Quad Core Mobile Processors
Sunday, January 04, 2009


Intel just released some new mobile processors, among them, a Mobile Quad Core chip w/ 6MB cache (the faster, 12MB cache CPUs were already out).

Q9000 Mobile Quad Core goes for $345 and has 6MB cache. This is the new release...
Q9000 Mobile Quad Core goes for $850 and has 12MB cache.
QX9300 Mobile Quad Core goes for $1,035 and has 12MB cache.

Above is a stock pic of Acer's Aspire 8930G, which uses a Q9000.

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posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 5:34 PM, ,


New Blog Layout!
Friday, January 02, 2009

Just finished a new blog layout!

Fresh & clean!

posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 10:48 PM, ,


Solid State in a T40
Thursday, January 01, 2009

One of our customers who buys his T40s here on a regular basis wanted one built fast, reliable & quiet.

We used a T41 motherboard and a 1.6Ghz Dothan CPU. We had 1.8Ghz CPUs here but they make he T40 run hot and the fan spins often- the 1.6Ghz runs nice and cool and the fans rarely come on under normal operation, eg: email / browsing / etc.

For the hard drive we used a SSD (solid state drive). Space was not an issue so we used a Transcend TS64GSSD25-M 2.5" 64GB IDE drive.

Running solid state in the T40 was flawless. There was one hiccup- the factory jumper must be on the drive for the T40 to recognize it. Wow, does it boot Windows fast. XP loads in about 10 seconds. We've read that the write times on SSDs are slower that HDs but that will not be an issue.

The machine is SILENT. 99% of the time it has no moving parts.

posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 10:58 AM, ,


Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

New here for 2009:
- Expanded tech area
- Another technician
- A new look for the retail area coming soon

posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 10:52 AM, ,


Nvidia Laptop Video Drivers
Sunday, December 28, 2008

Nvidia has released drivers for laptops with Nvidia GPUs. This is great newss, as most manufacturers do not release updated video drivers often enough. Drivers may be downloaded from Nvidia here.

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posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 8:15 PM, ,


The Nvidia GPU Problem

There is a lot of finger-pointing. There is a lot of information online, some accurate, some inaccurate. There are a lot of bad Nvidia chips in laptops, slimline desktops and maybe desktops, depending on who you ask.

Certain Nvidia video chips will prematurely fail. When they fail the computer will have distorted video, lines in the screen or no video/no boot. Certain computers that have a video problem will produce 1 long, 2 short beeps when powered on.

HP, Dell & Apple computers are affected and are being fixed for free, for a limited time. But are the defective parts being replaced with more defective parts? We're having a difficult time trying to find out for sure, as there is more conflicting information online and companies are lying or incorrect. For example, here on Apple's site it says that NVIDIA assured Apple that Mac computers with Nvidia 8600M GT GPUs were not affected but after an Apple-led investigation Apple determined that some of them are defective and offered a free extended warranty.

The Enquirer says all G84 and G86 GPUs are affected in an article here.

Reports are popping up online about desktop graphics cards using the G92 & G94 GPUs are failing at abnormally high rates. The G92 chip is used in the 8800GT, 8800GTS, 8800GS, several mobile 8800, most of the 9800, and a few 9600. The G94 is basically only the 9600GT.

If you own an affected model there will be an available BIOS update which will make your fans run more often. From what we could find online this will simply delay the failure if you have an affected chip, and with the warranties being time sensitive, what are you supposed to do?

Anyways, we'll be following up with more news here as it becomes available. As of December 2008, computers under recall or having an extended warranty include:

DELL:
Inspiron 1420
Latitude D620
Latitude D630
Latitude D630c
Latitude D820
Latitude D830
Precision M2300
Precision M4300
Precision M65
Vostro 1310
Vostro 1400
Vostro 1510
Vostro 1710
XPS M1330
XPS M1530

HP:
DV2000
DV20xx
DV21xx
DV22xx
DV23xx
DV24xx
DV6000
DV60xx
DV61xx
DV62xx
DV63xx
DV64xx
DV9000
DV90xx
DV92xx
DV93xx
DV94xx

Compaq:
V3000
V30xx
V31xx
V32xx
V33xx
V34xx
V6000
V60xx
V62xx
V63xx
V64xx

MacBook Pro:
Laptops using the 8600GM GT graphics processor

A list of HP slimline desktops may be foun on HP's site here.

If you own one of these computers please visit the manufacturer's page for more information:

Dell's coverage: "Limited Warranty Enhancement"
HP's "Limited Warranty Service Enhancement" for laptops.
HP's "Limited Warranty Service Enhancement" for slimline desktops.
Apple's KB T2377

Other references:
CNET's coverage.
Tom's Hardware coverage.

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posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 7:10 PM, ,


Intel Core i7 Computers
Tuesday, December 16, 2008


The first Intel Core i7 machines have left the building. Wow, are they FAST!!!

We'll post more info here shortly. We've built some nice units w/ Core i7, RAID0 SAS, etc.

posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 8:40 PM, ,


Toshiba Qosmio F45 Media Control Buttons Problem
Thursday, December 11, 2008

Toshiba has a support bulletin out for some Qosmio F45 laptops (Doc ID 98082299).

If your media control buttons do not work properly it is simply because some are mislabeled.

If your Qosmio F45 has a button with a red dot next to "REC" then follow the directions on this page here.

posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 3:15 PM, ,


Dell M1710 Video Card Problems, M1730 Upgrade


Well it is hard to believe but Dell has made yet another laptop with no video cards available. The cards run very hot and break. Most of the failures we have seen have been in the 512MB Nvidia Geforce 7900 GTX cards, Dell P/N: YF227.

For the units out of warranty we can get the cards however they're around $700.

For the units in warranty Dell is giving away a free upgrade. We had a M1710 in recently that we handled the warranty for and Dell upgraded the customer to a M1730 (pictured above). The M1730 was alright- it had Vista Ultimate and 4GB RAM.

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posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 1:16 PM, ,


ASUS laptops get EPEAT award



The ASUS N series laptops are getting EPEAT awards for being "green"...

Read about it on ASUSTeK's site here.

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posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 9:43 AM, ,


Error formatting 1.5TB Seagate under Vista: ST315003-41AS / ST31500341AS

This applies to Seagate Barracuda ST315003-41AS / ST31500341AS Hard Drives, maybe others.

If you are trying to install Windows Vista onto a 1.5TB drive and the drive will not format, check your motherboard to see if you have an Nvidia chipset. If so you will not be able to format the drive to the full 1.5TB. You will need to make a partition 72% of 1.5TB or smaller. Once Vista is installed you will need to install Nvidia Chipset Driver 15.24 (or later). The driver is available from nforcershq.com. Once the Nvidia drivers are installed you will be able to format the full drive.

posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 8:46 AM, ,


Seagate 1.5TB Hard Drive Freezing/lock up notice
Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Notice from Seagate:

Seagate is investigating an issue where a small number of Barracuda 7200.11 (1.5TB SATA) hard drives randomly pause or hang for up to several seconds during certain write operations. This does not result in data loss nor does it impact the reliability of the drive but is an inconvenience to the user that we are working to resolve with an upgradeable firmware.

We are therefore asking customers if they feel they are experiencing this issue to give our technical support department a call with any questions.

Affected part number: 9JU138-300, 336 with firmware revisions SD15, SD17, or SD18.

Support contact information:

Technical Support in the USA: 1.800.SEAGATE (1.800.732.4283)
Technical Support in Canada: 1.405.324.4700

Other regions please go to our support web page:
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/

posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 12:43 PM, ,


Westinghouse NB-14W2 Shut Off problem


Westinghouse NB-14W2 laptop shut-off problem:

We have now seen a few of these Westinghouse laptops that will just randomly shut off. We narrowed it down to the motherboard. The motherboard gets some strange problem and it will suddenly shut off. Seems to be a common problem with this specific model. Replacement motherboards are not available.

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posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 11:09 AM, ,