MAC address to manufacturer listing
by starprowler on Jan.30, 2011, under Computing, Networking
Leave a Comment :IEEE, MAC Address, Manufacturer more...Lenovo laptop and Kingston SSD
by starprowler on Jan.26, 2011, under Computing
I came by a Kingston SSD the other day. Installed in a Lenovo T61 with Lucid Lynx. Performance is great!
Strange thing, however, is the SSD would not respond to a warm-restart and the T61 would report a HDD error during POST; cold starts were fine. After some messing around trying to figure out a solution, I changed the SATA setting from AHCI to Compatibility mode. Things started working fine from there onwards although I’m not pleased since its a workaround.
PPPoE on the Draytek 2910
by starprowler on Jan.11, 2011, under Networking
Last morning the Internet connection through my Draytek 2910 at home failed. Usually restarting the Draytek would fix it. This time it refused to come back up. Then I connected a PC directly to the GPON device and created a PPPoE dialer on WinXP and the connection came up in a flash! That’s strange, I thought. Plugged the DrayTek back and tried changing the MTU, the PPP authentication and some other parameters. No luck.
Had a chat with Troy about this strange behaviour, he was also stumped.
The ISP tech came over this morning and meddled around with the device and no luck. I suggested that he connect the ISP standard router and configure it with my PPPoE parameters. He did and the link came up! So he left with the factually correct but useless statement that “something was wrong with the Draytek”
Next I wiresharked the line to see what was going over the wires. I noticed the PADI was going out with the display name I’d configured on the Draytek for this connection! So obviously the so-called Display Name was NOT just that… it was being actively used as the service name in the PPPoE conversation.
Troy called me just then, after some discussion with his cronies and suggested that I remove the display name. The wireshark log confirmed Troy’s statement and figured that this must be the reason. Blanked out the Display Name in WAN Setup and… I had working Internet!
So now, its clear that something changed at the ISP end (although they vehemently denied it), since this device was working fine with these parameters till early last morning.
Magic with an 8-bit microcontroller
by starprowler on Jan.04, 2011, under Computing, General Jazz
Take a look at this DIY handheld touchscreen device. Nothing short of amazing!
Some info on MagicJack
by starprowler on Dec.27, 2010, under VoIP
Came across this interesting article on MagicJack at Digital Offensive. Got to try it out soon.
Thinkpad T42 Atmel TPM driver
by starprowler on Dec.08, 2010, under Computing
I was building MadHatter’s T42 with WinXP SP3 the other day. All the drivers installed easily from Lenovo’s support site (always felt it was comprehensive) except for the device ACPI\ATM1100\4&61F3B4B&0.
This turned out to be the Atmel Trusted Platform Module device for which the driver can be downloaded at http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-58054.html
Linksys SPA-3102
by starprowler on Sep.05, 2010, under VoIP
The SPA3102 that Kay uses was stuck in the off-hook state after an incoming call. This device is installed in a remote location he had to reboot it over the network.
Since it does not have “Reboot” button unlike most appliances, I asked Kay to browse to http://<spa.ip.address>/admin/reboot. That did the trick, he was thankful to yours truly, since it saved him a 3 hour trip!
Smart ForTwo intercooler fan
by starprowler on Oct.21, 2009, under Wheels
We removed the intercooler fan from the Smart, a quick 3 minute job, sprayed it generously with WD-40 and spun it by hand till it worked loose. All those months (years, maybe) of lying unused and in the elements had taken its toll on the bearings.
Plugged it back into the Smart’s electrics, manually jumpered the intercooler relay and the fan spun initially with slight resistance. So we opened up the fan, cleaned and lubed the bronze bushing, cleaned the brushes and installed everything back into the car. All’s well that runs well.
Now Kay’s grinning from ear to ear, happy that this operation saved him a tidy sum of money!
A/c problems with the Smart ForTwo
by starprowler on Sep.08, 2009, under Wheels
Kay got himself an old Smart ForTwo. It was flat-bedded from the original owner’s place to Kay’s. We cleaned, changed all the fluids and got it running over the weekend, thanks in no small measure to Evilution. This site has heaps of information about Smarts and is a must read for the enthusiast.
Five minutes into the test drive the a/c stopped cooling without warning. My initial reaction was “Ok, blown fuse”. Kay said the refrigerant was low. So we took it to a local wrench assuming the refrigerant was low. He did a quick check and confirmed it was fine. So then we concluded it was an electrical problem (should have stuck with my gut feel.) Pulled out the secondary fuse box (under the driver’s seat, i.e., the left side seat.) It was easy to locate after a quick look at FQ101′s engine fuses page (another brilliant Smart specific site!) Sure enough, the 15A fuse powering the electromagnetic clutch on on the a/c compressor was blown. Replaced it with a new 15A fuse and started up the car. POOF! Blown again.
Then after reading and digesting FQ101′s page on fuses, I realized that the intercooler’s fan was also powered by the same fuse. Hmmmm… could it be the fan? Ran down to the Smart and tried to spin the fan by hand. Almost completely seized. Ok! So there’s the culprit. Pulled out the intercooler relay from the secondary fuse box. Replaced the fuse again, fired up the engine and a/c working fine again. Drove around for about 25km and all is well.
Next step is to pull out the fan, replace it or get it serviced. This can wait till I get back from vacation.
Loading firmware on the Blackberry 7230
by starprowler on Aug.22, 2009, under General Jazz
If you are trying to load firmware on a Blackberry 7230 or 7290 with a recent version of the Blackberry Desktop Manager, it will consistently fail. I encountered such a problem this morning. Tried using JL_Cmder, but still no luck. It would would quit with the error “COM error during open”. It had no problems connecting to the 8700 and 8310 Blackberrys.
I decided to downgrade the Blackberry Desktop Manager to v3.6 which I had laying around on a memory stick. Installed the v3.6 after a quick uninstall of v4.7. Tried the firmware load on the 7230 and it went through without a hitch. JL_Cmder also works fine now with both the 7230 and 7290.
Issue discussed in GSMForums.
