HP Pavilion dv7-1020us Upgrade and Cooling Mod

I got a hold of an old HP Pavilion dv7-1020us that was having video stuttering problems. Generally, it worked, but the occasional video lag was starting to get out of hand. Since it's an old computer, my first instinct is to open it up and clean it out since it's out of warranty and the thermal compound needs to be upgraded anyway. Here's a picture of what I found.

Horrifying, isn't it!

Logitech MX518 Optical Gaming Mouse Repair

I'm at it again and this time, I fixed the mouse buttons on the Logitech MX518 Optical Gaming Mouse. I had a problem with this one in that the left mouse button wasn't mounted all the way down and when I desoldered the left mouse button, one mount came completely off and another one was on it's way off, but I soldered everything back on and it worked just fine. I used the same Omron D2F-T that I used to repair the Logitech V550 Nano Cordless Laser Mouse. The 3rd mouse button below the left mouse button is for the wheel. That particular button doesn't get used much so I didn't replace that one. Again the new mouse buttons are stiffer than the original clicky mouse buttons.

Finally, an upgradeable Tablet PC

As you can probably tell by now, I have a affinity towards Sony products. Don't get me wrong, I get annoyed when Sony doesn't deliver the goods, but when they do, the result is just beautiful.

Many of high end (non-Intel Atom) Tablet PCs are not upgradable or repairable because they are GLUED together.

Microsoft Surface Pro disassembly
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Microsoft+Surface+Pro+Teardown/12842/

Microsoft Surface Pro 2 disassembly
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Microsoft+Surface+Pro+2+Teardown/18604/

Lenovo Helix disassembly
No teardown information available. The only other high end Tablet PC other than Sony to offer an Intel Core i7. The Lenovo Helix offers an Intel Core i7-3667U Processor (4M Cache, up to 3.20 GHz) with a battery life of up to 10 hours.

Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T (XE700T1C) disassembly
http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/samsung/54457-ativ-700t-question-anyone-open-unit-yet-3.html
In all fairness, the Samsung  ATIV 700T isn't glued together; it snaps together. There's not a lot of good information out there regarding how to pry it apart, but it's doable.

Now let's compare this to the Sony VAIO Tap 11 disassembly
http://blog.sony.com/2013/10/vaio-tap-11-teardown/
5 screws and the device comes apart without a fuss. In my opinion the differentiator is that you can configure it with an Intel® Core™ i7-4610Y (1.70GHz / 2.90GHz with Turbo Boost). Pair that with an aftermarket 480 GB mSATA SSD (as of 2013-12-08, http://www.crucial.com/search/searchresults.aspx?keywords=msata) and you've got a powerful tablet. You can purchase the unit with a built in 512 GB SSD, but that's $700 (as of 2013-12-08). The battery life is mediocre at up 5.75 hours.

Logitech V550 Nano Cordless Laser Mouse Repair

After fixing my Logitech Anywhere Mouse MX, I'm on a mouse button repair kick. I have a Logitech V5050 Nano Cordless Laser Mouse and the button on that mouse is going as well. The unfortunate news is that there wasn't any parts information on the Internet, so I had to go hunt one down myself.

Logitech Anywhere Mouse MX Repair

My Logitech Anywhere Mouse MX started to automatically double click things one day. In the DIY spirit, I tried to fix it myself! Good thing that someone figured out what parts I needed to buy first. See ifixit.com post here.

Experience with Renice SSD

Earlier this year (2013), I picked up a Renice K3VLAR 1.8" PATA Zif SSD 128 GB drive from mydigitaldiscount.com. Needless to say, I was extremely excited because my Sony VAIO TXN27N was insufferably slow and needed a boost.

HP Pavilion dv4165cl Upgrade and Cooling Mod

I came upon an old HP Pavilion dv4165cl (see here for specifications).

The owner loved the old computer but it was having a serious problem it would shutdown after a few minutes of work. I decided help out and take a look. If I was lucky it would be an easy fix and make someone happy and it would also save someone a lot of money.

I want to apologize in advance for the blurry pictures but my camera and I weren't getting along and I was having trouble focusing.

The HP Pavilion dv4165cl was generally in good condition. The battery wouldn't hold a charge but all in all, it was fully functional, except for the overheating issue.

Asus Eee PC 1101HA Upgrade

I helped my brother upgrade his Asus Eee PC 1101HA.

http://uk.asus.com/Eee/Eee_PC/Eee_PC_1101HA_Seashell/

He purchased the Samsung 840 120 GB SSD here at amazon.com. But during installation he ran into a problem.

The 1101HA boots just fine off an external DVD ROM drive into the Windows 7 install disc. Selected the empty space as the target (no partitions created) to install Windows 7. The next step is where the issue occurred. The Windows 7 install hangs/freezes while copying Windows install files to the SSD.

Oops, I formatted the wrong drive

It's one of those moments, you're reinstalling Windows and you're looking at the list of partitions and drives and you're sure you're looking at the right drive and partition and you select format. Then all of the sudden, it hits you, OOPS, WRONG DRIVE. Angry expletives follow.

Rules to follow so that you don't do format the WRONG drive, there's only one that I follow:

• If possible (because some computers, especially laptops, have drives that may not be easily accessible), ALWAYS disconnect any drive that you don't unintentionally want to format.

Assuming you did what you didn't intend to do, we move on to RECOVERY or unformat.

So yes, I DIDN'T follow my own rule and YES, I did format the WRONG DRIVE. Still upset about really. But what's done is done and trying to recover was very trying experience.

The drive I formatted was a 1 TB Western Digital SATA HDD.

Software I tried:

• Kroll Ontrack EasyRecovery - http://www.krollontrack.com/data-recovery/recovery-software/
• EaseUS Data Recovery - http://www.easeus.com/datarecovery/
• Remo Recover - http://www.remosoftware.com/download
• R-TT R-Studio - http://www.r-tt.com/

Print Server

Problem

In a 2 story home, I have a computer setup on the 1st floor and a Canon imageCLASS D480 multifunction printer on the 2nd floor.  The Canon D480 is generally used for fax and copy.  However, on occasion, I do need to print from it.  Usually, I have to grab a laptop and the file I need to print, run upstairs and print the file.  I'd like to use a wireless print server, but the out-of-box solutions usually have printer limitation.  I've considered using a spare laptop, but the problem with that is the power consumption.  Most laptops have 90W power supplies and this generally equates to about $10/month (as of 2013-01-08).

So here are the parameters:

• Low power consumption
• Support for a wide range of printers
• Wifi enabled

mini PCI to mini PCIe adapter

I was looking around for mini PCIe adapters and I was suprised to find that you can buy a mini PCI to mini PCIe adapter.

http://www.amfeltec.com/products/flexible-minipci-to-minipcie-adapter.php

There are more mini PCIe devices available and this looks like it'll be a fanastic way to get a mini PCIe device into the Alienware Aurora m7700.