Sunday, July 30, 2006
i dunno why i did it but i did. My first time getting burned at a ebay product. Well at least i GOT the thing, it's just that it wasn't fully operational. I purchased a HP Omnibook 500 (Pentium 3-700mhz) with no problem. It arrived and everything worked. Well before the Alaskan journey i wanted to get a more sturdier machine. One of the hinges were starting to crack and i was worried that it might be the end of it. So somehow i dunno why i decided to go for another laptop on ebay. This time i wanted a pimp rig, a baller machine. I hunted down a IBM x31, a slightly older model (when 'centrino' first came out), it's got 802.11b wireless built in. But the price was right, it wasn't super cheap (those are the ones you gotta worry about). So i won it and got it 2 weeks before Alaska. When i got the ballermachine it asked for the BIOS password. Ok, on a 'normal' machine theres a few ways around it. But Nooo!, on an IBM it's got triple layer protections. Theres a start-up password, which can be got aroun. A Hard-drive password, to protect sensitive materials and the drive from being stolen, and then a BIOS password, which is embedded on a chip that cannot be easily defeated.
So the emails went back n forth, the guy delays and delays, saying i'll get you the pass within a week, soon, tommorrow, whenever and eventually never responds. The only thing i can do is bust a negative feedback and try to do some claims. But the claims failed 'cuz they only go for items not recieved. lovely.
The research begins on a work-around. The most common that i've seen is actually shipping your laptop to a specialist who can 'read' this chip, and then clear it for u. That goes for 150-300$ yikes! Another is to build your own 'reader' and send in the code to have it decoded, that was a 15$ + parts to build a reader, but seeing the reader looked like one of those Radio Shack electronics kits. It also meant the possibility of shorting the chip. And the last is to get an actual replacement chip and physically replace the chip, that was ~$50. i actually find one on ebay (where else) for 24$. I get the chip and it says, use an xacto knife and cut the chip, replace and use this heat gun with soldering flux to glue it back on.
Sherwin gave me an idea about playing with dead hard drives, so i got the xacto and tried it. I sensed bad mojo from trying, so i had to seek out someone with skillz.
The only person that i knew who could do something like this was Vick's Dad. Today after cleaning my room (Gasp!), i slowly took apart the laptop and called for an appointment. Using his plethora of gadgets n what nots, with a steady hand and the ColdHeat soldering tool. He expertly removed and replaced the silly chip while DootDog and Juilet roamed around wanting to play fetch.
Oh my! Laptop... Exploded View
Stupid Chip! Begone!
Uh, how do i type on this?
Woohoo! It works! Well sorta, i got back, put it all together, turn it on. And it didn't work, doh! So before i wanted to beat this thing to death i took it apart again. Dabbed some of that flux stuff and applied some heat to it, and now it works. Woo! The baller laptop begins!
So the emails went back n forth, the guy delays and delays, saying i'll get you the pass within a week, soon, tommorrow, whenever and eventually never responds. The only thing i can do is bust a negative feedback and try to do some claims. But the claims failed 'cuz they only go for items not recieved. lovely.
The research begins on a work-around. The most common that i've seen is actually shipping your laptop to a specialist who can 'read' this chip, and then clear it for u. That goes for 150-300$ yikes! Another is to build your own 'reader' and send in the code to have it decoded, that was a 15$ + parts to build a reader, but seeing the reader looked like one of those Radio Shack electronics kits. It also meant the possibility of shorting the chip. And the last is to get an actual replacement chip and physically replace the chip, that was ~$50. i actually find one on ebay (where else) for 24$. I get the chip and it says, use an xacto knife and cut the chip, replace and use this heat gun with soldering flux to glue it back on.
Sherwin gave me an idea about playing with dead hard drives, so i got the xacto and tried it. I sensed bad mojo from trying, so i had to seek out someone with skillz.
The only person that i knew who could do something like this was Vick's Dad. Today after cleaning my room (Gasp!), i slowly took apart the laptop and called for an appointment. Using his plethora of gadgets n what nots, with a steady hand and the ColdHeat soldering tool. He expertly removed and replaced the silly chip while DootDog and Juilet roamed around wanting to play fetch.
Oh my! Laptop... Exploded View
Stupid Chip! Begone!
Uh, how do i type on this?
Woohoo! It works! Well sorta, i got back, put it all together, turn it on. And it didn't work, doh! So before i wanted to beat this thing to death i took it apart again. Dabbed some of that flux stuff and applied some heat to it, and now it works. Woo! The baller laptop begins!
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