HP HDX16 won’t boot; blinking lights (NK133AV)

I got in an HP HDX16 laptop from a customer that wouldn’t turn on at all. The hard drive light would blink orange and the CAPS LOCK and NUM LOCK lights would continually flash. (It would do that for a few seconds, turn off, then stay on with the blinking lights continually actually.) Removing the hard drive, DVD drive and RAM didn’t help. I took out the hard drive and successfully copied over 100GB of data, so that wasn’t the problem.

With the help of a laptop repair expert, we determined that the motherboard was destroyed by heat an electrical problem confined to an area about 3 inches square. (Upon further inspection by another electrician, he thinks this was an electrical malfunction of some sort. Both guys that looked at it thought the board had been fixed in some way, probably at the factory before it was sold to the end user.) In the picture below (click on it to see a high quality picture), you’ll see burn marks on the board and some of the chips are actually off center from getting too hot and moving (PQ15, PQ14,PQ11 as marked on the board):

The motherboard is HP 519592-001, which as of today is easily found on eBay for under $200.  In this case, the power jack was not working well and adding the cost of the repair itself, the customer elected not to repair it (wisely). A big concern to me is how it got too hot in the first place. I would imagine that the same thing would just happen again.

Please comment if you’ve had this problem, as I didn’t find much in my own searches prior to writing this.

2012 Toyota Camry dash noises, rattles

My 2012 (2013 will surely be affected) Toyota Camry Hybrid XLE is so noisy with rattles and clunks inside. (For the roof clunk problem, view this post.) The most annoying rattling comes from the glovebox, near the keyhole. If I push on the keyhole, the noise stops. However, sometimes it will rattle above the clock/radio area and sometimes near the drivers side.

Here is a video with the noise at it’s worst:

Please comment if you have similar problems and ESPECIALLY if a dealer is able to fix it or if you fix it yourself.

I took my car in about 5 times to work on this rattle and it only got worse after each visit. Because of this and the roof issue, I got rid of the car.

Toyota Camry Hybrid tire recommendations

I have a 2012 Toyota Camry Hybrid XLE with 215/55R17 tires that sadly needed to be replaced after 16,000 miles. It came with total garbage on the wheels: Bridgestone Turanza EL400. I did an alignment at 11,000 and rotation at 5,10,15K.

I had a hard time finding good information, so I’m hoping this can be THE place for Camry owners to discuss it. I really wanted to learn about MPG experience with different tires, but reviews I read from actual Camry owners just weren’t very helpful. Consumer Reports has three tires that they have rated as Excellent in the Rolling Resistance category and in the top half of their tire type:

  • Michelin Primary MXV4 (H-rated)
  • Dunlop SP Sport 7000 A/S (H-rated)
  • Michelin Energy Saver A/S

Reading online reviews at tirerack.com and consumerreports.com, the MXV4-H seemed to be the best. (The MXV-4 V-rated is more expensive and has more rolling resistance and wears faster.) I bought some on January 25, 2013 and will be reviewing them over time.

If you have tested different tires with a fuel economy bias, please comment. If you have your own MPG tests using the MXV4-H, comment here.

ATX 2012 Network Installation error

I am working with an accountant on installing ATX 2012 tax software (from CCH) with one main Windows 7 64-bit machine the accountant uses (that will be the “server”) and a second Windows 7 64-bit computer that a helper uses during the heavy tax season.

Following the user guide, I choose Network (not Stand-Alone), and choose a folder in which I shared to “everyone,” but I get the error message: “The location you selected is not available to other workstations on the network. Please select a different location or create a a shared location and try again.” I can access the locations that I tried on the other computer, but no matter where I choose, it won’t do it.

The user guide says, “Unlike stand-alone installations, network installations cannot be installed to the default Program Files directory. You must select another directory, such as a mapped or local drive.” So the guide says I should be able to, but it won’t work.

In early January I went ahead and ran the Stand-Alone installation to get it working, figuring that I would fix it when I went onsite. On January 22, I called ATX support at 11:30am. After waiting about 15 minutes to talk to a first level person, she said I needed to uninstall ATX and reinstall with the “Custom” option, not Stand-Alone. I told her there is not “Custom” option, just “Network”. She insisted that I choose “Custom.” Sensing that she had probably never installed ATX in her life, I hung up and gave it a shot. Then I ran into the problem above again. I called back and got a first level person again quickly and she didn’t seem to know anything about this error and had a very hard time typing it all in her computer very fast. After consulting with some others, she said I needed to talk to a “tech.” Since I was onsite billing the customer by-the-hour, I asked how long it would be; she replied that it would be an hour. Being that now the accountant had no ATX installed, I figured that I better wait.

After 17 minutes, the call dropped. Ugh. I cal led back, got back in line again — from the back. I searched their knowledge base, but couldn’t find anything like this problem. I logged into their customer forum site and found other that did have this problem. No solution was given, and it didn’t look like anyone from ATX bothers to read or reply to any of the posts. One user did a workaround method of mapping a network drive to a network name of a directory on his own computer, which worked. I considered this, but ATX would not work if the router was disconnected or failed, so I chose not to go that route.

I waited about 1 hour 45 minutes on hold (with repeated messages to go to the website to look for help to common problems and them telling me that the call was VERY important to them), but needed to leave to get to my next appointment. I left the call on hold anyway. FINALLY, 2 hours 22 minutes in and a technician answered. I have a tremendous amount of patience, but when he told me that this is a known issue that they were working to fix with a new release, I lost my temper.

In the end I apologized for yelling at him and said that it was not his fault, but I was extremely angry at ATX for how poorly the company is run and how they have treated me. He told me that uninstalling and reinstalling with the Network option would not work (terrible advice by the first level), as many hidden directories need to be deleted.

Just checking myatx.com today, I see this: “The target date for the 12.5 update is Monday, January 28th.” I’ll try it and report here with my finding.

ATX, why:

  • do you not tell your first level group about known issues so I don’t waste billable hours of my customers?
  • do you not post on the customer forum when they run into known issues?
  • do the first level group sound like they’ve never done a day of tech support in their lives?
  • do you not give the ability to give a call back phone number and have technician call when I’ve wait the unreasonable amount of time that you require? Do toll-free bills matter to you?
  • do you not tell me how many people are waiting in front of me so I know whether I should wait or not?
  • do you not give me the ability to schedule a time in advance with a technician?
  • do you not hire more real technicians for the months of January and February?

[UPDATE 2/13/13] Since this post, I’ve been reading the forums popular with ATX users:

https://community.atxinc.com/forums/default.aspx?GroupID=9

http://www.atxcommunity.com/

and it’s obvious that I wasn’t alone. I’ll be surprised if ATX makes it to 2013 Tax Year.

In my case, sadly, I setup both computers as Standalone and they can’t shared anything. But it works, albeit slower than last year. CCH really blew it badly and I hope they pay a big price for running their company so poorly.

[FOR SALE] 2013 Kaplan Pocket Tables (Tax Tables) available now

2013 Kaplan Tax Tables/Pocket Tables are now available.

HERE IS THE PAGE TO ORDER:

 

Dell Optiplex SFF All-in-One Stand information (FDXW3)

I had a client interested in the Dell Optiplex 7010 Small Form Factor All-in-One stand, but I had a tough time finding out any information about it. I bought two and here’s what I’ve learned:

  • The new one I just bought in 12/2012 is 73DH9 (073DH9) and it may be the same as FDXW3 (0FDXw3)
  • I know this one is made for the Optiplex 7010, but I read that it should work with 990, 790, 390 (SFF only, of course).
  • Here’s a very good source of pictures or here is Red Planet Trading’s cache of photos.
  • It will only work with Dell monitors with their special “clip-in” system, such as the 1908FP or P190S.
  • This stand will handle up to 13.2 lbs (6 kg).

Here is a better picture showing the monitor mount:

And here is what it looks like if you remove that metal piece and put it against a 10 CM x 10 CM VESA mount screw holes:

Here are the fancy instructions (click to enlarge):

[SOLUTION] Dell Latitude E5420 white screen

A client brought me a Dell Latitude E5420 that had just a white screen – no POST, nothing. If you hooked up a monitor, everything was perfectly fine.

I found some forums like this one that talk about the problems with this model:

http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/148598-dell-latitude-e5420-high-failure-rate?page=1

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/p/19411044/19965108.aspx#19965108

In spite of all of that, I brought it to a laptop repair expert and he quickly removed the monitor bezel, unscrewed the LCD screen mount screws, looked at the back of the LCD screen to find that the video cable was disconnected! He popped it back on and my client is back in business!

Here is a decent-looking guide to doing it yourself: http://www.insidemylaptop.com/replace-screen-on-dell-latitude-e5420-laptop/

I wouldn’t be surprised if this design flaw would make the video cable pop off of the motherboard or damage the cable so as to require replacement.

Please comment if this helps or if you can provide more help!

iPhone 5 searching – won’t connect to cellular network at all

Last night my iPhone 5 started to lose my connection to AT&T. I am in downtown Pittsburgh on the 9th floor, so I’m in no fringe.. I turned off LTE when it started happening and it would switch to 4G, but that quickly stopped working, too, and it just shows “Searching…” Sometimes now it will show 4 bars for 10 seconds, then 1 bar, then Searching.

I read some discussion about the issue and:

  1. activated Airplane mode and deactivated
  2. turned off the phone and booted it back up, with no success
  3. did a Network Reset (Settings > General > Reset > Network Reset), but that did nothing other than delete all my wifi network passwords.
  4. did a hard reset by holding in the sleep and home buttons for a while
  5. popped out the SIM card with a paperclip (right side of phone) and pushed it back in
  6. swapped the SIM card

Here are some threads with similar issues:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1452223

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1450043

Here’s what it looks like:

20120929-083535.jpg

CONCLUSION:

After visiting an AT&T store in Cranberry Twp, PA and swapping the SIM card with no change whatsoever, we have concluded that there is a problem with the iPhone 5 connecting to any SIM card. Thanks for the good experience there, Roger.

To check to see if this is your problem go to Settings > General > About and check to see if you have a ICCID line:

My ICCID line will appear if it shows AT&T in the top left, but disappears when it says “Searching..”

(If you have this happen, make sure to show the Apple Store tech as this is the smoking gun.) So, my iPhone 5 can’t read the SIM card. Now the question is whether this is isolated of will show itself like a timebomb. Is it SIMgate??

Next I went to the local Apple Store and Play Store Download Matt did some quick diagnostics and didn’t find any known issue, so he pulled out on the 16 specially-packed non-retail iPhone 5s in stock for this type of situation. He had me backup to iCloud, restore on the new one and off I went. Despite taking some time, AT&T and Apple really took care of this well.

PLEASE COMMENT IF YOU HAVE THIS PROBLEM AND WHETHER REPLACING THE SIM WORKS.

[UPDATE 3/17/13] Here is a site with some good suggestions on what to do if you have this problem. If the ICCID is gone, I suspect replacement is your only cure.

Kyocera default Administrator Number

Here is a snippet from a Kyocera manual:

The factory default administrator number is either 2500 (25/25 ppm model), 3200 (32/25 ppm and 32/32 ppm models) or 4000 (40/35 ppm model).

So — take the first two numbers of the model and then two zeroes.

In case it might help, here are some good guides to help with you with setting up scanning with FTP or SMB:

http://www.advanceddocumentconcepts.com/downloads.php

[SOLUTION] Adobe Flash updater with Internet Explorer Script Error

A client was trying to update Adobe Flash to 11.4 (down with Adobe and their rage-inducing update policy), but she got a pop-up windows in the final phase of the update:

Internet Explorer Script Error

An error has occurred in the script on this page.

Line: 1

Char: 18292

Error: Object expected

Code: 0

URL: http://127.0.0.1:1821/app/_js/index.js

What this means — I don’t know. But here is how I worked around it – visit this page:

http://helpx.adobe.com/content/help/en/flash-player/kb/installation-problems-flash-player-windows.html#main-pars_header

On this question in the Adobe help there is a download link for Flash Player for ActiveX. I ran that and it updated fine.

Please comment if this did or didn’t help.