iPhone Remote / Mic Issues - Solved!

So I went through a set of the new iPhone 3GS headphones and purchased a replacement online. They worked for a bit and then people would complain that they could not hear me very well and the remote function (iPod start and stop) ceased to work. I noticed a pattern with regard to the call recipient's complaint about them not hearing me happening when I played with the headphone jack. I looked into the headphone jack hole a few times and didn't see anything. I figured it was time for a new set.

Fast forward a few weeks later. I got feed up with not being able to answer the phone, fast forward to new tracks, etc. with the remote mic and decided enough was enough. I turned the iPhone off and used a pin to dig to the bottom of the jack and pick out a few wads of pocket lint. Once cleaned, the remote mic worked perfectly.

New pics on Flickr

I have created a site on Flickr for my car stuff.

Go here.

How-to Upgrade the HP MediaSmart EX485 CPU to an Intel E5200 CPU

I purchased the E5200 CPU upgrade for my HP MediaSmart EX485 (HP # FL700AA#ABA) thinking it was going to be a simple swap out job. NOT! I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out what was wrong. By issue was after I turned the server on with the new CPU in place, the status light was blinking blue for ever. It turns out the system was getting stuck in the boot process and never finishing to POST as seen here. The guide below will help ensure the process is smooth and quick. Please note that if after the process the system is still not booting up, just put the old CPU back in and it should go back to normal – that is Windows should boot up without issue. At least that is what happened for me.

In order to perform the upgrade successfully, you will need to download the BIOS utilities from the following sites:

The first is the AFUWin utility from American Megatrends website (v. 4.xx).

Then you need the AMIBCP 3.37 program which is found on the following forum or just go here and download it.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER

I cannot be held responsible for any damages that these instructions may cause. Continue at your own risk. With that said, if you follow the insturctions and are reasonably technicaly savy, you will be fine. J

Be sure that you do this with the original CPU in place. DO NOT REPLACE THE CPU YET. I will instruct you when you will need to open the case and replace the CPU.

First download and run the AFUWin utility to create a BIOS ROM file for your current settings. This way you can use the other program to open the ROM file and make changes.

Be sure that you do this with the original CPU in place. DO NOT REPLACE THE CPU YET.

Once you unzip the AFUWin utility, open th amibios folder and go to the afuwin folder and choose the 32 folder for (32-bit OS), then execute the AFUWIN.EXE file.

Click OK when prompted

Click the Save button on the bottom for the program to load your current BIOS settings into a ROM file that we will edit later.

A new save as window will open. Choose to save it in your My Documents folder and save it as current_settings

You should see the window close and the system read the blocks within your BIOS as seen below.

Now you will open the AMIBCP_V3.37.exe file you downloaded earlier. This will allow us to open the newly created ROM file and make changes.

Click the open icon on the top and select the current_settings.rom file we created earlier.

Now drill down to: Advanced > CPU Configuration and focus your attention toward the bottom.

Notice the PECI is set for 00 for both Failsafe and Optimal. We want to change these to 01 for both. To do this click on the numbers 00 and a drop-down should allow you to change it to 01. When you’re done yours should look like mine:

I changed PECI and Intel SpeedStep tech to 01 for both Failsafe and Optimal. The key here is to change PECI, if you don’t change it you will stay in perpetual blinking blue status light after you replace your CPU and get nowhere fast.

Now go to File > Save as and save the file as new_cpu_settings

Now that we have created a new BIOS ROM file we will need to upload this file to the BIOS and replace what is currently there.

Now switch back to the AFUWIN program and click the Open button and select the newly created file, new_cpu_settings.rom.

Then, under the CMOS Options in the Setup menu select Load ROM File’s Optimal and then click on the Flash button on the bottom of the program. This will flash your BIOS with the new settings. DO NOT POWER DOWN YOUR SEVER DURING THIS PROCESS.

You will see the progress screen showing you that it is updating the blocks and verifying. Once it is complete, you will need to manually shut down your sever by going to Start > Shut Down.

Once the server shuts down on its own continue to follow the CPU replacement steps outlined here - the instructions are identical.

Go here for instructions on how to open the case.

Thanks to Cadman on the Mediasmarthome.com forums for the information and inspiration to do this.

See this thread for details and history.

Southwest Airlines RULES!

I'll tell you why; they do what other airlines should do - the right thing. Allow me to elaborate, when life gets in the way and plans change, Southwest allows you to change your flight without nailing you for change fees, surcharges and flight cost differences. What a concept! Keep it up

My wife pointed out that airlines are going to have change if they're going to be competitive to airlines like Virgin Atlantic, Jet Blue and Southwest. She's referring to todays 2o and 30 somethings that like airlines that are "cool", easy to work or deal with and that offer neat comforts that is should be expected in todays world. WiFi, soft drinks, snacks, comfortable seats, leg room, in-flight entertainment and the list goes on.

This brings me to another point, I was recently on an American Airlines flight cross-country to Florida from California and it was so comforting to see the build date of the aircraft was September 1989. Those seats have seen so much...butt! Another point of contention is that nothing on that plane was upgraded or renovated to improve passenger comfort. For example, the seats were worn and they had five or six tube televisions in the middle of the roof of the aisle instead of behind the seats or under the storage compartment. I suppose that there is no point to this rant, and I realize that nothing will come out of this, but I felt compelled to vent.

PS - I wish people would please stop placing their backpacks, pocket books and small bags in the overhead compartment - they can fit under their seat. What happened to being courteous and thoughtful for others?

Here today, gone tomorrow

So the phone rings at approximately 8 AM on Sunday morning - December 6th, 2009. It's my boss and he say's that he's got bad news. He proceeds to inform me that there is a good chance the company is closing down and that there is going to be a conference call at 2:30 AM Monday morning - a full 18 hours later! What a terrific way to start the day.

After spending the entire day worrying about what I would do if the news were to indeed be true, I suddenly found myself in a situation that many other Americans found themselves in as of late: unemployment. Its something that I had been lucky enough to escape until now. I tried hard to not get caught up in the whirlwind of panic and hysteria. How was I going to make the house payment? Who's going to pay for the cars, the student loans, the bills, food, this, that, ugh!

Fast forward to 2:29 AM, I got an email saying the meeting was delayed an extra hour. "Great!" I think to myself, could this get any better?

3:30 rolls around, after a few more rounds of Team Fortress 2 online - hey what else was I going to do? Sleep? So I dial in the conference line and it is what we had all feared: the company had decided to fire (although I like the term terminate better) everyone - effective immediately. So much for hope right?

What had happened was the investors couldn't come to agreement with how much money they were going to make / loose, so they felt it was in their best interest to shut the company down and try to sell the intellectual property. A great idea for them, a bad situation for us.

You see the tricky part about working for an Israeli-based company was that since they're so far away its hard to knock on anyone's door to demand back-pay. I was technically employed by Administaff, a US-based company, who quickly covered their own hide and severed any ties they had with Exanet and the US-based employees. I had vacation days, regular pay, expenses, commission all owed to me with nobody to stick the bill to. To top it off, this was three weeks before Christmas which made things even more stressful.

Next up: The rest of the saga...