Category Archives: computer tips

Exede Liberty Pass speed tests [RESULTS]

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Here you will find real world speed test results for ViaSat’s Exede Liberty Pass internet plan. These results are from AFTER the monthly allotment is downloaded. These are also with their latest modem which features “up to” 25 Mbps downloads. Here is verification that the monthly allotment has been used, and the Liberty Pass is in effect:   A quick note regarding units discussed in this post: Unit symbol The ISQ symbols for the bit and byte are bit and B,

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Lenovo X220 (X230, X240) disassembly & SSD upgrade guide

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Please find below photos showing Lenovo ThinkPad X220 disassembly and mSATA SSD upgrade. WiFi is also easily upgradeable (make sure to get whitelisted card or modified BIOS) Lastly, 2.5″ SSD is upgradeable without even opening up the case 😉 NOTE: I recommend the Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SSD for the mSATA SSD. This drive costs < $90 at Amazon with free shipping. For the 2.5″ drive I recommend a larger SSD like the Samsung 850 EVO 500GB which is roughly $160 on Amazon.

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Yoga 2 Pro SSD Upgrade [HOWTO]

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Please see photos below, with these simple steps you can upgrade to a faster and higher-capacity mSATA drive. NOTE: I used a Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SSD for the upgrade. This drive costs < $90 at Amazon with free shipping. Performance has been exceptional and the 500GB and 1TB drives also work well with the Yoga 2 Pro. 🙂 TIP: Click any photo for a larger view.

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Lenovo IdeaPad Y700 14″ SSD & RAM upgrade [photos]

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NEW UPDATE: all photos are now posted at the bottom of the page! My top upgrade recommendation for the Y700 is up the Samsung 850 EVO M.2 SSD. The upgrade is easy and the performance is EXCELLENT 🙂 Notes: -There are no screws under the rubber feet, do not take them off 🙂 +RAM is Samsung M471A1G43DB0-CPB 8GB PC4-17000R DDR3-2133 2Rx8 SODIMM Laptop Memory -m.2 slot does not come with a screw for securing a new m.2 SSD +Once bottom cover is off, HDD

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Recover files from lost GPT disk NTFS partition [SOLVED] {FREE}

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Recently my Dell work laptop failed to resume after sleeping. It still recognized the internal 2.5″ SSD boot drive but it said it was not bootable. I believe the problem was caused by Windows 10. After removing the drive and connecting to another computer for diagnostics, I was able to determine that no partitions/GPT disk structure was being picked up by Windows. 🙁 Thankfully after trying a ton of recovery options, I was finally able to recover all my files

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Recover/copy a corrupt Quicken file [SOLVED]

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If you ever have a problem in Quicken where you cannot backup your QDF data file, and you cannot even copy your QDF data file, then you may want to try the following. This allowed me to save my mom’s Quicken data after nothing else worked (i.e. validate/repair did not work) and all the other solutions I found online did not work. This particular problem was caused by bad blocks on a failing SSD, but it could have just as

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