I hate my Sony Ericsson K850i...

15 months ago I have bought a k850i from Three UK. I loved the phone's appearance and functions, and everything was OK. After approximately half a year of use, my mobile started to run slowly and was annoyingly lagging. It suddenly turned off in my pocket on the other day, and when I tried to turn it on, the keypad backlit and the blue ring around the camera lens lighted. And nothing else... I gave it to repair, 3 days, and my phone was back. It worked perfectly, and again, after three months began to lag, and suddenly turned off and same. And again, warranty, 3 days and mobile is back. Guess what? After 3 months this happened again. Warranty service wasn't that quick that time. 22 days (!) and they gave me a new phone. Ohhh finally - I thought. The phone worked well until the last week. The same thing happened to the other mobile of the same kind. I realized that k850i is a piece of crap. Even though it has amazing features, it still sucks. I mean, the quality and software sucks. Fortunately, tomorrow is the time for an upgrade from 3, so stay tuned for a review of Samsung i8510 Innov8 which I am going to buy. This is going to be the first Samsung of mine, and I hope I won't be that disappointed as it happened with sony ericsson... I will never buy a Sony Ericsson again... I thought of Satio, yeah maybe it looks cool and has cool features, but it's still a Sony Ericsson. Actually, why do I need a camera phone while I have a camera? Mobiles are mobiles, cameras are cameras. I have a separate camera. You may think I'm a hypocrite as I am going to buy a Samsung that has 8 megapixels, 120fps recording etc. but I am going buy this phone because it has a large screen - perfect to watch videos, mp3 player, Symbian OS... and looks good. Also, it's a value for money. I would buy a nokia n86 which has the same features, but why i should pay £30 a month when I can get a samsung for £20? But overall I am going to buy it because it seems to be good. Am I right? We'll see ;)

Toshiba L300 heatsink FIXED

As I said before, the heatsink in my Toshiba L300 was clogged and the computer was overheating. The day after writing my last post, the computer was getting even 97C! So I said to myself that it cannot be ignored and that I HAVE TO unclog the heatsink. I know I promised the photo report, but unfortunately, there was nothing special to take pictures of. I have only taken the keyboard off so I could see the fan and tried to suck the dust out with the hoover, but with no success. Then I got an idea to try to suck the dust through the heatsink's side, not fan's. It didn't work as well. I decided to blow the dust with the air, but 'huh where is the compressed air can? I think I don't have one' so I blew it with my own mouth, and here I would for the first time in my blog, ladies and gentlemen, use a popular LOL acronim. But really, it DID work out. The dust has come through the fan and I only had to take it out with the screwdriver. Then it was time to place the keyboard on, and to turn the computer on. You don't even know how was I surprised by the work of my computer. I got used to listen to the fan's noise on high RPM's and the temperature of the palmrest, but after my repair, I like came back to times where my computer was new ;)

ps. To the professional computer servicers: I know what consequences would be, but nothing bad happened. I am lucky, ain't I?

ps2. Don't try this at home, better give your computer to specialist.

I think I don't have to say anything about the warranty? So don't do it on your own, unless your warrranty period has finished.

Toshiba L300-1CU after half a year of using...

Hello everyone, I am back after a 2 month break, I know it's been long, but now I am going to write my blog like more systematically.
So, today I am going to tell you about my Toshiba L300-1Cu which I have bought about half a year ago.
Firstly, I was amazed by the laptop's performance. It has 2Gb memory, Dual-Core Intel Pentium T3200 processor working at 2ghz, GMA X4500m GPU which is not the best graphics but quite good for me; and glossy, colorful, high-def 15.4'' LCD screen. Microsoft Windows Vista, not bad I thought, actually I thought of downgrading to XP, but when I turned on the computer first and for the first time I saw Windows Vista Ultimate, I like fell in love with Vista and began to like Microsoft again. OK, after configuration of the Windows, I decided to test the computer's performance. I have installed NFS Carbon which worked very fluently on high performance. All the other games I played also worked great (GTA San Andreas, Max Payne II, Postal II)
I thought: What an idiot said Vista is not good for games? Of course it is good, but perhaps they used Vista Basic which I used for a few days on my older laptop, ACER 3680, but downgraded it to XP because even old-ass GTA Vice City graphics were crashing... let's come back to Toshiba.
So I've been using it for half a year, and everything was alright, apart from overheating, but that's what I am going to talk about now. Well, after 5 months use, my computer started to overheat. When it was new, it was getting around 40c, when I played games it had 50-55, with some games it had even 65... but now, at the moment when type this, I am getting 57c. Oh crap, probably the heatsink is clogged and I am going to have to disassemble my laptop and clean it... I'm a do it soon, so stay tuned for my photo report.
Now, about the cosmetic issues. After half a year of use, the some of the keys have become shiny, the dirt has come under them, but I don't mind, it would have happen anyway. When I moved on from Acer to Toshiba, it seemed like Toshiba had better quality finish, but in reality, it didn't. The thing suffered the most after my use, is the palmrest. The paint comes off now at the corners and begins to come off near the touchpad, touchpad buttons, and on the bottom of the palmrest.

Conclusion
My computer is used for about 16 hours a day (including 5-8 by me) so the clogged heatsink has to be the effect of this use. The same about the palmrest. Some people use laptop for like 3 hours a day, so if my computer is used 5 times more a day, it means that mine is 5 times more likely to break, it wears 5 times more, and probably has 5 times shorter lifespan. Normally used L300 would have the same problems after 2-3 years.

Intel GMA x4500m

Hi players and laptop users!
Today I am going to share my experiences with an Intel GMA X4500m integrated graphics card. Most users of this graphics say it's a crap and it's not suitable for gaming. I have to disagree. Although it's far weaker than dedicated laptop graphic cards (ATI Mobility Radeon or GeForce M series) it is still capable of some of the newest games. The graphics itself has 384mb RAM and up to 1380mb shared memory (takes memory from computer's RAM and uses it as graphics RAM). The X4500m is not as popular as X3100 which is installed into about 70% of laptops, but is about 200% faster. So, when I found out about this, I have done some research about games on X3100 and X4500m. I can give GTA IV for example. On the X3100 GTA gives 3-5 fps with some modifications whereas X4500m gives 10-15fps with the same modifications (commandline + edited timecyc and visualeffects). I know it is small, but enough for a desperate like me, as unfortunately I have been given a laptop with the s**tty X4500m but it was not meant to be a computer for games so I don't regret anything, and although it's weak, I like it. It's not the worst one.
If you are going to buy a laptop, make sure it has X4500m but NOT X3100 and if you can have a choice whether to buy a laptop with Intel integrated graphics or with a dedicated graphics such as ATI Radeon or GeForce, then don't hesitate and buy a dedicated one, it will be good for normal using and for games.

Vista: If Aero doesn't work... FIX

If your Vista's GUI changed to Basic and doesn't want to go back to Aero, then use my tutorial.
This helped many of my friends who were annoyed by this. But this tutorial will work probably only when Vista says 'your graphics interface has been changed to vista basic' or something like that.
Ok now, try this trick.


1. Click Start, type regedit.exe in search field

Registry Editor (Regedit) will open

You have to ensure that these registy entries exist:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM\Composition set to 1 (32-bit DWORD)b.
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM\CompositionPolicy set to 2 (32-bit DWORD)

Note: if they don't exist, you'll have to create them.


2. Restart the Desktop Window Manager Session Manager service:

Click Start and type cmd.exe in search field

Command Prompt will open

Type these lines pressing ENTER after typing each line

a. net stop uxsms

b. net start uxsms


That's it. Your Aero interface should work now.
Wish you good luck and have fun with Aero :)

Make your XP look like OS X!

Want to change the appearance of your ugly Windows XP? Or maybe you like Mac OS X style?
Then this tutorial will help you do it quite quickly and with no difficulties at all! Your XP will look almost like OS X 10.5 Leopard and I hope you will like it.

OK, let's start then

To totally change your XP you will need the following programs:


StyleXP or Window Blinds (skins the GUI of your operating system)


FinderBar (The OS X style drop-down menu on top)


ObjectDock, RocketDock or MobyDock (the cool dock at the bottom that contains shortcuts to

programs)


YzShadow (puts a lovely drop shadow under the windows)


iTunes (no need to explain :) )

Icons (What can i say? The little pictures on your desktop. This file contains about 1000 icons from Apple OS X 10.3 Panther, which make a very big difference in appearance of your desktop)

.

Ok, now how to :)

1. Install StyleXP or WindowBlinds
2. After the program is installed, skin your interface. I prefer Panther style (try it yourself)
3. Install FinderBar but don't turn it on after you have finished installation
4. Unlock Windows taskbar and move it to the top of the screen
5. Turn on FinderBar and you will see then fields: Finder, File, Edit etc. If you don't see it clearly, right-click and point to 'SkinIt!' and click on it. The toolbar will now adjust to the bar and will look like the one from original Apple Mac.
6. The dock. Install whichever version you have downloaded. It is very easy to set it up. All you need to do is to drag your shortcuts to the dock. Simple!
7. Install YzShadow. This will put a shadow under your windows.
8. Download iTunes and turn the music on :)
9. Change the icons.
10. Use any High-Definition wallpaper :)
11. Voila, you have a cheap Mac!

I hope you will like it,

Good luck and have fun.

Mike

My first post

Hello everyone!

My name is Mikhal (but I more like to be called Mike) and this is my blog. Here I will post news from the world of electronics and some money-saving tips. Here also you will find tutorials how to improve the work of your computer, how to make your Microsoft Windows system more stable and how to improve it's looks.

I think it is enough talking for a moment, you know what is this blog about for now


Enjoy your stay

Mike