Posts by Jack Cook7

Zachary Nguyen2 said:Do I seriously need to pull the whole thing out, or can I just unplug the power supply?

Good grief...

First off, kill the power to everything—unplug that 120V line from the wall.

Then, call up that one tech-obsessed friend of yours. While you're geeking out over the new season of Mandalorian, casually—you know, totally by accident—ask him if he knows a solid PC repair shop or a specialist who handles power supplies. Keep it low-key.

Look, instead of just trying to flex how much we know, let's actually be helpful and suggest a decent tablet model to the guy.

wiredotter14 said:Man, what kind of fax machine are you even talking about? What century are we living in?
The guy is asking if you can make calls through a tablet (probably running iOS) right out-of-the-box, whether the modem supports that kind of thing, and how to tweak the hardware or software to push past the factory settings.

Whatever. I’m definitely the last person who’s gonna be messing with factory specs. Honestly, I just stick to the defaults.

Let's just ask which tablet he's actually thinking of using, shall we?

wiredotter14 said:That’s just flat-out wrong. Some tablets (like an iPad Air) can handle that feature, but you can't just assume it works on everything.

Look, I specifically said SIM card type.

Any 2/3/4G modem is totally capable of voice communication—it’s really just down to how simple the conversion setup is. At the end of the day, it’s all about the hardware inside the modem.

I've played around with a few GSM data modems myself, both USB and even old-school RS232 ones, and they're super easy to flip over to voice/SMS mode. You can pretty much run all those voice functions via software right on your local PC.

The only outlier is the Brother fax

Basically, any tablet that’s got a SIM card slot for 2G/3G/4G can act just like a phone—plus you get all that sweet mobile data too.

Most major carriers, like Verizon or AT&T, will even throw a tablet at you for basically nothing—like a buck or something—if you sign up for a two-year data and calling plan.

But hey, if you’ve already got your own SIM and number handy, just grab a tablet that supports it and voilà, you're good to go!

Plus, just strip everything back—yank out all the cards, pull the drives, pop the RAM, and unplug every single peripheral you've got. If it doesn't beep at you and stays dead quiet, then you're looking at either the motherboard or the CPU. You could even try swapping out the processor if you're feeling brave enough, but if it still won't make a sound after that, the motherboard is definitely toast. But hey, if it actually starts beeping? Then you know it's the CPU.

brighttiger5 said:Thanks so much for the help, regardless of how it turns out.
Nah, no way. I'm not sending this to an authorized service center. I'm just gonna find some local repair guy to fix the key since it's literally falling off right now. Maybe he'll actually get it working like God intended.
Honestly, I don't think an official shop would even touch this.

A local tech will usually handle these little glitches way better; for the big authorized shops, it’s just too much hassle for such a minor thing.

brighttiger5 said:I snapped one of those little metal tabs on the base. Man, what a mess!
Honestly, I’m just gonna drag it to a repair shop and pray they can patch it up enough to work—even if it’s just a half-fix. I really need this laptop, but trying to type with a busted key? Absolute nightmare. 🙂

Haha... well, now you're looking at having to tear down the whole keyboard assembly, and even then, who knows if you can actually pop that single switch off the metal frame...

If it was designed right, it'd be a quick 10-minute job to swap out the switch and the keycap. But honestly? God knows with these things. Some shops will try to tell you that you have to replace the entire keyboard deck just to fix one click. Watch your wallet, man—don't let them rip you off.

If those video instructions aren't doing the trick, just snap a photo of the key and the base and toss it up on
https://www.prtsc.ca/

Based on what you said, it sounds like it should just "click" when those top tabs on the key snap into the base. But, heads up—most of these keys actually have little metal clips or hinges that need to slide right into the side grooves of the housing first.

Hmm... maybe grab a quick photo of the key from underneath, plus a shot of the little "hinge" mechanism on the keyboard itself?

Check it out, here’s where you can find some replacement keys:
https://www.replacementlaptopkeys.co...SAAEgKBevD_BwE

They actually list specific ASUS models right there, including the GL553VE.
https://www.replacementlaptopkeys.com/gl553/

And if you need a visual guide on how to swap it out, check this video:
https://www.replacementlaptopkeys.co...t-black-white/

brighttiger5 said:Hey everyone!
So, a few days ago, I dropped my phone right onto my ROG GL 553VE key.
I checked out some videos on YouTube, but I can't find anything specifically for my exact model.
The key just keeps popping off constantly, and honestly, typing on this thing is becoming a total nightmare.
I don't think there's any deep mystery to it, but I probably need to know how it works.
Any chance someone could help me out?

What does the underside of the key (the cap itself) look like? Does it have those two tiny little L-shaped metal clips that snap onto the actual switch on the keyboard?

Richard White15 said:The thing is, I don't even have a router—I'm just using my phone as a hotspot.
But I honestly don't get why it’s crawling like this if my upload speeds seem totally fine.
It’s been hit or miss the last few days; it wasn't always this bad, but right now the upload is acting up and lagging again today.

If you dig into your phone settings, you can check the 4G modem properties. You should be able to see exactly how many channels you've got and what kind of speeds you're actually pulling.

Richard White15 said:I’m using a flat-rate data plan this week

Alright, but what about the base rate?

Just because your download speeds are hitting that flat cap doesn't mean your upload is stuck on the same limit. Honestly, 95% of people don't even care about upload speed anyway.

You’d have to check with Verizon 4G to get the real scoop on that.

There’s also a real chance the local cell tower is just totally slammed by everyone else on those unlimited plans, leaving you with zero headroom to hit higher speeds. You can actually check this if you dive into your router's 4G modem properties—it'll show you how crowded the channel is. Try comparing those numbers against AT&T and see what's up.

Dennis Patel7 said:I’m honestly at a loss for words here because, out of nowhere, it’s working perfectly fine on battery power now! I haven't actually changed anything else besides switching the BIOS setting over to Legacy, which was the only thing that finally allowed me to get it up and running.

That still doesn't explain why the battery is acting up.

Dennis Patel7 said:

I’ve been thinking a lot about what actually constitutes a "reward" in this life, especially when you're grinding away at a job that feels like it's sucking the soul right out of you. We spend all this time chasing these massive milestones—the big promotion, the corner office, the huge year-end bonus—but honestly, those things feel hollow once they actually arrive. I was reading some stuff online the other day, and it really hit me how much we overlook the small, quiet victories. It’s not always about the grand gesture; sometimes the real reward is just finally finishing a project on time without losing your mind, or having that one perfect cup of coffee in the morning before the chaos starts. I know Dennis Patel7 mentioned something similar a while back about finding value in the process rather than just the end goal, and I think he's absolutely right. If we only allow ourselves to feel successful when we hit those giant peaks, we're going to spend ninety percent of our lives feeling like failures. We have to learn to celebrate the little wins along the way, otherwise, what are we even doing? Dennis Patel7 says:
Maybe try running a battery calibration; honestly, that might just solve the whole thing for you.👍

How does one even go about doing that? Honestly, I’ve never even heard of that being a possibility before.

It's called battery calibration.
https://www.howtogeek.com/172271/how...ife-estimates/

Dell app:
https://www.dell.com/support/topic/en-us/products/system-software/dell-supportassist

Richard White15 said:Yeah, for sure

Hey, did you check your data limits on your Verizon 4G plan?

Once you hit 100 GB—or whatever your cap is—they usually just throttle your speeds.

Richard White15 said:I’m uploading 4K gameplay footage, so we’re talking massive files here.
Honestly, I haven't even heard of anyone dealing with throttled upload speeds before.

But get this—I just tried running an upload over a Verizon 4G connection and things actually look way better.
I have no clue what's going on, so I shot an email over to T-Mobile to see what they say.
It’s pretty obvious it isn't a YouTube issue; it’s definitely T-Mobile.
I even stumbled upon a similar thread on Reddit where someone was having the exact same headache with YouTube and their ISP.
Maybe it’s a local cell tower issue... man, I don't know anything about how this stuff works.

Wait, you're uploading via 4G?

If you're uploading massive amounts of data, is it possible you hit some kind of hidden cap buried in the fine print? Like, maybe they throttled your speed down to a crawl, like 100kbps or something?

Your CMOS probably took a massive hit while you were swapping out that battery.

Are you running a legacy BIOS or UEFI?

Try resetting your BIOS settings back to factory defaults. Just shut it down completely, then power it back up.

If that doesn't cut it, pull the battery and the power adapter, then do a full hard reset on the laptop (just hold that power button down for a solid 30 seconds). Pop the battery and charger back in, let it juice up for maybe two or three hours before you try turning it on again.

Now, if you’re still stuck, you’ve got the option to reset the CMOS directly on the battery itself.


And hey, if all else fails, maybe give the BIOS firmware an upgrade.