It appears that these can penetrate our (and your) spam filters so easily because of the randomization of the names, emails, and content. The best way to prevent this spam from reaching your inbox is going to have to be on the server-side filtering, but isn’t an easy task. We’re attempting to track down the originating server of these emails so that we ca set a filter rule specifically to block traffic and mail from that location. Other than that the best we’ve been able to do is to reduce the volume of spam by adding each new url to our filter list as they come up, which brings the spam down to a few a week rather than a few every hour.

Lately we’ve been seeng a lot claiming to be from paypal, usually with a subject of “You have sent a payment” and containing a link to view the transaction details. This link is set to “fortall.com.br” and is obviously a scam site.

Be careful of emails like these even if they look legitimate on the surface! Always double check the hyperlinks in emails before actually clicking them!

To accomplish this I’ve started using the JTAG header on the board as the fan connector. This helps in two ways. One, the fan connector is much more firmly anchored in an already existing socket, and the JTAG’s 3.3v output is perfect for use as the fan speed control regulator signal.

The original JTAG Pinout:

305T D-Board Original JTAG Pinout

The JTAG connector pinout after modification:

305T D-Board Modified JTAG Connector

Using the +3.3v control  wire to govern the fan speed allows the excess voltage to be passed back through the circuit into the ground without overloading the fan. The control wire is still regulated using a 500 ohm VR or Potentiometer.

+3.3v control wire running though the 500ohm VR

Fan Connector set in the position of pin1-4

While essentially accomplishing the same type of effect, the overall design is now more elegant and efficient, and much less likely to come loose or break off over time.

All of these emails seem to point at “train.lawnservicesaz.com” which is very obviously not affiliated with the BBB. Dont get caught by an easy scam!

If you’ve been infected by the malware hosted on this site take a peek at using ComboFix as a quick fix, and grab some of the free antispyware apps from my software section

First off, I thought the USB cable was ugly, and wanted to wire up the fan internally. This would not only make the mod much cleaner looking, but would also allow the fan a wider range of voltages to choose from. +5v is the highest voltage you can pull out of a USB port, and the hub in this monitor requires you to have a cable from the monitor to the computer to even pull anything at all. So not the most elegant solution.

I didnt want to stop there though. I’d done a few repairs now and know where to pull voltage from the video board itself, but the input voltage is +18v or +27v depending on the operation at hand, so I would put a little 200ohm resistor on the voltage line to the fan to bring it back down to roughly +12v. This time I decided to put on a 500ohm variable trimmer resistor so that my customer can change the fan speed whenever they feel like it!

So here we go.

First thing I did was to secure a chipset heatsink and fan. All of the local shops I used to buy the ThermalTake fans from no longer carried any so I just went with a generic northbridge sink and a SilenX 40mm fan. This was actually a fortuitous change because of how I planned on mounting the heatsink this time.

I then used some epoxy to mount the trimmer resistor on the side of the fan, and wired it in line with the voltage wire.

The next order of business was cutting a hole not only in the plastic of the outer casing, but also in the RF shield so that I could mount this heatsink directly onto the Altera HardCopy chip. I did some placement tests and marked out my cutting area with a sharpe and scratches from an exacto knife.

In hindsight I would say that I should have put the video control board somewhere else while cutting. Alot of ceramic and metal dust got on it and it took a while to clean out properly. I used some electronics grade cotton swabs amd 99% isopropyl alcohol to accomplish the task. had to clean off the silicon pads under the shield as well. End result was very clean and well fitted!

my original idea to have the entire tension clip under the heatsink left too much space between the rest of the RF shield and the other components on the board, so I decided instead to cut a couple of holes for the tension bracket to clip into, moving it up in relation to the RF shield just enough to put a decent amount of pressure on the sink without making it impossible for the other silicon pads to contact their components.

Next task: Wiring!

I found that the easiest place to get decent voltage from this board is to use the back end of the fuse for the incoming power. Safest place too, since if the fan draws too much amperage it will only fry the fuse instead of something more important. Fir this mod I wanted to be able to remove the RF shield and heatsink without needing to desolder anything, so I bought a few 2-pin molex headers to wire into the board. The pic below shows my initial wiring test to check the fan was wired correctly thru the resistor. I scraped off part of the solder mask of the ground plane instead of soldering to a ground component for a couple of reasons. One, soldering directly to the ground plane made a good anchor for the header, and two it makes it less likely to pull anything important off the board if the cable or header get jostled.

After getting the header all soldered down and mounted, I had to secure it a bit better with more epoxy as the header popped off when I tried to plug the fan in during reassembly. End product works perfectly and is super clean compared to the first one I did!

As you can see the variable resistor being mounted on the side of the fan made it very easily accessible without needing to make a huge change to the mod. Its wires have been covered with a dollop of epoxy to ensure they aren’t exposed to shorts.

I hope you enjoyed my latest creation of SCIENCE, and that it helps you with your own repairs. If you’d like your own Samsung Syncmaster 305T or Gateway XHD3000 repaired and modified by me, please feel free to call using the Google Voice widget on the left side of the page, or submit a service request here~

Certain restrictions apply, so ask your tech when scheduling or during your service call!

Call for help with:
-Virus Removals
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-And Much More!

The flood has caused a serious shortage in Hard Drives and other magnetic media storage devices, resulting in higher prices and even rationing at certain locations. As a result of the extreme upswing in cost, The Neighborhood Nerd’s prices will unfortunately have to reflect the increased cost of hard drive related repairs and upgrades.

We all hope for a speedy resolution to the problem so that TNN can again bring everyone outstanding service at reasonable rates

First things first TNN is working a contract that takes up a great deal of my time during the weekdays, and I’m in a location where I get very little signal, so the best way to contact me will be to text the Business Line (916-359-9597) or to email me at service@theneighborhoodnerd.net.

TNN is also moving locations, and transferring into a Home-Based Business, so most of my new calls will be on-site at my new client’s location rather than TNN’s.

At this time we’re no longer working on iDevices (iPods, iPads etc.) other than full Apple computers and laptops. The hardware simply isn’t designed to be repaired or refurbished and the price in labor and parts to successfully rework these devices outweighs the cost I’m willing to charge my customers. We will still support Xbox or PS3′s under certain circumstances, but other jobs will be taking priority.

Same-day service now will require a minimum service charge as I will usually need to put other projects or business aside to accommodate immediate service. If the normal charges of the same-day call exceed the minimum service charge there will be no additional cost, however.

Thanks to all of those who helped TNN become a success, and I hope to continue giving the best possible service to you all!

After doing a standard reflow on the main video chip, the issues with the monitor ceased, further confirming that this model suffered from the same issues the Gateway version did. While testing I decided to test out the temps the chip was generating. Turns out that the main video chip was sitting at between 90°-102°C most of the time if left on for more than 30 minutes or so. No big wonder why it fails so often. Due to this, we decided to rig up a cooling system for our customer to keep his $1200 monitor from burning out before it’s time.

We chose a Thermaltake Spirit A100 chipset cooler to accomplish the task, mainly because it was the perfect size to fit the chip’s dimensions exactly, and also would blend in nicely with the rest of the casing (other than the bright blue lights)

First thing we did was to wire the fan up to a USB cable (since this LCD has onboard USB ports) from which to pull voltage. All of the LCD’s internal voltages were far too high to hook up a bitty 40mm fan to, so instead we opted for a non-invasive low-voltage approach instead.

Tt Spirit A100 all wired up and ready to go

Next we had to cut a hole in the case the proper size for the fan and heatsink to rest on the chipset. I used a standard dremel rotary tool with a carbon fiber cutter wheel to do the job. First I measured out the dimensions of thecooler, and using the measurement and ruler pretty much just eyeballed the first cut over the chipset. I made sure to make the first cut a little too small so that I would be able to gauge the next cuts better by replacing the case over the chipset and re-measuring. By this method of cut, re-measure and cut again I was able to get a hole perfectly sized and positioned for the fan and heatsink:

Finished hole for the Fan and Heatsink

One thing I did not know about when we bought the Spirit A100 is that the blue color is on the base as well as everything else, so I decided it would be a good idea to Lap the base. I discovered it was a good idea to do anyway as the base was slightly concave and would have needed lapping anyway for perfect contact I didn’t bother doing a mirror finish job, since what I’m attaching it to is basically just a shield over a silicon pad on the chip itself:

Lapped using a glass coaster and 800 grit sandpaper

After the lapping was done successfully, all that was left was getting the chipset in place and permanently mounted. To accomplish this we chose Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive (not Arctic Silver Thermal Paste), which works like other epoxy in that it has two parts that are mixed and takes about 15 minutes to cure. I set the chipset with the back casing on to make sure the fan was positioned perfectly:

Positioning the chipset for the adhesive

A perfect fit! Fan was even flush with the higher section!

To be sure we could go back later to make other adjustments, repairs, or what-have-you, I made sure to paste the heatsink onto the main video board’s RF shield, and not directly to the chipset. While this will hinder thermal performance somewhat, It will allow for error correction later on or re-repair of the board, and I figured this chip would be kept cool enough just to have some active cooling rather than nothing.

Heatsink after thermal adhesive has set

Turned out that having the chipset fan made a huge difference to the video board. While testing, the video chip never got above 50°C, cutting the original operating temperatures in half! It should be noted that we DID turn the AC on halfway through the installation, which could have fudged the temperature variance some, but it appears to have done the trick! Another happy customer!

Doing its job marvellously!

Can hardly see the chipset heatsink! Fan sticks out a bit though

Here’s an example of the video chipset that usually has issues on many different computers. HP laptops and desktops from between 2006 and 2009 especially. There are many manufacturers and brands that use this chipset (nVidia GeForce 6150SE/LE) and many of them experience issues with this chip overheating and failing.

This picture is a successful refurbishment called a “reball” where the old solder points under the chip are removed and replaced, restoring the chip’s functionality in most cases.

The other picture is of the solderpoints the chip will be reflowed back onto, cleaned and prepared for reatachment