "error: expecting Symbol '('" the number in the brackets is the line number, go to that line in 8510x.asl and add a pair of bracket () to the end of the previous line, I had to repeat this a few times before it will compile.
    
    For example, change
    
    If(LEqual(Arg0, 0x0))
    {
        C375
    }
    
    to
    
    If(LEqual(Arg0, 0x0))
    {
        C375()
    }
    
11. When you've compiled successfully, the file 8510x.aml will be updated.  Check the timestamp.
    
    Load this file to your system asl /loadtable 8510x.aml.
    
12. Now reboot, if everything works, your notebook fan should be slower after a few minutes after things settled down after reboot.  WARNING: if it doesn't work and you get a blue screen during reboot.  Press F8 and choose the "use last known good" option.

Hope this works for you if you're like me and was annoyed by the fan noise.

HP 8510p fan noise

For work I've got a HP 8510 p notebook and the fan noise it makes on idle is unbearable.  It was annoying enough I was on a quest to find a solution.  After many hours on the Internet I found the following site http://www.p35-forum.de/board/notebook-hardware-control/acpi-module/7332-acpi-modul-für-hp-8510p/ which talks about overriding the ACPI DSDT table.

After reading up a bit on the topic and learnt more than I ever wanted to about ACPI, I've managed to change the fan speed on my HP 8510 notebook.  Now Vista SP1 x64 runs like my other notebook, quiet!  Will have to see will it over heat or have any side effects.

I have no idea why HP releases notebook that are so noisy out of the factory.  Their engineering department should be reeducated that noise should be minimal on the desktop in the office.

Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) Released

With the release of the RSAT for Windows Vista SP1, I can finally manage my Windows Servers in Vista directly without hacking the AdminPack to make it go on Vista.

Both 32-bit and 64-bit version are available.

After install, go to control panel, add remove windows components, and check the admin tools to enable it.

Nokia NSeries PC Suite 2.0 install failed caused by long path

I couldn't install the new Nokia NSeries 2.0 PC Suite on my Vista machine.  After a bit of investigation, it turns out that the installer doesn't work if you system path variable is too long.  It doesn't handle the case when the system tells the installer the supplied buffer to store the returned path string isn't big enough.

To work around, shorten my system path variable, and restore to my normal path after install.

OCS 2007 and Asterisk integration

Spent some time over the last few days trying to put together an OCS 2007 lab environment with Asterisk integrations and it wasn't exactly smooth sailing.  I have it mostly working now, but there are still some issues with RTP which I hope to resolve when I have some spare time in the coming weeks.

For my setup I deployed OCS 2007 in 2 VMs, one for OCS itself and another for the mediation server.  I used asterisk 1.6-beta5 as it supports TCP SIP and it seems to be working ok.  I can dial out through Asterisk using my home ITSP (PennyTel) through both Communicator 2007 and my Linksys SPA942 IP phone.  I can also receive calls from my mobile to both Communicator and SPA942.

I found a bug in Asterisk 1.6-beta5 where it was not handling the SIP Invite from OCS mediation server properly.  It was causing RTP packets not to be sent from Asterisk to OCS at the start of a call and I traced it back to Asterisk not parsing the "Content-Type" properly.  OCS sends extra data in the "Content-Type" field ";encoding=utf8" which Asterisk was not parsing.  That was an easy fix, one good thing with Open Source software when you actually have time to debug and fix it yourself.

So things seems to be working *mostly* but I still sometime misses out on voice at the beginning of some calls.  I suspect there are still bugs in Asterisk, will post back here for reference if I have to to investigate further.

Rant about poor Optus service

I just cannot believe the poor Optus is providing in Australia.  I spent the last two days trying to organise 2 new phone numbers to be added on our existing account and after two days of talking to sale consultants, solution consultants and other call center staffs, I still cannot talk to someone that can take my order to setup 2 new phone numbers for our office.  I thought in would be easy, how wrong was I.

It seems to me that in Australia, customer service for the small guys is really poor.  You're not spending enough to be provided with a proper account manager, and you wanted service a little bit more complex than the standard SOHO offerings, then no one seems to be able to help you.