XP | Safe Mode Hangs at MUP.sys / Normal Mode Goes to Black Scren with Mouse Arrow and no Task Manager

...excuse the long title.

There is a summary at the bottom if you just want the short of the solution instead of the big why and how and for what reason.

Story Mode:

I recently had a IBM ThinkPad R51 notebook/laptop computer running Windows XP that would not work in normal mode. Well, it would do the windows loading screen, but then instead of offering users to click into individual desktops, it would present a black screen with a working mouse pointer, but would not allow ctrl+alt+del for task manager or anything else. Keyboard was actually non responsive.

I was, however, able to boot into safe mode without issue. I did the typical stuff: malware scan, startup maintenance, chkdsk...all to no avail, except that I somehow managed to break safe mode. That's right, after my fix attempts, I now have a computer that boots to a unhelpful black screen in normal mode, and hangs at MUP.sys when I boot into safe mode. Boo.

I read tons of forums and wasn't especially inspired by the strange registry hive restoration options or file replacements that seemed to be hit or miss. I decided to start trying something b/c i didn't want to reinstall. A few people recommended ensuring ACPI (ACHC?) mode be turned off in BIOS, or something...I thought I'd start there since it was easy.

Able to boot into the system config (using Enter > F1 to get to BIOS), I didn't see any power saving mode options (ACPI). However, I noticed all the IRQ channels were set to 1 (or was it 11?). I changed all to 'Auto', and found another setting to change POST startup mode to 'diagnostic' instead of 'quick,' which it had been on.

Expecting the same thing, I exited, saving changes. I selected normal boot...and chkdsk tried to start (it apparently didn't remember that it had successfully scanned twice prior to this...perhaps because it never fully booted into windows afterwards?)..I 'hit any key' to skip. Next thing I know, I saw four user icons instead of the now-familiar black screen with mouse arrow. To my further astonishment, clicking on one of them took me right into a working desktop.

Problem solved.

I don't know if my troubleshooting steps actually fixed the problem or if they were coincidental, but probably worth a shot if you don't feel like reinstalling and nothing else is working. Good luck!

Summary:

If you can't boot into safe mode b/c mup.sys hang, or normal mode because you get a black screen with working mouse but non-responsive keyboard, try entering bios setup and setting IRQ settings to 'auto' and boot configuration to 'diagnostic'.

JPlayer Audio Playlist Generator (JPlayer Playlister)

The CD that launched 1000...lines of code

Update

[2014.11.23]
The new jPlaylister v0.70 was built on jPlayer 2.8.2, because 2.6 had some recent serious issues with mobile browsers. Fixing those and implementing a more mobile friendly theme for the fs/mobile mode.

[2014.08.31]
The new jPlaylister v0.68 adds support for auto-scrolling playlists and full-screen/mobile mode. Previous releases added playlist caching (a feature that significantly decreases load times on large playlists) and support for displaying album art, in case you missed them.

/update...resume original post

My brother sent me a CD full of MP3s when I was in Kuwait -- cut off from the internet -- and going into withdrawals from not being able to download music. It was a good mix and has turned me on to a few artists that I knew nothing about.

A week ago, my wife has to take my car for something and, realizing that my radio sucks (shhh...i didn't hook up the antennae so my radio-listening experience would be less than inviting), flipped down my sunvisor CD holder and picked the fabled blue cd from the small selection. She made it 20 tracks or so into the CD (love MP3 CDs..if only it had any type of anti-skip) before arriving home and not using my car again for as long as she lives if it was up to her.

I hop in the car the next morning and A Tribe Called Quest welcomes me to the drive to work. A nice way to start the day. I re-affirm my love for my wife due solely to this incident and decide to facebook about it later that day. I did (may have been the following day) and that was that, but someone mentioned that hearing the mix would be fun. All to eager to oblige, I start devising ways to make it happen. So what if I spend 30 hours on a project and only 2 people give a crap (me and me). I had made web pages that incorporated flash based audio players before...but that was before the up and coming HTML5, and the somewhat supported audio tag.

Let's get a web player

A quick internet search later and I see JPlayer, which looks familiar. I glance at the demos and one has a playlist -- perfect. It supports OGG Audio and MP3's via HTML5 and will fallback to Flash for unsupportive browsers, bras, or family members. Perfect.

Initial implementation (derived from the JPlayer with playlist demo) wasn't that bad. I took the demo code and just added the ability to automatically generate a playlist from all the files in a given location. I think it took me a couple of hours...taking snack breaks and probably food breaks and almost certainly bathroom, crying baby, and phlebotomy breaks.

I went to bed last night with a working player. In addition to deriving the playlist from the files at the location specified, I was also able to add the option of displaying filenames or ID3 information (via getID3 -- a PHP class)

I put a link on fb and probably got thousands of views.

Revisions / Additions

Tonight, I pushed back the list of things I need to do and worked more on this little project. At some point during the day, I had decided that the first song on the playlist was wearing on me. I usually paused within 5 seconds of loading the page, but it doesn't take much to wear a song out, for me. That's another reason I don't do the radio...20 songs on a loop with advertisements and lame DJs. No thanks. So I added the option to 'randomize' list via a clickable link on the page. It caused me to rewrite a fair amount of code. But, I am pretty happy with the turnout.

Current Situation

See 'Update' at the top of this article to link to the current version of JPlaylister. Thanks for your interest and support.

Extract Ogg (ogv) from Matroska (mkv)

The Story

I don't do much with video. I finally wrote a script which compresses all the files in a given folder using the handbrake cli...just for archiving my home videos that had been digitized; on import they were some slight compression avi. The cli lets me automate converting my videos to a patent free (afaik) format -- Ogg. I use both Theora and Vorbis in a Matroska container...I was going Ogg (Ogv) container, but handbrake didn't support that, and I hear Matroska is better...or far more capable. Even though Ogv would have been fine for my purposes. Oh well.

Anyway, I decide that I want to make a webpage on my development server (read: home computer) that allows my home videos to be seen by my family without the hassle of uploading them to youtube...and carefully optimizing them first or watchmaking Youtube butcher the already mediocre quality. I decided to embrace the future and use the upcoming html5's 'video' tag.

Ah, man...I JUST encoded/archived all my videos to Matroska...even though they were encoded with Theora/Vorbis, the Matroska container doesn't work. I need to extract (I don't want to transcode them and lose all that quality. are you kidding?) the streams from the Matroska format and put them in an Ogg (ogv) container...somehow. Can't be hard, right?

I tried loads of things. MKVToolnix, AVIMux GUI, VirtualDubMod...and I read loads of forums, mostly about people wanting to convert MKV (h.264) to AVI (xvid). I finally read something about ffmpeg...so I thought I could at least (since I encode to the original size AND to a half-size) transcode from the large .mkv to .ogv with that.

20 minutes into it, my Ogg (.ogv) files were looking horrible and coming out at half the size of the (same resolution) input, I did a few searches for optimal settings .ogv or something and came across a post that mentioned something I hadn't seen in the documentation (although I'd imagine it's there)...the ability to 'copy' the audio and video stream. Someone was just using ffmpeg to extract a 1 minute segment from a video file without re-encoding. That's what I want to do!!!

Long story short, this code did it for me:

The Code

ffmpeg -i mysourcevideo.mkv -vcodec copy -acodec copy myoutvideo.ogv

A straight 'Direct Stream Copy' (i used to use VirtualDub -- pardon me), essentially...with no loss in quality and a container change. Now I can make a quick script...I'm not sure if I'll do it for all my videos or just the half-sizes...as I don't really wanna stream the large ones, which I make available for download.

Be End.

Software

ffmpeg

Epilogue

Now I'm just wondering if Handbrake CLI has any advantage (for my use, anyway) over ffmpeg?

Photo Feed (RSS/Atom) Display Widget

Flickr / Picasa / ZenPhoto / Plogger / Gallery2/3 Photo Feed (RSS/Atom) Widget

Check it Out!

Update

The HTML version seems to get way more interest than the PHP version, so I'm focusing development on that (the Widget). I just added a means to specify border color and size, in addition to the spacing which was added a while ago. I've also added a 'Widget Builder' to the site, so you can customize and embed with even less html knowledge than before. Hope you love it!

I want to display my most recent Flickr photos on another page of mine. Easy enough, right? There are plenty of widgets and code snippets displaying Flickr Photos in all sorts of creative ways.

Well, what if I want them formatted/styled a certain way?

Not as easy.

What if I want to display a Picasa Web Album Feed as well? And perhaps a ZenPhoto RSS Feed. Am I the only lame PHP coder who uses all of these Photo storage / display / socialization mediums?

I decided to create a widget. While the implementation is limited in how it can format your images (for html coders; PHP coders should have more advanced options soon), it does work with a large number of RSS Feeds -- provided the feed has items with images.

Demo

This is a simple widget call referencing my Flickr PhotoStream RSS Feed. The widget creates thumbnails of each of the most recent items and displays them in a row, linking back to each item's source page.

Options

While the straight HTML call is pretty limited, there are some options which can be requested such as the ability to specify thumbnail size, disable square thumbs (prevent standard cropping), and specify the number of photos to be displayed. (Updates have been made which allow spacing, border size and color, and limited link options to be specified)

PHP users will soon be able to request an array of information so the photos can be formatted in any way they see fit. [Visit the project page and post a comment if this would be useful -- so I know there is an interest] Alternately, they can download the source code and host it on their own server -- changing it as they see fit.

Limitations

The HTML Widget call can only return a row of images which link to their source. There is currently no fancy customization (aside the options mentioned) for this type of call. Likewise, currently iframes are the suggested way to implement/embed the widget.

Compatibility

The widget has been tested on Flickr, Picasa Web Album, ZenPhoto, Gallery2, Gallery3, Plogger, and various other (RSS/Atom) Feeds (the list keeps growing). It employs the use of SimplePie for the basic Feed parsing, then does some further work to create thumbnails of the pictures and link back to them.

Last FM Widget Found

Dotaloc's Last.FM Recently Played Songs - Widget

Maybe it's just me, but I had the hardest time finding this thing. What thing? Oh, let me start from the beginning...

Skip straight to the code

Backstory

I signed up with last.fm, a music streaming/information aggregation and listening habit analyzation site a couple of years ago. I have a scrobbler running on my computer, and it sends information about what I play in winamp to last.fm. They take that information and compare it to what other people who listen to some of the same bands listen to...recommend other artists to you, stuff like that.

You don't have to scrobble to enjoy. I sometimes just go to the website, type in an artist I like, and listen to a 'station' last.fm creates based on the artist, and others they have determined are similar or listened to by people who like the artist. I've been turned on to a few bands this way...as information about the current band/song is displayed on the website or in the standalone player (great for bypassing streaming radio site blocks, which are sometimes implemented by employers/etc. in order to cut down on excessive bandwidth usage).

This services, or similar ones such as Pandora are not new to lots of people...but this is my blog and I will ramble if I want.

That said, what good is it to scrobble all day if you can't integrate with all these awesome social networking sites and show your fans what songs listen to via an interactive widget? Not much. I found one that I was able to put on my dog's myspace page a while back and was pretty happy with it. I don't have a myspace...or facebook...account. My wife handles that stuff.

I wanted that widget on my personal website, though...seems appropriate. I have personal information...links to pictures...information about important happenings in my life like my son being born on October 9th...and the likes. Why not tell the world what songs I'm listening to so people will have a chance to learn some amazing new bands thanks to my chronic listening and hard work. Exactly.

Situation

So I want that same type of thing...on my personal site. Shouldn't be hard...the 'widget' wasn't myspace specific. I googled something like 'last.fm widget'...which actually searched 'last.fm' for the word 'widget'. This didn't end up doing what I needed. Let me re-arrange my search terms...'widget last.fm'. This was what I wanted to do...but didn't show me what I wanted. Last.fm has some type of page that seems like it is supposed to offer the type of list i was looking for with themes and all of that, but it has been broken for at least two days...probably more. I don't like waiting. Even though they have an API (Application Program Interface)...accessing the information I want surely has been done loads of times...there is no reason for me to write brand new code to do this, even if I am able, when I can just use someone else's. No luck...there are some scripts that use the API and pull up some fancy information...but I just want the list of the most frequent songs I've scrobbled. Nothing. You try. See.

*facepalm*

I guess I can reference my, still working, myspace code. At this point, I didn't remember if I had access to the code or if it was a clickable option myspace had enabled or something. Nope...the code was listed plain as day when I went to edit my profile. The 'widget' links to the broken last.fm page...but actually works.

I took the code and put it on my page. It didn't fit my color scheme, so I dug through the code a little and changed some of the 'red' graphics to 'black'...hoping it'd work. It did.

Moral

I tried this the hard way and wasted a few hours of my life. Boo to that. Don't be like me. Attempt easiest solution first, especially if you can determine if it'll work or not within a few minutes.

Want the Widget for Yourself

Hopefully this'll help someone else. I'll provide the straight JavaScript first, then the php that I use.

JavaScript

replace 'dotaloc' with your last.fm username

<span style="font-style:italic;">replace 'dotaloc' with your last.fm username</span>
<style>table.lfmWidget346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a td {margin:0 !important;padding:0 !important;border:0 !important;}table.lfmWidget346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a tr.lfmHead a:hover {background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/header/chart/recenttracks_regular_red.png) no-repeat 0 0 !important;}table.lfmWidget346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a tr.lfmEmbed object {float:left;}table.lfmWidget346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a tr.lfmFoot td.lfmConfig a:hover {background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/footer/red.png) no-repeat 0px 0 !important;;}table.lfmWidget346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a tr.lfmFoot td.lfmView a:hover {background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/footer/red.png) no-repeat -85px 0 !important;}table.lfmWidget346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a tr.lfmFoot td.lfmPopup a:hover {background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/footer/red.png) no-repeat -159px 0 !important;}</style>
<table class="lfmWidget346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" style="width:184px;"><tbody><tr class="lfmHead"><td><a title="dotaloc: Recently Listened Tracks" href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3Lmxhc3QuZm0vdXNlci9kb3RhbG9jLw==" target="_blank" style="display:block;overflow:hidden;height:20px;width:184px;background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/header/chart/recenttracks_regular_red.png) no-repeat 0 -20px;text-decoration:none;"></a></td></tr><tr class="lfmEmbed"><td><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="never" allownetworking="internal" height="199" width="184" data="http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/chart/friends_4.swf">
<param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never">
<param name="allowNetworking" value="internal">
<param name="movie" value="http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/chart/friends_4.swf">
<param name="flashvars" value="type=recenttracks&amp;user=dotaloc&amp;theme=red&amp;lang=en&amp;widget_id=346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a">
<param name="bgcolor" value="#d01f3c">
<param name="quality" value="high">
</object></td></tr><tr class="lfmFoot"><td style="background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/footer_bg/red.png) repeat-x 0 0;text-align:right;"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" style="width:184px;"><tbody><tr><td class="lfmConfig"><a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3Lmxhc3QuZm0vd2lkZ2V0cy8/Y29sb3VyPXJlZCZhbXA7Y2hhcnRUeXBlPXJlY2VudHRyYWNrcyZhbXA7dXNlcj1kb3RhbG9jJmFtcDtjaGFydEZyaWVuZHM9MSZhbXA7ZnJvbT1jb2RlJmFtcDt3aWRnZXQ9Y2hhcnQ=" title="Get your own widget" target="_blank" style="display:block;overflow:hidden;width:85px;height:20px;float:right;background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/footer/red.png) no-repeat 0px -20px;text-decoration:none;"></a></td><td class="lfmView" style="width:74px;"><a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3Lmxhc3QuZm0vdXNlci9kb3RhbG9jLw==" title="View dotaloc's profile" target="_blank" style="display:block;overflow:hidden;width:74px;height:20px;background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/footer/red.png) no-repeat -85px -20px;text-decoration:none;"></a></td><td class="lfmPopup" style="width:25px;"><a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3Lmxhc3QuZm0vd2lkZ2V0cy9wb3B1cC8/Y29sb3VyPXJlZCZhbXA7Y2hhcnRUeXBlPXJlY2VudHRyYWNrcyZhbXA7dXNlcj1kb3RhbG9jJmFtcDtjaGFydEZyaWVuZHM9MSZhbXA7ZnJvbT1jb2RlJmFtcDt3aWRnZXQ9Y2hhcnQmYW1wO3Jlc2l6ZT0x" title="Load this chart in a pop up" target="_blank" style="display:block;overflow:hidden;width:25px;height:20px;background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/footer/red.png) no-repeat -159px -20px;text-decoration:none;"></a></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table>

PHP

edit the variables accordingly. the colors should probably be plain html written out word colors (blue, green, red) for the best chance of them working. check the PHP out and you can probably fine-tune it to your liking.

//set lastfm widget color and widget hover color -- these should be very basic for the highest probability they will work as some reference graphics
$lfmwc='black';
$lfmwhc='black';

//right-float last.fm widget
$lastfmwidget='<div class="floatright" style="margin-top: 15px; border: 1px solid #222; ">'

//taken from old myspace widget -- can't find anymore
.'<style>table.lfmWidget346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a td {margin:0 !important;padding:0 !important;border:0 !important;}table.lfmWidget346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a tr.lfmHead a:hover {background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/header/chart/recenttracks_regular_'.$lfmwhc.'.png) no-repeat 0 0 !important;}table.lfmWidget346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a tr.lfmEmbed object {float:left;}table.lfmWidget346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a tr.lfmFoot td.lfmConfig a:hover {background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/footer/'.$lfmwhc.'.png) no-repeat 0px 0 !important;;}table.lfmWidget346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a tr.lfmFoot td.lfmView a:hover {background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/footer/'.$lfmwhc.'.png) no-repeat -85px 0 !important;}table.lfmWidget346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a tr.lfmFoot td.lfmPopup a:hover {background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/footer/'.$lfmwhc.'.png) no-repeat -159px 0 !important;}</style>
<table class="lfmWidget346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" style="width:184px;"><tr class="lfmHead"><td><a title="dotaloc: Recently Listened Tracks" href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3Lmxhc3QuZm0vdXNlci9kb3RhbG9jLw==" target="_blank" style="display:block;overflow:hidden;height:20px;width:184px;background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/header/chart/recenttracks_regular_'.$lfmwc.'.png) no-repeat 0 -20px;text-decoration:none;"></a></td></tr><tr class="lfmEmbed"><td><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="never" allowNetworking="internal" height="199" width="184" data="http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/chart/friends_4.swf">
<param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never" />
<param name="allowNetworking" value="internal" />
<param name="movie" value="http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/chart/friends_4.swf" />
<param name="flashvars" value="type=recenttracks&user=dotaloc&theme='.$lfmwc.'&lang=en&widget_id=346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a" />
<param name="bgcolor" value="#FF6600'.x/*#d01f3c*/.'" />
<param name="quality" value="high" />
</object></td></tr><tr class="lfmFoot"><td style="background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/footer_bg/'.$lfmwc.'.png) repeat-x 0 0;text-align:right;"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" style="width:184px;"><tr><td class="lfmConfig"><a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3Lmxhc3QuZm0vd2lkZ2V0cy8/Y29sb3VyPXJlZCZhbXA7Y2hhcnRUeXBlPXJlY2VudHRyYWNrcyZhbXA7dXNlcj1kb3RhbG9jJmFtcDtjaGFydEZyaWVuZHM9MSZhbXA7ZnJvbT1jb2RlJmFtcDt3aWRnZXQ9Y2hhcnQ=" title="Get your own widget" target="_blank" style="display:block;overflow:hidden;width:85px;height:20px;float:right;background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/footer/'.$lfmwc.'.png) no-repeat 0px -20px;text-decoration:none;"></a></td><td class="lfmView" style="width:74px;"><a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3Lmxhc3QuZm0vdXNlci9kb3RhbG9jLw==" title="View dotaloc\'s profile" target="_blank" style="display:block;overflow:hidden;width:74px;height:20px;background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/footer/'.$lfmwc.'.png) no-repeat -85px -20px;text-decoration:none;"></a></td><td class="lfmPopup" style="width:25px;"><a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3Lmxhc3QuZm0vd2lkZ2V0cy9wb3B1cC8/Y29sb3VyPXJlZCZhbXA7Y2hhcnRUeXBlPXJlY2VudHRyYWNrcyZhbXA7dXNlcj1kb3RhbG9jJmFtcDtjaGFydEZyaWVuZHM9MSZhbXA7ZnJvbT1jb2RlJmFtcDt3aWRnZXQ9Y2hhcnQmYW1wO3Jlc2l6ZT0x" title="Load this chart in a pop up" target="_blank" style="display:block;overflow:hidden;width:25px;height:20px;background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/footer/'.$lfmwc.'.png) no-repeat -159px -20px;text-decoration:none;"></a></td></tr></table></td></tr></table>'
//end div
.'</div>';

Conclusion

Contact me if you need any help. Contact info at http://nick.chapmanit.com or chapmanit.com.

References

To post code to blogger, I followed instruction here: http://thoughtsomething.blogspot.com/2008/11/display-html-javascript-code-in-blogger.html

Adding Custom Ringtones to a LG Env3

Synopsis

This is a quick tutorial describing how to add custom ringtones to a LG Env3 on the Verizon network. This assumes you have already created a ringtone from a .mp3 on your computer (here's a tutorial that came up when i googled), but will mention a way to use the software in this tutorial to make a ringtone as well (see bottom of tutorial to see how to create a ringtone with BitPim -- it's pretty easy!).

Reference Links

There are a few links which I referenced to get part of this information. I'll be a little more explicit in my instructions, hopefully helping anyone who may be having trouble. Here are the links:



http://forums.mobiledia.com/topic69838.html


http://cellphoneforums.net/lg-env/t298399-ringtones-env3.html

Download Necessary Software

To access your phone, you will need the charger/usb cable that came with your phone (should have), an LG Env3 (on the Verizon Network?), and the following software:

• a driver to allow communication with your computer through the usb cable
  (i used the software updater application, but other direct drivers may work as well)
• BitPim 1.06 (or newer?)

Now install mentioned software. If it tells you to restart, restart.

Step-by-Step

1. Open you Env3 and go to Menu >> Settings and Tools >> USB Mode and set to Ask on Plug -- exit to main menu


2. Attach your Env3 to a USB Port on your computer. When prompted, select 'data'


3. Open BitPim (Start >> Program Files >> BitPim)


4. Go to Edit >> Settings


5. Set Phone Type to LG-VX9100 (enV 2) and make sure Com Port is set to auto. Click OK to exit Settings


6. In the left pane, click File system and in the next (middle) pane, click + beside the Folder icon and '/'. Wait a second while the file system is retrieved. Now browse to brew >> mod >> 18067. This folder lists your 'My Sounds'


7. Drag files from the windows explorer into the 18067 folder. It will take a few seconds. When the transfer is complete, right-click a folder from the middle pane (any one) and select Reboot Phone*


8. Verify that the files were copied by opening your enV 3 >> going to Menu >> Music & Tones >> My Sounds -- they should be here identified by filename.
   (FYI, 10888 holds your pictures, 10890 your vidoes, and 10889>ringtones>default holds your ringtones [i couldn't get copying files there to work *** EDIT a commentor said you could copy ringtones to '10889>ringtones' (sans '>default' mentioned above) to have them properly designated as 'ringtones' as opposed to 'sounds'. thanks, Wahlverine! /END EDIT***])


9. Highlight a song and you can SetAs whatever you'd like!

Conclusion

Hope this helped someone. Most of this information was found elsewhere, but scattered throughout various forum posts and threads...I just consolidated it for my use and thought it may be beneficial for others. If screenshots would be helpful, feel free to contact me. thenickchapman[usuallyfoundat]gmail[dot]com. Take care!

Addendum

*If you haven't already created ringtones, BitPim lets you do that. Here's how:

1. Open BitPim


2. In the left pane, go to Phone >> Media >> Sounds [not Sounds(sd)]


3. Drag a file (mp3) from windows explorer into the large, right pane of BitPim


4. Set bitrate a little higher, at least 64 or 96, and click Convert (and wait a few seconds for a dos prompt call to ffmpeg to convert the file)


5. (pretty intuitive....but) Drag the Pink and Red bookends to where you want the ringtone to stop and start. Target duration should be ~22 seconds. I usually make mine 30...but probably lose the last little bit. 'Play Position' plays where the indicator triangle is set and 'Play Clip' plays everything between the bookends (and is really slow -- use 'Play Position'). You'll have to decide if volume adjustment is necessary for you. I kinda doubt it.


6. Repeat for other ringtones


7. Click the 'Arrow TO Phone' icon, which displays 'Send Phone Data' when moused over


8. On the menu that pops up, verify that 'Ringtones' is checked and the 'Add' radial option is selected, then click 'OK'


9. That should be it! If you have any trouble with this method, you can always right-click on a 'sound' you've made with BitPim and 'save' it to your computer, then use the transfer method mentioned in the tutorial to copy the files over. I KNOW it works...and this is more like speculation.

Access your Motorola VU204 (Verizon) to add Custom Ringtones

First of all, the following links provide an abundance of information and should be visited should any problems arise or at least held in revelry due to their amazing content:

http://www.modmymoto.com/forums/showthread.php?t=412671
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1538268


...there were a few others which had similar information, but these two were the ones I referenced.

That said, I hope this instruction is a little more direct and helps people so that they don't spend 2 and a half hours on something that now only takes me 10 minutes.

How do I access my Motorola VU204?

Download Necessary Software

• motorola usb driver (not pc charging driver)
  
• Motorola Software Update (MSU) [direct download link]
• P2k Commander (v.4.9E -- normally the higher the better, but 6 didn't work for me and 4.9E did) [p2k commander rapid share search]

Install the Software

Install the driver.

Install the MSU and run it. Let it update your phone. If you have any trouble after an update with the phone not being recognized by your computer (when it is recognized, it reinstalls all the drivers), remove and re-connect the usb cable from your phone. If that doesn't work, unplug it from the back of your computer and plug it into another empty usb port. After updates, you can close it for now, *sighs*, i guess.

Extract P2K Commander and remember where you extract it.

Access My Phone

Run MSU.

Run P2K commander by browsing to the folder you extracted the contents to and running p2kcommander.exe

In a drop down (either side), click the down arrow and select /a P2K phone system then click re-read.

Voila. You should see your phone data.

What do I do Now?

You can create custom ringtones (i use audacity to select 20-30 seconds of a jam that i like, and have on my computer, and then export it as a lower quality (96/128kb) .mp3 files). Just copy the files by navigating to the mp3 location on your computer on one side of the dual display, and then the P2k:/a/brew/mod/my_ringers/ directory on the phone and dragging the files over. The transfer will go one file at a time and ask you to wait, but allows multi-tasking, during each file transfer. I only say this because earlier versions of P2K Commander were notorious for crashing if the window lost focus.

You can also copy over pictures, I'd imagine...and backup all your data from your phone to your computer. Maybe even find some apps and copy them over. Go crazy!