1) Open the Realtek manager from either the system tray or the control panel.

2) Select the ‘Audio I/O’ tab.

3) Click the spanner icon at the top right of the Analog section.

4) Uncheck “Disable front panel jack detection” if it enabled as in the below picture and click ‘OK’.

5) Test the front panel audio again by plugging in some headphones or speakers.

1) Open the Realtek manager from either the system tray or the control panel.

2) Select the ‘Speakers’ tab at the top.

3) Click the folder icon at the top right of the Analog section.

4) Uncheck “Disable front panel jack detection” if it enabled as in the below picture and click ‘OK’.

5) Test the front panel audio again by plugging in some headphones or speakers.

(14 December 2011 Update)

Further to our last report in October, we are pleased to confirm that Black Pearl II is fit for operation in a 24x7 manner.  Black Pearl II is an improved version of the small form factor PC that comes with optional VESA brackets for mounting on the back of a LCD screen.  We have been able to install an open standard 2.5" SATA 320GB hard disk in it, and this allows the installation of the standard version of Windows 7 Professional.  This means we can deploy Black Pearl II as a small form factor PC for commercial and industrial applications.  To emphasis, Black Pearl II is NOT a thin PC although its physical size is thin.

We have taken 2 months to do a large amount of thermal stress tests on Black Pearl II.  Testing steps taken are:

1. No fan installed, dead HDD installed, ran Bitpro from DOM, highest temp reached 93C
2. 4cm fan installed, dead HDD installed, ran Bitpro from DOM, hightest temp dropped to 78C
3. 4cm fan installed, live HDD installed but idling, highest temp dropped to 63C
4. 4cm fan installed, ran Bitpro from live HDD, highest temp rose to 87C
5. Replaced 4cm with 6cm fan and repeated above, highest temp dropped to 78C
6. 4cm and 6cm fan installed and repeated above, highest temp stayed the same
7. 6cm fan installed, ran Bitpro from live HDD on the back of LCD, highest temp stayed the same

According to Intel specifications, the dual core CPU (D525) was designed for up to 100C and the chipset was good for up to 115C.  We have concluded that Step 7 is good enough to give us the confidence that Black Pearl II will operate reliably either standing alone physically or mounted on the back of LCD.  Our peers have advised us that many similar small form factor devices were available from retail outlets but they were not meant for 24x7 operations and they were not based on open source hardware components.


(13 October 2011)
We have reported our desire to have a tiny PC that can be mounted on the back of a LCD screen for a couple of years.  The desire is from a desktop space perspective.  Even though space is not an issue in New Zealand especially in rural areas, desktop space is always a premium.  PC boxes are ugly no matter how we try to improve their aesthetic presentation because they are machines in our minds.   The best way is to hide them.  We have trialled several designs so far.  The power socket arrangement is the most drastic- fitting the whole PC inside a power socket.  Such products are available but their price is high and performance is low.  Another clever design is to integrate the PC in the keyboard.  This arrangement does not work too well at present because we punch the keyboard consistently and our punches will lead to the pre-mature death of the PC.  The third design has turned up and it is to integrate the PC with the LCD screen.  This is brilliant from a vibration or shock perspective, but not from a thermal or heat management perspective.  Also, the PC is hard to maintain as the integration is specific to each model of LCD screen.  We have gone through a full circle and come back to having the PC as a separate box to the wall socket, keyboard and LCD screen.

We succeeded partially about 12 months ago and released quietly a Compucon system called Black Pearl.  See the pictures here:  http://www.compucon.co.nz/content/view/733/249/.  The PC can only be described as a Thin PC because we are not able to install a hard disk drive and we use a pure electronic based memory module of 4GB to emulate the hard disk drive.  We cannot install Windows Professional due to the limitation of disk space and instead have Windows Embedded.  It is not quite useful yet.

Another year has gone.  We have now reached a breakthrough.  We are now able to install a hard disk in Black Pearl 2.  We have done thermal testing for a couple of weeks already with a non-working hard disk installed and we have been pleased with the progress.  You may think Black Pearl 2 is slightly larger in size.  This is not true.  The internal volume stays the same at 2.1 litres.  What has changed is the layout of components on the motherboard and the technique for mounting a hard disk inside the system.  Our testing has progressed to include a working hard disk and will continue to emphasis thermal stability.  We will take a few more weeks for the results to be known.

If successful, Black Pearl 2 will support Windows 7 Professional and standard applications.  However, it will be based on Dual Core Atom N525 only with 2GB of memory.  It will be fine as a process computer and not powerful enough to run 3D graphics designs.  

This article does not pretend to be an authoritative view.  It is only a discussion and a rational explanation of what we have experienced in the last 9 months since the year began.  The purpose of this writing is to help our channel peers position the business and plan for the near future.

On the top of the list of observations is the global economy recession which started in 2008 and dragged New Zealand into the vortex.  New Zealand is a very small economy.  It is so small that it is smaller than a dot on the map of the global economy village.  However small we are, we are connected with the rest of the world and we have no strength not to follow the tide.  Many countries especially on the Pacific Rim have recovered and they are now taking the lead to restore the global economy.  This is a game of change of fortune.  Interestingly the press pointed out that our biggest trading partner and our neighbour Australia was the only country exempted from the global recession due to its enormous mineral reserve.  Did we hear the Aussies scream at all?

On the next level down the list are several major events that rocked the global and New Zealand economy.  The earthquakes in Christchurch are certainly noticeable by everyone in the country.  The quakes have wiped out over $15 billion of assets from the country.  We are therefore $15 billion dollars poorer.  Our office building (Bush Road Albany) insurance policy was renewed recently.  The premium has gone up 50%.  Are we subsidizing Christchurch from Auckland?  Did New Zealand insurance companies reinsure globally?  We believe most if not all New Zealand insurance companies are owned by foreigners anyway.  Our costs have gone up! 

The Rugby World Cup drew 19 countries into New Zealand bringing with them the biggest injection of money into our economy in a single event of a few weeks duration.  Most matches played so far (including the quarter finals) were well attended.  Everywhere around the central city in Auckland is a carnival. Why would the national rugby company estimate a final loss of about $25 million?  Why did many retailers including restaurants but not pubs screamed of the lack of business during the time of the cup?  Something does not match well.

On a real life level, how did we fare in terms of sales and business level?  As Compucon work through the channel for business, our experience could be a good indication of individual members assuming that all members have continued to support Compucon.  Our Q1 and Q2 this year are better than last year, but Q3 was lower than last year.  Can we easily relate the fluctations of our business levels to the economy and the major events mentioned above?  Not easily.  Your business sales profile could be different to Compucon.  Have you been able to relate your profile to the economy?

GDP is a good measure of the prosperity of an economic entity. It is a basket of statistics and takes New Zealand Statistics 3 months to compile the result for each quarter.  The GDP for Q1 was 0.9%.  It is not a brilliant figure but a comfortable figure for economic recovery.  Banks and economists picked Q2 to be 0.6%.  They were proven wrong when NZS announced 0.1% for Q2 at the end of September.  Do not trust banks, economists, and the press!

Computers for business use are treated as capital assets.  Purchases of business capital assets are not decided in real time and decisions often lag real time sales level by one quarter or more.  This is rational and has explained our experience quite well.  We are pleased with this finding.  What’s next?

Shortly after NZS released the shocking 0.1% result for Q2, Standards and Poor downgraded the credibility of New Zealand the 2nd time in a short period from AAA to AA+ and then to AA.  This brought down the NZD from 0.84 to 0.74 over the same period.  These 2 events are balancing acts.

If we believe all the events were not governed and prescribed, we will need a lot of luck to deal with them.  Let us plant lucks for ourselves now.  Yes, lucks can be planted.  We sell seeds.  Contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it if you care.