Computer Repair Blog

August 8, 2009 by Jeremy Brock

Demand for Solid State Drives (SSD) has grown in 2009 thanks to inexpensive controllers, and low cost high density MLC NAND memory chips. As one of the few data recovery shops specializing in NAND data recovery we’re often asked for our opinion on SSD hard drives. SSD is a relatively new and untested technology, aside from sparse manufacture documentation there isn’t much low level information on the internal design or reliability of these drives. JMicron has emerged as a leader in low cost SSD drives, their JMF602 controller is found in many SSD drives.

January 18, 2009 by Jeremy Brock

Flash devices such as memory cards (CF, SD, XD, etc) and USB flash drives are very robust but they do fail. Drives fail 90 percent of the time because of corruption in the lookup tables which convert logical addresses (what your computer sees) to physical addresses (what the controller sees). The remaining 10% is split between controller failures, power surges, and worn or broken solder joints.

December 27, 2008 by Jeremy Brock

Don't pay for a data recovery programs when deleted files can be recovered for free using PhotoRec. When a file is deleted the area is marked as free space, if the area hasn’t been used you can recover the data. Raw data recovery applications like PhotoRec are able to rebuild files in the free space area.

December 5, 2008 by Jeremy Brock

Many devices such as USB flash drives, Solid State Drives (SSD), and memory cards (CF, SD, etc) use NAND memory to store data. NAND memory is inexpensive however it does have its faults. These are some interesting things i've learned while recovering data from bad USB flash drives:

November 6, 2008 by Jeremy Brock

Every few months I’ll see a computer come in with a loose chipset heat sink. Often it’s a slim dell such as the Dimension 4600C however I’ve also seen it on other motherboards. Luckily Dell has a self test that prevents further damage by halting the system and displaying the message "Alert! Chipset heat sink not detected. System Halted". The solder joint seems to fail from constant tension and heat. If you find the missing clip inside the computer you can solder it back in place and reattach the chipset heat sink wire hook. If you can’t find the clip you can replace it by bending a thin piece of wire in a half circle.

September 25, 2008 by Jeremy Brock

Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of bad Dell CX305N-00 305W power supplies manufactured by Celetronix failing due to leaking capacitors. The story is always the same, “I turned the computer off, now it won’t turn on and the power button is blinking amber”. Normally this is a quick fix but Dell is using BTX power supplies which are costly and hard to find, a replacement from Dell can cost upwards of $90.

August 20th, 2008 by Jeremy Brock

Data backups aren’t just for companies, home users should also backup to protect against drive failure, theft, and viruses. There are many inexpensive backup solutions on the market today geared towards home and small business users depending on their needs. Investing in a backup solution can save you hundreds in repair costs and thousands in data recovery charges.

The first questions to ask are:

1. How much data are you backing up?
2. Is your computer stationary or mobile?
3. How sensitive is your data?

June 22, 2008 by Jeremy Brock

Kolab, a Microsoft Exchange groupware alternative for Linux, now supports SyncML which allows contact, calendar, and notes synchronization between kolab and your PDA, phone, and even Outlook. SyncML support on Kolab2/Gentoo is experimental; you’ll be running a bleeding edge configuration. Test it before modifying your production box.

SyncML support is provided through Horde’s SyncML backend which queries the Kolab storage driver for PIM information. Horde's SyncML backend doesn’t support using the Kolab storage driver to store metadata so we need to install a database, I used MySQL however this should work with other backends.

March 11, 2008 by Jeremy Brock

This is a quick guide on how to disassembling a LG XNOTE P2 Laptop. This laptop uses four different screw diameters so make sure to note which screws go where. The frame assembly is attached to the LCD allowing you to take both out together. Make sure to remove all the plastic inserts (SD, PCMCIA, and Modem) before removing the motherboard.

March 10, 2008 by Jeremy Brock

LCD monitors are now the standard over older CRT monitors. Aside from their thinner profile and lower cost they also use half to two thirds less energy than CRTs. When searching for an energy saving LCD look for the following.

• Internal Power Supplies. External power supplies have no standby mode and consume energy while the monitor is off.
• The Energy Star Logo (every LCD should have it).
• Choose a smaller LCD. Large LCD’s, 21" and above, while more efficient than large CRT’s consume more energy.