Hario Skerton Ceramic Coffee Mill Mod

Ok, so obviously this post isn't a computer repair or an upgrade or a mod. Nope, it's a coffee mill mod. Like any good computer geek, I need me some caffeine, so this mod is related and it's IMPORTANT! I got the Hario Skerton Ceramic Coffee Mill from amazon.com. I like coffee mill just fine, but there are days where I just want my coffee and I don't want to spend the extra 5-10 minutes grinding coffee beans. I'm not saying I don't like the calming effect of manually grinding coffee beans, but you get it right, sometimes you just need coffee as soon as possible.

So how exactly do you mechanize a manual coffee mill?

• M6 coupling nut
• M7 1/8" thick flat washer
• Power Drill (oh YEAH)
• 10mm Hex Shank Nut Setter

Samsung NP-N130 Netbook Upgrade and Repair

When the netbook craze was hitting the US by storm, my parents decided to pick up a Samsung NP-N130 netbook from Costco. I gotta admit when they first got it, it was SLOW and youtube video playback was tolerable. Fast forward to today and it's just a pain. It's slow as molasses. Resolution is too low. youtube video playback is passable and far from good.

Dell Inspiron 8600 Repair and Cooling Mod and Upgrade

Look at the things you can find when you go digging through closets and garages. Out springs an old Dell Inspiron 8600. I came upon this old laptop without an AC power adapter. I had to use a Targus Universal Power Adapter APM62US that I had on hand to get it powered up. It's not a bad laptop. It could do with a processor upgrade, but it works.

Acer Aspire 4810T Repair and Upgrade

Let me start off by saying I got a hand-me-down Acer Aspire 4810T in pretty bad condition. Bottom case holding down the hinge assembly was broken on both sides making it difficult to open the laptop without feeling like the whole thing was going to break. Also the AC adapter is missing.

Lenovo Yoga 710-11ISK Upgrade

Over the 2016 Labor Day weekend, I stopped by Best Buy and saw that they had a table of open box items. On the table was an 11 inch Lenovo Yoga 710-11ISK for $419. The Yoga 710 was on sale for $449 new. I was going to buy it new, but Best Buy was SOLD OUT of the new Lenovo Yoga 710-11ISK. Instead they sold me the open box for $350, boom, done, bought.

Processor: Intel Pentium 4405Y (1.50GHz 1866MHz 2MB)
Operating system: Windows 10 Home x64
Display: 11.6" FHD IPS LED Backlit Multitouch (1920x1080) with integrated camera
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 515
Memory: 4.0GB LPDDR3-1866 MHz (Onboard)
Hard Drive: 128GB SSD
Optical Drive: No Optical Disk Drive
Network Card: 802.11 AC (1x1)
Bluetooth: Bluetooth Version 4.1
Warranty: One year
Battery: 4 Cell 40 Watt Hour Li-Polymer
Keyboard: English Keyboard

Dell Latitude D630 Cooling Mod and Memory Upgrade

The Dell Latitude D630 is a fantastic machine, the model that I have is a Intel Core 2 Duo T9500 2.60 GHz with 4GB memory. See full specifications below:

• 223-5764 : Latitude D630, Intel Core 2 Duo T9500, 2.60GHz, 800Mhz, 6M L2 Cache, Dual Core
• 310-9094 : US - System Documentation Power Cord, Latitude D630
• 420-8734 : Vista Business Service Pack 1 with media, English, Latitude
• 420-8010 : Roxio Creator Dell Edition,9.0 Dell Latitude/Mobile Precision
• 430-2375 : Intel 4965 WLAN (802.11a/g/n) mini Card Latitude, Factory Install
• 320-5289 : 14.1 inch Wide Screen WXGA+ LCD for Latitude D630
• 374-7297 : CFI,B8JV01,Information,Label, Large,Factory Install
• 366-1040 : Custom Asset Report
• 365-0257 : CFI Routing SKU
• 320-5485 : 128MB NVIDIA Quadro NVS 135M Latitude D630
• 341-6439 : 80GB Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive 9.5MM, 7200RPM,Latitude
• 430-2275 : Dell Wireless 360 VSTA Bluetooth Module for Vista Latitude
• 366-1552 : PCA custom project fee
• 312-0484 : 6-Cell/56 WHr Primary Battery Latitude D630
• 420-9184 : Cyberlink Power DVD 8.1,with Media,Dell Latitude/Mobile Precision
• 366-1416 : Image Load
• 310-8768 : Internal English Keyboard for Latitude Notebooks
• 372-8900 : CFI,Information,D630,Nvidia, ONLY,Factory Install
• 313-5638 : 8X DVD+/-RW for Latitude D-Family
• 310-9096 : Resource DVD with Diagnostics and Drivers, Dell LatitudeD630 Notebook
• 310-8792 : Standard Touchpad for Latitude D630
• 330-0888 : Nylon Deluxe Top Load Carrying Case 14.1 inch for Latitude E/Mobile Precision
• 310-7283 : 65W AC Adapter for Latitude D-Family
• 366-1557 : Integration of a Service Tag o r Label
• 311-5689 : 4.0GB, DDR2-667 SDRAM, 2 DIMM for Dell Latitude Notebooks
• 310-8759 : You have chosen a Vista Basic System

Recently, it started to randomly shutdown on it's own, so I decided to open it up and see what was going on inside. Interestingly enough, I think the issue is the miniPCIe WLAN card is causing the system instability since switch to an external USB Alfa wireless adapter, the problem has gone away.

That still doesn't mean that it didn't need a good ol' fashioned cleanup job on the inside.

Windows Software 2015

My personal software list (as of 2015-12-11)

I do a lot of computer OS installations and setup, so I decided to make a list for myself so that I don't forget to install something. If you're interested, read on!