1 – Go to START>ControlPanel>System
2 – Click on the “Hardware” tab then “Device Manager”
3 – Click on “Network Adapters” (to expand it) and then select the Wireless card (in my case the Intel Pro 3945ABG)
4 – Right Click on the wireless card and select uninstall from the pop-up menu.
5 – After uninstalling click on Action>Scan for Harware Changes and your device will be found and reinstalled
6 – Restart your computer and it should all work.

Intel Pro 3945ABG, Thinkpad, Windows update, T60, Wireless

It’s been taking much longer than I had originally planned to finally be in a place to get a new laptop. Recently though my wife’s Dell Inspiron 2650 finally died after over 5-years of service. This has left us in the undesirable situation of only having one computer (that sounds a bit greedy after reading it, but I need one for work and she needs one for communications and support raising).

I’ve been looking at what Dell was planning to replace the Inspiron 1420 with and it looks like the Dell Inspiron 13 is it.

I reckon that the Inspiron 13 looks like a handy little laptop, and the reviews of it seem to say that for the price it’s a good value.

For the last few weeks I have been waiting for the Dell web-site in Australia to update their pages with the Dell Inspiron 13. They have had a fixed model up since the global launch of the laptop, but I don’t want their standard configuration.

Unfortunately it looks like for some stupid reason Dell Australia will not be offering customisation of the Dell Inspiron 13! According to comment #34 on this forum post they will not be offering customization on the laptop in Australia.

I tried to get confirmation of this by talking to a Dell rep, but all I was told was that I can’t customize the laptop at this time. They didn’t know if it would be possible in the future.

So now it looks like I will be waiting another 4 – 6 months and I will purchase a new Dell laptop when I get to Canada. The thing that I like the most about the Dell laptops is the International Warranties that you get with them. Because of that warranty I can purchase the laptop in Canada and get it serviced pretty much anywhere.

So how do I install OS X when the dvd drive is broken?

1. Connect the two Macs by firewire cable. One will be the host for the DVD drive and one will be the target which you will install OS X onto.

2. Start up the target computer you plan to install OS X on in target mode by holding down T when you restart the computer. This will mount the target computer as a hard drive on the host computer.

3. Put the OS X installation disk into the Mac that is your host computer.

4. You can now either open the installer on the DVD which will prompt you to restart the host computer. Or you can simply restart and hold down C which will force the Mac to startup from the DVD.

5. Once you have started up from the installer DVD follow through the normal steps. You will then arrive at the option to choose the destination. Select the hard drive of the target computer. You will probably have to change the options if you are not doing an upgrade.

6. Once you have finished the installation shut down the host computer and disconnect the firewire cable. You can now restart the target computer which will startup with a newly installed OS X.

*Note: If you are installing OS X 10.3 (panther) or earlier you can not use an intel based mac to use as the host computer. Both the target and host computers will need to be powerpc based and vice versa if you are installing on an intel based mac.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hnOCUkbix0

Although the practice of Dell selling computers in retail outlets has been common in North America for a while, it is a first for Australia. This change represents a large change in marketing for Dell, who until now has only sold computers via their web-site.

A quick look at the Officeworks web-site tells us that the following Dell computers are available:

• Dell Inspiron 1520 – Intel processor
• Dell Inspiron 1526 – AMD processor
• Dell XPS M1330 – Intel processor
• Dell Inspiron 531ST 5600 – AMD processor
• Dell Inspiron 531ST 4800 – AMD processor

The prices look very similar, or identical, to what you can find on the Dell web-site.

By purchasing your Dell laptop at Officeworks you actually get to try it out first, which is a plus for many people. You are however limited in the configurations available compared to purchasing it on the Dell web-site.

The main features on the X300 are the presence of DVD drive, WiFi and Ethernet, removable battery and 3 USB ports compared to the MACBook Air with no DVD drive, Wifi only, 1 USB and non-removable battery. By the way it also fits in an interoffice envelope.

I’ll not attempt to rewrite the article so please read it in full here, also watch and intro video here.

Last week I had a server’s HD die on me and I suddenly had to rescue some of the newer data that for some stupid reason I had not selected for backup. I found a lot of information out there but none seemed to work untill I came across some simple instructions on using dd & reiserfsck to rescue the data from my dead HD into a .img file and mount it.

The process is slow but works nicely. Please follow the instructions here.

PS: just remember to use — instead of – before the switches otherwise it’s not going to work.

In a desktop computer this would be an easy, and relatively cheap repair. One of the challenges with laptops is that in most laptops the video card is integrated onto the system board, or motherboard, or main board, depending on what you want to call it. So to fix the video you need to replace the entire system board.

Again, replacing a system board in a desktop computer is easy, but with a laptop it’s a lot harder, and way more expensive to replace a system board in a laptop.

I priced out a new system board for my Compaq Presario v4000 and here in Australia it would cost nearly $700 for a new system board! I can almost purchase an entire new laptop for that price, with a one year warranty on it. The replacement system board would only come with a 90-day warranty.

I decided to check out e-bay to try to find a replacement system board, but when I looked the only one I could find was an untested board, with no warranty, over in Canada for $75.00 + shipping. That doesn’t help me much here in Australia and seems like a bit of a risk.

The other problem is that the Compaq Presario v4000 laptop seems to have an inherent problem with frying the CPU and/or system board. I am definitely not the only person to experience this sort of problem with Compaq Presario laptops. This is already the second system board in this specific Compaq v4000 laptop, and with it being out of warranty I am very hesitant to replace it again, especially if it would happen again in 6-months time.

In the end I decided not to try to fix the laptop. With the history of the laptop, the inherent problems with the Compaq Presario design and the cost / risk involved with fixing it I decided that it just isn’t worth the heartache.

I will be selling off most of the working parts, everything except the system board, on eBay Australia. I have kept the 2.5″ hard drive and purchased an external USB2 case for it, so I will also be keeping that.

Now I’m needing to raise the money for a new laptop. I’m probably going to be looking at the Dell Vostro 1400 to replace my old Compaq. When I get it I am going to make sure to pick up the 3-year Complete Care warranty, which has served me extremely well with my old Dell Inspiron 2650, which my wife is still using four and half years down the track.

With desktop computers the extended warranty isn’t usually needed, but as the dead system board in my Compaq Presario v4000 has illustrated, an extended warranty on a laptop is definatly a good thing.

Technorati Tags: compaq presario, dell vostro, v4000, compaq

Before I did that however I thought let me just run the hardware diagnostic PC Doctor, this did not find any problem so I downloaded all the thinkpad updates avaliable and restart. When the thinkpad came back on I logged initially had the same problem – but then if I gently swiped my finger on the sensor it worked.

I am not sure why the different updates sorted out the problem but it did. This is true in many case – if you are having a problem in windows for example – try downloading the updates first and seeing if that solved the problem.

Check out the details at the cunningly titled www.mcdwireless.com