Joe Bass' technology woes thread | Page 20 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Joe Bass' technology woes thread

Their keyboards have won numerous awards for the best and most accurate keyboard based on typing accuracy.

MyT430 is 8-9 years old so it needs a new battery and the power button has come off the keyboard so it needs a new one. But all the typing keys are in tact.
I’m considering moving over to the Lenovo Carbon line but this T430 is still working well.
The weight (or lack of) of the Carbon line is so appealing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: J_F
Their keyboards have won numerous awards for the best and most accurate keyboard based on typing accuracy.

MyT430 is 8-9 years old so it needs a new battery and the power button has come off the keyboard so it needs a new one. But all the typing keys are in tact.
I’m considering moving over to the Lenovo Carbon line but this T430 is still working well.
The weight (or lack of) of the Carbon line is so appealing.
Everytime I think about replacing a t450s, I am disappointed by the direction lenovo is headed. It looks like carbon is a better bet than t4xxx these days. Most of the t series dont have replaceable batteries anymore (and come with batteries good for barely one working day when new).
 
This seems to be a common trend with the manufactureres. Going to an non-hot-swapable battery.

Also have a Dell Lattitude E5450 with an intergrated battery.

All batteries can be replaced, but seems like you now need to comletly take the laptop apart.
And with the new deisngs which make them so small and thin it is much more difficult to take apart.
 
Running W10 on an Asus EEE.....look it up, it's old.

Thanks Geoff
I just got one of these for free but both USB ports are damaged and the connector on the power supply is horribly bent (but still works). Considering trying to fix it just for fun. Wonder how hard it is to swap the usb ports without buying anything (desolder from another board and swap over I guess).
 
Have to take it completely apart to swap the HDD.

Might as well put in an SSD drive. Makes the laptop much faster.

SSD have essentially saved the Windows operating system.
The boot up time on a HDD is slow, SSD is almost too fast.

Canada Computers has some Samsung EVO SSD's on sale right now

As cheap at $59 for a 250GB

Welcome - Canada Computers & Electronics
 
Just checked.

The sale ends tonight. But these go on sale fairly often.

If you don't end up getting one. I actually have an unopened BNIB 250GB and a 1TB I can sell off.
I bought a few extra for my clients and have a few left over.
 
Similar story with IBM (Lenovo these days).
The consumer grade sucks.
The business grade are a workhorse.
Ever since I came across them in my Co-op days, I haven't considered anything else.
They are ugly or just so bland, but its a laptop. It't not suppose to look good. It's suppose to work and they work very well.
One of the best laptops I ever owned.

Lenovo has a whole lot of brands these days. The entry level consumer stuff, I wouldn't trust but I haven't personally laid hands on them either.
The "Thinkpad" E series and A series in a twilight between enterprise and consumer. I currently use a Lenovo E485 and am pretty happy with it... not perfect, but I have never been perfectly happy with a laptop ever
 
didn't feel like starting a new thread, will jump in your's Joe if ya don't mind?

PC issue - Asus Zenbook, about 3 years old, Win 10 on it
little while ago it started to random freeze
display stays on but unit is completely locked up
takes a hard boot to get going again

have frigged with drivers and OS reset - same thing
blew the SSD and put fresh windows on it - same thing
blew the SSD and out 2 different linux distros on it - same thing

so at this point it's looking like a hardware problem
some reading indicates possibly a bad memory module

anyone ever had that happen?
must have had > 20 systems over the years
never had a bad RAM chip before
 
didn't feel like starting anew thread, will jump in your's Joe if ya don't mind?

PC issue - Asus Zenbook, about 3 years old, Win 10 on it
little while ago it started to random freeze
display stays on but unit is completely locked up
takes a hard boot to get going again

have frigged with drivers and OS reset - same thing
blew the SSD and put fresh windows on it - same thing
blew the SSD and out 2 different linux distros on it - same thing

so at this point it's looking like a hardware problem
some reading indicates possibly a bad memory module

anyone ever had that happen?
must have had > 20 systems over the years
never had a bad RAM chip before
Reading the symptoms, my first guess was bad ram.
 
  • Like
Reactions: J_F
Have you tried pulling the RAM and resettling it into the slots?
 
Yup, I would say the same, bad RAM.

It is not often that they fail and you almost don't want to believe it when they do.

On a side note.
If anyone is looking for any refurbished/off lease computers/laptops, I know a really good place in Burlington. Really good prices compared to other places that resell off lease stuff.

Have purchased many units from them for my clients, and have never had any issue. Mohit is the guy I deal with and he is super nice.

Check out their inventory. It changes daily and almost hourly. They specialize in Lenovo stuff but have other brands as well.
(I recently missed out on a new Lenovo tablet with keyboard, it still had almost 2 years warranty left on it. Someone beat me to it :mad:)

Here is a link to their inventory.
BAUER SYSTEMS PRICE LIST
 
  • Like
Reactions: J_F
not yet
have ordered a set of mini torx to get the back off
thanks guys, kind of confirming what I've been reading
If they're the security ones, they have them at Princess Auto.
 
yeah it's looking like a RAM issue
ran a windows memtest - the one where it reboots
and runs the test in what looks like safe mode
so it's only running a bare bones VGA driver and no network or peripherals
POS locks up trying to do just that

also an exe utility that runs in windows: MemTest 64
same thing, locks up without completing
 
yeah it's looking like a RAM issue
ran a windows memtest - the one where it reboots
and runs the test in what looks like safe mode
so it's only running a bare bones VGA driver and no network or peripherals
POS locks up trying to do just that

also an exe utility that runs in windows: MemTest 64
same thing, locks up without completing
Hopefully the ram is removable. Bonus points if you have multiple removable dimms. Then you can pull one and retest, then swap to find the bad stick.
 
Hopefully the ram is removable. Bonus points if you have multiple removable dimms. Then you can pull one and retest, then swap to find the bad stick.

screwdriver set arrived

took the back off - RAM is integral to the MoBo :(
was able to re-create the freezing by flexing the board at the RAM chips

so I'm guessing a physical connection problem
rather than a bad chip problem

don't know what to do with this POS
it's 3 years old and been nothing but trouble - and it was not cheap
the 5 year old thinkpad just got a new battery and otherwise not a single issue
and it gas NOT lived an easy life
 

Back
Top Bottom