The other day I received and email about a broken intercom system at Southwest Elementary.  I was curious about this system because in the email was a picture of the system which made it appear to be an old early pentium or perhaps 486 based PC.

As you can see from the photo the device is clearly in a PC chasis but is it a PC?

On site taking a closer look it appears that the system is somewhat of a hybrid.  It uses a standard PC power supply although BIOS is customized to run through on board modules and the program is run by ROM chips attached to a circuit board powered by a molex connector instead of a traditional hard drive.  Probably a good idea that this machine does not use a hard drive since with being powered on almost 24/7 this part would have failed much earlier.

Inside the machine are a series of peripheral expansion cards ISA slots – a quick look at the board confirms this machine to be running an386 or i486 with ISA expansion ports.  (I remember my first soundblaster card used the 8 bit ISA slot and my second computer 486 used the ISA 16 with a Soundblaster Pro 16.

On the site I could here a Pop sound from the power supply when it was attempted to power-on, on closer inspection I could see a blown capacitator inside.  Considering the machine has been running for years not stop without a break I am not surprised this old 250 watt power supply finally died.

Luckily I store lots and lots of parts at the High School and simply swapped out this part with a newer 350 Watt P4 power supply (obviously not using the P4 extension) and connected it to the motherboard and to one circuit board via a molex connector – and wha laaa the machine came to life and is working.

This is a picture of the old power supply – standard ATX 250 watt power supply.

Replaced it with a ATX 20 pin + 4 pin 350 watt supply (leaving the extra 4 pin not attached)

Here is shot of the back where the custom extension ISA peripherals attach at the back.  Not really much of a point to this entry other than I still find myself fascinated by the endless combination of PC components used in any number of devices.  Since my first computer was a 286 12 mhz machine with 512 kb of ram (yes half of 1 mb) I like it when I encounter legacy hardware that still works great.

Recently I came across a Lenov0 Y710 gaming version laptop with a broken keyboard. A quick look at the machine and I could see that this keyboard was held in place by 4 screws and a by some clips. Unlike other IBM thinkpad and Lenovo models this model(Y710) and the (Y510) do not have replacement keyboard parts available for purchase. The approved way to have this keyboard replaced is to send it to Lenova who will replace it for around 150-170$.

Looking at similar Lenovo models it turns out that although they don’t officially sell this replacement keyboard – another Lenovo keyboard is identical and works great.

To replace this keyboard look for a keyboard with a part number 39T7417.  Strangely if ask Lenovo they state that this keyboard is not compatible – when in reality it is identical and works great.

I found this part from laptopexperts.com and from buy.com http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=212000765&listingid=51020421

Order Details:
————————————————————————
Quantity: 1
Item: Laptop Keyboard
(39T7417)
Unit Price: $35.10
Total Price: $35.10
————————————————————————
sub total: $35.10
shipping: $12.24
————————————————————————
total: $47.34

As you can see from my order receipt that 47.34 looks a lot better than 150-170$ from Lenovo, plus you don’t have to ship anything in and do not have to wait 2 weeks.

Keyboard is a perfect match.

Recently, actually very recently as in last night and today I noticed that the DNS servers for my home service provider were down(ISP Mediacom).  Mediacom does a good job with internet service in this area but they have had a little trouble from time to time.   After a couple of quick network tests I determined that the problem is with my ISP’s DNS servers.  This is not the first time I have noticed that their DNS servers have been comprimised so I decided to look for an alternative solution.  For most users simply wait and your ISP will promptly fix this issues but for those of you who are a little more hyper like myself and want a fix that will work without calling tech support, read on.

First off for those reading this who are not familiar with the functions of a DNS server (Domain Name Servers) here it is in a nutshell.

Computers like numbers and not names, therefore when you tell your computer to visit www.yahoo.com a DNS server translates this name into a number (IP Address) which your computer likes.

Okay so maybe I overly simplified a bit but this at least gives the basic premise.

So if you can visit Yahoo by clicking on this  http://www.yahoo.com then your DNS servers are working perfectly.

If you cannot visit Yahoo by the using a domain name but can visit by using this link http://69.147.114.224 then you have a DNS issue.

Google now offers free dns servers that work regardless of you ISP (in most cases) and are fast and efficient.  Also they are easy to remember

Google Free DNS Servers

8.8.8.8

8.8.4.4

To fix a pesky home internet connection or for another useful tool to help troubleshoot overall Network (Specifically DNS server issues) it is nice to have these free servers available.

If you suspect that you may have trouble with DNS, simply edit your Network Configuration leaving DHCP intact but clicking the box to fill out manually DNS servers.

Here is how it may look on a windows machine:

Or better yet simply change your DNS settings on your home wireless router and all computer connecting to it will use the new DNS server.

Look for the WAN connection under your wireless routers setup utility.

If you are a network administrator and maintain your own DNS and DHCP services, having google’s DNS servers listed as a secondary or even thrid option in DHCP is also a good way to provide a little extra if something ever goes amiss.

Here in the district we host our own webserver, an mysql database running websites.  Many of the sites I use Wordpress as a basic template since only a few staff members are interested in coding a site from scratch .  In 3 short years of using this code I am impressed with the size and diversity of plugins, add-on’s, themes, etc most of which are available free.  Here is a free plugin that I came across awhile back that work great, does not require any membership or outside service, and work with the latest version of wordpress 2.9.1.

This plugin is easy to use, efficient and effective.

Plugin is called  Quizzin (http://www.bin-co.com/tools/wordpress/plugins/quizzin/).

Quizzin can be added directly to your wordpress installation by clicking on Plugins, search for Quizzin and then click Add New, then search for Quizzin, and click Install and Activate.

From the admin Console you can now easily create and insert a quiz directly into your website – free, fully functional and fully contained within the code of the website.

To use this plugin simply login to the admin portion of your wordpress site and then click on Tools – look for Create or Manage Quiz.

Now click on Create New Quiz to get started.

Once you have a Quiz Created you can Now click on Manage Questions to start creating the quiz.  Easy and functional.  Using the editor you can easily create and add questions.

Here is a short 3 question quiz using the plugin.

With the Quiz ready I simply add the code ["QUIZZIN 1"] without the quotes and the quiz is automatically inserted into the post or page.

If you like this pluggin you may also like another plugin by this same author called Surveys – very similar to Quizzin.

Surveys can be found here http://www.bin-co.com/tools/wordpress/plugins/surveys/ .

Often I get emails in regards to file format issues.  A user downloads a FLV file and wants to import this into a Movie project and needs it in .mov or .mpg format.  Another frequent request is to convert a wps (Microsoft Works format)  or wpd (Word Perfect Document) and needs this to open in Mac Office 2004 or 2008.

For most conversions of this nature the online site www.zamzar.com works great.

With Zamzar you simply upload a file then choose which format you want it to convert it to.  Add you email address and click on Convert – wait a few minutes and you will be emailed with a link to the converted file.

Zamzar works well and comes with only a few restrictions.

Here is a feature list set,  for me the free version is more than adequate.  My only complaint with the service is annoying audio pop-up adds that come from time to time.

I discovered a recent bug with 10.6.2 Snow Leopard in which the iPhoto Library folder is not correctly synced at login and logout.  This annoying issue leaves each user with a prompt to decide if they should keep the network copy or the local copy of the iPhoto library even though neither has changed.  This results in duplicate iPhoto Libraries being created as each user logs in and out – Since most users chose keep both copies the iPhoto library is duplicated.

You can see that this quickly can be a problem with our 2000+ users syncing to an Xserve Raid duplicating the iPhoto library over and over is unacceptable.  A quick search through the apple forums shows that this issue has been acknowledged although no fix is yet available.

Here is my fix using Terminal and ARD.  The key to this fix is using the nifty unix command of find.

To clear up the sync issues it is necessary to run the equivalent of this command on both the end machines and the server which house the mobile home directories.

On the server end run this command as root.

sudo find /path to user home directories -name “iPhoto Library-”* -exec rm -r {} \;

This command will search for each instance of a directory called iPhoto Library-, notice the – sign with this in place this command will not delete the users original iPhoto Library but will instead only delete each synced duplicate – this is because they are in the name format of /Users/user/Pictures/iPhoto Library-local-local-network or something similar.

This is the command I ran on the server which houses half of all mobile home directories.

To clear up the duplicates on all of the client machines it is necessary to run an identical command on all machines.  The easiest way I found to do this was to use ARD and use the UNIX command

Here selecting all user workstations I run as user ROOT the same command starting the find command in the Users directory.

Here are the command results, if you look through them you will see that it says error /users/user/iPhoto Library-local-local does not exists – this is because the command was successful and that it deleted all traces of the duplicated iPhoto Library.

I hope this temporary fix may help others since Apple can be slow at time to release fix similar issues.  If this issue becomes frequent I will followup with a command to alter the permissions on the iPhoto Library file and to examine the sync preferences to determine where this problem first arises.  For now I plan to run these commands as necessary and await an official fix from Apple.

I

The early ASUS Eeepc 900 Series machines run noticeably better with the latest BIOS update.  Better battery performance, lower heat on the unit, better overall system stability.  Changing the BIOS can be tricky on these machines if you have installed Windows Vista, Windows 7 or even XP Pro as you need to install the ACPI driver before you can use the automated BIOS updated. I had lots of trouble locating the ACPI driver that worked on this model so I decided to post it on the web.

ACPI Driver for EEEPC 900 (Zip File)

To use this driver for Windows Vista and Windows 7 you will need to change the setup program to compatibility mode of Windows XP SP3 or SP2.

ASUS BIOS Update Utility EEEPC 900 Series (Zip File)

This update utility will also work in Windows Vista and Windows 7 but you will need to run this also in compatibility mode XP SP3 or SP2.

I have run across this issue from time to time when removing spyware and viruses off of a windows XP machine.  In the past I have been so frustrated at this problem that I ended up reformatting and installing an OS.  The good news is that this problem is now easily fixable with free tools available online.  First off this problem is typically caused by malicious software altering a specific registry key.  This Registry key is

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

Under this there is an entry for Userinit

What typically happens is that although the virus software has removed the offending software this value is left set at

Userinit = C:\Windows\System32\Winlogon82.exe  (or some other virus)

This value needs to be set to

Userinit = C:\Windows\System32\userinit.exe

The tricky part now becomes how do you adjust the registry of a windows machine that will not allow me to login even in safe mode.  There is where the Offline NT password and Registry editor becomes useful – visit http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/ and download and burn the a CD boot image of this product (or floppy boot image if you have an old school machine).

Or you can download directly from here below – T his is a Zip file of the ISO.

Offline NT Password and Registry Editor Version 080802.zip

This version allows you to view and change the registry from a command line – simply navigate to the affected key and then change with the value listed above and the problem is fixed.

On our district website http://www.dist228.org we have online calendars used for a variety of purposes.  Each School has their own calendar which contains events for the school year and every computer lab & mobile lab also have online calendars used to sign up and reserve the resource.  To implement this we use PHP scripting based on that of Calendarix (http://www.calendarix.com/index.php) .  These calendars are simple, functional and straightforward and are easily customizable as the code is done primarily in PHP.  Unlike many other web calendar services – this product gives complete freedom to customize anything since you can easily just manipulate the PHP scripts.  Calendarix has two versions available, one is the free basic calendar and the other is the advanced version which adds more PHP scripts enabling some nice added features – one such feature exporting to ICS and VCAL formats.

One great thing about PHP code is that it does a good job of embedding a website within a website.   For Example with Calendarix a mini version of each calendar is available which appears as small website.  Using the following PHP code you can insert this mini website into an existing website creating a nice mini calendar widget.

<?php
echo”<base href=http://www.dist228.org/calendars/ms/smallcal2.php>”;
?>
<?php
$remote = fopen(“http://www.dist228.org/calendars/ms/smallcal2.php?op=smallcal&date=2009-12-01&catview=0″, “r”);
fpassthru($remote);
?>

In addition to embedding the website using this PHP code I also modified the smallcal.php script removing the control options.  I did this because this widgetized version of the calendar will not keep its links embedded in the windows so it gives an overall cleaner look removing this mini control panel.\

This screen shot shows the mini calendar embedded using the original smallcal.php script with the control panel below the calendar.  I modified this script to exclude these options since CLOSE does not really make since in with an embedded webpage like this.

Here is finished product using embedded webcalendar fully working with control panel at the bottom.

Another nice feature of Calendarix is the ability to export an event or events into ICAL.

To do this only a few modifications are necessary of the Calendarix code.  If using the Advanced version this can be accomplished by just changing a couple of preferences in the Admin Control Panel.

To settings need to be changed under the GENERAL Settings tab of the admin screen.

The first setting is the number of events of recent events.  This is set to default to 10 events, this is not really that helpful because then the max number of events the can be batch exported to ICAL is 10.  Here i set this number to 400 but you could really set this to 1000.  The idea being that this way when you export you get all events for the entire year from this date forward.

The other item I changed is the default EXPORT format from VCAL to ICAL – I have found the ICS format works better with ICAL and with Microsoft Outlook.

This topic has little to do with Computers but was a fun project I did last weekend.  My wife informed me that our GE-XL44 Range oven was not turning on and therefore it was my responsibility to cook until it was fixed.  After fiddling with the oven for a while I could indeed confirm that only the broiler function worked and that the oven function had no response.  I have zero experience with a gas oven so I decided to take it apart and look for a problem.  With the bottom of the oven exposed (removed 2 screws) you can see that the oven operates very similar to a gas grill with an electric ignition.  Instead of using a spark to light the cause the oven has a glowing stick ignitor that lights up when the oven is turned on.  (Ignition piece is quite fragile)

Here is a picture of the oven with the bottom covering removed along with the heat shield.

Towards the back of the oven along the tube where the gas comes out you can see the ignition system.

I attempted to start the oven with it in this condition to see if the ignition glow stick appears to work.  Sure enough unlike the Broiler ignition stick that immediately glows orange this one stayed a dull grey.  Looking under the oven by removing the bottom drawer you can see that this igntor only has two leads to it and the gas traces back to a central gas valve.  Since the broiler is still working as are the top gas burners I made the guess that this valve is okay.  It appears that if the ignitor goes bad there is a built in safety mechanism stopping the flow of gas coming into the oven (makes sense).
I went to the repairclinic.com and ordered the replacement ignitor for around 70$.  I could not find an exact match for my model number so instead looked for the identical part based on the photograph.  Here is the part I ordered http://www.repairclinic.com/SSPartDetail.aspx?s=b3a13i1990&PartID=1990

Here is the part that arrived from the repair clinic.  Swapping out the ignitor can be a little tricky since there is little to no room to remove the screws.  I removed the hex shaped screws by using the a wrench socket with no handle attached (had a old set of auto sockets).  This took a little finger muscle to remove but did come out okay, there are only two screws that attach the ignitor.

I attached the lead wires to the ignitor after dropping them down the hole in the back of the oven.  It does not appear to matter which way you wire the wires as this device is really quite simple.

Success with the new ignitor the oven immediately fires on and you can hear the gas flowing.  Repair takes about 30 minutes to an hour and is relatively quite easy.