Organize by Reusing Containers

Here's another Fixit Fundamental. You can reuse (hoard?) containers to help you fix other stuff. So you're repurposing some things while helping you do a better job of keeping other stuff out of the landfill. Wild!

I always seem to have several repair projects going at once. These things take time, so as I take a break from one thing I start up on something new, or continue with another project. But always there's little nuts and bolts and pieces and whatnot that I invariably lose.

You can reuse any of the following containers and more, one per project, to contain those bits and pieces. Label the container with tape and a sharpie as to what project's parts are contained within:

• Plastic yogurt container with lid (some brands have lids; large or small)
• Plastic salsa container with lid
• Illy espresso tin with plastic lining and screw top lid (yummy coffee too)
• Steel coffee can with plastic lid (I also like Lavazza espresso but anyway...)
  
• Large plastic pickle jar
• Prescription medication container
• I'm sure you can think of more...
  

Ok, sure, much of this stuff you'd recycle, but re-purposing is probably even better, right? Especially if it helps you keep track of several simultaneous repair projects.

Mostly what I look for is any container that has a lid that stands a reasonable chance of staying on even if bumped or dropped. Doesn't really matter to me if it is metal or plastic. The other thing is I try to hoard anything I use regularly like yogurt or salsa containers. Hope this helps you organize your repairs!

Squeezing more life out of that PC

I say you can get up to 10 years of useful life out of a computer!

I know. You think I'm nuts. Or a luddite. A 30+ year computer geek regularly using a Mac G4 450MHz tower and a Compaq 1.5GHz Pentium 4 tower in the year 2009?!

They still work for me because, with a few techniques, you can squeeze 5-10 years of real, genuine usefulness out of a computer, and another 5 years of limited duty use before all the thing is good for is recycling or reuse.

The most important technique is to resist the urge to upgrade just to have the latest, greatest. I think it's more cool to squeeze life out of a computer than to get the latest, greatest. It's definitely cheaper and less wasteful.

In the interests of full disclosure :) I do have a 2.2GHz duo-core MacBook as my main computer but I also plan to keep it another several years. The iBook G3/800 that preceded it lasted me 6 years before it broke.

The Mac G4

I got the G4 in 1999, factory refurbished to save a little money, and it has been an excellent machine. (picture from http://www.adoptamac.com/ where you can buy these older Macs)

It holds all my music, many photos, and lots of other data on an external 300G drive. I've used it for web development, iPod updating, productivity, web surfing, movie editing, picture editing, and lots of other stuff I've forgotten.

What works and what doesn't

It is running an older Mac OS X operating system, Panther (10.4), iLife, the latest iTunes, the latest version of Firefox, an older Photoshop 7, Microsoft Office for Mac, and other stuff. Most of this stuff works fairly well.

Firefox is starting to get pretty slow, particularly client side code (AJAX). OpenOffice 3 is very nearly unusable because it takes SO long to load. Ripping CDs takes forever and with USB version 1, photo loads off the camera take a long time, too.

Software

Sometimes if you can get away with older software, like my old Microsoft Office X, it will continue to run fairly well. Sometimes it is unavoidable. If you're a gamer, none of this applies, obviously, because you always have to have the very latest, fastest machine to run the latest, best games. Even if you surf the web, having the latest feature-rich browser can really tax your old computer. Some browsers are more efficient than others. Firefox tends to be a bit of a pig where Safari is less so. I haven't played with Opera in awhile but when I first used it I remember it being quite zippy.

Memory
The main key to the life I've gotten out of this machine is memory upgrade. Once I upgraded to 768M of memory, it worked pretty well until probably 2007 -- 8 years. But the memory is speed limited, too. It would probably work a little faster loading larger software images like OpenOffice and Firefox if I maxed out the memory.

CPU

But it is still very CPU bound as evidenced by CD imports. For this, it may be worth trying to find a used Sonnet (or similar) accelerator card on that famous auction site. Even upgrading to 800MHz might help a little, but the computer's bus is still stuck at a slow speed and there's nothing you can do about that.

Other Hardware

I finally got around to installing a CD-R in the machine, something I'd been wanting for a long time so I could burn my music, photos, etc. I got a used one off of that auction site for something like $20 shipped.

If you play some older games and find the video card lacking, you could upgrade that too.

And it is possible to find USB 2 cards for the machine. I would suggest buying older, used versions of this hardware to keep costs down.

For any Mac you might want to check this website for tips on getting more life out of the machine: http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/
Operating System

You might consider installing a different, somewhat more efficient operating system, particularly YellowDog Linux. You can select what packages are or aren't installed. You can even choose to disable the graphical interface.

Mind you, I'm not saying ot use an outdated operating system that is no longer supported with security patches. That is a recipe for disaster. I am saying to use a modern operating system that is more efficient.

Narrow Purpose

Once you get to a point where the system is really unable to do much of anything, you might find a very narrow use for it. For example, I could turn my G4 into a music server so that it's only purpose is to deliver music to my stereo. Or, if I ever get around to building that homebrew CNC machine, it could be used to run the control software. Or perhaps I could turn it into a firewall or a wireless access point.

The Pentium 4

I got this computer for $5 at a yard sale. It's a Compaq Presario 5000, 1.5GHz P4. It had 256MB of memory and came with XP. I loaded it up with OpenOffice, Firefox, IE8, and few other goodies.

Memory

All of this worked pretty slowly. Until I added 512MB of memory for a total cost of $26 shipped. Now it is tolerably fast running all the above software. I'm also using it to run LTspice, which is software for designing and simulating electronic circuits. This software is pretty lightweight and speedy.

I used to use the Pentium III as a software development station for one of my robots so I will transfer that software to the new machine. If I go back to managing my GeoCaching hobby on Windows, I'll transfer the data from my Pentium III and reinstall the necessary software.

I anticipate this machine will be pretty useful for some time to come.

CPU

Unlike a Mac, with a PC, options are a bit more open for upgrades. I can upgrade the motherboard and CPU. I'd tend to want to buy used because I could get a motherboard that's a few years old much cheaper than a new one.

Other Hardware

Video card upgrades are easy enough as well but I've pretty much given up playing new games and I think this system will do fine running my older games should I ever bother to load them up again.

Operating System

If it comes down to it, I may end up loading Linux or one of the BSD variants. But right now I am running some Windows specific software so XP does the trick. I wouldn't even consider Vista on any but the newest systems due to its tremendous CPU and memory requirements.

Reaching the End

At some point, you just have to throw in the towel and admit that your machine is fundamentally too slow and no amount of upgrades or leaner software will help. Throwing more money at it doesn't make sense.

When you finally reach the real end of usefulness for the computer, now what? For example, this Pentium III is just too slow to tolerate. I could load Linux but I don't really have any genuine use for it. I will look into recycling or else I will donate it. I don't have any info or experience recycling computers yet but I'll do an article on this when I learn more.

I used to have three Mac PowerMac 7500s with YellowDog Linux and really all they did was run Seti@Home. Slowly. :) (Pictured is a PowerMac 7200, image from www.forevermac.com) I had upgraded the CPU daughter cards in each one from a somewhat newer PowerMac.

One of them was a file server and one was a print server. It was tough finding decent sized SCSI disks, so the file server thing didn't work too well. Finally, I didn't really need file or print servers anymore, so I donated one to an art gallery after loading it with some older graphics editing / publishing software. The other two went to Goodwill in hopes someone would be able to do something with them.

Meanwhile I still have my rugged old IBM Thinkpad 760EL (133MHz Pentium II MMX, picture from thinkwiki.org) that I bought over 10 years ago--it was already obsolete at the time. I originally bought it as an information security laptop.

All I needed was command line Linux so I loaded RedHat 7 and some security tools and after upgrading it to 48M of ram (!) it was a useful little tool for several years and it performed fine.

It also has a Windows 95 disk (you can easily swap drives on this model) and now the only use it sees is to run an old version of GPS navigation software connected to a Lowrance GPS of 1997 vintage. It's such a solidly built machine I think it's perfect to ride in a Jeep but it's not terribly useful for much else.

You can always convert your machine for another purpose, too, like the ol' Mac Aquarium.

Update, 2012

I finally retired the G4 from active duty, upgraded the MacBook hard drive and transferred all my songs and pictures over to it.

The P4 is also out to pasture, replaced by a used Dell Optiplex GX520 which runs a dual core 2.8GHz Pentium D, a decent speed upgrade at a reasonably low cost (not as low as the $5 yard sale P4).

We just traded out my wife's MacBook for a newer model that could run OSX Lion a year ago. Now that Mountain Lion is out, my MacBook is unsupported and hers may be as well. I never did update to Lion so I now have to call Apple support to do that so I can at least use iCloud on my phone.

I suppose with these old computers, it's always a game of balancing cost of upgrades with modern feature support, speed, etc. It's really difficult not to fill the landfills with e-waste. Our technology economy pretty much rewards doing so.

Laptop LCD Screen Repair

You can get more use out of a laptop with a broken LCD. Here's how.

I recently got an old, broken laptop from a nice fellow off of Craigslist. Fortunately he'd just kept it around instead of throwing it away (too many toxins in electronics equipment to do that!)

The machine was in good shape, save for a broken LCD screen. Fortunately, this is a pretty easy fix. New LCD screens can be found on eBay for around $60 and on the web for a little over $100. (Seems to me this fix could remedy a broken desktop monitor's LCD screen, too.)

So, before we dive in, you may wonder: is it worth fixing a 5-10 year old PC? I say YES! I find that you can squeeze quite a bit of extra life out of your old PC or Mac, depending on how you use it. And that's a topic for a later blog post. Back to fixing...

Removing the Screen

Here's a quick overview of the repair and some important lessons learned. I went through some pain fixing this thing, so hopefully you can learn from my mistakes.

First of all, removing the screen is a question of removing the laptop's screen bezel, disconnecting the outer casing from the frame, and then removing the LCD from the frame.

On this particular model, an HP Pavillion ZE4900, two stickers and two small rubber bumpers cover screws that hold the bezel to the screen frame (see pic).

The Dell Lattitude D630 I use for work is similar. My older iBook has frame screws on the side of the housing (see picture).

On the HP and Mac, the screen frame consists of two vertical metal channels, one on each side of the screen. The LCD is screwed to the frame on the side at the four corners, but to get to those screws on the side, you have to remove four other screws that hold the frame to the outer casing.

Finding the Right Replacement Screen

For me the big challenge was finding the right LCD screen replacement part. The original was an LG Philips LP150x08(A5)(N1). I had hoped one could cross reference other manufacturer's part numbers and find an equivalent replacement, but I wasn't able to find a cross reference database.

Finding an exact replacement with the exact same OEM part number ensures a hassle free fix, but you may have to way awhile to find the part on that famous auction site, or you may have to pay more to get exactly what you want.

I suppose it is possible that you can get away with a similar model number. In this case, for example, maybe an LP150x08(A3) or LP150x08(TL)(A2) would've worked. I have no idea.

On the other hand, finding an equivalent may mean you end up buying one or more parts that don't fit. You can resell them, as I did with the WXGA screen, but you may end up being money ahead just getting an OEM replacement. However, if you feel like going through the effort of finding an equivalent replacement part, here are some tips that I learned the hard way!

Screen Dimensions and Resolution
Of course the most important thing is to ensure you get the right physical dimensions and screen resolution. A blog entry on icustompc.com explains the different types:

Standard	Resolution			Typical Use
XGA (Extended Graphics Array)	1024×768			[some 13- and 14-inch and most] 15- and 17-inch LCD monitors
SXGA (Super XGA)	1280×1024			15- and 17-inch CRT monitors 17-and 19-inch LCD monitors
UXGA (Ultra XGA)	1600×1200			19-, 20-, 21-inch CRT monitors 20-inch LCD monitors
QXGA (Quad XGA)	2048×1536			21-inch and larger CRT monitors
WXGA (Wide XGA)	1280×800			Wide aspect 15.4-inch laptops LCD displays
WSXGA+ (Wide SXGA plus)	1680×1050			Wide aspect 20-inch LCD monitors
WUXGA (Wide Ultra XGA)	1920×1200			Wide aspect 22-inch and larger LCD monitors

XGA is typically what you'd find on old school standard aspect ratio screens in 13-, 14-, and 15-inch sizes, like you'd find on original Mac iBooks or this 1.5GHz Celeron Pavillion, or a Thinkpad T42, or other computers of this era.

I mistakenly bought a WXGA screen because the seller claimed it was for a ZE4900 laptop. It wasn't. I needed an XGA. Oops. Don't do that.


In some cases, the video card on your laptop may support a higher screen resolution than the OEM screen can deliver. For example, the Pavillion was perfectly happy driving the WXGA screen above, though it obviously didn't fit, physically.

Thickness and screw hole spacing is critical, too. You could try to find datasheets for other models and verify that the thickness and screw hole spacing is the same as what you have. I didn't have a lot of luck finding datasheets for LCD screens except for a pretty big collection of LCD datasheets here at beyondinfinite.com. Hope that helps in your search.

Connectors
Also make sure the connectors are the same. Count the number of pins and look at the original connector socket on the screen to be sure.



The screen I replaced had 30 pins as pictured above, but I mistakenly got another screen that only had 20 pins, pictured below. Oops. Don't do that, either.

I did find a website that sells various inexpensive adapters between different LCD screen connectors. So this is one option if you find a screen that fits physically but uses a different connector than OEM.

As far as I can tell almost all of these screens use the same power connector to deliver power from the inverter, a long, narrow printed circuit board mounted below the screen on the frame, which powers the cold cathode fluorescent lamp backlight for the LCD screen.

Installation

As all the technical manuals say, installation is the reverse of removal. :) You might want to test everything before you fully reinstall. And that's all there is to it. A nice simple, inexpensive fix.

Sure beats spending hundreds on a new laptop and you save another piece of useful electronics form the trash (not that you'd throw it away, would you?) while getting the most out of the energy spent to build the computer in the first place.