Optoma HD70 Color Wheel Update: It lives!

In light of the color wheel failure in my HD70 I was forced to find a replacement. I have to commend Optoma. Despite their somewhat snippy customer service rep, I am really impressed. I called them four days ago (Monday) after they had closed for the day (why answer the phone if you’re closed?) and ordered a replacement color wheel for my HD70, a projector they haven’t made for about four years. Not only did they have it in stock, and for a reasonable price, but they told me it would be 8 days to arrive and it arrived in less than four. Color me impressed. After I opened the projector up, pulled all the glass shards out, blew the dust out of it, and installed the new wheel I buttoned it back up, sure enough it fired right up. The only note I can...

Optoma HD70 Color Wheel Trouble

I was watching an old episode of Dexter the other day (I know, I’m late to the party) and my projector (an Optoma HD70) image became an off color for just a second, but most alarmingly started to make a terrible buzzing/whirring/grinding noise, almost like a bad computer fan. There are a couple of high volume brushless DC (computer) fans inside there, so I knew it was possible that one had thrown a vane. Since the HD-70 is a DLP projector it uses a complex set of mirrors to reflect the image through a color wheel in order to get the correct colors displayed in the image. The color wheel in the HD70 is seven segments. I believe that it is ordered red, green blue, white, red, grean, blue. When I heard the noise I shut the projector down as quickly as I could,...

(UPDATED) How To: Remove ‘Antivirus XP/Vista/7′

UPDATE: When I wrote this the other morning I failed to identify the usefulness of the following procedure as it applies to the overall removal of the Antivirus XP, et al. The instructions below deal specifically with the scenario in which the rogue software has disabled the launching of executable or .exe files. This is a common practice on the part of the rogue software developers, because it limits your ability as a user to initiate many countermeasures. My preferred malware cleanup tool is MalwareBytes, though my complete procedure involves several applications, the exact combination of which varies from infection to infection. For reference I prefer: Sunbelt Software’s VIPRE – Paid General Antimalware Grisoft’s AVG Free – Free General...