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!

Sony VAIO Tap 11 SVT11213CXB Motherboard Upgrade

Ok, I confess, when I bought the Sony VAIO Tap 11 SVT11213CXB, I did it with the hidden agenda that I would upgrade the puny Intel Pentium 3560Y 1.2GHz processor to the Intel Core i7-4610Y 1.7GHz processor. I figured this would be possible because I saw the Sony VAIO Tap 11 teardown here on blog.sony.com.

Cost breakdown:

• Best Buy - $688.98 (with tax)
• Sony VAIO Tap 11 SVT11213CXB - $599.99
• SanDisk 64GB SDXC card - $49.99
• ebay.com
• Sony Laptop Motherboard 8GB w/ Intel i7-4610Y 1.7Ghz CPU A2040179A - $386.65

Total: $1075.63. That's not terrible. A couple of hundred dollars cheaper than getting the Core i7 version new.

I initially thought I'd be trying to find the actual Intel Core i7-4610Y BGA processor and get someone to BGA rework it on there, but would you believe that I actually found the motherboard here or search on ebay.com? Search for Intel i7-4610Y and the Sony VAIO Tap 11 motherboard pops up here and there. Good luck, if you're so inclined.

First things first, when I swapped out the motherboard, the system did NOT POWER ON. Yikes. I pulled out the motherboard and reattached all the cables probably 3 times and then ended replacing the original with no luck getting the system to power up. For some reason, I remembered that there was a reset button somewhere on the system and for those who stumble on this blog page freaking out because your system won't power up, here's what you do.

• Find the reset button (it's on the top edge to the left of the SD card slot).
• Plug the AC adapter into the Sony VAIO Tap 11.
• Get a paper clip or something that'll fit into the reset slot, and press and hold it down until the battery light to the right flashes. That'll let you know that the system is getting power and you should be able to power up the system now.

Sony VAIO VGN-FZ348E Repair

I convinced a coworker that repairing their Sony VAIO VGN-FZ348E with a distorted display instead of throwing it away was a better use of their money. When I saw the display, it displayed the typical symptoms of notebook computer whose video processor has been partially detached from the motherboard due to overheating.

Sure enough, when I got into the machine, the heatsink was caked in dust.

Asus U46E-BAL5 WLAN Upgrade

Updating the Asus U46E-BAL5 miniPCIe WLAN card was more straightfoward, but the actual process of physically replacing the WLAN card is DIFFICULT. The miniPCIe slot is on the top side of the Asus U36E-BAL5 under the top case (keyboard) and to get to it, you have to remove ALL the screws from the underside.

Asus K55A WLAN Upgrade

Upgrading the Asus K55A notebook computer WLAN was a frustrating process. I went through 3 different miniPCIe WLAN cards before finally settling on the Intel 7260.HMWWB.R 802.11ac/n/b/g + Bluetooth 4.0 here from embeddedworks.net. Something to note is that the Asus Wireless Switch (Wireless Console3) Utility DOES NOT and will not display the bluetooth icon regardless of whether or not a working bluetooth adapter is installed in the notebook computer.

Asus U46E-BAL5 Repair

I received an Asus U46E-BAL5 from a friend because the hinge mount on the LCD case was damaged due to the LCD screen being closed over a pen or pencil. The computer worked for a few weeks but eventually it stopped working. I advised purchasing a replacement LCD cover from ebay.com here or search. It's expensive at $175, but it's because the cover is made of aluminum. However, the hinge mounts inside the LCD are plastic and break very easily. I would suggest that additional epoxy be placed over the plastic closest to the LCD hinge mounts.

After getting the notebook computer together, it still didn't turn on, so I'm thinking something shorted the motherboard. I've ordered a replacement motherboard part here or search. At the moment, I've got the Asus U46E put back together with the replacement LCD cover, but it's not working yet. More to come as I get parts.

HP Pavilion dv8125nr Upgrade

Enter the HP Pavilion dv8125nr. It's a 17 inch notebook computer from the post desktop processor notebook computers era. It has a single core 1.8 GHz AMD Turion 64 Mobile ML-32 processor at 35 watts. Standard configuration is 512 MB (2x 256MB) memory with 2x 80GB HDDs. The fact that this particular computer can support 2 PATA HDDs is particularly exciting! I got this particular notebook computer from a coworker and I'm performing the standard upgrades (processor, memory, and SSD).

Another interesting aspect of this notebook is that it supports both the 32 bit PCMCIA slot (on the left) and the 64 bit ExpressCard slot (on the right). In theory, this is a 64 bit computer because the 1.8 GHz AMD Turion 64 Mobile ML-32 is a 64 bit processor. However, due to the 32 bit PCMCIA slot, it's best to leave the the operating system at 32 bits otherwise, the drivers won't work.

Sony VAIO Tap 11 SVT11213CXB Upgrade

When Sony sold off its VAIO computer division, I picked up a Sony VAIO Tap 11 SVT11213CXB on the cheap from Best Buy. The default configuration of the SVT11213CXB is a Pentium 3560Y, 4GB memory, and 128GB SSD. While the 128GB SSD is just enough to get by, it really is too small. I personally recommend at least a 240-256GB SSD. It's the bare minimum so that you can install software and have space for personal files. A 128GB disk is only enough for software and requires constant management to make sure you're not filling up the disk.

That said, I decided to go BIG and put in a Samsung EVO 840 500GB SSD into the Sony VAIO Tap 11. I followed the Sony published teardown video of the Sony VAIO Tap 11 and it's definitely more precarious than the video makes it out to be.

See the Sony VAIO Tap 11 teardown here on blog.sony.com.

Apple MacBook Air A1466 Mid-2013 Liquid Damage Repair

Back in September 2014, I got a Apple MacBook Air A1466 Mid-2013 that had been damaged due liquid having been spilled next to it. The good news was that it would boot up, but it didn't detect the boot drive. I took it apart to find that the SSD had suffered a short that had burned off some of the contacts.

Archos 80 G9 Digitizer Repair

Generally, I stay away from tablets and smartphones because they're very difficult to repair because of the glue, small connectors, soldered components, etc. I got my hands on an Archos 80 G9 with a broken digitizer. The device turned on and the LCD was working. I decided to open it up to see if it was repairable and it seemed harmless enough. Make sure you have some Kapton Tape, this is the one that I have here, on hand to replace the tape holding the components in place.

MSI ATI Radeon HD 4350 Thermal Paste Upgrade

I have a entry level MSI R4350-MD512H ATI Radeon HD 4350 512MB PCI Express x16 2.0 video card. The stock thermal paste wasn't cutting it, so I took off the heatsink and replaced the thermal paste with Arctic Silver 5. The MSI R4350-MD512H heatsink is held in place by plastic rivets. Some of the original plastic rivets broke while I was removing the heatsink and I had to replace them. Find them here on ebay.com.

Specifications:

• Graphics Processing Unit : ATI Radeon HD 4350 
• Interface : PCI Express x16 2.0 
• Core Clock Speed (MHz) : 600 
• Memory Size (MB) : 512 
• Memory Type : DDR2 
• Memory Interface : 64bit 
• Memory Clock Speed (MHz) : 800 
• DVI Connectors : 1 
• D-SUB Connectors : 1 
• HDMI Connectors : 1 
• HDCP Support : Y 
• RAMDAC speed (MHz) : 400 
• DirectX Version Support : 10.1 
• OpenGL Version Support : 2.1 

HP EliteBook 8470p Upgrade

The HP EliteBook 8470p reminds me of the Dell Latitude in a way because of its accessibility to the components by removing a single screw and panel on the bottom of the notebook computer. However, there is at least one component that I saw that I didn't have access to. I think it's the chipset controller. Other than that, my least favorite part of ALL HP EliteBook notebook computers I have used to today is the touchpad. It's way to slick, it has NO tactile feel and it's just feels creepy.

The HP EliteBook 8470p specifications can be found here.

Specifications:

• Processor: Intel Core i5 3320M
• Chipset: Intel QM77
• Video: Intel HD Graphics 4000
• Display: 14.0 LED HD 1366x768
• Dimensions (WxH): 32.4 x 19.2cm (12.74 x 7.56in)
• Diagonal size: 35.6cm (14.0in)
• Surface treatment: Anti-glare
• Contrast ratio: 400:1 (typical)
• Refresh rate: 60Hz
• Brightness: 200 nit (typical)
• Backlight: LED
• PPI: 112ppi
• HDD: Western Digital Scorpio Black 320GB WD3200BEKT-60PVMT0 7200RPM
• Audio: IDT 92HD87 High Definition CODEC
• WLAN: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 62205ANHMW

Upgrade options:

• Processor: The HP EliteBook 8470p has an Intel Core i5 3320M and an Intel QM77 chipset. Based on the compatibility information available on the Intel ARK Advanced Search, you can upgrade to a maximum of either the Intel Core i7 3840QM (3.80GHz, 8MB cache) or the Intel Core i7 3940XM Extreme Edition (3.90GHz, 8MB cache). Remember to be wary of the Extreme Edition processors. They're not guaranteed to work. While the Intel Core i7 3840QM is 35W, same as the Intel Core i5 3320M, the Intel Core i7 3940XM is 55W.
• Memory: Per the Intel Core i5 3320M specifications, the max memory is 32GB. However, crucial.com lists the max memory for the 8470p at 16GB. As of today, 2014-09-02, I don't see any availability of 2x16GB SODIMM memory modules for a total of 32GB, but the possiblity exists.

Toshiba Portege R835 Keyboard Repair and Upgrade

A Toshiba Portege R835 keyboard was having issues with the "A" key. When attempting to fix the key, I pulled off the "A" key and readjusted the rubber actuator for the "A" key. This made the situation WORSE. Not recommended. This resulted in the purchase of a NEW Toshiba Portege R835 keyboard.

Originally, I thought that the Portege R835 was well built, but after replacing the keyboard, I take it back. Why? THE KEYBOARD IS GLUED ON. What a mess. Taking off the keyboard damaged the original keyboard.

Black Shielding Tape for Electronics

So I've been looking around for this black shielding tape used for electronics (see picture below):

The mini PCIe slot to the right has black tape/film shielding the electronics underneath the mini PCIe card. Initially, I though it was a heat shield, but I think I've finally found the tape. mouser.com has a product called an EMI absorption sheet.

• Molex HOZOX EMI Absorption Sheet and Tape
• EMI absorption sheet and tape products

I'm still looking for a large sheet that can be cut to specification, but a least I'm closer to getting what I'm looking for.

I think the TDK Broadband RF/EMI Flexible Absorber Sheets are what I'm looking for.