tech tips | J.D. Hodges

Category Archives: tech tips

Fix bad sound on Lenovo ThinkPad [SOLVED]

Friday, 2017.04.21 J.D. H. 54 comments

If you read my blog you probably know that I am a big ThinkPad fan. Lenovo has continued the classic IBM lineup and now there is a ThinkPad for almost any taste. My current favorite is the Lenovo ThinkPad T470. This 14″ beauty is nearly perfect for work and travel. However, from the factory it does suffer from a (fixable) issue that seems to plague many modern ThinkPads… terrible sound! Specifically, the sound is extremely echo prone… After listening to

Subtitles in VLC on Android TV [SOLVED]

Saturday, 2017.03.11 J.D. H. 6 comments

Until today, I have always had trouble with .SRT subtitles when watching videos on my Android TV device (the awesome NVIDIA Shield TV). The subtitle option was always greyed out and there was no way to load subtitles (even if they had the same filenames etc.) 🙁 The issue appears to be related to watching videos over SAMBA and launching VLC via an app like ES File Explorer. In those instance VLC will not be able to locate the subtitles…. Thankfully, there is a

Garmin Forerunner 230/235 wrong time?! [SOLVED]

Thursday, 2017.03.09 J.D. H. 50 comments

My wife’s Garmin Forerunner 230 recently started having some time issues. Specifically, showing the wrong time 🙁 First I tried setting the time manually and that worked until her next Bluetooth sync, then it seemed to get the incorrect time again. Eventually, the following worked to fix her watch time permanently: set the time back to Automatic make sure GPS is enabled* (and GLONASS for good measure) make sure the watch gets a GPS lock to sync the time *Enable GPS:

Best Ethereum mining GPU [Sep 20th, 2016]

Tuesday, 2016.09.20 J.D. H. Leave a comment

Currently, as of September 20th 2016, the best GPU for mining Ethereum is the AMD RX 480. The criteria are cost, hashrate (in MH/s) and power usage. My current top pick is the Sapphire Radeon NITRO+ RX 480 8GB model with 1342 Mhz core clock speed, for approx 27-29MH/s. At current rates this $279 card should mine about $750 USD of Ethereum a year. 4GB or 8GB? 4GB models of the RX 480 offer a lower initial cost, but resale value

Lenovo X230 Memory Upgrade to 16GB [HOWTO] [VIDEO]

Tuesday, 2016.09.20 J.D. H. 2 comments

[Scroll to the bottom for a quick video of the upgrade process!] The Lenovo X230 (and its predecessor the X220) are absurdly easy to upgrade. Here is the X230 memory upgrade process: Power off laptop (fully OFF, not hibernate) Remove battery Remove two screws from memory access panel Remove existing RAM by releasing retention clips Securely install new upgrade RAM Replace cover & screws Replace battery and power ON! For the upgrade, I chose Crucial’s excellent 16GB DDR3 RAM kit

NanoStation Loco M900 default IP address (192.168.1.20)

Sunday, 2016.08.14 J.D. H. Leave a comment

Recently I setup a point-to-point (Layer 2, transparent bridge) using two Ubiquiti NanoStation Loco M900 wireless (900MHz) devices. For reference purposes, here is the default IP address as well as the default username/password: Ubiquiti NanoStation Loco Default Login Info: Default IP address: 192.168.1.20 Default username: ubnt Default password: ubnt Overall, the performance and link quality has been excellent. Range and resistance to interference has also been superior to most 2.4GHz/5GHz implementations. 🙂 If you have experience with NanoStations, feel free to leave a comment!

Printer connected to WiFi but shows offline [SOLVED]

Saturday, 2016.07.30 J.D. H. 6 comments

Q. I have a printer that is connected to my home wifi network. It has an IP address and I can access its web interface from my PC. Sometimes I can print just fine from my Windows PC but other times it reports the printer is offline even when I know it is online. Can you help me? -email from Evan Thornton A. Hopefully! It sounds like a Windows printer driver configuration issue. Specifically, if your printer is getting its IP from a

Residence Inn Marriott, Springfield MO [business WiFi review]

Sunday, 2016.03.06 J.D. H. Leave a comment

I regularly stay in Springfield MO and Branson MO for business. I normally test the speeds at every hotel I stay in. Recently I stayed at the Marriott Residence Inn in Springfield MO and here are the results: ~2.0Mbps D/L* ~0.9Mbps U/L* *average of multiple tests throughout stay. Max D/L was 3Mbps, min was 1Mbps. Max U/L was always around 0.9Mbps. Overall, these are some of the worst speeds I have seen in southern Missouri. You can pay $8.95 a day for higher speeds,