silicon pop culture - forum

BIOS update using file from another TR model

2008-12-25T10:12:36Z

Dear all,

If I update my TR1 using a BIOS file provided for TR3/TR5, would I still be able to boot up the machine?

I want to do this because I’d like my old TR1 to recognize new hardwares better.

Thanks!

mixty

CF Card for SSD - it works!

2008-09-07T21:09:58Z

Hey everyone, I’ve been browsing this site from time to time since I bought my TR2A about a year ago. I thought some of you might be interested in a recent mod I did to the laptop: replacing the old (and dying) hard drive with a compact flash card. I’m not sure if anyone has done this before, I didn’t see it documented on this site.

I bought a Transcend 8GB 300x CF card for just over $80 and a 1.8” IDE to CF adapter. Notice that the adapter is different than the 2.5” form factor IDE connector. It’s still 50 pin (with 44 pins in use, I think). I bought it off eBay for a few bucks. Search for “1.8 CF to IDE” - these adapters are used to allow people to replace a iPod’s Toshiba hard drive with a CF card. I’m not sure what you’d look for if you have a Hitachi drive, but I’m sure there’s something similar on the market.

The Transcend card is quite fast, reading and writing at 45mb/s I believe, so it’s faster than a lot of the other SSD’s on the market.

Installation is simple, thanks to pugwash75’s photo step-by-step instructions (thanks a bunch!). The Transcend card is recognized as a fixed disk when you install windows. I used nLite to trim the Windows installer down to about 250mb. Before installing a bunch of drivers and software, Windows booted in under 20 seconds (from the time I pressed the button to the time it was fully loaded). Now it’s closer to a minute - I might try reinstalling Windows and see if I can trim off a bit more. Battery life also appears to be extended by 15-20% or so.

I’ve got Windows, Office 2003 (Word and PPT), firefox, AVG, ZoneAlarm, and a few other apps installed, and that’s only taking up under 2GB on the 8GB card. You could probably get away with buying the 4GB Transcend card for $45 if you don’t need a ton of space. You can always get a PCMCIA to CF adapter and throw in a slow (cheaper) 32GB card if you need more space.

Overall, I’m quite happy. The old drive was dying anyway, so this was a great way to give new life to the TR. If you’ve got questions or want to know more details, feel free to ask!

DVD on TR3AP “Bogs down” when playing

2008-12-22T21:06:56Z

I do alot of presentations and love my TR but I am finding that the DVD drive isn’t playing smoothly (it “bogs down” as if the buffer isn’t working). I have all other systems shut off, and it still occurs. I did a clean install, same problem. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks!

802.11N

2007-05-21T13:01:20Z

Anyone think there is a possibility some of the companies that carry the 802.11A/B/G cards for our TRs will produce/locate a card that will have 802.11N?

TR Wireless Antenna Cable

2008-11-19T09:21:09Z

Anyone have a wireless cable I could buy? I bought a 802.11 N card and it requires 3 cables vs. the 2 already installed on the laptop. I need a third one so I can see if this wireless card is going to work with our TR’s. Let me know.

Display Issue - random (colorful) lines

2008-11-18T16:50:06Z

Image in Higher Quality
The lines are always there (during boot-up, etc.) Fairly annoying because it blocks my taskbar as well. On a random note, the black diagonol line has since dissapeared.
As for background information, I’ve had the TR1 for a couple of months, and I admit to beating it up a bit (as a student, my bag is generally full of textbooks that would be weighing down on my poor laptop). However, today, prior to the appearance of the problem, my bag was rather light. Thus I don’t believe the weight issue to be relative to the cause of the problem.
Ah well, any ideas on what it might be and how to fix it?

Two Hard Drives in a TR!

2006-04-22T06:58:43Z

I know I’ve been talking about doing this for a while but I finally sat down and did it. I put in a 100GB 5200RPM Toshiba MK1032GAX. Wonderful drive, quiet, good heat dissipation and very power efficient.

Here are some pics (my digicam sucks, sorry):

This was a pretty straight forward mod. I put the tape all over just to make sure nothing got shorted out and to keep any vibration down (which there is NONE anyway because the drive is awesome).

I did the mod for two reasons: #1 60 GB 1.8” drives are overpriced for being small and slow so I left my 40GB in there. #2 my UJ-812 died and I also realized how little I really used an optical device and opted for the second HDD. It’s sweet though. I have my whole music collection (60GB) and some movies, files, etc on the second drive so it’s a portable media center in a very tiny package.

Let me know what you guys think.

Cheers,

Scott

ZIF drive in TR1MP

2008-09-29T12:20:21Z

Hey there guys.

I’ve just bought a ZIF to IDE adapter on a whim but now I’m not sure it will work! lol

1.8” ZIF to IDE

I think its a 50 pin one…

I have the Toshiba drive in the laptop currently.

Thanks

Phil

Atheros AR5006XS & wireless switch compatibility on VAIO

2006-08-19T11:53:32Z

I just upgraded my Intel 2100 wireless mini pci on my VAIO TR to an Atheros AR5006XS I got off ebay. Everything installed fine and I got the card working with the latest generic Atheros drivers, but the wireless switch no longer powers off the wireless card. I also did the bluetooth upgrade and the switch still powers that off.

Anyone have the same card with the wireless switch working?

1gb microDIMM for $99 from memoryx

2008-11-06T07:20:12Z

Finally !

Some semi sensible prices !

Can’t wait for them to arrive

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220292620449