Black Manticore

Slow acquiring GPS fix on Samsung GT-i5801

by lunarg on August 31st 2011, at 17:20

Try downloading octy's GPSopt application. It's available free of charge at Google Market.

It resolves the slow signal acquisition of the Samsung's GT-i5801 (perhaps on other phones as well). I use it together with GPSstatus (also available at Google Market) and no longer have GPS signal issues.

hardware, android, smartphone

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Quick links to useful IBM server tools

by lunarg on April 21st 2011, at 12:02

IBM ServerGuide: http://www-947.ibm.com/support/entry/portal/docdisplay?lndocid=SERV-GUIDE
IBM Bootable Media Creator (BOMC): http://www-947.ibm.com/support/entry/portal/docdisplay?brand=5000016&lndocid=TOOL-BOMC

computer, hardware, ibm

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Reset HP Color Laserjet 2550Ln to factory defaults

by lunarg on February 16th 2011, at 16:53

To reset the printer (does not reset the Jetdirect network card), turn off the printer. Upon turning it back on, immediate press and hold the green go button for at least 10 seconds but no more than 20. During that time, the attention light will go on. When that happens, release the button and the printer will cold reset.

Resetting the network card is done a little differently. With the printer in the ready state, press and hold the rotate carousel button and the cancel job button at the same time for a few seconds, then release it. This will reset the card to factory defaults (BOOTP/DHCP, ...

computer, hardware, printer

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Darik's Boot And Nuke

by lunarg on December 16th 2010, at 15:57

For an easy to use disk erasing tool: http://www.dban.org/.

It's pretty important when you retire your old computer that you securely delete the contents of your hard disk. Even with a regular format, it is still possible to retrieve a lot of data from the disk. DBAN can help you with that.

computer, hardware, windows, software

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Invoking the Apple Hardware Test

by lunarg on October 21st 2010, at 12:19

If you're having trouble with your Mac and think the cause could be hardware-related, you can run the Apple Hardware Test. It's a set of tools by Apple which perform basic and extensive tests on your hardware to see whether they are still okay. These tools are available for anyone with a Mac, and are either preinstalled on your system, or available through your OS'es installation discs.

Applies usually to older models of Mac.

You can download the AHT disc images for a number of older Mac models through here: http://www.info.apple.com/support/aht.html.

Insert the Apple Hardware Test disc int ...

computer, hardware, software, mac

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(a list of) IEC power cable connectors

by lunarg on October 19th 2010, at 16:36

A list of IEC power cable connectors, useful as a resource for ordering spare parts:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_connector

computer, hardware

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Getting rid of unused/disconnected devices in Windows

by lunarg on September 14th 2010, at 11:56

Ever so often, when a hardware device fails or gets replaced by another, the old one still slumbers in the deep abyss that is Windows. Usually, this is not really a problem as the unused device only takes up disk space in the form of drivers and/or support software.
In case of network equipment, that's another story. Setting a static IP on a network adapter, replacing it with another, then setting the same static address on the replacement invokes a confusing warning message. In case of 2008 SBS, it gets even worse as running certain wizards will barf out errors about not being the primary ada ...

computer, hardware, windows

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The big HP t5530 management page

by lunarg on August 6th 2010, at 13:48

At work, we've been working with the HP t55xx series thin-clients, mainly for one of our customers.
This article contains some things we've found to be very useful. It is not a real howto, but rather a collection of smaller items, telling you how to do certain things, and those things are not easy to find in the manuals.

There are 4 ways to reset a t5530 to factory defaults:

Open Control Panel, open the System applet, then click on the button that says Reset. When powered off, press and hold the F9 key on your keyboard, then power up the device, and keep it pressed, until the ...

computer, hardware

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Download link of APC PowerNet MIBs

by lunarg on July 5th 2010, at 16:47

The latest MIBs for APC's PowerNet SNMP is available here:

ftp://ftp.apc.com/apc/public/software/pnetmib/mib/

computer, hardware

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Print spooler crashes with HP LJ 1020/1022

by lunarg on June 30th 2010, at 18:04

Ever so often, owners of a HP Laserjet 1020 or 1022 may run into a problem with the print spooler crashing over and over for no apparent reason. Restarting the spooler causes an immediate crash, and the only way to get rid of the problem is by removing (sometimes by force) all printers. The observant type has already noticed (the title of this post says it all) that the common dominator is indeed the 1020/1022 printer, and that the problem usually occurs upon attempting to print one or another PDF document.

In truth, the problem is caused by newer versions of the HP Host-based printer drive ...

computer, hardware, windows, printing

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HP online warranty check

by lunarg on April 20th 2010, at 14:09

HP has an online warranty check tool, but it's not easy to find on their website. Here's a direct link to it (for as long as it works:

http://www4.itrc.hp.com/service/ewarranty/warrantyInput.do

computer, hardware

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Configure battery packs on your APC UPS

by lunarg on March 3rd 2010, at 17:48

Suppose you have an APC UPS and have just purchased a battery pack to go with it. Connecting the battery pack is pretty straightforward, but did you know you need to tell your UPS that an additional battery pack has been installed? Setting this in your UPS, optimizes the usage of the entire battery capacity.

If you are using PowerChute software, and have connected the UPS to a computer using serial, USB or network interface, you will be able to set this parameter in the software.

Log into the management card using your web browser (default user and password: apc).Navigate to UPS, and inside ...

computer, hardware, ups

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Raptors finally arrived

by lunarg on February 24th 2010, at 19:26

Finally got the final parts of my computer: the HD's.

Currently, I was using an old HD (a Maxtor 500GB) from my previous system. The idea with the new disks is to set up two Raptors in a RAID0 configuration. As Raptors are already fairly fast, the additional RAID0 - I've been using this method a few years already - should give it an extra edge.
I'm keeping the old HD in to have additional 500 GB of pure storage (like downloads and such, things that don't need the speed).

computer, hardware, home, news

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[MyHW] Sil

by lunarg on February 9th 2010, at 23:36

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computer, hardware, home, myhw

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[MyHW] Dawn

by lunarg on January 24th 2010, at 23:18

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computer, hardware, home, myhw

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[MyHW] Sakura II

by lunarg on January 23rd 2010, at 23:31

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computer, hardware, home, myhw

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Next-gen gaming

by lunarg on December 15th 2009, at 21:08

Going forward with plans for a new gaming computer, I've ordered the components. I didn't really have a specific budget in mind, other than the fact that I'm going for quality and performance, rather than selecting components based on their price.

Case: the case is an Antec Twelve Hundred gaming case. I always wanted to select a gaming case for the next one, but a nine hundred would have been just fine. The only reason why it's a twelve hundred is because of a wrong delivery a few months back, where the Antec PSU being delivered was an EC one (thus only fits in a select few cases of Antec).
T ...

computer, hardware, home, news

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8800GTX broken

by lunarg on December 14th 2009, at 23:26

Crap! Looks like my 8800GTX video card is broken. That's a serious bummer.

The card does some very serious funny things: as soon as going in-game, the card doesn't really freeze up, but has some sort of memory corruption problem, which remains throughout reboots.

Very coincidentally, I just ordered new hardware for my new gaming computer. The only thing not being replaced was the video card, because I thought it would be better to just wait a while until the next generation of cards from nVidia were available.
Apparently, Fate has decided otherwise.

computer, hardware, home, news

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WET54G-EU (v3.1) with WPA or WPA2 locks up

by lunarg on December 6th 2009, at 20:30

For all those who recently acquired a WET54G (rev 3.1), or are planning on acquiring one, should read the problem I had with it.
The problem only affects EU versions of the product, as the US version has a more recent firmware available which fixes the problem.

Update: there's still no new firmware. I've updated the links so they are correct again.
And here's a direct link is here.

Anyway, the main symptom is the lock up of the device as soon as a connection with a wireless network has been made, and that network uses WPA-PSK or WPA2-PSK. I've tested this out extensively ...

hardware, network

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[MyHW] Tsuruya

by lunarg on November 23rd 2009, at 14:56