Dell X200 Keyboard Replacement

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Well, the old Dell X200's keyboard gave up the ghost. Not entirely, but the good old backspace key stopped working, and it's really hard to use a keyboard without a backspace key.

Happily, it was easy to fix, as follows:

1. Buy a replacement keyboard (I bought my "like new" replacement keyboard through eBay for about $20)
2. Remove the battery
3. Unscrew the six screws from the bottom of the Dell marked with a (K)
4. Lever out the old keyboard from the bottom left. There is a little latch there.
   
5. Before fully removing the keyboard, un-snap the ZIF ribbon connector
6. Remove the keyboard completely
   
7. Slide the new keyboard into place
8. Push the keyboard cable into the ZIF connector; lock the ZIF connector
9. Screw the keyboard back in place with the six screws
10. Reinstall the battery

The end result? My 8 year old Dell X200 laptop is still running strong! It'd be awesome to get 3 more years out of it. Its only real limitation is it's limited RAM.

Fixing Wifi Problems: MacBook wireless card replacement

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For years my cousin was suffering with the WIFI of his 2008-vintage MacBook. His MacBook would drop its WIFI connection every few hours (or minutes), and he'd have to manually stop and start the WIFI on his MacBook to fix it. The bad behavior made web surfing, Netflix, and anything else on-line quite unpleasant.

The Bad WIFI card, as pulled from my cousin's MacBook.
I tried everything to try to fix the problem. I replaced his router, tweaked OS settings, and even re-installed the OS. The on-line forums weren't particularly helpful - a lot of people had a lot of ideas how to fix it with software, but ultimately none of their suggestions worked.

So I concluded that the problem was with the MacBook's WIFI card.

Some of you might think that the MacBook has its WIFI chip soldered onto the MacBook's main board, but that's not the case - the classic MacBook uses a fairly common WIFI card. Getting access to that card isn't trivial, but if you're able to drive a dozen or so screws with care, it can be done.

I bought the replacement WIFI card on eBay. It was a standard Broadcom Mini PCI express 802.11a/b/g/n card with two antenna connections ... (a lot like this one at Amazon) and it was under $20.

I took the MacBook apart, based on the an on-line guide, removed the old WIFI card and put in the new one. I reassembled the MacBook.

We booted the MacBook, and everything came up fine. The new WIFI operates perfectly, and there were zero software changes that had to take place. No special drivers required, and performance and reliability has been better than ever. Interestingly, going into "About This Mac" feature of the Finder shows that the WIFI card type was a "Third Party" card instead of an "Airport Extreme".

If your MacBook's WIFI is persistently problematic, I suggest you think about having your WIFI card replaced.

802.11b WIFI is DEAD

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802.11b is now utterly obsolete and must now be disabled by all access points, routers, and clients.

802.11b first emerged in 1999 - a hot new standard that provided inexpensive networking over the air. But by January 2003, a newer, even faster standard became commonplace - 802.11g. And since then, an even faster and more efficient standard - 802.11n has been on the scene.

802.11b is inefficient, and it slows down 802.11g and 802.11n networking due to protocol limitations. And therefore, I proclaim that 802.11b must be immediately banned from the world. Doing so will speed access for everyone.

So log into your access points and disable the mixed modes that support 802.11b. Throw out your old 802.11b-only interface cards and routers. You, and 99.99% of the rest of the world will see much better performance, and you'll be convincing the 0.01% of the world - those with 802.11b clients - to upgrade.

Upgrades are very inexpensive: 802.11n USB client interfaces are available for under $15, and 802.11n routers can be had for less than $25. At this point, there is simply no reason to have 802.11b around.   While we're at it, we might as well push for the end of 802.11g too.

Connecting your MIDI keyboard to your Mac

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MIDI and the Mac.  It's easy, fun, and inexpensive!

I enjoy fooling around with musical instruments, and so when Garageband originally came out several years ago, I was very excited to start using it with my cheap little Casio keyboard.

Initially it seemed expensive and complicated to get the right parts together to connect the Mac to my keyboard via MIDI. I didn't want to spend a ton of money in professional-class electronics. I wanted to fool around.

Happily, I discovered that it's inexpensive and easy.  If you know where to look, a Mac-compliant MIDI adapter can be purchased for under $10! That's right, for less than $10 I connected my Mac to my MIDI keyboard and by MIDI drum kit.

I bought an MIDI-to-USB interface, in particular, on like this USB MIDI Cable available through Amazon. It's a simple device that has on MIDI "in" and one MIDI "out" connector on one end, and a USB connector on the other.  It doesn't require a power adapter - it's just a magic converter that translates MIDI into USB.

The beauty of this interface is that it required no special drivers for my Mac at all. My Mac, running Lion (and Snow Leopard, and Tiger before that) automatically detected it. Awesome.

I connected the MIDI-in connector on the cable to the MIDI-out port on my keyboard. And then I plugged the USB plug into my Mac. Hookup was that simple.

MIDI "out" cable goes to MIDI "in" port, and vice-versa
From there, I fired up the Garage Band application and turned on the keyboard. In Garageband, I created a new "Piano Project".

I started by creating a new "Piano" project
Once the new project appeared within Garageband, notes on my keyboard were coming out of my Mac's speakers. If this doesn't work, you may want to double check your volume and make sure that the "in" and "out" MIDI cables are plugged into the "out" and "in" on your keyboard.

From there, I was able to double-click on the Piano icon within the "tracks" view in order to change the instrument of my key presses to something else, like a sax. Do so reveals the Software Instrument selector.

Double-clicking on the piano icon sets you change the instrument

The Software Instrument list is fun and amusing


Since we play musical instruments in the house quite often, I decided to connect the Mac to an amplifier. I used a basic 3.5mm jack plugged into the headphone port of the Mac. I connected this to a small guitar amp.

Connecting a small guitar amp to the Mac

It's a good idea to turn down the volume on the amp before plugging or unplugging your Mac from it.

Next Steps

My next step is to experiment more deeply with GarageBand and some of the add-on instrument packs. Some add-on packs for GarageBand include:

• The shareware Boldt instrument packs.
• The Apple JamPacks (such as Symphony Orchestra, Rhythm Section, World Music, and Voices)
• The AMG ExpansionPack for GarageBand

That's my initial attempt to get started with MIDI on the Mac. It works great, but there is a lot more to try! Have fun!

Fixing Ye Olde iBook

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Here I will talk about repairing and upgrading a 12-inch Apple iBook G4 laptop.

A great friend of mine had a 12-inch iBook laptop from 2005 - with a broken keyboard.  She asked me to help her shop for a new Mac to replace her old tried-but-true laptop.

Whenever anyone asks me for computer advice, I ask them what they want to do with a new computer.
She told me that she used her computer for basic email and surfing the web - she said the old iBook was great for many years, but that now, with a broken (and dirty and gross) keyboard, it was time to move on.

After thinking about it for 15 minutes with her, we concluded that the best approach was to fix her old laptop.  A little upgrade is a LOT easier than going out and buying a new machine, and then migrating 6 years of data and apps.  Also, the price is a lot less than a new machine.

We went on-line and bought two things:

• A replacement iBook keyboard, for around $40, and
• A 1 GB memory stick, for under $20.

The replacement iBook keyboard (bottom) and 1 GB upgrade (top, in envelope)
The components arrived in a few days.  Here was the basic procedure:

1. backed up everything
2. shut down and unplugged the iBook
3. removed the battery
4. popped off the keyboard (sliding two levers in the corner is all it takes!)
5. popped in the new RAM, which is situated under the keyboard
6. Unplugged the old keyboard, plugged the new one in and snapped it in place
7. Reinstalled the battery.  Done!

In all, it took less than 10 minutes to upgrade the iBook.

Instead, she ended up with an incrementally faster computer at a very low cost and with very low stress.  She did not end up with a new, fast-as-lightning computer with a hole in her pocket.

I loved this upgrade because the cost, effort, and result couldn't be beat:

• A very clean looking laptop with a working keyboard
• A faster laptop, thanks to the additional memory
• Her same programs and files, in same location - NO confusion!

And I had:

• An easy 15 minute upgrade
• No stress helping her buy a new computer
• No heavy lifting moving the data to a new computer
• No additional "support" calls

In short, these old iBooks are still useful little computers.  And with a little effort, you can keep them ticking for several more years to come.

The Repaired and Upgraded iBook: Looking great, running great!

Step-by-Step Setup Linksys AP

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Step-by-step setup linksys AP:  1. Configure as follows: Speedy Telkom (Internet Network)-Modem ADSL-Linksys-CPU/Laptop

2. TP-LINK modem settings:

• Plug the modem cable to the LAN port.
• Type in http://192.168.1.1 in a web browser (Mozilla fiorefox, iexplore, flock, etc.).
• Login: admin, password: admin
• Speedy setting does not need to change, just turn off the DHCP server.
• DNS is first loaded by the technicians speedy. Usually: 202.134.1.10 and 202.134.0.155 Note the two DNS addresses. DNS will be used on the router later.

3. Linksys router settings

•  Plug the cable into one of the linksys router's LAN ports.
• Type in http://192.168.1.1 in a web browser (Mozilla fiorefox, iexplore, flock, etc.).
• Default, Username: blank, Password: admin
• In the BASIC SETUP menu:

Choose a static IP
Internet IP Address: 192.168.1.99 (This is the Linksys IP that are recognized by the modem)
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.1.1 (This is the gateway of the modem, which connects the port intermediaries to a speedy path)
Static DNS 1: 202.134.1.10 (As per the setting of speedy)
Static DNS 2: 202.134.0.155 (As per the setting of speedy)
Local IP Address: 192.168.2.1 (this is a Wireless-LAN IP of the Linksys router, which is recognizable by the client computer)
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Click Apply, and then continue

• Additional information:

If typing http://192.168.1.99 result would be similar to 192.168.2.1, because these two is the IP address of the router, for configuration.
DHCP Server: Enable
Starting IP Address: 192.168.2.100 (IP devices, such as your laptop will be given an IP when it is detected by a Linksys router)
Maximum Number of DHCP Users: 25 (fill with the desired number of clients)
Client Lease Time: 0 minutes (0 means one day)

WINS: 0.0.0.0Press Apply, and then continue.

• In WIRELESS menu => Basic Wireless Settings

Network Mode: MixedNetwork Name (SSID): Satellite (according to your wishes, will appear on wifi laptop)Radio Band: AutoWide Channel: AutoStandard Channel: AutoWireless SSID Broadcast: EnablePress Apply, and then continue

• In the SECURITY menu

If you want to use a password to connect:Wireless => Wireless Security => EnabledSelect WEP, WPA, etc.Fill passphrase. In WEP, the key will be generated, just select Key 1. Then use that key on the client computer. This is used to protect from theft of your Internet connection.Press Apply, and then continue.
4.  Testing

• Click the start menu => programs => command prompt or click the start menu => RUN => type in cmd
• In the comand prompt type "ping 192.168.1.1" without the quotes (").
• If no reply, it means that the modem can wirelessly diconfigurasi
• Ping Ping 192.168.1.10 or 192.168.2.1
• If no reply, it means that the wireless router can be configured wirelessly.
• Ping www.google.com

If no reply means that you have your wireless connection is ready.
Description:

• Speedy connection to the modem using a telephone cable through a splitter.
• Kokeksi linksys modem to use the standard blue cable (RJ-45 LAN network cable).
• Linksys connection to a laptop, wireless, no wires needed.

The IP Address of a Router

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A network router such that we use at home has a two IP addresses, one for internal (LAN) and one for the external Internet (WAN). How can you find the IP address of the router?


Internal LAN IP address is usually set to default. Linksys routers, for example, use 192.168.1.1 for their internal IP addresses. When to see the IP Address you can, you can do the following manner;

Click Start -> Run CommandType CMD, you will view the first brought CMD

Then type IPCONFIG



D-Link and Netgear routers typically use 192.168.0.1. Some U.S. Robotics routers use 192 168 123 254, and some SMC routers use 192.168.2.1. No matter the brand of router, the default internal IP address must still be determined. Administrators often have the option to change the IP address during router setup. In any case, however, the LAN IP address must be specified.
Address, the external WAN-IP of the router is set when the router is connected to the Internet service provider. This address can also be seen in the router administrative console. Or, WAN-IP address can be found by visiting the IP address of a web-based search services such as http://checkip.dyndns.org/ from any computer on your LAN.
Another way to identify the public IP address of the router, ie by executing the command ping or traceroute. From inside the home network, a command (DOS) "ping-r 1" will send a message through our router to be sent to the IP address to be displayed. For example, "ping-r 1 www.yahoo.com" would generate the following message is displayed at the command prompt:
Replay from 66.94.230.43: bytes = 32 time = 294ms TTL = 56Route: 209.179.21.76In this example, the IP address after "Route:" (209.179.21.76) in accordance with the router's WAN address.