I've had the HP Compaq nx6110 for over 4 years now. I absolutely love it, and my only gripe with it was the painfully noisy fan. Searching for a solution on the internet was futile, it seems that this problem was 'By Design' to prevent over-heating. However, it was pretty obvious that the trip points were too conservative which caused the fan to run at full blast most of the times.
I finally managed to fix it today.
Downloaded the service manual from HP and opened up the case. I proceeded to remove the fan and used a brush to remove the dust stuck to the blades. The next thing I noticed was a piece of foam stuck between the grill and the fan (perhaps to prevent dust entry from outside through the grill). Now the foam was really dirty and it didn't look like it would allow airflow through it. For a brief moment, I considered cleaning it or replacing it with something similar... but then I just went ahead and removed it completely.
Put everything back and turned on the machine... and guess what... there's no whirring noise anymore !
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Windows 7 (Beta) - First impressions
I spent this Sunday morning installing and playing with Windows 7. Though in its Beta stage, I had been hearing numerous accounts of its stability and had been eager to try it out on my Dell XPS M1530.
The install experience was painless, almost everything including networking and sound just worked out of the box. I had to additionally install the Nvidia graphics drivers and the fingerprint-reader drivers from the Dell support site.
Wireless configuration is now a lot easier !
I have two wireless networks at home and frequently switch between them. With Vista, everytime I had to switch to the other AP, I had to right click the network icon in the notification tray, select 'Connect to network'; On the new form that opened up, I chose the network I wished to connect to.
With Windows 7, its all there just 1 click away. Information like available networks in range with their signal strength is displayed on this interface. Clicking on any network name gives the option of connecting to it.
Hovering over a taskbar icon shows all associated windows in the preview. In case of IE, you will also be able to see all tabs as seperate previews. Hovering over any preview window, brings up a full screen preview... Pretty cool stuff !
Update (Thanks to BhavaniS) :
This is by virtue of IE8 having a seperate process for each tab. The preview-on-hover functionality simply displays each process's window's preview.
I spent this Sunday morning installing and playing with Windows 7. Though in its Beta stage, I had been hearing numerous accounts of its stability and had been eager to try it out on my Dell XPS M1530.
The install experience was painless, almost everything including networking and sound just worked out of the box. I had to additionally install the Nvidia graphics drivers and the fingerprint-reader drivers from the Dell support site.
Wireless configuration is now a lot easier !
I have two wireless networks at home and frequently switch between them. With Vista, everytime I had to switch to the other AP, I had to right click the network icon in the notification tray, select 'Connect to network'; On the new form that opened up, I chose the network I wished to connect to.
With Windows 7, its all there just 1 click away. Information like available networks in range with their signal strength is displayed on this interface. Clicking on any network name gives the option of connecting to it.
Hovering over a taskbar icon shows all associated windows in the preview. In case of IE, you will also be able to see all tabs as seperate previews. Hovering over any preview window, brings up a full screen preview... Pretty cool stuff !
Update (Thanks to BhavaniS) :
This is by virtue of IE8 having a seperate process for each tab. The preview-on-hover functionality simply displays each process's window's preview.
Another new feature found its way in the power options. Windows 7 allows you to dim the display brightness after some time of inactivity. This is a nice compromise between the screen turning off completely and running at normal brightness level !
Hibernate / Suspend works as expected, I have tried it several times since installation, no glitches so far.
Update (Jan 14th 2009):
On my Dell XPS M1530 with 4GB RAM, it takes about 25 seconds to hibernate. That is almost half the time it used to take on Vista SP1.
I'll update the post as I discover more features, however, Whatever little I have played with it so far, I have come to love it !
Download the Windows 7 (Beta) here .
Whats new at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/whats-new.aspx
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Monday, January 29, 2007
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
...hard earned money
Cheers,
Mayank
This goes back about 5 years when I was in the second year of my graduation. There wasn't much to study (to clear the exam) and in a place like Ghaziabad, there wasn't much you could do with your free time. Combine that with the perpetual shortage of cash and what do u get? A tution scam!
The easiest way for semi-literate people (like me) to earn pocket money is to fleece parents by tutoring their kids. 'Earn while you learn' became 'loot while you tut'.
The next weekend, I released an advertisement in the local newspaper stating my intentions. A couple days went by, and still no calls for enquiry. I was starting to get worried. The following Saturday however, a middle aged man showed up at my door inquiring about the course details. His son studying in std 6th was being taught C++ at school. No wonder, the poor bastard didn't have a clue...
The enquiry turned towards the issue of fee. I explained to him that it would take about a couple months for me to cover the entire syllabus and the fee for the same would be Rs. 800 (Measly, right?). The father looked worried and contemplated for about two minutes. He looked up at me and said "Isn't that a little too much?". "Not really" I replied. I was baffled! Rs. 800 for two months was lesser than what he would have to pay for his son's babysitter even then!
Another minute passed, before he pleaded resignedly, "Alright, why don't you make it 1500".
It took some time to comprehend (and all this while I was staring at him)... What could I do? I made a silly face and replied sheepishly, "I'll make a concession for you. Send your son to me on Monday".
The easiest way for semi-literate people (like me) to earn pocket money is to fleece parents by tutoring their kids. 'Earn while you learn' became 'loot while you tut'.
The next weekend, I released an advertisement in the local newspaper stating my intentions. A couple days went by, and still no calls for enquiry. I was starting to get worried. The following Saturday however, a middle aged man showed up at my door inquiring about the course details. His son studying in std 6th was being taught C++ at school. No wonder, the poor bastard didn't have a clue...
The enquiry turned towards the issue of fee. I explained to him that it would take about a couple months for me to cover the entire syllabus and the fee for the same would be Rs. 800 (Measly, right?). The father looked worried and contemplated for about two minutes. He looked up at me and said "Isn't that a little too much?". "Not really" I replied. I was baffled! Rs. 800 for two months was lesser than what he would have to pay for his son's babysitter even then!
Another minute passed, before he pleaded resignedly, "Alright, why don't you make it 1500".
It took some time to comprehend (and all this while I was staring at him)... What could I do? I made a silly face and replied sheepishly, "I'll make a concession for you. Send your son to me on Monday".
Cheers,
Mayank
P.S : His son didn't come on Monday, and I kicked myself for losing a student to greed. Couple days later he showed up and handed me my first earning :). It was only natural that I charge all subsequent students the revised fee...
Unfortunately, I could never do much with my hard earned money... (refer to the post below)
Unfortunately, I could never do much with my hard earned money... (refer to the post below)
Monday, November 20, 2006
The day I turned Believer...
Cheers,
Mayank
P.S : This accident set me back by about a few thousand rupees of my hard earned money but thats another story...
It was a typical winter morning; chilly and very foggy. I used to ride my bike to the mathematics coaching at 6 in the morning. At 7, I rushed back, changed into school uniform and ran to the bus stop for my school bus. On this fateful day, I was in a light mood. While exploring the bike's manual the previous night, I had noticed the maximum speed of the machine was 100 kms/hr. That figure somehow stuck in my mind faster than any maths formula... EVER! I had never touched 100 on my bike, the max I had done was about 85. That day, the maths tutor kept us an extra 5 minutes... It was a race against time (more appropriately, the school bus), and what better time to test the machine than this!
The major part of the ride back home used to be on this national highway. As I came down the flyover, I realised the usually busy road was unusually deserted; I grabbed my chance and pulled at the throttle, twisting it more and more until it went no further. Happily I gazed at the speedometer, it had crossed 100; I had done it! It was then that it happened - A pen happily sitting in my pocket till that moment decided to leap out. Before I knew it, my eyes were following the pen as it flew onto the road, the moment froze... In this split second, I saw a rickshaw full of school children dead ahead. I suddenly felt like the man on watch on the Titanic when he saw the iceberg. There was too little time to react. Still travelling at 100 kms/hr, I braced myself for the impact and said my final prayers... I almost closed my eyes...BANG!
The major part of the ride back home used to be on this national highway. As I came down the flyover, I realised the usually busy road was unusually deserted; I grabbed my chance and pulled at the throttle, twisting it more and more until it went no further. Happily I gazed at the speedometer, it had crossed 100; I had done it! It was then that it happened - A pen happily sitting in my pocket till that moment decided to leap out. Before I knew it, my eyes were following the pen as it flew onto the road, the moment froze... In this split second, I saw a rickshaw full of school children dead ahead. I suddenly felt like the man on watch on the Titanic when he saw the iceberg. There was too little time to react. Still travelling at 100 kms/hr, I braced myself for the impact and said my final prayers... I almost closed my eyes...BANG!
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion... I was prepared to find myself lying on the road in a pool of blood along with several of those kids. Imagine my surprise when I found myself not only alive, but still atop my bike! I turned around to check if the kids were all right; None of them was hurt. Still not able to believe, I checked my hands and feet to see if I was bleeding, not even a bruise anywhere!
The only noticeable damage was to my bike - a bent mudguard. Came back home, dad noticed the damage, told him what happened (although a toned down version).
Many days passed. During the routine servicing of my bike, our mechanic spotted the real damage... The double barrel chassis was considerably bent! He couldn't figure out how the bike could have suffered such a heavy impact head-on, without major visible damage anywhere else. It took some time to sink in. I was a believer...
The only noticeable damage was to my bike - a bent mudguard. Came back home, dad noticed the damage, told him what happened (although a toned down version).
Many days passed. During the routine servicing of my bike, our mechanic spotted the real damage... The double barrel chassis was considerably bent! He couldn't figure out how the bike could have suffered such a heavy impact head-on, without major visible damage anywhere else. It took some time to sink in. I was a believer...
Cheers,
Mayank
P.S : This accident set me back by about a few thousand rupees of my hard earned money but thats another story...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
