Showing posts with label hardware. Show all posts

Fix Lenovo Thinkpad T410 Fan error

Method 1:
Method 2:

Telstra ZTE MF60 WIFI modem: change APN settings

You have to insert a Telstra SIM card (otherwise you will not be able to set the new profile as default.)
Power on the modem, can connect to the WIFI from your computer.
Open http://192.168.0.1 in your browser.(Default username: admin password: admin)
3G Settings -> APN Settings
Click 'Add' button to add a new profile, edit the APN, then click 'Set default' button.

Telstra ZTE MF60 WIFI modem: reset WIFI password

Hold the WPS button and the POWER button at the same time for about 5-10 secs it will re-start the modem back to the default factory settings.

The original password is printed under the battery in the modem.

SIM Unlock Telstra ZTE MF60 WIFI modem

Install ZTE MF60 Windows Driver on your Windows PC
Install latest DC Unlocker
Insert a non Telstra SIM, powered it on, and connect the ZTE MF60 WIFI modem to your Windows PC via USB
Open DC-Unlocker as Administrator, select "ZTE Modems" then click "Detect" to detect the device
Close DC Unlocker
Run DCCrap to unlock the device (This will retain the IMEI & MAC address).

Free HDD Secure Erase Tools

Enable SSD TRIM on Mac OS X Yosemite

I. enable TRIM

Backup the file before patching:

sudo cp /System/Library/Extensions/IOAHCIFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOAHCIBlockStorage.kext/Contents/MacOS/IOAHCIBlockStorage /System/Library/Extensions/IOAHCIFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOAHCIBlockStorage.kext/Contents/MacOS/IOAHCIBlockStorage.original

[Yosemite only] Disable driver signature check by setting boot-args:
```
sudo nvram boot-args="kext-dev-mode=1"
```
[Yosemite only] Reboot after setting boot-args:
```
sudo shutdown -r now
```

Patch [Yosemite 10.10, Mavericks 10.9.5, 10.9.4] driver:

sudo perl -pi -e 's|(^\x00{1,20})[^\x00]{9}(\x00{1,20}\x54)|$1\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00$2|sg' /System/Library/Extensions/IOAHCIFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOAHCIBlockStorage.kext/Contents/MacOS/IOAHCIBlockStorage

# for Mavericks and Mountain Lion from 10.8.3 to 10.9.3 
#sudo perl -pi -e 's|(\x52\x6F\x74\x61\x74\x69\x6F\x6E\x61\x6C\x00{1,20})[^\x00]{9}(\x00{1,20}\x54)|$1\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00$2|sg' /System/Library/Extensions/IOAHCIFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOAHCIBlockStorage.kext/Contents/MacOS/IOAHCIBlockStorage
 
# for Mountain Lion from 10.8.1 to 10.8.2 and Lion 10.7.5
#sudo perl -pi -e 's|(\x52\x6F\x74\x61\x74\x69\x6F\x6E\x61\x6C\x00{1,20})[^\x00]{9}(\x00{1,20}\x4D)|$1\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00$2|sg' /System/Library/Extensions/IOAHCIFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOAHCIBlockStorage.kext/Contents/MacOS/IOAHCIBlockStorage
 
# for Mountain Lion 10.8.0 and Lion 10.7.4 BELOW
#sudo perl -pi -e 's|(\x52\x6F\x74\x61\x74\x69\x6F\x6E\x61\x6C\x00{1,20})[^\x00]{9}(\x00{1,20}\x51)|$1\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00$2|sg' /System/Library/Extensions/IOAHCIFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOAHCIBlockStorage.kext/Contents/MacOS/IOAHCIBlockStorage

[Yosemite only] Rebuild kext cache (take a while):

sudo kextcache -m /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Startup/Extensions.mkext /System/Library/Extensions

It will display the message like below:

kext-dev-mode allowing invalid signature -67061 0xFFFFFFFFFFFEFA0B for kext IOAHCIBlockStorage.kext

It is fine.

Now it is time to reboot:

sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions/
sudo shutdown -r now

II. Recovering from stop sign on boot screen

If you stuck on the grey boot screen with a stop sign, here’s how you get back into OS X:

Boot into recovery mode by holding CMD+R during boot
If your volume was encrypted with FileVault, open Disk Utility and unlock/mount your drive
Open the Terminal and run the command:
```
nvram boot-args
```
If it shows “kext-dev-mode=1″, you can skip to Step 5. If it says “error getting variable”, continue with Step 4.
Run the command:
```
nvram boot-args=kext-dev-mode=1
```
Reboot back in to Recovery Mode again.
Run these commands, replacing Your Disk Name with the name of your Mac disk (partition). You can type ls /Volumes to get a list of volumes. Note the quotes around the disk path and that there should be no / before System.
```
cd "/Volumes/Your Disk Name"
touch System/Library/Extensions
kextcache -prelinked-kernel System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Startup/kernelcache -K System/Library/Kernels/kernel System/Library/Extensions 
```
Wait until it finishes (can take as long as 5-10 minutes, don’t abort it) and reboot.

You should now be back in OS X with Trim enabled.

III. Revert back to original driver (TRIM will be disabled)

Boot into recovery mode by holding CMD+R during boot.
If your volume was encrypted with FileVault, open Disk Utility and unlock/mount your drive

Open the Terminal and run the following commands: (Note: the quotes around the disk path and that there should be no / before System, except for the first part of the cp command.)

nvram -d boot-args
cd "/Volumes/Your Disk name"
rm -rf System/Library/Extensions/IOAHCIFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOAHCIBlockStorage.kext/Contents/MacOS/IOAHCIBlockStorage
cp -r /System/Library/Extensions/IOAHCIFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOAHCIBlockStorage.kext/Contents/MacOS/IOAHCIBlockStorage.original System/Library/Extensions/IOAHCIFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOAHCIBlockStorage.kext/Contents/MacOS/IOAHCIBlockStorage

chown -R root:wheel System/Library/Extensions
chmod -R 755 System/Library/Extensions
touch System/Library/Extensions
kextcache -prelinked-kernel System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Startup/kernelcache -K System/Library/Kernels/kernel System/Library/Extensions

Wait until it finishes (can take as long as 5-10 minutes, don’t abort it) and reboot.

You should now be back in OS X with Trim disabled.

Change cpu scaling governor in Linux

There are following modes can be choose from:

performance keeps the CPU at the highest possible frequency
powersave keeps the CPU at the lowest possible frequency
userspace exports the available frequency information to the user level (through the /sys file system) and permits user-space control of the CPU frequency
ondemand scales the CPU frequencies according to the CPU usage (like does the userspace frequency scaling daemons, but in kernel)
conservative acts like the ondemand but increases frequency step by step

Mine defaults to userspace, to change to powersave mode:

echo "powersave" | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor

A script to disable and enable intel cpu turbo boost on Linux

I have a Thinkpad T410 laptop with i5 cpu. The computer turns off when compiling GWT code because of cpu overheating. The cpu temperature increases to 100 degrees in about 3 minutes even if I set the fan speed to maximum 5000rpm.

So I looked for resolution and found disabling turbo boost can help.

First, you need to install msr-tools:
```
sudo apt-get install msr-tools
```
To disable turbo boost on all your cpu cores:
```
sudo wrmsr -pi 0x1a0 0x4000850089
```
where i is the cpu core number, e.g. 0, 1, 2, 3..., you can get those number by running
```
cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep processor
```
.
Note: you need to run the wrmsr command for each cpu core.
To re-enable turbo boost on all your cpu cores:
```
sudo wrmsr -pi 0x1a0 0x850089
```
where i is the cpu core number, e.g. 0, 1, 2, 3..., you can get those number by running
```
cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep processor
```
.
Note: you need to run the wrmsr command for each cpu core.

After disabling turbo boost, I am able to complete my GWT compilation altough the temperature still goes as high as 90 degrees.

A script to disable/enable turbo boost

The following script can be used to turn off/on turbo boost:

#!/bin/bash

if [[ -z $(which rdmsr) ]]; then
    echo "msr-tools is not installed. Run 'sudo apt-get install msr-tools' to install it." >&2
    exit 1
fi

if [[ ! -z $1 && $1 != "enable" && $1 != "disable" ]]; then
    echo "Invalid argument: $1" >&2
    echo ""
    echo "Usage: $(basename $0) [disable|enable]"
    exit 1
fi

cores=$(cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep processor | awk '{print $3}')
for core in $cores; do
    if [[ $1 == "disable" ]]; then
        sudo wrmsr -p${core} 0x1a0 0x4000850089
    fi
    if [[ $1 == "enable" ]]; then
        sudo wrmsr -p${core} 0x1a0 0x850089
    fi
    state=$(sudo rdmsr -p${core} 0x1a0 -f 38:38)
    if [[ $state -eq 1 ]]; then
        echo "core ${core}: disabled"
    else
        echo "core ${core}: enabled"
    fi
done

Usage:
You can copy the above script and save it into a file named turbo-boost then set it to be executable:

sudo chmod +x turbo-boost

you can then use it to disable/enable turbo boost:

```
turbo-boost disable
```
```
turbo-boost enable
```

Dell Outlet Australia

Ubuntu Linux on Samsung N150/N210/N220 Netbook: how to adjust brightness

Installed Lubuntu 13.10 on my old Samsung N220 laptop, everything is ok except the screen is dark. And could not find the fn key to adjust the brightness. Tried install samsung-tools:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:voria/ppa
sudo apt-get install samsung-tools

then use the Fn+F5 you can turn on/off the screen. However, still cannot adjust the brightness.
Searched around and found the following commands can turn screen bright/dark:

To turn it bright:
```
sudo setpci -s 00:02.0 F4.B=CC
```
To turn it dark:
```
sudo setpci -s 00:02.0 F4.B=50
```

Where CC and 50 are the brightness values. To check the current brightness value:

lspci -s 00:02.0 -xxx | grep f0: | awk '{print $6}'

With the above commands, it is possible to write a script to adjust the brightness and bind it to key combination.

Toshiba Satellite Pro C850 Laptop Factory Recorvery

Make sure you have back up all the data in the hard drive. It will erase the partition.

Method 1:
- Restart the computer, hit the F8 key repeatly until getting into the "Advanced boot options" screen
- Select Repair your computer then hit Enter
- Select your country and click Ok
- On the "System Recovery Options" screen, click Restore Application
- Follow the instructions on screen, click Full Factory Recovery
- Click Next then Yes
- It will take a few minutes to finish the restoration
Method 2:
- Turn off the computer, the hold 0 (zero, on top of P) key, then click the power switch button, keep hold 0 key until you hear a beep, the factory recovery should start

VLC player: How to enable Broadcom Crystal HD decoder

Broadcom Crystal HD Decoder is an hardware decoder for playing HD videos. It is normally installed on some netbooks to enhance the performance of HD video play.

To utilize the HD decoder, first you need to install its driver.
To enable Broadcom Crystal HD Decoder, you need to download and install the following version of VLC player: http://nightlies.videolan.org/build/win32/backup/branch-20111219-0202/. And you need to add "--codec crystalhd" argument to the VLC Player command(shortcut).
After installed the above, you can run C:\Program Files\Broadcom\Broadcom CrystalHD Decoder/DTS_Info.exe, it will show an icon in system tray. When a HD video is be played and the Crystal HD decoder is being utilized, the icon will be changed/flashing.

Samsung n220 netbook: How to enable Broadcom BCM70015 crystal HD decoder

Install Broadcom Crystal HD Decoder drivers
Install K-lite Codec Pack Standard (with Media Player Classic Home Cinema). During the installation select System default for the H.264 decoder
To check if the HD decoder is used:
- run "C:/Program Files/Broadcom/Broadcom CrystalHD Decoder/DTS_Info.exe", it will start as an icon in system tray.
- Open and play a HD video using Media Player classic, you should be able to see the DTS_info icon is flashing if the crystal HD decoder is being used by the player.

Switch from IDE to AHCI mode without reinstall Windows XP

1) Method 1
2) Method 2

How to improve SSD read/write performance

See this guide.

SSD benchmark utilities

Restore write performance of SSD drive using secure erase

A Secure Erase is issued against a SSD drive all its cells will be marked as empty, restoring it to factory default write performance.

Here is the guide to secure erase a disk.

How to secure erase your hard drive (HD/SSD)

1. Use HDDErase

Download the HDDErase software and burn the iso file into a CD. and boot the computer from that CD. then run HDDErase.
You can also download and burn UBCD, which includes HDDErase.
Here is the guide to use HDDErase
HDDErase does not support all the motherboards/disks. You may need to look at method 2: use hdparm
this method can be used to restore write performance of a SSD disk.

2. Use hdparm

If you are running Linux and the disk to be erased is not the system disk. you can just run the following commands:
```
sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-set-pass xxxxxxxx /dev/sdx
sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-erase xxxxxxxx /dev/sdx
```
where xxxxxxxx can be anything you wish to use for a password, /dev/sdx is the disk device to be erased.
or, you can burn a gparted live cd or any linux live cd, e.g. Ubuntu live cd. and boot from it. In the terminal window, run the above commands...
If you want to run hdparm in windows, you can either install cygwin(hdparm is included in the cygwin distribution), or try hdparm binary for windows.
Here is a detailed guide to secure erase disk using hdparm
Here is a detailed guide to secure erase disk using gparted live cd(hdparm).
Here is a detailed guide to secure erase disk using parted magic(hdparm).
this method can be used to restore write performance of a SSD disk.

3. Use cat

Linux command cat can do the work too. It may take longer time than method 1 & 2 since is an software based method not using ATA firmware functions.
```
sudo cat /dev/zero /dev/sdx
```
where /dev/sdx is the disk to be erased.
This method can be used to restore write performance of a SSD disk though it will be slower than HDDErase or hdparm. Here is the post discuss this.

4. Use Darik's Boot And Nuke

If the above methods do not work for you. You can also try Darik's Boot And Nuke(DBAN)
The UBCD includes DBAN too.

Note: HDDErase and hdparm uses ATA's firmware functions to secure erase the disk. They are recommended to be used to restore the write performance of a SSD disk.

OCZ Vertex 2 SSD drives do not meet IDEMA specifications

Info regarding 32 and 25nm 64Gbit drives that did not meet IDEMA specifications.

See Also:
1. OCZ Vertex 2 25nm Review (OCZSSD2-2VTXE60G)
2. New update on the 64Gb IC OCZ SSD drives
3. 最近买OCZ Vertex2 SSD的注意了

OCZ Vertex 2 120GB SSD: cold boot cannot detect the drive

Got a OCZ Vertex 2 120GB SSD 2.5inch SATA for my Dell Vostro V130. Installed Windows 7 from external DVD drive and it works fine until the computer is turned off. When I tried (cold) start the computer, error occurs: "Reboot and select proper boot device, or insert boot media in selected boot device and press any key."

And if I Ctrl+Alt+Del to warm reboot the computer, the windows 7 starts without any problem. Then I realised that the cold start/boot cannot detect the OCZ Vertex 2 SSD drive until I do the warm reboot.

Google and found this is an known problem for OCZ SSD opened from Nov/2010 and has not been fixed. The only hope is that the new firmware can fix it. It looks like hopeless though.

Only conclusion: I should never buy OCZ disks.

Update: change to IDE mode instead of AHCI mode, the cold boot can detect the drive and start the OS successfully. However, you need to reinstall the OS and the performance in IDE mode is a bit lower than AHCI mode.

Update2: new problem: lost all the changes when the computer is cold rebooted. Open a thread in OCZ forum. Have not got solution yet.

Update3: the SSD is completely dead. Cannot be recognised by any computer. If it is connected, the computer cannot start. Have to return to the store for a replacement.

My Tech Notes

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Fix Lenovo Thinkpad T410 Fan error

Telstra ZTE MF60 WIFI modem: change APN settings

See also

Telstra ZTE MF60 WIFI modem: reset WIFI password

See also

SIM Unlock Telstra ZTE MF60 WIFI modem

See also

Free HDD Secure Erase Tools

Enable SSD TRIM on Mac OS X Yosemite

I. enable TRIM

II. Recovering from stop sign on boot screen

III. Revert back to original driver (TRIM will be disabled)

see also

Change cpu scaling governor in Linux

A script to disable and enable intel cpu turbo boost on Linux

A script to disable/enable turbo boost

See also

Dell Outlet Australia

Ubuntu Linux on Samsung N150/N210/N220 Netbook: how to adjust brightness

Toshiba Satellite Pro C850 Laptop Factory Recorvery

VLC player: How to enable Broadcom Crystal HD decoder

See also

Samsung n220 netbook: How to enable Broadcom BCM70015 crystal HD decoder

Switch from IDE to AHCI mode without reinstall Windows XP

How to improve SSD read/write performance

SSD benchmark utilities

Restore write performance of SSD drive using secure erase

How to secure erase your hard drive (HD/SSD)

See also

OCZ Vertex 2 SSD drives do not meet IDEMA specifications

OCZ Vertex 2 120GB SSD: cold boot cannot detect the drive