I came across a Sony VAIO PCG-FX150 with a few issues. I wound up purchasing another similar VAIO off of eBay (a PCG-FX340) and combining the two units’ parts together to make one dang nice retro laptop. As far as a good battery goes, that remains to be seen. Nonetheless, one hurdle I had to…
Author: Jo
Computers Affected by “The Solder Plague,” or How RoHS Fueled E-waste
The Solder Plague – though difficult to define – was a highly prevalent manufacturing issue (akin to The Capacitor Plague) that led to many devices randomly having mass failure. When? The issue was highly prevalent in roughly 2005 to 2010. What? Exactly what would fail would depend on the device in question. Typically in laptops,…
Equivalent RAM Speed Reference
This is a solution article that explains what memory names are the same as another. For example, DDR-400 and PC-3200 are one and the same. DDR/PC Friendly Name Industry Name DDR-200 PC-1600 DDR-266 PC-2100 DDR-333 PC-2700 DDR-400 PC-3200 DDR2/PC2 Friendly Name Industry Name DDR2-400 PC2-3200 DDR2-533 PC2-4200 DDR2-667 PC2-5300 DDR2-800 PC2-6400 DDR2-1066 PC2-8500 DDR3/PC3 Friendly…
Supported Maximum RAM Per Computer Platform
This page tells you what you can use at a maximum on your motherboard, depending on your system type (desktop or laptop) and chipset/CPU. Generally, you should NOT try to put faster RAM than your chipset/CPU supports, or else you may encounter crashing, freezing, and who knows what else? Simply avoid it. Intel-based 2006-2008 Laptops…
Common BIOS Keys for Computers
This page is a list of common keys to enter the boot menu and/or BIOS of a computer. Brand of Motherboard/System BIOS key Boot menu key Recovery Other Gigabyte Delete F12 eMachines Delete/F2 F12/F10 Acer Aspire One F2 F12 ? Boot menu has to be enabled Acer Delete F12 HP MediaSmart Delete F12 Disc only…
A Clear Guide to Install SGI IRIX
Here we are in October of 2017. I was recently given an SGI Fuel, a cool red server that runs SGI IRIX. The only problem is that I didn’t have the original hard drive, but at least I had the original discs. How the heck do I install it, though? It’s not like a standard…
Why Modular Power Supplies are a Terrible (and Obsolete) Idea
As with most people, I’ve traditionally bought the non-modular power supplies over modular for one reason: because they’re cheaper. However, at this point in my life, I realize more and more of these “fancy” things can often come with their own drawbacks, cleverly hidden behind the guise of ‘newer is better’. Modular power supplies are…
Why Generic Electronics are Dangerous!
Generic electronics are best described as a plague, because they do nothing more than infest the marketplace with a terrible product, and to make matters even worse, tons of people buy them…and they’re in for one heck of a surprise. Why, you might ask? Aren’t they just all the same? They’re poorly made Trust me,…