Yesterday I fixed an old broken LCD monitor and I thought I’d share the experience. Specifically, I replaced a bad capacitor on the LCD’s inverter board to fix the problem of the back light not lighting up. Repairing a LCD… sounds impressive right? Yeah, I’m proud of myself right now :lol: , but it’s actually a really easy job if you have a soldering iron. I have really shaky hands and if I can do this, then so can most of you. This article is part guide and part personal experience. You’ll have to excuse my blurry photos though. Read on if you are interesting or if your monitor is afflicted with a similar problem.
Tag: computer hardware
New External Hard Drive: Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex (500GB)
I haven’t made a computer hardware post for a while, mostly because I didn’t buy anything significant until this month. As the title indicates, I bought a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 500GB portable hard drive. As with all of my hardware posts, this is not a review. It’s just a chance for me to show off my new gadget and write some thoughts on it. Read on if you are interested.
My New Graphics Tablet: Wacom Bamboo Fun
Last Christmas I decided to give a little gift to myself, and so I went out and bought a Wacom Bamboo Fun graphics tablet. I’ve been eying a graphics tablet for a while, but I waited until the Boxing Day Sale to pull the trigger. Here is my experience thus far with the product, and a teaser of what I might be capable of producing with my new tablet.
New Laptop: Compaq A939CA
It’s been almost four years since my family has gotten a new computer. Usually I’m the one who gets the fastest computer in the house, but this time around the new computer is for my dad. The old computer that he was using was getting unbearably slow even for web surfing and word processing, so it was finally time to get him a new computer. After considering all the factors, we decided to get a 17 inch laptop, the Compaq A900 series (model A939CA). This article is not a really a review of the laptop, but just a short document about setting it up and my first impressions of the laptop (and also Windows Vista), plus a couple of pictures of the machine for people to see.
My Experience: Installing an Internal Flash Memory Card Reader
Here’s another one of my computer upgrade articles. At the time of writing my computer is almost two years old, which means it’s pretty pointless trying to upgrade a major component. However, a situation arose where I need to read files off some Flash memory cards that my digital camera didn’t support, so I waited until a sale came up and picked up a card reader to do the job. This article basically documents how I installed the card reader and it’s also sort of a photo op for the installation and a mini-review for the card reader I chose, the Sony MRW620. Installing an internal card reader is pretty simple, and there are enough photos in this article if you want to learn how to install one of these devices.
My Experience: Replacing My Computer’s Power Supply
Ever since I built my own computer a while ago, I’ve had my fair share of computer troubles. I’ve had encounters with bad memory (both mine and the computer’s), stuck DVD drives, and also various software problems. And now after 1.5 years of operation, my computer’s power supply decided to quit on me, so I was forced to buy a replacement power supply and install it in order to get my computer working again. Here’s the documentation of this experience, from choosing which power supply to buy to actually installing the power supply.
Hunting For a 19 Inch LCD Monitor
It’s been ages since I’ve written a real article for my personal site, and finally I managed to come up with something. This is a computer related article that chronicles my experience trying to find the right monitor. You’ll also be treated to a short review of the winning choice, the AG Neovo F419 19 inch LCD. This is not one of those professional reviews done at hardware review sites but rather just a personal judgment on the LCD panel. Unfortunately, you’ll also have to tolerate my poor photo-taking skills for the pictures in this article.
My Experience: Overclocking My Computer
This is my documentation of another attempt to overclock my processor. I happened to have a fairly overclockable rig on my hands but I was still a newbie when it comes to tweaking computers for maximum performance. So did I achieve my goal or fail miserably? Read this article to find out.
My Experience: Upgrading My Computer
As I have promised, here is an article about my computer upgrading experience. I bought all the components on a Boxing Day sale and spent about two hours working on my computer to make it what it is today. Benchmarks and other test results are obviously included. Even thought I didn’t have a particularly pleasant experience doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t personally upgrade your computer.