Resurrection

I can't believe that I haven't written anything for such a long time. It's not that there was nothing to write about. There was and still is plenty to write about. Especially regarding my flea market and dumpster finds. I've been steadily building my retro computing collection and selling off the surplus in the process. Learning new things and also things that I once knew but forgot. More and more I find myself wanting to write stuff in one place, not just here and there on different forums. That's why I'm officially resurrecting this blog today :-)

PDA vs. Smartphone

It's generally considered that smartphones have won the battle and you will have trouble finding a dedicated PDA nowadays. But have they really won? I think not. What is a smartphone, if not a PDA with a built-in  phone? Making phonecalls is just a tiny part of the package! So what happened is not the death of the PDA but rather a merger. This is good because we don't have to carry two separate devices anymore and it's cheaper too. Would the phones eventually evolve to what they are now without the invention of the PDA? Who knows?

Windows XP: how to disable CTRL+ALT+DEL at Login

By default, Windows XP will ask you to press CTRL+ALT+DEL before you can enter your user credentials. Here's how to get around this:

Go to the Control Panel--> Administrative Tools--> Local Security Policy, select Local Policies --> Security Options, and locate Interactive Logon: Do not require CTRL+ALT+DEL, and Disable that option. Problem solved!

Humiliation!

Note to self: yellow wire* = +12 V not +5 V!

Today's lesson cost me a 2GB Disk on Module (DoM).

* - molex connector

HTPC Cooling Part III.

About a year ago I wrote about how I solved the problem of my HTPC overheating. Well, after recently upgrading RAM to 4GB it seemed like a good idea to come up with a better solution. So I did.

Mod #1: Cable ties! The existing fan was perfect so I used cable ties to attach it to the heat pipes.

Fast, easy, neat and works like a charm!

Mod #2: Case fan also needed silencing. On the first try I used a thermistor. Have yet to see, if this is a satisfying solution.

News: Fractal PC

It's been 8 years since my last PC build and the time has come for me to replace my aging Toshiba laptop. After much thought and price checks I settled for this:

CPU: Intel i3-2100
MB: Asus P8H67 rev3.0
RAM: 2x 4GB Corsair Vengeance Blue 1333MHz
GFX: XFX Radeon 6850 1GB
PSU: Corsair TX 650W V2
BOX: Fractal Design Arc

Got all of this (except the case) from a shop in Austria (www.e-tec.at) and the prices were very reasonable. The build worked out of the box and gave me no problems whatsoever which is a first!

TG3 BL82 mod

In december 2010 I received a used TG3 BL82 compact mechanical keyboard. It was in pretty bad shape but I didn't want to throw it out so I decided to completely renovate it.

The idea was to swap switches for Cherry MX Blue and along the way swap LEDs as well. I got the switches from a fellow geekhack.org member and bought the orange diodes on eBay.

TG3 really has nice and clean soldering. All soldering and desoldering was done at 275C. Since I haven't done anything like this before, it took me almost 7 hours just to desolder the switches and diodes! I estimate that I spent a total of ~14 hours working on the project. Additional time was wasted with desoldering new diodes which turned out not to be bright enough.

The last ingredient was the transparent case I got from Deck thanks to another geekhack member.



You can find more pictures here.

Flea Market Finds #7

No updates for a while but this doesn't mean I haven't bought anything!

Recent finds:
- Diablo (PC CD-ROM), jewel case
- Diablo II (PC CD-ROM), jewel case
- A502/16; 512kB memory expansion for the Amiga 500
- Nintendo Game & Watch Life Boat w/ box & instructions

Video HowTo: Cherry MX stem&spring swap

A switch is held together by four latches (two to each side). The video shows how you can pop the switch open in 3 easy steps. I did this with a french Goupil G80-1861 keyboard which originally used MX Black linear switches. A Cherry G80-1000 served as a donor for MX Blue stems and springs.

Goupil G80-1861 stem & spring swap from Bojan Kotur on Vimeo.

The end result:

HTPC Cooling

I finally got my hands on one Scythe 100x100x12mm slim fan. It turns at roughly 1000rpm and practically cannot be heard. It only moves 15 CFM which means that the PC now gets hotter than before - approximately 60C . This is quite alright as far as I'm concerned so I'll leave it as is (for now).

HTC Touch Diamond 2 problem

This phone has been nothing but trouble since I got it. The joy of owning a sparkling new phone lasted just about 2 days. My first problem was that from time the time the phone just couldn't be woken up without removing and reinserting the battery. This turned out to be a software problem which I fixed after a while.

My second problem is that the "SMS received" sound sometimes doens't play until I turn on the screen. What's that all about? Probably firmware related...

The third and biggest problem is that the receiver speaker is acting up and I sometimes can't hear a thing. This cold be due to a cold solder joint or it could be a bad speaker. Definitely something I can't solve myself so I'll have the phone repaired. Hope it doesn't last long.

AT5IONT-I fanless? Forget it!

Last night we watched a full HD movie and were in for an unpleasant surprise. Just when the movie was about to end, the computer turned itself right off. I suspected overheating so I checked the temperature readings in BIOS and they were extremely high (79C)! To solve the problem I temporarily mounted a slim 60mm AMD stock fan above the heatsink. Since it doesn't cover the whole heatsink, a real solution would be getting a slim 100mm fan which I'm going to have to order from the UK.



Conclusion: The board obviously cannot rely solely on passive cooling, at least not in a slim desktop case. You will have to provide for adequate ventilation or face potential problems with overheating.

Project HTPC

I recently bought a new TV since the old one didn't have a DVB-T receiver. Buying just the receiver was out of the question because that would leave me with an ancient TV and bad picture quality. HDMI was the only way to go so I decided to build a proper HTPC capable of HD video playback.

A year ago I found a really good deal on Travla C137 case. Now I was finally able to put it to good use. Deciding which motherboard to buy took some more research. In the end I decided to go for an ASUS AT5IONT-I since I already had two 1GB DDR3 SO-DIMM sticks lying around and the board had the best CPU/GPU combo. On top of that, I bought a Western Digital Caviar Green 500GB hard drive which fit nicely inside the case. Low power consuption and silent operation make this drive ideal for such projects. Of course a HTPC wouldn't be complete without a remote control! After some fiddling with the drivers I was able to make the old ATi Remote Wonder work and it does the job fine.

The last thing to do was to choose the OS. I was deciding between XBMC and Windows 7. A couple of my co-workers convinced me to try Win7 so I did. All I can say at the moment is "so far so good".

Photo: link

Old Game Boy Newspaper Ad

Notebook Surgery

I recently bought a used Toshiba Satellite A210-128 (AMD Turion X2 TL-56) with a busted display panel. The replacement was bought from this eBay store and it turned out great. It took me about an hour and a half to disassemble the laptop, replace the panel and put everything back together (the disassembly instructions can be found here). I wasn't sure, if the new panel would work but all my fears vanished as soon as I pushed the power button and the Toshiba logo showed up on screen.

Note: if you happen to be looking for a solid used notebook, I have one for sale ;)

This just in...

NIB Lexmark (IBM) Model M Spacer Saver! French layout.

Red Esc, Lavender WASD

What am I talking about? Why, keycaps of course! Last month I ordered some colored keycaps and here they are: red Escape key and lavender W, A, S, D keys for IBM Model M. What do you think? Pretty nifty, eh? I borrowed the idea from Filco.

Crazy About Keyboards

Just picked up another IBM Model M this weekend, bringing my keyboard count up to nine. Took me a while to clean but it looks almost like new now. Here's what I have:

- IBM Model M - YU layout, 1993
- IBM Model M - DE layout (Ambra)
- IBM Model M - US layout, 1989
- IBM Model M - YU layout, broken
- IBM Model M - YU layout, 1996
- IBM Terminal Board - YU layout
- Cherry MX1800, DE layout, MX blue
- Cherry G80, YU layout, MX blue
- NeXT Station, non-ADB, YU layout

Nikon F-- Error Mystery Solved

I recently discovered what's causing that infamous "F--" error. It happened when I grabbed the camera by the lens. The lens actually turned a bit and "F--" popped up immediately. That's when it became apparent to me that I could actually jiggle the lens by a milimeter to one side or the other thus causing an interruption in the lens contact with the body. This in turn causes the "F--" error.

So, don't grab your camera by the lens and if you do get the error, try to realign the lens so that it goes back to normal.

How not to pack things before shipping

This article is a direct consequence of many horrible packaging jobs I've witnessed in the past years as a buyer on eBay.

Why is it such a big problem for some people to make sure that the contents of the package arrive in the exect same condition as they were shipped? They are either ignorant and believe the packages are handled with care or they are cheap and simply don't give a damn. The latest example is an IBM Model M keyboard I ordered last month. Upon arrival I discovered it wasn't boxed! Instead, it was wrapped in cardboard like you'd wrap a book. Needless to say, the keyboard didn't take this very well. The result was 12 broken rivets and one broken support.

My other experience comes from underpacked PC games. Some people think it's enough to simply use a normal paper envelope and be done with it. Wrong! In 99% cases the boxes arrive damaged, corners crushed and similar. If you want to package a game properly, at least use a layer of bubble-wrap and on top of that a bubble-wrap envelope. If you really want to do it right, put the game box inside a proper padded cardboard box. Your buyers will appreciate it.