Using EXP GDC V8 for eGPU

Repairing Mechanical Switched Keyboard

My Black Widow Razer mechanical switched keyboard got a stuck B key.

I needed to press hard to register the B key.

I searched through the internet for ways to repair these mechanical switches.

Many of them require that we dismantle the switches and clean the parts with ethanol.

I tried to clean my B switch by immersing it with 95% surgical ethanol three times while pushing the switches vigorously.

It worked. No need to dismantle the switch.

It is a lesson to us how to repair mechanical switches. Membrane switches are different. Ethanol may dissolve the membrane.

FAX MODEMS FOR X200, T60, C700, W520

My house and office still have telephone land lines. They can be used to send faxes which are still useful because sometimes it is more convenient for them to receive faxes, although nowadays, we should be able to convince them to receive email photos of the documents, like CIMB bank CRU but they still haven't replied yet to my request to change my phone number.

FAX IS A REMOTE PRINTER

I spent a lot of time researching on ways to use the built-in fax modems in my laptops. I didn't realise that a lot of laptops have them. In fact, one of them actually was bought for my daughter but I didn't even know that it has a modem. It also didn't occur to me that modems mean fax modems until I research through the internet.

All of them can be turned into fax modems because Windows provides the fax handling. What is required is that phone socket which means that you have the device to handle modems which also behaves like a phone. It means that Windows have been a phone and fax machine all these while.

If you don't have the built-in modem, you can buy a USB modem adapter but that requires extra cost.

DIAL-UP FAX

Fax machines are printers which connect to other fax machines using dial-up telephone lines. Personal Computers are also fax machines but require printers to print messages.

If a PC or Mobile Phone does not have a printer, it can send images to fax machines to be printed by dialing up to the number of the fax machines. You do not need a web address to print remotely which makes it easy to send printed messages. However you cannot send data through fax machines although theoretically it can be done.

FAX SERVER

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fax_server

Any PC that has a dialer can be converted into a Fax Server which allows other PCs to send faxes to fax machines with printers. You just need to setup the PC so that it can share its modems.

You nned not just use LAN to connect to Fax Servers, you can also connect to Fax Servers using WAN (Wide Area Network).

https://faxzero.com/ provides free fax to be sent to US and Canada telephone numbers.

https://www.lifewire.com/free-fax-services-2378048 review a few free faxes.

https://www.efax.com.my/online-fax is a Fax Server located in Kuala Lumpur so it can send faxes to telephone numbers in Malaysia economically.

LENOVO X200

For the past few days I had been testing the builtin fax modems in the Thinkpad X200 notebook.

I had finally succeeded to dial out and  Windows fax can send a test page, but sure how it looks like at the other end. I tested using a UMS fax machine.

Driver

The secret is in installing the driver from Lenovo website:

 https://download.lenovo.com/eol/index.html

http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/6imb06ww.exe

This program is for Windows 7 but works for Windows 10 1909 even without using compatibility mode. Based on my testings with other notebooks, the default Win10 drivers should be useable. Just set them to not wait for dial tone.

This driver changes the default driver installed by Windows 10 automatically to a Lenovo Modem Adapter.

I am using a Unify telephone line and needs to change the driver to not wait for the dialing tone. Otherwise it won't dial because it is waiting for a valid dialing tone. Increase the speaker volume to maximum so that you can hear the dialing process. Right click the Thinkpad Modem Adapter, in the Device Manager, and select Properties.

Dialer

My success was partly due to the "dialer" program in Windows 10. I was able to test the dialing process although its function is just to call a number. It changes your PC into a telephone.

https://superuser.com/questions/294007/windows-7-software-to-do-voice-calls-over-modem-dialer-exe-doesnt-work-as-expe

Installing Dialer

Dialer is builtin but it does not appear in the menu, so need to search for it, using Windows Search.
Once you find it, right click and you can pin to the start or taskbar.

Selecting Modems

Before you dial, you need to select the correct modem first. Under Line Properties \  Advanced, tick the bringing up terminals so that we can monitor the messages from the modem. This modem is actually for W520, with its default HDA CX11270 Soft Modem.

Dialing rules

Dialing rules is actually from Phones and Modems in the Control Panel. Just enter its name and any area code number. No need to set the Area Code Rules. In this way we can enter any number we like when we dial. It is much easier than programming all the various dialing options.

HP/COMPAQ C700

Tested to work with the default Win10 driver. Just untick the wait for dialing tone.

LENOVO T60

Also worked with default modem, as well as a PCMCIA modem, using default WIN10 driver.

LENOVO W520

I confirmed that it worked by using the default Win10 driver. Just untick the "wait for dialing tone".

Onedrive is the best Cloud Storage

I had tried Google Drive, Dropbox and Sugarsync.

Dropbox is the most reliable but too little space.

Sugarsync used to be good but somehow I detected some unreliablilty.

I prefer Google drive and Onedrive because UMS supports both of them. We have virtually unlimited storage with them, I believe 1Terabyte.

Google drive does not offer as many featuers as Onedrive but it has one advantage over Onedrive in the UMS environment. Onedrive corporate does not allow us to share our files to the public., and worse, both Gdrive and Onedrive do not consider UMS students, as part of UMS, despite using UMS email addresses. This one weakness of Onedrive forced me to use Gdrive for courses.

For personal use, Onedrive is the best. It behaves like Mobile Phone cloud. It allows you to see the file names without storing the files. It also has the features to select which folders to be synced but not necessary when this space saving featuer is enabled. Just sync every folder and hard disk space usage is still low. I opened two Onedrive accounts.

With these two drive accounts, the amount of memory usage is still low compared to Gdrive that requires the same amount of RAM for each account. So, I just limit myself to just one account, despite not syncing any file on the local disk. Actually Gdrive always sync files that are not in folders, whereas Onedrive allows us to choose.

X200 with Windows 10

With Windows 10 you can install Office 2019. Windows 7 can only install Office 2016.
However, some devices do not work with Windows 10, whereas all devices function with Windows 7 with all drivers provided by Lenovo.

Disable Intel AMT so that the PCI to Serial device is gone from the device manager.

The SD card reader works perfectly. I did not install any driver at all. Windows 10 did everything. It installs it as a RICOH device, not as a generic SD card reader in the DELL E6420.

 

Fingerprint

The fingerpint works using using Windows 7 version downloaded from Lenovo archive of drivers at:
https://download.lenovo.com/eol/index.html

Run all Windows 7 version of drivers as administrator in Windows 7 compatibility mode. Some worked while others don't. We need to experiment all the time.

https://superuser.com/questions/995355/any-way-to-use-lenovo-fingerprint-manager-instead-of-windows-hello-on-windows-10

Follow the instruction mentioned in the above link. Do not use Windows 10 Hello to login. The Windows 7 fingerprint software creates another user for logging in using fingerprint.

System Update is Useless

System Update is extremely useful for Windows 7 drivers, unlike T60 which is unsupported. I installed them one by them so that I may know if there are problems.
https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/ds012808

 It turned out that one is having problems. It has to do with the way the mouse functions but when I installed the communication software, I was able to install all drivers. The communication software insists on installing the tablet button driver which cased problems when installed alone.

Upgrade

Notice that I use an Intel SSD pro 1500 180 GB drive and 8 GB RAM in dual channel mode.

Be careful when instaling the RAM. Only certain types will work so we need to experiment.

The Cheapest PC in Kota Kinabalu in 2020

For students who are desperate to get a personal computer to do their assignments, it is best that they save costs by buying second hand PC or laptop rather than buying a new one.

You can get the following laptops at Nova Jaya Computer Sdn. Bhd at University Plaza:

https://g.page/NovaJayaKotaKinabalu?share

The actual price is actually much lower than this because it includes software installation, trial software but useable. You can get discounts also. Also not mentioned are free gifts that is worth RM50.

I just don't understand how they make money like this because in Ebay, the transportation cost from places that have lots of this type of laptops is already US$70.

These laptops or tablet PCs in the above pictures, are business class personal computers which means that they are stronger and more reliable than cheap computers. In 2020 they are still fast enough even without SSD.

I bought the X200 because it is the most value for money and upgradeable. Its RAM can be upgraded to 8 Gbyte using DDR3. I also like Lenovo keyboards. They are slightly better than other keyboards because of their larger travel allowing more responsive touch typing, but other laptops are only slightly worse so most people will not notice the difference.

These tablet PCs also come with pens which can cost more than RM100 if bought separately. Not easy to find them separately because there are so many types that most are incompatible with each other. I had a Tablet Windows 10 with a stylus but it was damaged. I used it for lectures before it was damaged. It cost me more than RM1,200.

The problem with these old PCs are due to lack of support. After more than 10 years, manufacturers such as Lenovo, HP and Dell no longer support them and so difficult to find the latest drivers, so it requires a lot of effort to make them fully 100% useable. The technicians at any computer shop will not have the time to research for all drivers. It took me days to experiment with various options, which I shall share so that others can benefit from them.

Dell Latitude E6420 in Windows 10 1909

Because I had problems with my Windows 7 64 bit for Dell E6420, when it cannot run the test in 2D VWT of the MicroCFD, I upgraded to Windows 10. All devices have drivers but fingerprint and memory card reader didn't work. Also didn't work as expected. When I reset by preserving user data, VWT worked perfectly.

Fingerprint

I finally managed to get the fingerprint to work by using repeating the steps to setup fingerprint in Windows 7. I forgot how to do exactly but the resulting installed programs are as shown below.

I used Windows 7 compatibility mode as an administrator.

The order of installation in https://www.dell.com/support/article/en-my/sln297969/dell-latitude-e6420-windows-10-driver-installation-guide?lang=en#Intel_Chipset_Software_Installation_Utility,
does not seem to work.

Probably because I didn't uninstall the previously installed drivers.

Memory Card Reader

The driver for O2 Micro OZ777xxx/OZ621XX

At https://www.dell.com/support/home/my/en/mybsd1/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=74m75


The above driver appeared to be able to read but not write. This is despite it showing a mass storage missing driver. The card reader worked perfectly using Windows 7.

The driver for OZ600 recommended for E6420 didn't function despite showing no error in the device manager.

https://www.tenforums.com/drivers-hardware/104113-working-o2micro-card-reader-driver-dell-latitude-e6530.html

Galane

Posts : 152 Windows 10 Thread Starter

   17 Feb 2018 #5

I manually installed the SDA Standard Compliant SD Host Controller driver and it works, up to at least a 32 gig. Microsoft's OSMicro driver *does not work properly* with the controller in a Latitude E6530, despite auto detection insisting that is the *best driver* for it.

This is my final solution despite it being limited to only 32 GB and still cannot write.

It is possible that my memory card reader is damaged. The memory card itself is good because I had tested it. The reader used to work perfectly well under Windows 7 Pro, Dell version.

Change RAID to AHCI in Windows 7

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-hardware/changing-from-raid-to-ahci/4c94f678-6bd1-48a6-b871-8872c841023a
{

OB

O. Bilal [MSFT]

Hi Thomas,
Thank you for your post.
I believe I have the solution to your problem and I verified it against a Dell machine that has similar controller with your machine. Changing from AHCI to RAID,http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976 fix will work.
Changing from RAID to AHCI, you need one more step. Msahci driver requires Atapi.sys miniport to be loaded during boot as well. So you need to change theStart value to 0 for both of the following entries in your registry. You can use regedit.exe utility.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\msahci
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi
Or you can also simply run the below command lines in an elevated window.
REG ADD HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\msahci /v Start /d 0 /f /t REG_DWORD
REG ADD HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi /v Start /d 0 /f /t REG_DWORD

Regards

 }

 I tried the above and worked. Just these two values.

For more detailed instruction, follow the given link  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

 To resolve this issue, enable the AHCI driver in the registry before you change the SATA mode of the boot drive. To do this, follow these steps, but no need to do the IastorV: 

1. Exit all Windows-based programs.
2. Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
3. If you receive the User Account Control dialog box, click Continue.
4. Locate and then click one of the following registry subkeys:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\IastorV
5. In the pane on the right side, right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify.
6. In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
7. On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor.

You must change the boot mode using your BIOS setup.
In Dell E6420, press KEY F12.

I noticed that AHCI is faster in writing than RAID using USERBENCHMARK.


AHCI with Intel drivers:

Read 397 Write 360 Mixed 320 SusWrite 136 68% 304 MB/s

4K Read 21.8 4K Write 29.1 4K Mixed 23.5 79% 24.8 MB/s

DQ Read 281 DQ Write 236 DQ Mixed 25.7 83% 181 MB/s

 AHCI with Microsoft drivers:

Read 284 Write 367 Mixed 314 SusWrite 130 62% 274 MB/s

4K Read 20.7 4K Write 58.3 4K Mixed 27.5 98% 35.5 MB/s

DQ Read 255 DQ Write 198 DQ Mixed 39.6 80% 164 MB/s

 RAID:

Read 377 Write 341 Mixed 292 SusWrite 141 64% 288 MB/s

4K Read 20.4 4K Write 28.8 4K Mixed 22.3 75% 23.8 MB/s

DQ Read 286 DQ Write 245 DQ Mixed 164 151% 232 MB/s