The only distro that actually supports AMD is “SNOWLEO MAC Snow Leopard OSX86_64” iso.

Yeah, it’s 10.6 but don’t worry we’ll upgrade it to 10.6.6.

Help Needed: I forgot to take the screenshots when I did this. If you are doing this, can you post some screenshots? (Comment)

Note: SATA hard drive is a must.

1) Download Snowleo’s iso. Burn it using ImgBurn.

2) You’ll have to move the DVD drive to a higher priority. This can be done in the BIOS (Press Delete as soon as the computer boots up). Also, set the SATA Hard Drive to AHCI mode.

3) Insert your disc and restart. Your disc should boot up.

4) Now, you’ll have to install your Mac distro in an OSX journal’ed partition. To do that, Go to Utilities –> Disk Utilities. Select a partition other than your Windows 7 partition. Erase it (Obviously, Data in it will be washed away).

Format it to “OSX journaled”. Not the case sensitive one.

5) After that, go back to the setup. Click on the Hard drive. Don’t press “next”. Yet.

6) Click on “Customize”. Make sure these are checked.

These are the settings that worked for my 785g AMD hardware (mostly will work for you as well, unless you have extra addon cards). If they don’t try other combinations. Googling might help.

1. Mac OSX 10.6 (Obviously)

2. Use the Azaila audio

3. ATi_init (If you have an nVidia video card, try nVidia)

4. Chamelion RC5

5. AMD Patch

6. Chocolate Kernel

7. FakeSMC

8. Platform UUID

9. Apple driver for the rt8169 (LAN)

10. legacy apple piixata

Leave everything as it is.

7) Click on Next. The installation should be completed in a few minutes.

Reboot and you should be booting into Mac OSX. You ask me, where’s your Windows 7?

Rebuilding the Windows 7 MBR (Master Boot Record)

1) Now, boot with your Windows 7 Installation disc.

2) As the setup starts, click on “Repair my computer”

3) Click on “Repair Boot Problems” or

If you are a little bit geeky, Click on “Command Prompt”

Type in “fixmbr”

4) Restart and you should be able to boot into Windows 7.

Dual booting in Harmony

1) Install a Nice program called EasyBCD on your Windows Installation.

2) Click on “Add New Entry”. Choose the “Mac” tab and select the MBR mode.

Now, you’ll have a perfectly functional Dual boot Windows 7 + Mac OS X 10.6 system.

Upgrading to 10.6.6 or 10.6.7

1) Install the 10.6.6 or 10.6.7 combo update either by Googling or Click on the “About this Mac” icon.

2) Don’t restart. Go to http://nawcom.com/osx86/files/10.6/Kernels/

Here install the 10.6.0 legacy kernel if you have updated to 10.6.6 or

if you have installed the 10.6.7 update, installed 10.7.0 legacy kernel.

3) If you want a better update, similar instructions should follow.

Well, I could make my own in under Rs. 20 (50 cents). All you need is:

• Soldering Iron, soldering flux and the lead wire
• Hot glue gun
• Shielded USB Cable (I got mine from a mobile transfer cable)
• 12V AC Adapter (preferably 2 A). I just used my computer’s SMPS to achieve the same (According to Molex standards, Yellow=12v, Black=Ground)
• Some patience

There are two ways to go about this..

The quick and dirty way:

I’m took this route because, this just needs some basic soldering skill and I wanted play my Kinect ASAP.

1) Cut the Kinect cable at the end. You’ll find 6 wires.

2) Tin the wires (Google “tinning” if you don’t know how to). This just mean, you’ll have to remove a part of the insulation and add a little bit of solder on it.

Tiny Tip: Use a Nail Cutter to remove the insulation on the wire.

3) So, here are the details about the wires. Thankfully, Microsoft has used the standard color code.

Yellow / Brownish – 12 V source (That is, your adapter)

Black – Ground

White – Data -

Green – Data +

Red – + 5V (The USB power).

4) Slice up the USB cable and you’ll find similar color coded wires. Solder it to the Kinect Wires.  Red to Red, Green to Green. etc.

Note: Ground is Ground, there is no separate USB ground/AC Adapter ground. So, join the AC Adapter and USB cable’s ground (Black) to Kinect’s Black wire.

5) Add some hot glue after you solder every connection. So, they don’t make unnecessary contact. You could also try insulation tape but I’m unsure about the longevity of your homemade cable.

6) And…. you should have something ugly like this.

and a mess like this….

The neat and clean way:

I didn’t do this but one guy had the patience to do it. Picture speaks a thousand words. So, here goes:

 

When I press the power button the first time, it does POST but does not detect my IDE hard drive. Then, it does not boot saying “no boot device” blah blah

After this, when I press reset (or quickly press the power button, twice), it detects my hard drive. So, my computer boots up my hard drive (Windows XP or whatever).

So, technically, the hard drive boots with a soft boot not a hard/cold boot.

I emailed Gigabyte support about this problem. As expected they gave me the default “Go to Hell” solution politely. Should I email those people to get template responses?

Anyways, heres the fix.

When will this problem occur:

I got myself a New Computer but was using my old IDE hard drive. So, my hard drive is a little bit old and slow. It can’t keep up with my new computer. The hard drive needs a little bit extra time to initialize after giving power.

The Fix:

We add a delay before the BIOS starts detecting (POST), so your hard drive will get detected every time you boot up (Yay!).

How do I do it?

Its pretty simple but the interface you get might be different from mine. Just try to find a “Delay for HDD” option in the BIOS setup.

• As soon as you press your power button, start pressing “Delete” or “F1” or “F8” (Depends on your motherboard manufacturer). Normally, its “delete”. By this, you’ll enter the BIOS setup.
• Switch to Advanced settings (For my Gigabyte board, I press Ctrl+F1).
• Now, select Advanced CMOS setup. There, you’ll find “Delay for HDD (secs)”. Set it to 2.
• If you still continue to have problem, increase it to 5 seconds or something (Note that this will increase your boot time)

It didn’t have a stereo (3.5 mm) port, just the Sony Ericsson connector. If you follow my blog, you’ll know that I’m the cheapest ass in town . I soldered in a stereo setup, here’s how.

1) Open up the Speaker using Torx 6 screwdriver (T6).

2) Solder the connection as per this pic. It also needs an external power source (+5V), you can use USB, a 5V adapter, or even a discarded battery

3) Here are some alternative points that I could find out (I broke the Sony Ericsson port *facepalm*).

4) Erm, thats it. Do all the cosmetic stuff (I <3 Hotglue) and Tada!

Playing on the hot seat (I mean the charging dock )

This time, I have a video for you. By this, I’m launching my YouTube Channel. There’ll be better videos so, don’t forget to subscribe

I wanted to get a VGA Cable by which I could could connect my Xbox 360 to my monitor (Fights over the TV is quite normal in my place). I looked at the price tag of the Official VGA cable ($40!). At the end of of the its just a cable and it doesn’t deserve $40. So, I got myself a third party cable from this chinese website called play-asia for $10. It was of the worst build quality. Ghosting images all over the monitor (Bad shielding I would say). Even Gears of War looked like Left4Dead .

I had all the parts lying around. So, thought I would do it myself. Initially, I thought that building it myself would mean bad quality. It turned out to be a pretty good after all.

Shielding is basically a protective layer over your cables which prevent signal loss. If that is bad, ghosting would be evident. Also, Microsoft was kind (or cheap) enough to provide all the pins in all the connectors (use it or not) unlike PS2’s connector. So, you can try this with any cables. Standard Definition AV cable, HD component, VGA cable (though I see no point in doing that ) .. anything!

One surprising thing is that, I didn’t even use shielding cable and still didn’t get any ghost images. How? you may ask me? Simple, I just made the cable as short as possible. Leaving little scope for signal loss.

Also read: Connect headphones to your Xbox 360 VGA cable

1) Any standard Xbox 360 video cable. SD AV cable, HD component, etc. Even a third party cable would do. You just need the port.

2) Female VGA connector / port. (see the last pic)

3) 3.5 mm stereo connector (for audio). I got mine from an old tape recorder.

Here’s how you can do it:

1) Open up the Xbox 360 connector by cutting the sides of the head. I did a shabby job, here, but it didn’t matter.

2) After that, you’ll get a piece like this. Solder the connection according to the corresponding pinouts. Red to red, green to green etc. That is, VGA cable to the original Xbox 360 connector (I think you get the idea).

Don’t forget to solder the connections of your Stereo port.

3) Use some insulated tapes between the terminals (in the VGA port). To prevent shorts.

4) I put some super glue on the metal plate and fixed it on the plastic thing.

5) And Tada! (This is going to be my signature statement from now on )

It worked like a charm. No ghosting no matter what!

Also, thanks to Ben Heck @Engadget for the nice article.

That’s when I decided to replaced my old CD-ROM (can you believe it?) with a brand new DVD-RAM.  B)

Its not a difficult thing to do, all you need to do is have a small star screwdriver. This is actually the easiest DIY ever. So, starters are at relief. While that adds, this is also a DIY with no pictures. You see I forgot to take pictures when I did that but still its dumbing ease will make it comforting for you.

Getting the DVD Drive:

You’ll need to get a compatible DVD drive for your computer. Basically, there are 2 standards, IDE and SATA. Open up your computer (More on point no. 1) and check what kind of a cable your computer is using.

Normally, computers having SATA ports will also have IDE ports. Go for SATA DVD drives (Cheaper and Better)

1) Firstly, you need to rip-off your PC cabinet to expose its interiors. Its not difficult, you just need to remove the outer screws and SLIDE out the side panels (both of them).

2) Once you’ve done that, you will easily see the CD/DVD drive from the inside. Unscrew the screws on the sides. Slide it out. Unplug the wires.

3) Slide out the old CD/DVD drive, after removing a couple of screws that hold it in its place.

4) Now just put in your new drive, reconnect the wires at the same places, and you’re good to go!!

Troubleshooting:

Some old computers (using IDE cables) can’t distinguish between Master and Slave drives if the jumpers are not set properly. If you connect two devices with the same cable, only one of the two device will be detected.

To solve it, you’ll have to set one as Master and one as slave. Here’s how:

If you have any doubts, please comment.

Anyways, I called up Toshiba service centre, that guy lied that it would cost Rs. 10,000 – 15,000 (Thats around $200-$300!). Then, Mr. Google told me that it would just cost around $100. Hell, I ordered a new LCD screen, had some fun, learnt some stuff, saved a lotta money…. the DIY way!

What you’ll need:

1) A set of precision screw drivers.

2) A new LCD panel. More about it on point no. 6.

Ok, Lets get started:

The basic procedure to replace an LCD is same for almost all laptops. Some changes here and there, that’s all. Here I’m going to show you how to do it on Toshiba Satellite L100.

Just make sure you don’t remove unnecessary screws. Putting them back can sometimes be very tedious.

1) Remove the rubber plugs on the sides and unscrew the screws beneath them.

2) Slide you screw driver along the edge. When you get an obstruction (Plastic clips), pry it off. Do it all around the LCD screen.

3) The plastic retainer should now come off.

4) Now, unscrew the screws on the sides.

5) The LCD should now come off the steel bracket.

6) Peel the sticker off and unplug the VGA connector.

7) Also, unplug the 2 pin backlight connector (Couldn’t take a picture .. Sorry).

6) Order your new panel. Just google “your laptop model lcd screen” and get the specifications. Mine is 15”, 30 pin VGA connector, 2 pin backlight.

Use this information to get your LCD off ebay, amazon etc.. I got mine from Justdial

7) Install the new LCD in place of the old one. Connect the wires (1 VGA and 1 Backlight). Make sure you DO NOT PRESS the inverter board on the new LCD panel.

Put everything back and TADA!

Electronic devices hate water. Many of us have ended up wrecking our Mobile Phones, PDAs, Flash drives, iPods, Digital Cameras etc by putting it in water. I recently had my pants washed with my Pen drive in it. Fortunately, I could recover it. Here’s how.

• Remove the battery instantly.
• Don’t switch the device on or charge it what so ever. This can lead to short circuits.

1. First, clean the places you can reach with a soft cloth.
2. Now, you still have water inside your device. To remove it you need to provide some small amount of heat. Here’s some stuff you can do.

• Your body temperature can help, put it in your pocket, go out for a jog or work out for sometime.
• If you are a little geekish, open up your computer cabinet. Place your device on the Hard disk. (I left it for a day) In my opinion, this is the best way. You can think of other ways too.
• Don’t be in a hurry to switch it on. Don’t do anything stupid stuff like putting it in the oven.

Nowadays, almost all the Operating Systems are offering support for this Layout. So, you can take advantage of this layout. True, there is a learning curve, but you’ll thank me after sometime.

You can always convert your QWERTY keyboard into a Dvorak Keyboard. This is very simple. And Don’t worry, you can switch between Layouts with a press of a Button.

First, Setup your operating System.

For

1. Windows,
2. Linux:

loadkeys /usr/share/keymaps/i386/dvorak/dvorak.map.gz

or

loadkeys dvorak

3. Mac

Now, buy some  keyboard stickers (They are cheap too ). Paste it and your done.

Very useful source of information. Include FAQs etc. – http://dvorak.mwbrooks.com/

What you need:

1) A couple of cables from the charger or this would be very handy.

2) USB Cable

Procedure:

1) Cut open the USB Cable. You can find 4 wires. The red (5 volts) and black (ground) is all you need.

2) Connect the positive wire to red wire of the USB cable. Connect the ground to the black wire of the USB Cable.

3) Tape the wires and that’s about it.