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.

Thoughts - Upgrading notebook computers

In this blog, I focus on upgrading and to some degree modding notebook computers.  In general, upgrading notebook computers is not something that's discussed and when it is discussed, it's usually isolated to RAM and hard drive upgrades.  Granted that anything other than RAM and hard drive upgrades tend to be more difficult to perform.  So the question I'm going to answer is, "Why?"

Windows 8 and older computers

When Windows 8 went RTM, I downloaded the ISO that day and because I only seem to have old computers in my house, I tried to install Windows 8 on them.  Right off the bat, I'm at strike 2.

According to reports, Windows 8 is DESIGNED to run on netbooks, see review of Windows 8 Developer Preview and netbooks here.  Windows 8 was meant to be lighter and more efficient.  There are fewer running processes than Windows 7 and has a lower memory footprint than Windows 7.  All of these reports in theory should make Windows 8 faster than Windows 7.  The question then is, why is doesn't Windows 8 work as efficient or better than Windows 7 on my old notebook computers which works well with Windows 7 and can run laps around netbooks any day of the week.  This should be easy!