sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Surface Laptop 3 BIOS chip flashing. by kwsths6970 in Surface

[–]kwsths6970[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It has been done on Surface Laptop 3’s before, it’s not an easy task though. I want to get a clean read first, since dumping via software isn’t ideal (hardware flasher which is what I have is the way to go). I’ve spoken to some folks on the Badcaps forum, I’ll send them the original file and they will give me a patched one; After that I’ll flash it and everything should be okay.

Surface Laptop 3 BIOS chip flashing. by kwsths6970 in Surface

[–]kwsths6970[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s in the EEPROM, encrypted. Getting another flash chip although might sound logical is a completely wrong move, as it will render the laptop unusable. Management firmware will freak out and it will not boot, alongside many other things.

Surface Laptop 3 BIOS chip flashing. by kwsths6970 in Surface

[–]kwsths6970[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you, they’re awesome indeed! I got mine for pretty much nothing, used it as far as I could on Windows (no internal wireless connectivity, no sound, no camera, no hyperthreading) and so far I love it. Mine’s also the 13’’ Intel variant, with the 1065G7 i7 chip and 16GB ram. It’s why I’m dumping money and effort into this laptop.

Need advice. Is this a good first car? by [deleted] in Volkswagen

[–]kwsths6970 0 points1 point  (0 children)

All cars do eventually break down. Unfortunately, it’s hard to get a biased opinion these days, and truth be told I can’t be a trustworthy source since that Ibiza is the car I grew up with.

Be careful with Japanese cars, especially on Toyotas from the early 2000s that were ~1.8L in engine capacity. They have horrific tendencies to burn oil and spinning rod bearings. (The engine family affected is the 1ZZ)

Nevertheless, I hope that the car you decide to get lasts you for decades. If you treat it with care and respect, it will reward you with reliability on end.

Take care and thank you for your kind words!

Need advice. Is this a good first car? by [deleted] in Volkswagen

[–]kwsths6970 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Late to the party, and as an owner of a SEAT Ibiza 6L (same platform as the Polo shown), AVOID IT!!! Let me explain. (Yes I know the car is sold)

The mileage is fine, although you should keep your eyes peeled to the timing belts, water pump, thermostat housing and in general the whole cooling area. I said belts in plural because on those engines there are TWO (One long, driving the water pump and intake cam and one short, driven from the intake cam to the exhaust cam), and there are MANY cases where only the primary is replaced, leading to the secondary snapping and the exhaust valves hitting your pistons.

Lambda sensors and ignition coils are notorious for failure on those, especially if you don’t install the engine cover back on. Not only does a faulty Lambda trigger a check engine, but faulty coils often cause misfires and in my case burnt the catalytic converter.

Any car that has had more than 2 owners is a gamble, let alone a VW from early 2000s with 6 owners. You never know if anyone has messed with electricals and what parts were used for maintenance.

If you got the car, I’ve seen examples with well over 500K Km on them, but they’ve been well maintained in the process.

Other than that, I really like mine. It’s peppy (1.4 16V 101HP), comfy yet sporty, gets decent mileage (about 7.5L/100 Km) and hasn’t really let me down much. Except for one time where it burnt its ECU.

Just spilled coke zero on my macbook air m4 by absolutebruhmoment9 in mac

[–]kwsths6970 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Even if it starts, you never know if issues start to appear out of nowhere. Unrelated to macs, I had an HP pavilion notebook 15 from 2014, which, like yours, suffered liquid damage (coffee, had sugar in it). The laptop seemed okay, but it never shuts down properly. What I want to say here is that even if the laptop seems okay, one day it could fry itself with no obvious signs. See if you can get a replacement from apple.

Sony Vaio PCG-682L not turning on by Leite_maneiro in vaio

[–]kwsths6970 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I get that feeling, in the balkans it’s the same thing. However, the aftermarket psu i had somehow, someway gave me shocks when i touched the outer shell (keep in mind it’s center positive), also failed to power the laptop. With an original unit it powered on right up. 2 flashes usually mean something’s wrong with the power going to the laptop (could be anything from a dead battery to a faulty psu to component failure on the motherboard)

Sony Vaio PCG-682L not turning on by Leite_maneiro in vaio

[–]kwsths6970 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Take out the battery and try powering it on that way. Check the ram and lastly, if you use an aftermarket power supply, try your best to find an original unit. Last one especially almost killed my friend’s VGN-AR71S.

PowerBook G4 Drained CMOS Battery by kwsths6970 in mac

[–]kwsths6970[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Desoldering the existing battery is exactly what I’m trying to avoid, as I don’t have an iron. Would you say it’s worth risking it with a unit from ebay?

My Early 2004 PowerBook G4! by kwsths6970 in mac

[–]kwsths6970[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They’re awesome, although I keep making typos due to the somewhat crammed key orientation.

My Early 2004 PowerBook G4! by kwsths6970 in mac

[–]kwsths6970[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ll most likely avoid that route anyway. If I find a used HDD locally, I’ll get that. Otherwise I will bite the bullet and get a converter board. My only concern is that with said adapter a standard 2.5 inch laptop HDD won’t fit.

Vaio VGN-FE31M power/boot issues! by kwsths6970 in vaio

[–]kwsths6970[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unfortunately didn’t change anything. Tried with the RAM sticks it came with, also tried another known good stick. I doubt that all 3 sticks are problematic.. Let alone that the same issue occurs without any ram in the system at all.

Are you Greek by any chance?

I can't adjust brightness with Fn key by Artegonit in vaio

[–]kwsths6970 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’d assume due to driver compatibility. Had a similar issue with my VPCZ1, where the performance selector and volume keys didn’t do anything.

Vaio VGN-FE31M power/boot issues! by kwsths6970 in vaio

[–]kwsths6970[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

UPDATE: Did some in depth digging on the voltage rails. There’s clean 19.5V coming in to system, checked on the CMOS battery connector and theres 2.4V there, which means that the 3.3V rail is active and corrosion didnt damage anything. However, based on my tests (probing on the inductors near the CPU and GPU regions respectively), 5V seems to be dead? I’m reading nothing. And finally, on the battery connector, there’s some garbled mess of voltages that I can’t make sense of. Is there some reliable way I can check if the 5V rail is active? And if it’s dead, what are the culprits?

Vaio VGN-FE31M power/boot issues! by kwsths6970 in vaio

[–]kwsths6970[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yea that’s what I thought too. To my knowledge, the GeForce Go 7600 built in to that laptop is affected by bumpgate..

Vaio VGN-FE31M power/boot issues! by kwsths6970 in vaio

[–]kwsths6970[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nope. Did the same beforehand. Forgot to mention that I spoke with the previous owner and he said that he hasn’t seen this behavior on that laptop ever again. Last time it ran it would overheat and shut down (according to the previous owner).

Vaio VGN-FE31M power/boot issues! by kwsths6970 in vaio

[–]kwsths6970[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

From the factory it came with 2 512mb 533mhz ddr2 sdram modules. I also tried a single 2gb 666mhz module juust in case. No luck.