Posts by darkowl72

WLAN means wireless; that 10/100 part refers to the wired connection. First, just go to your laptop manufacturer's site, grab the latest drivers, and save them onto a thumb drive.

Well, you could just grab it at Best Buy then.

Just tell me which store in Chicago you're looking at, or honestly, it doesn't matter. We can go from there. I’m no expert when it comes to graphics cards or high-end gaming, so you might want to wait for the younger crowd to show up—they'll know exactly what the best value is right now and if you actually need to drop more cash. As for me, based on my limited gaming knowledge 😬 I'd suggest something like this:

crimsonstag84 made a decent call on the power supply, but if that thing is more than two or three years old, I'd swap it out too if you've got the cash. Personally, I think this unit would be perfectly fine without breaking the bank:

Just hang in there and save up a little longer. For just a few bucks more, you could snag a significantly better graphics card, and it’d be a total waste to drop over a thousand bucks on some R7 when you can grab an AMD Radeon R9 for around $150-$160. Plus, prices should hopefully dip pretty soon...

Btw, what power supply are you running? Got a specific model number?

The more you mess around with different recovery tools, the lower your chances of actually getting your data back. If these files are truly mission-critical, I’d suggest checking out the rates over at: http://www.infocomhelp.com/pricing/

Prices have actually become reasonable lately—they aren't astronomical anymore...

WLAN adapter. You could try uninstalling it and then reinstalling it—maybe even hunt down a newer driver if one exists. That’s the best way to figure out if you're dealing with a software glitch or actual hardware failure. Even if the Wi-Fi card itself is shot, you can just swap it out. They aren't expensive, and most standard cards fit; just make sure you grab the right drivers for it once it's in.

It’s possible some spilled toner is gunking up the transport rollers, but honestly, you're better off just calling official Ricoh support or an authorized service center.

First, pull the battery out, unplug the power cord, and hold down the power button for about 30 seconds. That should force a hard reset on the system. Once you've done that, pop the battery back in, plug it back into the wall, and try turning it on... Let me know what happens. If it’s still acting up, check if there's an error message on the screen and count how many times the indicator light flashes and what color it is.

The processor should hold up fine; its Boiling point of water is the max core temp. But the motherboard and the GPU? Yeah... that’s a different story. There isn't much you can do at this point besides what you've already tried—maybe slap a small exhaust fan on there to pull some air out. Just one thing (not that you don't know this, I just want to be clear for anyone else reading this): whatever you do, don't blow air directly into those vents, or the air will just stagnate inside.

It all depends on how the software was built. If there isn't a specific setting or a toggle in the command line to handle this, you're stuck.

If that fails, try forcing another startup app to launch right after yours. Hopefully, that’ll strip its focus and kick it into a background window.

Look:

http://www.nabava.net/slusalice__830...usion__1384141

It’s not some holy grail of info or a Best Buy deal, but if it helps anyone...

I stumbled upon a decent schematic (honestly, I've never had the patience for drawing stuff myself 😬), so if you're looking for an easy way to quiet down those loud case fans by dropping the voltage to 7V or 5V, here you go:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliteg...mputer_Systems

They used to be go-to motherboard brands back in the day, but lately, they haven't really made much of a splash here in the Americas. They have different markets to focus on, but if you happen to stumble upon a solid deal like the one in this link, don't sweat the quality too much. 👍

by the way, HP offers similar solutions, though they come with a higher price tag, and I think ASUS has something along those lines as well...

Just wipe everything clean and reinstall the older versions. There's nothing new under the sun—those Radeon drivers are still unstable. Back in the day, you always had to hunt down the specific version that actually played nice with your particular card. You can't just leave auto-update turned on; if you do, you're at the mercy of Windows Update, and by the time they finally get around to pushing a driver to you, it'll probably be broken anyway.

What exactly is the deal with the CPU fan? If it’s got a 3-pin connector, you should be able to control the speed.

Regarding that mode, there are two ways to go about it. Using a resistor:

Or without one, just by swapping the wires:

Which you can honestly do yourself just by moving the connector pins. All you need is this:

Instead of feeding the standard +12V to the two pins the fan actually needs to spin, you combine other wires to get 7V (you don't connect +12V to ground; you bridge +12V and +5V to get 12-5=7V) or +5V and ground to get 5V.



To figure out which pins your specific fan needs, just try connecting something—like a 4.5V battery—just to see it spin. It’ll only work with one specific combination of two wires; the third wire is just for speed control, which you won't be using anyway.

I just grabbed a photo from Hilton; their cables are outrageously overpriced. I used to pick mine up at Links for pennies when they actually had them in stock. Check Chipotle... Honestly, any local repair guy or TV tech would probably do this for you in exchange for a beer...

That’s just pure speculation at this point. It depends on a dozen different variables, so you can't just claim one thing is objectively better than another. Just look at the price tag 😬 Expensive doesn't always mean better 😬

The chassis fan is plugged directly into that motherboard header. Go into your BIOS and see if there’s a setting for that CHA_FAN—something like 30%, 40%, or 50% PWM—and try dialing it back. If you don't have that option, your only real move is playing around with the voltage. It sounds more intimidating than it actually is; just drop the voltage to 5V or 7V to slow down the RPM.

😂 Who on earth are you two fighting with?

Don't hold your breath, it just has to work. Your hard drive is still untouched inside the laptop... It’s just a shame if we can't get the machine running again...

If it won't charge with the battery in or out, there are only two possibilities:

Broken charger. They aren't exactly breaking the bank, though.
Faulty charging port. Sometimes you get a terminal failure that just isn't worth the headache because the port is usually soldered directly onto the motherboard. If the connector is ripped right off, you're basically looking at a paperweight. There's not much you can do at that point.

It would be helpful if you actually specified which laptop model you're using. Some models pop open pretty easily—like Jonathan Mendoza17 mentioned—while others are a total nightmare to get into. Also, you really need to check if the device is still under warranty. If it is, don't touch a single thing, or you'll end up voiding that coverage entirely. Honestly, if you aren't sure or can't pull off what Jonathan Mendoza17 is suggesting, just take it to a repair shop. They'll handle it.

First step: if you know someone running the same laptop, see if you can borrow their charger. Try to get the battery topped off and see if the thing will actually boot. Just make sure the charger is an exact match so you don't end up frying the motherboard.