Removing the drive from a DiskGo.

I had some pictures stored on an old 120 GB DiskGo. I wanted to look at them and move the good ones to somewhere in the cloud.

It was old school so besides the USB connection to the computer, it needed a wall connection and a transformer.

I set it all up and switched it on and... it's dead, Jim. So, I decided to see if I could take it apart and get the drive out so I could hook it up to another computer to test it. You can see the itsy bitsy screws holding the cover on so I need some special tools.

You do have a set like this, right? I removed the top cover.

You can see the drive and the custom board it is attached to. It is just a standard drive so I will attempt to remove it from the case. I flipped it over and removed the other two screws.

The drive is held in the case with 4 more screws. I removed them, turned the case over, disconnected the yellow custom cable and, with a small set of vice grips, removed the power connector.

I then put the case back together and added it to my electronics recycling box.

I will test the bare drive later in one of my PCs on the bench.

Project: eMachines T-3256 restoration (5)

This eMachines model came with an onboard video chip - the NVIDIA nForce2, but the previous owner had upgraded to a nvidia GeForce 4 card. Here's a pic of the onboard chip and nearby the AGP slot for the add on card.

I removed the card to clean the fan (an artist's brush is perfect for the task).

After cleaning I reinstalled the card. This card is only slightly better than the onboard chip. Since the AGP slot is long since obsolete it is widely know the best cards for it are the HD 4670, the 9600 or the GeForce 4Ti. If I had to buy one the 4670 is still expensive but there are quite a few 9600 units around for good prices. Next step was on to the hard drive. Here's is a pic of the cage. It is held in place by a single thumbscrew.

Remove the thumbscrew and pull the cage up and out of the case.

 I picked up a used Western Digital 160 GB drive (2009) on eBay for $15.74 with shipping.

The cage is built to hold two hard drives (the Primary and the Slave). There is a jumper to set the drive(s) but since I am only using one I just verified that it was set as the default master. I installed the drive in the cage with the connections up so when it is in place I can easily attach the cables. Note how the holes on the drive line up to the hole in the cage.

I placed the cage back into its position and prepared to attach the thumbscrew.

And then I attached the data ribbon cable and then the power cable.

Project: eMachines T-3256 restoration (4)

I let the alcohol dry overnight and now the cpu is ready to have the thermal paste applied.

The paste should only be applied to the cpu (the pink part) and should be no more than the thickness of a piece of paper. I applied it from the syringe and used the included wooden spreader to move it around, covering the cpu.

 

The heat sink only goes on one way (there is a notch on one side). I positioned it and clipped it into place. Just to be safe I removed the power supply so I could make sure the clips on both sides of the heat sink were correctly engaged.

I plugged in the fan connector to the power plug on the motherboard. I then hooked up the video connector (VGA) for the monitor to the connector on the video card as usually installing a video card in a machine with an on board video chip will override the on board chip. Finally I hooked up a USB keyboard and a USB mouse.

Next I connected the power cord to the power supply and then to the power strip.

There is no switch on the power supply so the only way to power up the machine is to use the power button on the front of the case. I pressed the button, it lit up, the cpu fan started running and the monitor came up with the 'e' but no indication of the key to press to access the bios. I tried the F2 (Dell's solution) but it failed.

A quick visit to Google (Tech Law #1: Google is your friend.) told me to try F2, Escape, Tab or Delete.
I tried Tab which failed and then Delete, which didn't.

Finally for today I hooked up the machine to my kill-a-watt EZ to measure the power being consumed and burn in the new paste on the cpu. After a couple of hours if was registering usage of $.28-.29 per day, but this is without a hard drive.

Project eMachines T-3256 restoration (3)

The heat sink was loose when I opened the case upon delivery. I am hoping that it came loose during transit, but the only way to find out is to test by booting. Before I do that I have to clean off the old thermal paste from the cpu and the bottom of the heat sink and clean out 10 years of dust from the fan and heat sink.

This is the cpu with the heat sink off. The old thermal paste is the "gunk" on top of the pink surface of the cpu.

This is the underside of the heat sink. There is a thin "pad" that covers around the cpu. I have to clean off the old paste from this surface also.

I removed the fan from the heat sink to expose 10 years of ultrafine dust/dirt that has been collected by the fan action inside the case. There is no easy or clean way to do this.

This is the cleaned cpu. I used q-tips saturated in isopropyl alcohol.

This is the cleaned heat sink and fan ready for reassembly.

Project: eMachines T-3256 restoration (2)

The unit arrived in a few days and I happened to see the USPS guy stop the truck. I went out to get the box and as he handed it to me he said; "It's heavy". It wasn't, but it was in rough shape and I could tell the PC was loose in the box.When I opened it I my fears were confirmed. It had been packed poorly and in transit the paper packing had become compressed and the unit started to bang around inside the box. There was damage.

The side of the front panel had shattered and the panel had come loose, breaking all the connector pins in the process.It could not be reconnected.

And, from the dirt and dust on the outside of the case it was safe to assume this unit was "rough".
I knew from the condition of the outside that the inside would be pretty dirty and I wasn't wrong. I opened it up and yes, it was filthy with years of dust build up. While I know there was no HD, I was distressed to find out that the fan and heat sink had come off the CPU - either during shipment or some other time - and now I had real questions about the ability of this unit to start up and run.

I cleaned up the dirt and dust, being careful to not touch the exposed CPU and set everything aside for a couple of days to decide whether or not to continue with the project. I also sent the seller a message about the poor packaging job. He sent back a reply apologizing and saying he wasn't too careful because he thought all I wanted it for was "parts".

Project: eMachines T-3256 restoration (1)

I wanted to find a desktop PC that I could restore back to working condition as practice for some major upgrading and restoration projects I will be working on in the future. I looked on eBay and found this eMachines T-3256.

The seller claimed that the unit had no HD but was working before it was removed. It also was listed as having an AMD Athlon 3200+ XP Processor, DVD+/RW CD-ROM, NVIDIA G-Force 4 graphics driver, and 5 USB ports. Although it was sold as "for parts or repair", it looked clean so I put in a bid and won it for $29.99 plus $18.00 shipping ($47.99). I liked this unit because it has both a DVD and CD drive and a built in media card reader.

I am starting to play around with steganography - a way of "hiding" a text file or document within another non-text file (like a jpeg or wav).

There is a good "starter" article at http://m.tech.uh.edu/faculty/conklin/IS7033Web/7033/Week7/steganalysis.pdf.

Check it out.

More setting up your own cloud options from GigaOM.

Here's a good article from GigaOM with some more options for setting up your own cloud. Note even more options in the comments.

http://gigaom.com/2014/03/01/how-to-set-up-your-own-personal-home-cloud-storage-system/

Updating a Keyboard - Corsair Raptor K30

My favorite keyboard and the one I have used for many (10+?) years is an HP 3758 like this one:

Unfortunately it has a PS2 connector which is no longer included on modern motherboards (see the image). There is an adapter that can be purchased to allow connecting a PS2 keyboard to a USB connector but I don't trust them so it's time for a new keyboard.
I did some research and decided I wanted one that had a similar feel to my HP. This was not an easily achievable goal. The keyboards that come with new PCs are too "soft" for me, but I didn't want to move all the way to high end mechanical gaming keyboards that have the old IBM "click" - and a high end price.
I eventually discovered the first generation Corsair K30 gaming keyboard which was not mechanical but was rated high for its feel. I also found that they were being phased out and that my favorite mail order parts site: newegg,com had them on sale. I ordered one.

It arrived in a nice box like this. Inside was a small manual and quick start guide.

 with the keyboard.

This is an early generation gaming keyboard in that it has dedicated "gaming" keys on the left side that, using the manufacturer's software, can be programmed to auto generate custom key combinations for various games. It also has gray AWSD keys that can be used as arrow keys by left handed people.
I turned off the computer, disconnected the old keyboard, connected the new keyboard, booted up the PC, browsed to the manufacturer's download site, downloaded the K30 software, installed it and, for good measure, rebooted the machine. It came up and, as it should, recognized the new keyboard. I adjusted the red backlighting and it looks like this now:

It took a while to get used to the slightly smaller main key area, but the more I use it, the more I like it.

Celluon Epic Bluetooth Mobile Projection Keyboard

Have you seen the commercial on TV that shows the girl in the cafe appearing to use a keyboard that is projected on to the top surface of the table she where is sitting? Well that is a real thing and it is called the Epic Mobile Projection Keyboard. It's from a Korean company called Celluon and it uses Bluetooth to attach to your device and then projects a keyboard onto a flat surface that you can use to type. It comes in a box that looks like this:

It's a small device that uses a lot of different technologies; Bluetooth to connect to your device (pc, tablet or phone), USB to charge, laser to project the image of the keyboard and Infrared to figure out what key you are pressing.

Remove it form the packing and on one side is the On/Off switch and the charging port (mini usb) and bluetooth sync button (which doesn't show up too well in this pic).

The other side has the laser, projector, and infrared sensor.

When you first unpack it, it has to be charged. Hook it to any usb port/charger and the red (charging) light comes on.

After a short wait the red light goes off and the green (charged) light comes on. It is now ready for use. Note: the directions say a fully charged unit will last for 120 minutes.

Once it is charged, you follow the simple (included) instructions to sync it to your bluetooth device, set it up and it's ready to go.

The unit projects a near full sized keyboard to any flat surface. You can then practice for a while to get used to the new way of typing. The best surface seems to be flat, non-reflective and firm.

We set this up with an iPad and it worked great! The learning curve was pretty short and once we figured out the best kind of surface and the best way to orient, we were all successful in using this as a real keyboard.
I recommend this device.

It's a Free Upgrade from Windoes 8 to 8.1 - Here's how.

Assuming you have Windows 8 running on your PC, first, go to Google and look for "Upgrade windows 8 to 8.1" or similar. Find the link to the official Microsoft Windows upgrade page and click on it.The page should look like this:

Notice on the bottom of the page is a link to "do" the upgrade. When you click on it your machine will be checked to see if it has all the latest patches and updates. If it doesn't, and it probably won't, you will be sent to the update page in Windows. It looks like this:

Click on the "Windows Update" bar and the download/update process will begin. Depending on how long it has been since the last update was performed, you could have a wait. Windows will inform you as it goes through the process of downloading and applying each patch.

Once the downloads are complete and all the changes/patches have been applied, Windows will reboot. If you are not automatically brought to the Microsoft Store, click on the tile on the main page. The Microsoft Store page will look like this:

Click on this tile to start the updating process.

Click on the Download tile/button to begin updating to Windows 8.1. You will be at the Installs windows where you will see a series of notices as the process takes place.

At the end of this process you will see a page where you are told you have to restart Windows. Click on the Restart Now tile/button.

Windows will restart a number of times. At the end, you will know you have successfully updated Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 when you are asked to accept the Terms and Conditions at this page:

When you click on the "I accept" tile/button. The machine will reboot one more time and come up running Windows 8.1. You will immediately notice some changes to the Desktop tiles. From now on, this is how you will update any changes to Windows 8.1.