Akom's Tech Ruminations

Various tech outbursts - code and solutions to practical problems

Hardware Hacks Hardware Hacks

Upgrading Dell laptop memory and the blinking CAPS LOCK led Apparently if you have the power-on self-tests set to "Minimal" or "Fast" or anything besides the "Let's check everything for 5 minutes every time the machine boots", you'll have a brick with a blinking CAPS lock instead of a laptop once you upgrade memory.

The only way I found to fix this (other than clearing the BIOS) was to put the old memory back in, go into BIOS, and enable thorough self-test. With that on, the laptop notices the memory size change and does not freak out - merely tells you about it. Once you're done you can disable the self-tests.

(I experienced this on a Dell Precision M4400, but googling seems to indicate that this affects the Inspiron and Latitude lines as well, probably others).

Hardware Hacks Hardware Hacks

Upgrading Dell laptop memory and the blinking CAPS LOCK led»
Apparently if you have the power-on self-tests set to "Minimal" or "Fast" or anything besides the "Let's check everything for 5 minutes every time the machine boots", you'll have a brick with a blinking CAPS lock instead of a laptop once you upgrade memory. The only way I found to fix this (other than clearing the BIOS) was to put the old memory back in, go into BIOS, and enable ...

Asterisk Asterisk

Getting Meetme to work in Asterisk 1.6 on Ubuntu Lucid»
I'm assuming that you are attempting to use the Meetme() application and getting an error like this: WARNING[10695]: app_meetme.c:1097 build_conf: Unable to open pseudo device It's rather simple: $ apt-get install dahdi dahdi-dkms dahdi-linux   #I think dahdi may be enough $ echo dahdi_dummy >> / etc / modules $ modprobe dadhi_dummy $ ls -l / ...

Reviews Reviews

Motorola Droid X Battery Life woes may not mean a defective battery»
Last week my wife replaced her Blackberry Storm2 (9550) with a shiny Droid X , and was relieved to find that the Droid kept up with her insane usage load just fine - whereas the Storm2 would lock up every few minutes (probably memory or garbage collection issues). That's the good news. Unfortunately, the X introduced a new problem - battery life . With her usage, it lasts 4 hours. ...

Reviews Reviews

The Valor ITS-301D DVD/CD/MP3/MP4/etc car head unit»
I recently bought a truck to replace the conversion van as a tow vehicle, and decided not to move the Innovatek head unit from the van to save myself some hassle. This gave me an opportunity to try out a new device as I was somewhat frustrated with the Innovatek ( see review ). I was looking for basically the same exact thing, but one that worked, well, better. Oh and of course having ...

Hardware Hacks Hardware Hacks Toys Toys

Not all that is hackable should be...»
Last week I hacked up my RC transmitter and added a Dual Rate switch Dual Rate switch See here: ( How I hacked it up ). I thought I was so cool for adding two wires, one toggle switch and two drops of solder to an RTF transmitter (oh and a nice hole too). Well, everything worked great on the ground, but once I actually flew the plane, not all was well - the control ...

Hardware Hacks Hardware Hacks Toys Toys

Hacking up RTF RC Transmitter with a Dual Rate switch»
I can't say that I have a good reason for doing this, other than the potential for letting inexperienced family members fly my plane, but I thought this should be easy enough to do: RTF Radio with DR Switch The RTF transmitter that came with my Pitts S2A has a bunch of dip switches, which are not so quick to flip on the fly - and I've played with friends' real ...
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