Dell e1505 WC Edition Mod Canceled – Official

I will no longer be planning or having anything to due with the WC mod for the laptop. Damn thing is just too much of a pain in the ass to do it, too much of an expense to do it, and honestly, i would rather just take an old Socket 939 Cooler with a High CFM Fan and cool it that way and deal with the noise. Now if that doesnt tell you what crap I have to put up with from this piece of crap, then I dont know what does. BTW, I am going to mod the laptop into a desktop, but I havent decided what to do to it yet. So far I am thinking either putting it my car (when i get it) and making it a CarPC, putting it in a CRT monitor shell and modding that, or incorporating it into the house somehow, for automation and all that crap. Whatever the case, it WILL be running linux.

Home Server Plans

I just got done pulling an all-nighter setting up a linux server for me and the family. So far everything is working good. Still having some issues and I am on Bit-Tech trying to resolve them. But back to topic; The server is currently running on what is planned to be the HTPC, but as of now its running two jobs, being the HTPC and Server, which isnt hard considering, 1) its running Linux, not resource hogging Windows, and 2) its a Quad Core (Q6600) packed with 4GB of DDR2 800. So there should be no performance problems with it running two tasks. What will happen, once I come into my storage containers in another state and get my other computers, is the old P4 machine will take the Server Job, and the HTPC will be redone and have a new case, new OS, and be devoted 100% to being a HTPC, as it will act as a Tivo and HTPC, etc. You get the drift. So what about the computers in storage? Well I have one on hand right now, minus an AT power supply. Yes, I have an old IBM 686 laying around. Its got potential though. Which is why I haven’t retired it yet; just let it take a break while i gutted it. The other PC I have, which is in storage and not on hand, is an old (I think P2, maybe P3, was out when 98FE came out, that bastard that spawned WinME) HP with a little better and more up to date hardware. I know neither of the computers have NICs, so I would have to get those. But I could run one as a personal firewall with either pfsense or IPCop, and the other can serve some other task, so long as its not CPU-tasking… So I have a few options. Personally I am thinking of making the old 686 the firewall and doing something with the HP; probably be doing a very light linux install for my sister to use until she gets one of the newer computers, dont know how that will work, but it will find a task. If nothing else, it will get something like SUSE or DSL loaded on it and server automation tasks. Thats not all that much and would take great advantage of the RS232 and LPT1 ports on it.

Batman 3 (The Caped Crusader?)

Its been rumored that Warner Bros. and DC Comics are going to do the 3rd installment of Batman, which at the moment has been dubbed the name "Batman: The Caped Crusader". Its supposed to be starring Christian Bale (Batman) and Johnny Depp as Riddler. Now Johnny Depp was recently on a FM Talk Show and basically said something about being on/accepted the role, although Warner Bros. isnt confirming anything. Also, according to IGN’s page, Dent might also be coming back into the movie… Opinions People?

Source: IGN

Control iTunes With Laptop Media Buttons

I am sure that some of you readers out there have laptops. Well for those of us who have iTunes and wish to control iTunes with the built-in media buttons, I have a fix for you. Go Here and download this .dll file. It is a plug in for iTunes to allow it to read the media button inputs. This will work for both XP and Vista. This will require you showing hidden folders and copying the .dll in the appropriate folder, depending on your OS.

For XP – C:\Documents and Settings\Jake\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\iTunes Plug-ins

For Vista – C:\Users\Jake\App Data\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes\iTunes Plug-ins

Note: C is used as the hard drive where my OS is installed. If it is different for you, replace C for where your OS is. “Jake” is my user name. Replace that with your user name.

Have fun with iTunes!

PS – The Link is to Rapidshare –file is mmKeys.dll

Dual Boot OSX and Vista/XP

I got this Tutorial off of Suprbay from a friend there…

I find for OSX to work best you should wipe the entire drive.
Things you will need are,
1. Windows Vista/XP Install Disk.
2. Acronis Disk Director Suite (Full Version)
3. Hacked OSX Install disc.
4. Ubuntu (or equivalent) OS that can boot from CD (As a fall back incase things go wrong so you have an OS to fall back on)
I recommend you back up everything you want to keep as wiping the entire drive works best. After that go on.
1. Boot up Your Hacked OSX Install Disc Install Disc.
2. When you get to the install screen were it asks you to select a partition to install to go to the menu at the top and choose Disk Utility.
3. Select your drive and choose to split it into 2 partitions. Set one to Mac Journaled and the other to FAT32
4. Apply your changes (hopefully you backed your stuff up because its gone now.)
5. Quit the Disk Utility to relaunch the installer and install Your Hacked OSX Install Disc.
6. Finish by selecting your keyboard layout and crap after the install is complete.
Duel Boot Time
1. After you get OSX running the way you want it to Re-boot and boot up your Vista/XP disc. Select to install to the FAT32 partition and re-format it to NTFS.
2. After that install Acronis. Re-boot after it asks you to then re-launch Acronis. Select manual mode then when thats done right click on the drive icon at the bottom of Acronis. Go to advanced then Edit.
Checkmark the Shag OS swap and deselect the NTFS one.
3. Apply then reboot.
4. You will now have the Darwin back up and running. Press F8 at the Darwin boot before it times out.
5. You can now select either Vista/XP or OSX.

Lower Laptop Temps!

Wow. All I have to say is wow. My Dell Laptop that I Mentioned in my previous post has recently dropped by nearly 20 Degrees C with a few fan and temperature monitoring applications and some Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Paste. This thing is actually running more smooth and a bit faster. The Dell laptop, packing a T7200 (2.00GHz, 4MB L2 Cache), 2GB DDR2 SO-DIMM SDRAM and a nVidia 256MB GeForce Go 7300 is actually handling quite well. The Vista Experience Rating has gone up and now my scores are almost at a 5 across the board, with the exception of graphics (the 7300 is a good mid-level card, but not for superb high-quality games like Crysis). But back to the Temperature management; I will include a few links to some files that I think are quite needful to have.

CoreTemp

SpeedFan

For Dell Laptop Users: “Dell Inspirion/Latitude/Precision Fan Control App”

These small apps are great to have for your laptop. They help monitor heat and control your fans. Personally I am using the Dell Laptop Program (its not made by Dell, FYI) and It is so easy. It docks in the system tray (as do all of the programs listed) and shows me the temps of my CPU and GPU (you can configure it to show you whatever temps it detects – ie: HDD, CPU/CPU cores, GPU, and northbridge – depends on computer model).

Fixing A Dell™

Yes, it is possible to attempt to fix one. I am working on a 2007 Inspiron e1505 as of now. This thing gets so hot I feel as though I might have burns the next day. Recently I took it apart and cleaned out all the dust from everywhere possible, in the process I have completely voided the warranty, but the hell with it. I am doing a little test with the ThermalTake Arctic Silver 5, and how it affects temperatures once used. So far with this fire-hot laptop, It has taken the temperature down by nearly 20 Degrees C. I am impressed! The lowest it got was 31 C and that was just after letting the thermal paste sit for a few minutes to adhere to the heatsink and CPU. This thing is actually bearable to hold in my lap now! I am pretty happy about it.

Next step is to water cool it

Ready for 2009

So who is ready for 2009? I know I am. Guess what’s coming out in supposedly January? Windows 7 Beta. Yes, that’s right. Windows 7 Beta 1 is projected to be available in January 2009, as early as the 13th. See ZDnet.com for full post.