Tech Notes &amp; Other Musings

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Dell Latitude E4300 keyboard replacement.

I was placing my laptop down on the desk and it slipped out of my hand and the back left corner hit the desk kind of hard. I didn't think anything of it as it only fell about two or three inches from my hand to the desk. I then started to type away and neither of my shift keys worked. All others appeared to work, the caps lock worked, I could bring up the virtual keyboard and the virtual shift worked, but not the physical ones.

So this really isn't a true keyboard replacement, rather a keyboard re-seating. But the same principals apply. I expected to find that the ribbon cable from the keyboard to the system board to have been jarred loose. But as it turns out this keyboard has solid contacts that slide into a slot just under the track pad. Curious that only the shift keys were affected?

Remove the power cord and battery. Make sure you are properly grounded to avoid static discharge while working. Any time you work with the plastics on laptops there is always the chance for damage. Perform this operation at your own risk. I am not responsible for equipment and or personal injury.

I prefer to use a nylon or plastic spudger but as I couldn't find mine and this is my personal machine I opted for the flat tip screwdriver. The plastic parts can snap very easily so take your time and lift just a tiny bit at a time. In this photo, just above the tip of the blade you can see a small slot in the plastic. That is where you will first carefully start to pry up.

Work slowly from right to left. Slide the tip of your spudger or finger along the bezel and it will un-clip from the base. Again, work slowly and do not stress this thin plastic at too great an angle, it will snap. On this particular laptop there are no connections between this bezel and the base, such as cabling of any type.

There are only three screws that hold the board in place. One above the Esc, one above the F8 and one above the Insert keys. Remove these screws and set them aside.

Slowly and carefully pick up the back of the keyboard with your finger tips, preferably with both hands to equalize the stress of pulling it up wards and towards the screen at the same time. (note the missing F6 key. don't ask....)

On both the left and right side of the board are these small bumps or keys. They snap in and out of place under the base.

As you pull up and towards the screen you will see that just below the space bar is where the keyboard plugs into the system board just below the track pad.

Now that you have the keyboard removed this is a good time to get a can of compressed air and clean out the base and the CPU fan.

At the base of the keyboard are several keys, such as the one you see here under Ctrl key. When replacing the keyboard you insert the contacts into the slot under track pad first, then these keys will fit under the palm rest. Then just simply lay the keyboard down pushing on the left and right sides to get those small keys on the sides under the base. At the same time keep pressure on edge of keyboard closest to screen to make sure the contacts are seating properly in the slot. See that the screw holes of keyboard and base are lined up and replace your screws.

Thanks for reading,

Tony

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Trip to Leslie's Retreat Dog Park

Affordable Computer Geek of Salem MA

If there is a picture of your dog you would like, please tell me which one it is and I will email you the full sized image without the watermark. No promises that I will be able to respond quickly, but will do my best.

Thanks for reading,

Tony

Anthony C. Goodwin

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Trip to Leslie's Retreat Dog Park Salem MA

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Trip to Leslie's Retreat Dog Park Salem MA

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Inspiron 14Z Review

Affordable Computer Geek of Salem MA
Just recently purchased an Inspiron 14Z through the Dell Employee Purchase Program. It was a gift for the wife. She is a "casual" user, mostly internet browsing, email etc.

With my EPP discount & a free shipping coupon I paid just under $900.00. Should note that I also purchased the three year complete care warranty. Something I do on every laptop I purchase, whether for work or personal use. I am usually not a fan of extended warranty's, but on laptops, they have almost always paid off. All you need is one broken screen or system board and you made your money back.

Came configured with Win 7 Home Premium w/ MS Office Starter (Word & Excel), 2nd generation Intel®Core™ processor i3-2330M (2.2GHz) with Intel HD Graphic 3000, 6GB RAM, 640GB HDD. I won't go on with all the in depth nerdy specs. Certainly a more than capable machine for a casual user.

The aluminum case has a nice solid feel and the lid/screen hinges also have a nice solid feel to them. The standard US keyboard that it came with, more about that later, with it's chiclet style keys was noisy and "hard". Hard meaning that there was no give to the keys/keyboard. It was like siting at a table and tapping your fingers on it. The individual keys were also very flat making it difficult for this touch typist. The back lit keyboard has a more "rubbery" feel to it and the keys, while still chiclet looking have a bit of a indentation in them. A feature that is important to a touch typist like me.

It also come with it's fair share of "crap-ware". Not nearly as bad as Dell consumer machines used to be and certainly not as bad as some HP consumer machines I have seen recently, but it still comes with some annoying stuff. The worst of which, in my opinion, is the McAfee. Uggh. Probably the worst AV product on the market today. Bogs down the best of machines. You can either pick though Add/Remove programs and remove the "crap-ware" items one at a time or check out this great utility: http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/.

The high gloss 14" screen is better than I was expecting. Even in a brightly lit room. Not much reflection and the image quality is great. It also has a built in webcam & mic that takes a fairly high quality picture/video image & audio.

My only issue so far is the fan sometimes runs at a very high RPM, even when the in/out vents are not being blocked and the CPU is not under extreme stress. Not sure what that is all about, or if it is normal for this model?

The wife is perfectly happy with the machine. She moved to this from a very old Inspiron 6000 so this is quite the performance upgrade for her.

When I configured the machine I specifically picked out a back lit keyboard. When I reviewed the configuration before pressing the button to finish the purchase it showed that I had picked the back lit keyboard. After making the purchase I reviewed the config again and it said standard US keyboard. That concerned me a bit, but just figured it was an error on the web site.

When the laptop arrived it did not have the back lit keyboard. I contacted Dell tech spt via there chat interface and the tech said that my unit was not configured with a back lit keyboard so they could not help me. After some back and forth arguing with him he told me to hold on. Came back and said Dell wanted to make it right for me. They sent out a tech with a back lit keyboard.

I am quite happy with the way Dell made this right, but what makes me angry is I know for certain that I configured it with the back lit and after purchase the config changed to standard. Doing some research and reading @ Dell forums & reviews of this model I don't appear to the only one that had this problem. Sadly, many others did not get treated the same way I did and got stuck with the standard keyboard.

I would recommend this laptop to the casual user as well as high school & college students.

Thanks for reading,

Tony

Anthony C. Goodwin

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Internet Explorer Screws Up Computer Do Not Use

Affordable Computer Geek of Salem MA

Found this on a computer I worked on a while back. Pretty funny. Wasn't IE that was "screwing up" the computer, it was downloading questionable content.

Thanks for reading,

Tony

Anthony C. Goodwin

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Setting up Verizon DSL Westell 6100 to work with a Linksys E1000 Wireless Router.

Affordable Computer Geek of Salem MA

Went to a clients house to connect a new Linksys wireless router to a VZ DSL Westell 6100. Not a big fan of the 6100. Had problems in the past configuring them to be just a "dumb" bridge/switch from the VZ network to the wireless device. Even more difficult when the username and password for the Westell 6100 is not known, which was the case this time.

Really did not want to do a reset to defaults on the 6100 as I could not recall what would be required to get it back up and running again. I think that you have to have all of the VZ account information in order to set it up. Not wanting to risk it I made the dreaded call to VZ DSL tech support.

I thought there was a way to simply connect the DSL line to the Internet jack of the Linksys then connect the Westell 6100 to one of the other four ethernet ports on the Linksys but was not sure exactly. Sure enough what you can do is just that.

First connect a device directly to the Linksys E1000. If new you would go to http://192.168.1.1 with <blank> password and admin for the password. Once in there set for DHCP if it is not already and change the E1000's IP address to 192.168.2.1 and save the changes. If you need to get back into the console you then have to go to http://192.168.1.1.

Personally I would prefer to set the Westell 6100 to be a dumb bridge. But the above method works as well. I was able to also connect a desktop computer to the Linksys and get internet service to it as well.

If anyone has any thoughts or reasons why one method, making the Westell 6100 a dumb switch, or the above is better than the other in this situation I would be glad to hear them.

Thanks for reading,

Tony

Anthony C. Goodwin

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Timeline is Coming to Facebook. Could be a privacy concern for some.

Facebook is rolling out it's new Timeline feature. I guess the best definition of Timeline is summed up by Adrian Covert @ Gizmodo in his article What Is Facebook Timeline? (Only Your Whole Life)

1. Ensure your Privacy and Sharing Settings are set to Friends Only.

2. Remove any casual acquaintances you have added as friends. Or place those that you do not want to see anything in the Restricted List.

3. Clean up any questionable or embarrassing content on your profile. What this new Timeline feature will allow is for a "friend" or stalker to quickly scan anything and everything posted on your wall. Regardless of when it was posted. Just imagine your boss finding those pics of you at the beach that day you called in sick!

4. Don’t opt in to Frictionless Sharing of the new Social Apps.

5. After Timeline is activated you ONLY have seven days to modify the content that is currently on your wall that will be available to all for viewing. So take advantage of the seven days to clean up yours!

Thanks for reading,

Tony

Anthony C. Goodwin

Affordable Computer Geek of Salem MA

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Family Tech Support Rage Comic

This was just too funny to not post. For those of you that have allowed yourself to become tech support for family & friends you will appreciate this. Sorry, found on Reddit.com, don't know who drew it so no credit.

Thanks for reading,

Tony

Anthony C. Goodwin