jaclaz

Good , the support page is here: https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/7624?b=1&pn=DT.BAPAA.006 Bad , the user manual is EITHER a dumb user manual OR a manual for dumb user as it contains NO meaninfgul information on the BIOS/UEFI settings. Side note: the page lists 4 different BIOS updates, last one march 09 2020, so maybe it is to be evaluated the opportunity to update your BIOS . Watch this (starting from around 1:40), it is about an Acer (though a model with Insyde firmware as opposed to the AMI one you have) to further understand how it is vital to know if the device is actually UEFI bootable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU0b48XpNsU Then watch this one (about a Toshiba BUT with an AMI firmware that should be similar to yours): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8Ml1IbVp-8 to see how you could try experimenting. jaclaz

Open IN1VDO11WW1.exe the with 7-zip. Get to IN1VDO11WW1.exe\\Packages\Drivers\SBDrv\hseries\MINI_IDE\XP\ Read ReadMe.rtf. In theory that should install the driver for both PATA (or IDE) and SATA mode, but it depends on the actual controller. Maybe you already have them installed : Very likely you need to get INSTEAD to: IN1VDO11WW1.exe\\Packages\Drivers\SBDrv\hseries\RAID\XP\ then loop to: https://msfn.org/board/topic/181337-cannot-set-new-boot-option-in-bios/?do=findComment&comment=1179143 BUT BEFORE that make sure that your hardware PCI VEN/DEV is among the ones in ahcix86.inf: jaclaz

Basically: 1) "Old" BIOS (or CSM) method: boot priority is "per device", the actual boot mechanism implies that the device first sector (or sector 16 for CD/DVD optical media) is chainloaded, i.e. *whatever* code (if any) there is executed[1], if it is good then it boots, if it is not good either halts or tries the next device in boot priority 2) "New" UEFI method: boot priority is still "per device" but only nominally as the device (the filesystem on the device) is accessed and ONLY IF a valid UEFI/EFI bootloader is found THEN the device is "valid" and the bootloader is chainloaded, otherwise the device is "skipped" The F12 menu is not entirely different, on BIOS the list of available device is always populated by ALL the devices (that are "hardcoded" in the actual BIOS/firmware) while on UEFI (but it may depend on specific implementations) the list is populated ONLY by devices which filesystem actually contain a valid bootloader. In other words, your CD/DVD or USB stick may well be normally bootable on BIOS/CSM but if it is not ALSO UEFI bootable it won't likely be added to the F12 list. To make things worse (if possible) in some implementations (not necessarily your specific one) the booting options are recorded in NVRAM and - for *whatever* reasons - it may also happen that the NVRAM becomes "locked" (i.e. Read Only) and it is not possible to update it without first resetting the firmware. Having "Secure Boot" on may (or may not) further limit the bootable status of a device (again it depends on the specific UEFI/EFI firmware implementation). Post the EXACT model of your Acer Aspire computer, maybe having a look at its manual it is possible to understand how it should behave. jaclaz [1] generally speaking, in some cases - looking at you Insyde BIOS - the actual boot code is actually checked (wrongly) and in some cases it won't boot even if the code is just fine.

Maybe not your case, but it is possible that the priority only "kicks in" if a valid device is found, i.e. are you really sure that the USB stick you tried is bootable (or the CD/DVD) with the current settings? That behaviour seems to be connected with UEFI firmware. If this is the case you can try switching (temporarily) to CSM. Post (EXACT) model and (EXACT) version of windows you are now running. jaclaz

I would say that it is about right now the moment to take some time to image the disk "as is" before attempting further modifications. At the very least do make a copy/backup of the Registry or create a Restore Point. Maybe it won't be needed, but better safe than sorry. jaclaz P.S.: Yep, everything is more or less fine around me, I am not in the North where the situation is really dramatic, I live in the center where the numbers of positive cases are (at least till now) relatively low.

NO, as per your link, there can be MANY reasons, AMONG them the UPX packing. I stand by my "*whatever* reasons", which - while more vague - remains more accurate. jaclaz

Hmmm. It is likely (but not necessarily true) that the 0x0000007E comes from IntelPPM service and its Start value. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ ControlSet001 \ Services \ Intelppm On a normal (Intel) install it is set to 1 (System). On a "universal" image it is is usually set to 3 (On demand) BUT there have been reports that on AMD Notebooks BUT NOT on AMD desktops it needs to be set to 4 (Disabled). See: http://reboot.pro/topic/13893-bsod-0x0000007e-while-booting-img-on-amd/ You have nothing to lose checking it and if not already 4 set it to 4. jaclaz

Yep, the Windows (Vista and later) environment (Setup) that boots from DVD (or mapped iso image) is a PE. There may be different implementations in the sense that the Shift+F10 to open a command prompt might work on first screen, though it has been reported that in some cases you need to get to the second one: https://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/winiso#top Then, you will have ANOTHER issue if you want to install the Windows 7 to the 7.img. Just as you won't see from the PE (Setup) the 7.iso until you will have it mapped with IMDISK, you won't see the 7.img until you will have mapped it with a suitable driver (Imdisk won't likely work[1] for this and you will need either Firadisk or WinvBlock or similar). http://reboot.pro/topic/13738-win7vblock/ jaclaz [1] it has to be seen, IMdisk does not connect to the mount manager, but since your image is already partitioned with a volume already formatted it may work

So, everything is good. Only as a side note, this approach to input checking is not exactly "correct": I mean, what happens if I input "T" by mistake? Usually you "force" a negative result for all input BUT the one you check for that would change the result, *like* jaclaz

The working code is in the two links on rmprepusb.com, as said it is not only a matter of the grub4dos menu entries, as you need a windows driver to re-,mount the cd/dvd. You can anyway use the menu entries there and do the mounting manually, pressing Shift+F10 when booted in the PE and running the .cmd from the command line prompt. https://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/winiso#top The Winiso.zip containing the imdisk driver and the batches you can get from here: https://www.rmprepusb.com/documents/rmprepusb-beta-versions/WINISO.zip?attredirects=0&d=1 but as well you can install Imdisk and mount the iso manually. Though there may be new approaches, that one has always worked. jaclaz

I don't understand how the whole stuff works. I mean Virus Total seemingly gave the file 20/73. What is the meaning of such a score? Besides the fact that we all know how - for *whatever* reasons - almost *any* AutoIt compiled file has been before or later (falsely) marked as positive by this (or that) antivirus on Virus Total, how is it possible that a single report made the whole site (I mean not the specific URL) inaccessible? Which kind of authority has the (either the specific or any random) POS? Which kind of authority has abuse.ch (over a site that is - I believe - hosted in Germany)? Or is it the hosting company that is so stupid as to make a whole site inaccessible because of a single report about a single file? jaclaz

The AU3 remake should be this one attached, I don't think I have the original P2V2P utility (it was for XPE which I never used in my BartPE builds, so it is unlikely I ever downloaded it, in any case it is circa 2007, possibly earlier, which means that it might be in very old backups, if you really-really *need* it I may dig those disks up and have a look) jaclaz drvins.7z

Do you want a working code or understand the issue? If the latter, read this (I know it is difficult to follow, but it was at the time "work in progress"): http://reboot.pro/topic/9076-the-mistery-of-windows-7-install-required-cddvd/ starting from that a few different methods were developed. Basically you need IMDISK or a similar virtual CD/DVD driver to re-mount the .iso, I believe the most methods can be found on rmprepusb.com, this is the "original" method: https://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/winiso and this is using firadisk: https://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/firawiniso jaclaz

What is a "POS"? jaclaz

Well, if you post only examples that do contain " SHA-1;" isn't it surprising that proposed solutions take care of that only? Can we assume now that the new conditions are: 1) filenames may (or may not) contain the suffix " SHA-1;<sha-1_hash> 2) filenames (before and besides the suffix) may (or may not) contain spaces In case of the file name with the suffix it must be stripped, in case the file name without the suffix the file name should remain "as is". SET ShortName= ECHO "%LongName%"|FIND " SHA-1;">NUL&&CALL :shortname "%LongName%" IF NOT DEFINED ShortName SET ShortName=%LongName% SET shortname jaclaz

Good , then, if I were you (and you do know how cheap I am) I would get a PWM Y cable, example: https://www.quietpc.com/gel-pwm-cable and a couple PWM (4 pin) fans, again example, of suitable airflow/speed: https://www.quietpc.com/120mmfans and call it a day. Check also this: https://www.overclockers.com/pwm-fan-roundup-twenty-four-120-mm-case-fans-tested/ Since you shouldn't be in a situation of extreme need for cooling/airflow I would go for more silent fans. If you can get a couple of Arctic ones, you won't need the Y cable, if you get one with the "pass through" connector (that they call "PST"). i.e.: PST: https://www.arctic.ac/eu_en/f12-pwm-pst.html vs. "normal": https://www.arctic.ac/eu_en/arctic-f12-pwm.html and actually, since the cost is not that much different, I would personally go for a P12 (as opposed to a F12) as it should be more silent (and also efficient) in "normal" operation: https://www.arctic.ac/eu_en/p12-pwm-pst.html jaclaz

Look, the SET name=!name:~0,-6! removes LAST 6 characters, it has nothing to do with spaces. You provided an example, and I proposed a possible solution for that example, in which the code removes " SHA-1", i.e. 6 characters before the semi-colon. You can have the same result using (say): FOR /F "tokens=1,2,3,4,7 delims= ." %%A IN ("%LongName%") DO ( SET name=%%A %%B %%C %%D SET ext=%%E SET newname=!name!.!ext! ) But that fixes the name as having 4 tokens space delimited, i.e. Some Image File # Whilst the earlier suggestion would cover *anything* that is suffixed by "<6 characters>;<any number of characters>" I posted it explicitely to show you how to use (besides the final dot separating the extension, which can be obtained by other means, using variable expansion, see below) the semicolon as a separator and proceed from that, assuming that the " SHA1;" before is a fixed suffix. For all it matters (again following your example) the suffix is always a fixed length, as the SHA-1 hash has a fixed length so you can also do: CALL :shortname "Some Image File 1 SHA-1; 843j0b5a5a06ff252cab25d2142beva7a072aea3.jpg" SET shortname GOTO :EOF :shortname SET shortname=%~n1 SET shortname=%shortname:~0,-48% SET shortname=%shortname%%~x1% jaclaz

See here: jaclaz

Post EXACT make/model of that PC (and if you know it which EXACT driver is Windows 8.1 using). Other drivers exist besides the "Intel Application Accelerator", maybe one exists for your chipset. jaclaz

Yep , very nice approach , though personally I prefer to use an external program over creating a temp directory. jaclaz

READ (attentively) this: https://www.robvanderwoude.com/ntfortokens.php then, it is more or less: @ECHO OFF SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION SET LongName=Some Image File 1 SHA-1; 843j0b5a5a06ff252cab25d2142beva7a072aea3.jpg FOR /F "tokens=1,3 delims=;." %%A IN ("%LongName%") DO ( SET name=%%A SET ext=%%B SET name=!name:~0,-6! SET newname=!name!.!ext! ) SET newname jaclaz

Good . You have several options to try: https://www.qemu.org/docs/master/system/invocation.html#hxtool-3 The "standard" in the old versions was the "Cirrus" one: I would try that first thing. jaclaz

Well, your "declared" OS is Windows 10, NOW you are talking of 2K/XP. You need an external program to have ANSI in Windows NT up to 8.1: https://www.robvanderwoude.com/ansi.php KOLOR or EKKO will do. jaclaz

Yep, but what is the motherboard? Has it a 3 pin or a 4 pin header? And if it is a 4 pin, is it PWM? Some details: https://noctua.at/en/how-can-i-check-if-my-4-pin-fan-header-supports-pwm Basically, you can regulate both a 2 Pins and a 3 Pins fan but ONLY by lowering the (theoretical) 12 V on pin 2 (i.e. using a voltage regulator). The issue is that this kind of voltage regulating is not "ideal" because most fans won't simply rotate below a given voltage threshold, let's say below 5 Volts, so you do not have the possibility to regulate from 0 RPM to max (let's say 1000 RPM) but only (still say) between 400 and 1000 RPM. Here is am example of a "classic" variable speed temperature driven controller: http://www.heatsink-guide.com/tempcontrol.htm but - really - nowadays it makes no sense to build this kind of stuff (if not for the fun of it) when a TC fan can bought for anything between 5 and 12 Euro. The advantage with PWM (four pins) fans is that the voltage on pin 2 remains constant at 12 V whilst the PWN acts as a high speed cut-off, allowing for a wider range (and also more accurate) speeds. jaclaz

Why? I mean, VBEMP is known to have issues with Command.com. also on "real" hardware: and the general idea of VBEMP is to use it on some video cards for which there is no manufacturer driver (for the given OS). If you don't use a windowed command prompt but switch to full screen it should work, see the above mentioned thread, try Alt+Enter. Check also: https://msfn.org/board/topic/163436-vbemp-9x-with-3d-aceleration/ whether dos prompt works or not depends on the specific video card. Qemu uses rather standard (emulated) video cards, so you should not *need* VBEMP. But maybe the same VBEMP driver might work with a different (emulated) video card in QEMU, there are several ones to choose among, depending on QEMU versions and builds. Which (EXACT) Qemu build are you using? Under which (EXACT) OS? Using which (EXACT) parameters to launch QEMU? jaclaz