PC fettling and repairs thread

[wafter]

^^^ thanks for the pointers @DCBassman

How did you get on? If necessary, depending on spec I can supply a used, genuine charger if necessary


Not really fetting as such, but I've finally got around to using my "new" laptop - a Lenovo X280. Tbh I'd have happily continued using my old Samsung 900 series however it's single, non-upgradeable, soldered-to-the-board 4Gb RAM chip has increasing been struggling with my slapdash attitude to browser tab closure and it's starting to show its age (9yrs) so has been relegated to stereo-youtube-conduit duties.

The Lenovo's a nice little machine of a decent spec (IIRC tth gen i5, 16Gb Ram, 256Gb SSD, silly screen res for a laptop) but it's taken me a while to get used to it as it's running W10 (demoted from 11, everything else in the house is still on 7) and Lenovo in their infinite wisdom have put the Fn key where Ctrl is on any other civilised machine..

Having coaxed the internet into showing me how to bin Windows search results from the net and hiding a load of the commercial crap I now feel a lot more at home.


I feel legit in posting on this thread however as my main desktop is a 2009 Dell XPS with 1st gen i7 and a load of retro-fitted bits (SSD, 16Gb RAM, uprated Corsair PSU after the original shat the bed, some low-end passively cooled GPU after the original went the same way as the PSU). I'm also still using the 20" Dell 2007WFP monitor purchased in 2006; so have certainly had my money's worth

The old dear is running an even older Acer Core 2 Duo desktop, made tolerable with some more RAM and and SSD.

Not that I ask a lot from my desktops but I'm impressed by how capable they are given their age

 

[DCBassman]

I'm impressed by how capable they are given their age

8GB of RAM or more, and an SSD, can make almost any machine tolerable. My main laptop is still a Core 2 Duo (T9550) Dell Studio XPS with 8GB RAM and a 750GB SSD. Making these old machines fly, even if they groan at the effort, is like rebuilding old bikes - part of the fun.

 

[Grant Fondo]

Great to see some old hardware still munching integers in 2022!
My current rig has got a 9 year old psu, an original OCZ 64gb ssd (along with three other newer ones) and monitor is a 6 year old 4K 32 inch. Three cpu/gpu/ mobo changes since 2012 though, which has been pricey, but great fun rebuilding every 4/5 years or so.

 

[alicat]

How did you get on? If necessary, depending on spec I can supply a used, genuine charger if necessary

Hi @wafter

Thanks for thinking of me.

The short answer is that I dug out the laptop's predecessor and am getting on okay with it for now.

The longer answer is that I decided that the problem might be the charging connection inside the laptop - the connection seems wobbly and I'm prone to trip over leads etc. I also remembered that I was irritated by the touchpad not working after I spilt coffee on the machine and by the wifi crashing quite frequently so I'm tempted to put the laptop away for now and/or sell it for parts. If I decide to investigate further I'll DM you and maybe see if I can borrow your charger to see if that is the problem.

 

[DCBassman]

I would suggest the wobbly power input and potential problems caused by liquid make it a parts job. If so, don't forget to keep your hard disk.

 

[alicat]

I would suggest the wobbly power input and potential problems caused by liquid make it a parts job. If so, don't forget to keep your hard disk.

Thanks - glad we are on the same page.

I will be back asking for help when I decide to upgrade the hard drive on this laptop - I know you like a challenge!

 

[lazybloke]

Ah, drive upgrades.
I thought my daughter's old SSD on a SATA interface was reasonably fast was 500MB/s, but it was always full so she now has a Gen4 M.2 SSD, which manages a whopping 6,994 MB/s. Holy smoke, it's FAST.

My first hard drive managed only 0.5 MB/Sec.... (10 MB RLL drive)

 

[wafter]

Hi @wafter

Thanks for thinking of me.

The short answer is that I dug out the laptop's predecessor and am getting on okay with it for now.

The longer answer is that I decided that the problem might be the charging connection inside the laptop - the connection seems wobbly and I'm prone to trip over leads etc. I also remembered that I was irritated by the touchpad not working after I spilt coffee on the machine and by the wifi crashing quite frequently so I'm tempted to put the laptop away for now and/or sell it for parts. If I decide to investigate further I'll DM you and maybe see if I can borrow your charger to see if that is the problem.

Cool and no worries - sounds like it's worth flogging for bits in that case. Over the past year I've been well educated as to how fast stuff like this depreciates, so if you've made the decision to write it off, I'd get shot of it ASAP while it still has some value

 

[Grant Fondo]

how fast stuff like this depreciates

Usually! Remember when 'the great silicon shortage' hit, sold my 4 year old graphics card in the november for £180 and they were changing hands for £350 six months later. So, two years on things are almost back to normal, but not quite yet.

 

[PeteXXX]

Question: I have a Vodafone router in the lounge and a TP Link extender in the back room. At present they have different names and passwords.
Can I name/pw them the same so that laptops, phones etc flipflop seamlessly between them depending on the best/strongest signal or will it confuse them?

TIA

 

[alicat]

Just because it says 'Tetley's' on the bus, it doesn't mean it's got tea inside. Happy to be corrected...

 

[cyberknight]

geobook i bought mealier this year had the screen cover that had come loose ( i reckon its been droppes ) so i clicked it back together which took some force , there was also some loose metal spacers i had to take out to get it back together .
Unfortunatly the screen is now knackered and it looks like the cost of a new screen is going to be the best part of £100

 

[DCBassman]

Question: I have a Vodafone router in the lounge and a TP Link extender in the back room. At present they have different names and passwords.
Can I name/pw them the same so that laptops, phones etc flipflop seamlessly between them depending on the best/strongest signal or will it confuse them?

TIA

As I understand things, there are two routes you could take.
1) If you cannot rename the extender, you will need the router admin password. Then you can change the router's name (SSID) and password to match.
2) Most extenders can be set so that their SSID appears as "main SSID"_EXT, with the same password being automatically set. Then all that is needed is to register each network on each device, and they should move as needed.
Be aware that the possibility exists that for scenario 1, each ends up on the same channel. It's unlikely, as the extender should routinely choose something different to the router, but conflict is possible. It also may just work, regardless!
Go through the setup procedure for the extender with a fine tooth comb, it should list all the possibilities. Normally, to get the _EXT setup, it's a matter of first resetting the extender to factory settings. Then press the WPS button on the router, then something similar on the extender. It should then set itself up. The extender instructions are vital to make this easy, so if you don't have them, they are certainly on TP-Link's website. They will also give you instructions as to what to do if your router doesn't have a WPS button.

 

[PeteXXX]

These are my options at the moment (1,2 & 5) as the TP can connect to 4 or 5G

I do have the instructions & WPS buttons, too.

 

[Grant Fondo]

View attachment 660495
These are my options at the moment (1,2 & 5) as the TP can connect to 4 or 5G

I do have the instructions & WPS buttons, too.

I have got a TP Link extender and it plays havoc with any other powerlines in the house, no idea why? I'm all ears if you get a solution.