If you came here through a search, you’ll probably have to dig (sorry). On the other hand, if you’re cyber-stalking me, this probably won’t disappoint you any more than the usual stuff (hurray!).

—

On the iPad

I was always of the camp that thought “iPad” sounded more like a feminine product than a brilliant piece of technology. It didn’t click with me any more than the iPhone – it sounded cool and had neat features and everything, but I didn’t need it. I had a computer (and in the case of the iPhone, I already had a phone too).

However, lately the notion started to grow on me. I’ve been lugging the laptop all over the place, and just when I thought “I couldn’t be any more lazy than I am now“, I realized the iPad might make my life immensely more convenient. We’re a privileged generation.

So anyway, I bought an iPad. And it’s pretty nifty. It’s now the 1 device that pulls email from all my accounts (Apple Mail is great). I can work & browse the web comfortably while in bed. And using AirPlay to stream video to the AppleTV… just awesome.

I think the best part is… I probably wouldn’t have considered the thing if it weren’t for Microsoft.

Wait, what?

—

On Microsoft

Microsoft is dumb. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure smart people work there, but the company as a whole is clueless.

You’re probably wondering how I’m about to connect the dots between Microsoft and the iPad. It’s actually a short trip. Windows 8.

For anyone who’s followed Windows 8, you’ve probably learned (or heard) about Metro – the new Windows UI. Microsoft decided that they’re going to bridge the desktop/mobile markets with a single UI. When you start up your Windows 8 machine and are presented with the Metro interface, instead of the desktop with Start/Taskbar, you’ll be interfacing with what looks like a smartphone.

The desktop you’re used to seeing when you start up Windows will now be changed to this:

It’s like using a tablet, but with a mouse instead of touch. Brilliant thinking, Microsoft!

Just in case you think I’m making it up, or that it could never happen, I’ll run you through the logic at Microsoft:

1. We have the largest desktop marketshare.
2. We’re doing terrible in the phone/tablet arena and can’t break in.
3. If we provide a consistent UI between PC/mobile, Windows users will be more inclined to use a Windows-based tablet/phone because they’ll be comfortable with the UI.
4. Since a Windows Desktop doesn’t transition to a phone/tablet, we’ll bring the phone/tablet interface to the PC.

The reality of the situation is that they’re just not going to make it in the tablet/phone area, just as they failed in the music area (Zune, anyone?). And Windows deskop PC users are going to get the joy of inheriting a UI that not only wasn’t intended for a desktop, but also failed at the thing it was actually intended for.

Joy.

Windows PC users are about to get a bolted-on, force-fed, tablet/phone UI on their desktop. And I thought it was a little funny. Because Windows 8 is all about upgrading your PC to a smartphone.

Maybe that’s more sad than funny.

Anyway, if I had to be exposed to a tablet UI, I wanted to see what was out there. So I looked at the iPad. And the iOS UI is better than the Metro UI by miles.   …and then I started realizing that maybe I need Windows (and PC’s in general) less than I did before. The iPad’s fast. It’s got a pile of apps. The thing’s really versatile.

So good job, Microsoft, the Metro UI got me interested in tablets, just like you wanted.

Only problem is, it wasn’t yours it got me interested in.

—

On Dishwashers

Getting away from the computer-area of things, I recently fixed a few washing machines, and wrote about bearings here, and spiders here.  I was actually about to throw up a “what-manufacturers-should-do-to-avoid-some-of-these-problems” post, when I realized that the new models already took the suggestions I was about to make.

So I guess they’re trying. And since they’re making some of the mechanical changes I was about to tell them to make, I can’t rag on them for being idiots as much any more. Oh well.

In any case, I think I’m in an appliance-phase. And I’ve moved from washing machines to dishwashers.

—

Most people buy a dishwasher because they need a dishwasher.

Not me, I go against the grain. I bought one because I found it interesting.

…and they are rather interesting. They have fewer complexities than a standard front-load-washer, but still… did you know that Bosch models don’t use a heater to dry your dishes? They use condensation drying. After a final hot-water rinse, the stainless steel interiors cool faster than the dishes. So the water evaporates from the dishes, condenses on the stainless steel interior, and runs down the drain.

As far as top-of-the-line models go, did you know it’s possible to get models with a built-in water softener? I mean really. That’s pretty crazy. Now to be fair, that only solves problems for rich people with hard water who don’t have a water softener in their house already (a rare set of circumstances), but I think it’s a bit neat none-the-less.

In any case, the dishwasher I grabbed is in the process of having a website built around it. At the moment, it only covers a few of the comparisons I made while trying to determine what to buy (more to come), but if you feel like checking out the site’s progress, you can read about the Bosch 300-series dishwasher here.

…and as a note: If you’re looking for a dishwasher, once you’ve hit the price-point where they offer stainless-steel interiors, any upgrades beyond that tend to revolve around looks & features (until you get to the crazy water-softener price-point anyway). If you’re grabbing a dishwasher, don’t go super-cheap, but there doesn’t seem to be any functional need to go super-expensive either.

—

Well, that’s enough random for this month.

Back to irregularly scheduled programming.

So, this time around, grabbed a Whirlpool Duet GHW9400PW0 (used, with a known broken spider), and thought I’d give repairing it a shot. As a side-note, purchasing all these non-working bargains has resulted in me having too many working machines.

Note that before you continue reading, it’s worth mentioning that in my case, 2 of the spider arms had cracked off near the center of the spider (3rd arm still connected to the center & shaft). If yours completely disintegrated, you’re in a different situation, and this isn’t going to help you very much (alignment would be a massive issue).

Little Rant

In any case, this certainly isn’t the first GHW9400 out there with a busted spider. A little searching will show it’s a common problem. Whirlpool makes the spiders out of aluminum – not the good kind, but the terribad “pot metal” (or so I’ve read) kind.

Because Whirlpool hates the environment so much, they don’t sell the spiders separately. Not only are they one of the most vulnerable components, but to get a replacement, they force you to buy the entire stainless steel basket at around $400-500. They know you probably won’t spend that much (and will just buy a new machine for a little bit more). Your old washer goes to the dump. Of course if you break down and buy the whole basket, your old basket goes to the dump. So no matter what you do, something is going to the dump. And this makes Whirlpool happy. Internally, I wonder if their motto is “Whirlpool – Killing the environment one machine at a time“. 

—

Anyway. On to the repair.

Disclaimer: This is probably dangerous. I may have done something wrong. Or I may have neglected to mention something vital (I’m writing this from memory). If following anything I say here results in damage, injury, death, or the end of all mankind, I am not taking responsibility. You’re doing this at your own risk. It’s worked for me so far, but it was a “fingers crossed all the way” thing, and for all I know the thing could blow up on you.

Here was the spider’s condition (sorry, didn’t take images – hopefully you’re looking at yours and can see what I’m talking about):

-arm #1 was still “intact” and attached to the shaft/spindle and “center” section
-arm #2 had cracked off from the center
-arm #3 had cracked off from the center
-the basket itself had rubbed through the plastic tub, but was itself, fine

Essentially, everything was still “there” as in “attached to the basket”, hadn’t completely disintegrated, and was more-or-less in position. Obviously when the machine was run, having arm #1 as the only one connecting the spindle to the basket meant it was flexing and wobbling like there was no tomorrow.

—

NOTE THAT THESE STEPS BEGIN WITH THE SPIDER STILL CONNECTED TO THE STAINLESS BASIN

—

STEP 0 – CLEANING & DRYING

The thing was covered in white gunk (aluminum’s version of rust), soap scum, and much else. Used high pressure water, “Simple Green”, sandpaper, and scrubbing to clean it up.

Rinsed everything and dried under a heater.

—

STEP 1 – putting everything into position (risky):

Why is this risky? Assuming you’re in the same situation and looking at your spider/basket, if you grip the shaft, you can probably pull it towards you, or push it away. The remaining arm that’s still connected to the shaft (arm #1) flexes. There’s no method I know of to figure out how pushed in, or pulled out it actually should be.

In my case, based on the damage to the *tub* during operation (concentrated at the front of the machine), I surmised that the arm had pulled/flexed away from the basket and was probably sitting too far away from the basket at rest.

I pushed it towards the tub, and did so with the other arms. Fortunately, cracks tend to be zig-zaggy, and the pieces fit together. They ended up lining up pretty well at the crack.

To hold them all down at an even level (yet pushed down), I threw the concrete weights from the tub on 2 of the arms.

—

STEP 2 – measurements/alignment

I had to make sure that the spindle wasn’t cockeyed.  Obviously, if it were, the basket would rotate all wonky once everything was done (and inevitably break + smash things). I took a tape measure. Here’s a paint image to give you an idea:

(Remember that the spider itself is still connected to the stainless steel basket. Obviously this paint image doesn’t show the cracked arms, but if you mentally “snap off” 2 of the arms, you’ll get an idea as to where the cracks are.)

The yellow/orange lines are where I used the tape measure. I measured the distance from the nut (which I loosely threaded on the top) to the edges of all 3 spider arms. DISTANCE MUST BE THE SAME FOR EACH – if it’s not, the spindle is almost certainly cockeyed and bad things are pretty much guaranteed to happen.

All distances were the same.

—

STEP 3  - PRE-MENDING THE CRACKED OFF / BROKEN ARMS

Ideally, if you’re doing this, you should probably use a welder. We have one, but I didn’t use it because (1) i’m successful when welding steel, but i usually end up simply melting new holes in aluminum. (2) I didn’t have the aluminum wire for the mig (and the gas you need).

I used a combination of JB Weld and Fibreglass.

I started with JB Weld. If you decide to go my route, grab the “real” stuff (red/black tubes), and grab a lot. Don’t use the JB “Quick” Weld, as it’s not as strong, and you need every advantage you can.

I Mixed the JB Weld, used a toothpick to push it in the cracks, then used my finger to smooth it over.

Then I waited for it to cure.

Next, I cut strips of fibreglass, contoured to follow the “perimeter” facing me. This stuff is a pain to work with, but I figured the JB Weld on it’s own probably wouldn’t hold up forever (if at all), and like I said earlier, you need to take every advantage you can.

Mixed the resin, doused the fibreglass in it, and placed the fibreglass in position, making sure that I crosssed the part of the “perimeter” where the breaks/cracks (and now JB Weld) were. The thinking was that if the fibreglass crossed the cracks and I made use of all the surface area I could, it could only help if the JB Weld wasn’t up-to-the-task.

I let the fibreglass dry and then smothered the entire thing (including over the fibreglass I’d just put on) with more JB Weld.

Beyond giving the JB Weld as much surface area to work with as possible (and smoothing out over the fiberglass), so much of the arm had deteriorated that I figured if by some chance this worked, the arms were likely to break off somewhere else soon anyway. May as well get a pre-emptive jump on things.

So everything I could see/access so far (the other side wasn’t accessible due to the stainless tub) was covered in JB Weld and fiberglass.

I let it all dry a loong while.

—

STEP 4 – REMOVING THE ARM FROM THE BASKET

Obviously doing 1 side of the spider probably wasn’t going to be enough. Time to remove the spider so I could get to the other side.

This was the first test of strength for the spider, as it has to be pried out. To remove it from the stainless basket, there are a total of 6 screws holding the spider in.

Once those screws are out, you have to pry in 2 places at once – I picked a spider arm and used a screwdriver to pry between the basket lip & the spider arm (because the screw-holes are bevelled in, you have to force a gap between the arm & lip), and pried the arm itself up at the same time with a prybar.

This is quite a bit of force being exerted – fortunately, I didn’t hear any cracking. The spider was already pretty solid.

—

STEP 5 – THE OTHER SIDE

With the spider (now one piece more-or-less) out of the basket, I had access to the opposite side. I began by cleaning it up (washing, cleaning, sanding, scrubbing) and drying it.

You can guess what I did next. That side pretty much took a bath in JB Weld, starting with the cracks, letting it dry, and then smearing JB Weld over the rest. I ignored the far edges because most pictures out there show cracks/breaks being concentrated around the center, and I was already running low on the JB.

More dry/cure time.

—

STEP 6 – PAINTING THE SPIDER

Since I hadn’t used JB all the way to the edges, I figured paint might help to keep water/soap/minerals from attacking the little aluminum that was exposed (and perhaps catch areas I didn’t quite perfectly cover with the JB.

I painted the entire thing with some pretty standard Tremclad.

…and more dry time.

—

STEP 7 – REATTACHING THE SPIDER – SILICON CITY

As you’ve probably figured out, throughout the process I had days of drying time to ponder/plan. During this down time, I wondered why the spider was never attached to a more central part of the stainless basket to any degree (why limited to the edges?). Was the arm supposed to flex a little and absorb shock? Was the tub expected to flex? Dissimilar metals issues? Physics/leverage? Oversight?

I almost considered drilling through some of the “compartments” in the spider, right through the stainless basket and bolting the 2 directly together in a few spots for added strength, but because there were so many possible reasons it may intentionally *not* have been that way, I decided to go with a flexible compromise.

I grabbed 3 tubes of the Permatex silicon stuff (1 silicon, 1 RTV high temp gasket stuff, 1 black RTV gasket thing), dumped all of 1 tube in the middle of the basket, and the other tubes in thick lines down the “arm” runs.

Then I plopped the spider back on, sandwiching the silicon down between the two.

Silcon Notion was 3-fold:

1. the silicon (when cured) should transfer *some* of the energy directly to the basket, starting at the center, which *should* result in slightly less energy being transferred down the arms.
2. if the spider actually shouldn’t be direct-connected to the basket anywhere but the edge, this stuff would/should flex enough not to hurt things too badly.
3. in the event this whole endeavor failed and the arms were going to crack off again anyway, the silicon would hopefully at least keep the arms from instantly slamming in the wrong direction – keep them kinda in place so that instead of a big boom, I get a more gradual crunch-crunch-bang.

The biggest concern I had here was that the silicon might not adhere super-well, go flying off at high spin and end up plugging the drain system. Figured it was a relatively small risk for the possible potential.

—

STEP 8 – REASSEMBLY

After letting the silicon cure (more waiting….), I started reassembling.

Once back in the plastic tub, I rotated the stainless basket by hand to verify it wasn’t cockeyed, and to make sure it wasn’t rubbing the tub (if I had a problem here, I’d have to snap everything back apart and start over).

Fortunately, all seemed well.

I tried prying between the basket + tub, and there was no play, and no cracking.

Things were looking good.

—

—

I then:

• Assembled the rest of the machine.
• Ran a number of empty test cycles (using a flashlight to watch the space between the stainless + tub the whole time to ensure it wasn’t coming loose).
• Made sure it seemed balanced. Listed for noises, etc.
• Ran cycles with clothes (again, watched with flashlight).
• Checked the drain catch to make sure I didn’t have JB Weld, paint, fibreglass, or silicon in there.
• That was it!

—

CONCLUSION

As far as I can tell, it’s worked fine. Of course, it all could end in a catastrophic bang, but I’m optimistic.

One thing I have avoided is the use of the “Extra High Speed” spin – I ran it once, that particular load wasn’t balanced (washer tried a few times to rebalance) and the thing was banging away – I realized I couldn’t tell whether it was the load or if things were coming apart, so I shut down the washer, checked the basket for integrity/play, and when I found it was still solid, I figured I’d rather stick to “High Speed” instead and forgo the worry every time I hear a noise.

I probably should have allowed the JB Weld (everything really), cure for a week. While the stuff should generally be done within 24 hours, it seems to continue curing & getting harder after that.

If I were to do it again, I’d use real weld the next time and just learn to deal with welding aluminum. Going the JB Weld route seemed like the quicker/easier/cheaper solution at first, but as you’ve seen, I spent days waiting for stuff to dry, and resorted to fibreglass + silicon to help ensure integrity. Maybe I didn’t need the fiberglass/silicon, but to my knowledge, nobody’s tried to repair one of these things before and I had to operate under the assumption that whatever I was doing might-not-be-quite-enough.

In hindsight it would have been much better to weld the thing, maybe use JB to fill out any holes/gaps & weak areas, and then just paint it and go. Welding is quick, and when done properly, incredibly strong – much stronger than any epoxy ever has been in my experience anyway.

—

In any case, if your spider is gone and you’re looking to repair it, it’s certainly possible, though whether it’s worth the time & effort is questionable. Of course, longevity’s still a question too. As you can probably tell, I’d be inclined to suggest a proper weld rather than the precarious JB/Fibreglass method (still no guarantees, but should be easier, quicker, & more reliable), but I realize that starts to become a “do as I say, not as I do” thing.

Regardless, if you decide to tackle a repair on your spider, hopefully something above has helped you.

In this case, the bug revolves around the following mission:

Citadel: Hanar Diplomat
Salarian Spectre Jondum Bau suspects that a member of the Hanar diplomatic staff is indoctrinated. Find evidence on the hanar in the Presidium Embassies.

If you’re stuck here and have played ME2, you already know why it’s particularly frustrating that you can’t proceed. It’s worth noting that the only way *not* to trigger this bug in the first place is to do this entire mission as soon as you get it – don’t leave the Citadel, don’t talk to anybody else, etc.

In any case, if you’ve hit the bug, the fix is to edit the saved game. Here’s how you do it (thanks to Fasalina from the thread in BW’s forums here: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/344/index/9687936/6#9959316):

1) Just to be safe, back up your savegame directory first. Head to your Documents folder, and find it within BioWare/MassEffect3. I’ll assume you know how to either zip it or make a copy elsewhere.

2) Run the game, and head to the location on the Citadel shown in the image below (click for a larger version):

Note that the terminal is actually near #5 on the map (even though it looks like it should be near #4). Verify that it’s not working/clickable, then create a new save. Remember the save game number. Exit Mass Effect 3.

3) Grab  Gibbed’s Mass Effect 3 Save Editor. If that site is down at some point or <insert-other-problem-here>, I put up a local copy here: saveedit-r62_b77.zip

4) Unzip it, and run the program (the icon is pink). Note that it requires Microsoft’s .NET framework – in my case (running Windows 7), trying to run the program simply brought me to the download page and I had it downloaded & installed in under a minute.

5) With the program running, look at the following image (click for larger version):

You start by hitting OPEN – for me, it found the save game location automatically and I simply had to choose the Career and Save  Game number.

Then you go to the RAW section – it may be selected by default.

Head to the Uncategorized section, and select Streaming.

Now that you’ve selected STREAMING, at the location of #5 in the image above, there will be a little button with 3 dots (…). Select that button.

6) A new window will pop up:

Click ADD. A new entry will show up, called Gibbed.MassEffect3.FileFormat (as seen in #7 above). It should already be selected. Move the mouse to the circled region by #8, click, and start typing….

The entry you are adding (typing in) is as follows:

SS_HanarPlot

It’s probably case-sensitive. Once you’ve entered it, you’ll be changing the “Active” section from False to True. The image below should help:

Now that you have SS_HanarPlot (#9), set to TRUE (#10), verify that it’s showing up correctly in the left pane (#11). Once that’s done, hit OK (#12).

7) You’ll be back in the main program window. Hit SAVE. It should present a list. I suggest making a new save-game, though I suppose you could overwrite an existing one if you wanted to (hopefully you backed up just in case!).

8 ) Fire up Mass Effect 3 again. I WOULD NOT hit “Resume” because I have no idea whether it would load your newly created save, or load a previous one. Instead, manually load your new save.

9) The terminal should now be clickable (again, on the in-game map it’s closest to the #5 point of interest – NOT the #4). Make sure to follow the entire quest chain through immediately (don’t pick up other quests, don’t leave the Citadel). Basically, after you’ve used the terminal mentioned, you’ll have to use a couple terminals in the Docks:HoldingArea and then return to the Embassy area again.

—–

Hopefully BioWare manages to patch this bug out soon – in the meantime, editing the save-game is the only method I’m aware of to currently fix it, and let’s be fair – not everyone is comfortable dabbling in an editor, and others don’t want to lose hours of progress by reverting to a save that took place before the bug was triggered.

If you have additional tips, or have found another way to work past the bug, feel free to leave a comment below.

Otherwise, hopefully this has helped you to continue enjoying ME3 !

It involves some fairly major disassembly. Worth noting a few things before we get started here:

1. The Q460 is one of the harder notebooks to disassemble. There are many plastic clips and you’re going to have to do a lot of careful prying.
2. Even if you’re careful, you may end up with some cosmetic damage around the case seam, particularly if you use a sharp object to do the prying. Oh, and you’re probably going to have to use a sharp object to do the prying.
3. I didn’t see gains by replacing the paste (details at the end). YMMV of course.
4. This will probably void your warranty. You’re doing this at your own risk. If you’ll be extremely sad/mad if you break the system, and/or you’re not comfortable doing this, you probably shouldn’t attempt it.

—

So, let’s get started!

—

STEP 1 – the easy stuff (you probably haven’t voided your warranty just yet….)

Click on the image below for a larger version.

You’ll see I’ve already removed the access panel. It’s removed by taking out the screw in the orange location, and carefully prying it out from the clips.

Purple – The battery. You should probably remove this before doing anything unless you’re hoping for a spark show when you slip with the screwdriver (2 spring clips, covered in the manual).

Orange – This is where the access panel screw was. In my previous post, I mentioned they overtightened mine at the factory and I had to use a dremel to cut a new slot. Hopefully you have better luck.

Blue – The “blank” in the memory card slot. Slides right out.

Green – Remove the remaining 2 screws that secure the hard drive, pull the drive out slightly, and slide off the SATA connector/cable.

Pinkish/red – 1 screw (a little smaller than the others) holds in the DVD drive. Once you remove it, slide the DVD drive out.

—

STEP 2 – A mess of screws (don’t lose them!)

Click on the image below for a larger version.

You’re essentially removing every screw you see.

Green – Most of these screws are the same size, though you should try to keep them separate so you’re able to put each back in it’s original place anyway. None were very tough to get out with a standard philips screwdriver. While I think I labelled them all, it’s possible I’ve missed a couple in the above picture, so if you see one that isn’t shown, you may need to remove it – fortunately, they’re all pretty obvious.

Orange – These 2 tiny screws are located where the DVD drive was before. They’re tiny, so don’t lose them. They can also be a pain to get out – mine were overtightened at the factory. I had to attach a vicegrip to a tiny screwdriver to get the torque I needed to crack them loose. One hand turned the vicegrip while the other pushed down the screwdriver to keep the screw from stripping. If you manage to strip the screw, you’re probably going to have to use a dremel to cut a new slot or drill the head off the screw and try to remove the shaft later.

Pink – this is the hard drive SATA connector from step #1. You don’t have to do much else, but remember it. It gets in the way later when you try removing the bottom of the case, and will get in the way when you try reassembling it.

—

Step 3 – Removing the bottom panel (unclipping the clips). AKA “the worst part”

This part sucks.

Click on the image below for a larger version.

I found it easiest to start at the front. Open the screen/display a bit.

The way I went about this was using a thin, sharp knife. I stuck it between the silver/black at an angle, and pryed the black “away” from the clips, working my way around slowly. As you get some of the clips disconnected, you’ll probably have to use 1 hand to keep them from popping back in.

Next, I worked my way around the sides, going from the front of the machine towards the back, working both sides at a time. The side you see above was the “easier” side. That said, prying the clips near the DVD drive location was a little tough – the plastic is really thin and I worried it would crack before the clips came.

The side above was a pain (again, click on the image for a larger picture). The problem is that not only do you have to pry the black plastic away from the clips, but it catches the microphone, headphone, VGA, and power connectors. You have to pry the black plastic away from them too. I put orange arrows at the trouble-spots.

The power connector in particular is a huge pain – you have to pry an awful lot to get the black plastic over it.

–

Once I got the the front/sides unclipped, I simply pulled the black case bottom up, it pivoted, and the rear clips came un-done on their own.

—

STEP 4 – The guts of the machine (getting easier again!)

Click on the image below for a larger version.

With the panel off, all we’ve left to do is remove the CPU cooler and heatsinks. It’s all 1 piece (I’d incorrectly guessed the CPU and GPU had separate heatsinks in my previous write-up)

Purple – Remove the screws for the heatsinks. Generally, you want to unscrew all of these a little bit at a time so that you maintain even pressure on the chips. Give 1 screw a turn, give the next screw a turn, etc. Go back to the 1st and repeat.

Orange – This connector is for the fan. It should pull out easily, but it doesn’t. I had to use a small screwdriver to gently pry it out of it’s fitting a bit at a time.

Once everything’s removed, it should lift right out.

—

STEP 5 – the heatsink paste

Click the image below for a larger version.

Here you can see the existing thermal paste. If you’re replacing the paste and haven’t done it before, you may want to read the many guides on the web elsewhere before continuing.

Orange – The CPU and GPU locations. Surprisingly, the factory stuff was already fairly thin. Some excess had squeezed out the sides, but for a factory-job, it was pretty decent. I cleaned it off with rubbing alcohol and used Artic Silver Ceramique as the replacement.

Purple – The thermal pad on the chipset. I would not suggest replacing this with paste, as it won’t be as thick as the pad and probably won’t make good contact (if any). Leave it alone unless you’ve got a mod in mind.

Maybe I just got lucky, but the clearances machined into the heatsink for the GPU and CPU were nearly perfect. I applied a small amount of paste to each chip, temporarily reattached the heatsink, and both transferred perfectly. +1 to Samsung for this. That said, make sure you temporarily attach the heatsink and check for paste transfer in case you weren’t as lucky as I was.

—

STEP 6 – Reassembly

Unsurprisingly, it’s the opposite of removal. A few things to note though:

• The hard drive SATA connector I mentioned earlier…. if you’re reassembling now and the case just won’t go back together, it’s probably in the way.
• Remember to pry the plastic back over the power/sound/mic/VGA connectors.
• Assuming both the above aren’t causing you problems, it snaps back together quite easily. Once I got it started, I was able to pretty much put the thing on the floor, push down, and everything snapped back into place.

When the machine is back on, you might want to run a couple temperature-monitoring programs just to make sure everything looks good. RealTemp is good for testing the CPU, and the monitoring section of GPU-Z is good for testing the GPU.

You may also want to run some stress testing programs while monitoring the temperatures carefully. If you messed up and things are overheating, it’s better to find out right away (while you’re monitoring the temps) than it is to have something burn itself out a week later.

—

RESULTS

To put it simply… there weren’t gains, at least under load. Here are the numbers:

GPU
Before:  79 degress (load)
After: 78 degrees (load)

CPU
Before: 81 degrees (load)
After: 83 degrees (load)

Basically, the GPU was 1 degree cooler, and the CPU was 2 degrees warmer. Both pretty much within the margin for error. No real change to speak of.

-

A few possible reasons for this:

1. The Arctic Silver Ceramique I used – the tube’s well over 5 years old (it’s all I had available where I am at the moment). It’s known to result in temps a couple degrees higher than other more-recent thermal pastes. It’s thicker, and I certainly didn’t manage to spread it as thin as I can with other pastes. It may also need time to cure (temps could very well go down in a few days).
2. Application – while it looked pretty good, I may have used more/less than necessary.
3. The original paste Samsung used might have been just as good as anything else.

In any case, time will tell. I may disassemble the machine again later and try some other paste.

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CONCLUSION

For being quite the pain to disassemble, it’s a little disappointing that there weren’t temperature gains to be had this time around. It’s possible that a few mods to the bottom panel might help airflow, but it’s something I’ll look at another time.

In any case, if you need to disassemble your system, hopefully the guide has helped you. If you’ve attempted this and have any tips of your own (or replaced the paste and saw better results than I did), feel free to leave a comment below!

I picked up the NP-Q460 from Best Buy Canada ( both BB and FS list it as a Q460-JS01CA ), as I needed a relatively cheap laptop to replace my previous MacBook Pro, which got owned by a glass of milk. Unfortunately, reviews on this model were slim. As far as the price and specs went, it looked like a pretty solid deal though at $699 CDN so I decided to give it a go.

I’ll assume if you’re reading this you’ve already checked out the specs, but just in case… the short version is that it’s got an Intel i5 2430m, 6GB RAM, nVidia Optimus GeForce GT540m with 1GB mem, and a slow (5400RPM) 640GB hard drive. All the other typical stuff you’d find in every recent laptop is there, though it’s worth noting that it’s got a standard DVD burner (no Blue-Ray).

First some boring unboxing pics, and then some commentary:

Click on any of the thumbnails above to see the large version in a pop-up window.

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I’ll sum up a few pros and cons I observed rather quickly for those who just want the ‘gist’ of it:

Despite the cons list being longer than the pros list, I’m really quite happy with the system.

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Now for a few random details:

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THE 1 SCREW

The 1 screw you remove to get at the HD/RAM… It’s a small philips screw, and on my notebook it was insanely tight. I tried a dozen small screwdrivers that were all the right size, and it just wouldn’t come.

As it turned out, I had to use a dremel to cut a slot into the screw so that I could use a larger flat screwdriver, get a good grip, and use a pile of force. It was tough, but it eventually came.

I don’t get why:

a) The screw was put in so tight. This is *supposed* to be a user-servicable panel.
b) They used a smaller screw than they did for the rest of the bottom panel. A larger screw would have fit and would be less prone to stripping.

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THE FIRST START

The first startup takes quite some time. At first you’re presented with a very well-polished partition manager of sorts that allows you to size (or completely remove) a backup partition of sorts. Takes a few seconds, and is explained well enough that Grandma would probably understand. After that, you wait a good long while as it prepares Windows – I’m assuming that it’s either restoring the Windows image, or installing the whack of trial-ware you’ll spend even more time removing. Waiting for it to finish is like watching paint dry, so go get some coffee. You might even have time to drive to Starbucks. Maybe even the one in the next town.

Once you’re finally at the desktop, you’ll find an Intel utility running in the upper right, letting you know when the CPU turbo’s up. It seems a little out of place (it’s an odd thing to have greeting you), but it can be closed easily enough. Be sure to change the settings before closing it if you don’t want it to auto-run every time the laptop starts.

Despite Norton bugging you pretty quickly, and despite the large number of items in your taskbar, it actually feels like a pretty clean installation (though I’m used to 5-6 programs bugging me on most notebooks during the first boot).

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THE SAMSUNG PROGRAMS/UTILITES

For the purists out there who have another copy of Windows and like to format/reinstall without the bloatware, be sure to grab the drivers from Samsung’s site first (the Samsung tools/utilties are also available there).

For the other minimalists who simply tend to uninstall the trialware they don’t want/need, don’t go uninstalling all the Samsung-related stuff. Some of it’s useful (check the installed manual to see what each does). You don’t need all of it, but a few things (like the software that enables keyboard features) you’ll probably want. That said, if you find you’ve removed something you want back, you can grab it again on Samsung’s site.

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TEMPERATURES

Using OCCT and FurMark, I tried to get a rough idea as to what temps I’d be looking at.

Both the CPU and GPU could be nudged to the 80-85 degree C region (GPU goes a little hotter than the CPU). I’m guessing they have independant heatsinks, though I’ll confirm this when I disassemble the thing. The fan doesn’t start really kicking up until the 80 degree mark, though at that point, it’s still much quieter than my previous MacBook Pro.

The temps are a bit worrysome – intense games are probably going to get the thing hot, and based on previous experiences, after dust has had a couple months to accumulate I wouldn’t be surprised if either the CPU or GPU started to hit over 90 degrees.

Since I don’t want to be the victim of throttling or system shutdowns, when I disassemble the notebook, I’ll probably take a look at the airflow design, heatsinks & heatsink paste and see if something can be done.

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GAMING

The only game I’ve tried so far has been BioWare’s MMO, SWTOR (Star Wars: The Old Republic). Played around for a couple minutes at the fleet station. TOR is known for being fairly demanding – if you browse the forums you’ll find many complaints pertaining to low fps, particularly by laptop users. It’s also notorious for pushing the CPU/GPU when it comes to heat output. Again, you’ll find many complaints about users who have systems shutting down, crashing, throttling, and restarting due to heat while playing this game.

I was interested to see how the notebook fared in terms of both fps and heat when playing at the native resolution.

At high settings, the game tends to sit a little above the 10fps mark. Technically playable, but not really practical.

At low settings (though with shadows off completely as well), the framerate becomes respectable, hitting 60fps at times, and generally bottoming out at just above 30fps. Movement is fluid, and I’d expect combat should remain fluid as well.

I didn’t try out medium settings, as most people will probably benefit from tweaking the individual settings and finding which give the most benefit when it comes to the quality/fps tradeoff.

After about 10 minutes on the fleet station, I took a look at the temperatures. The nVidia 540m had topped out at 71 degrees C. The CPU had capped at about 84 degrees C. When I disassemble the laptop I’ll see if new heatsink paste results in a reduction.

For being a low-medium card, the GeForce 540m looks to be more-than-adequate for casual gaming, and as a whole the Samsung Q460 notebook should be just fine for those who may use it for periodic gaming.

I wouldn’t call the Samsung Q460 a gaming laptop by any means, but if you’re content to get good framerates under low quality settings, I doubt it will disappoint.

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TO SUM IT UP

It’s a good laptop, and a purchase I’m quite happy with. At around $700, The Samsung NP-Q460 is a fantastic compromise between the $300-500 budget-laptops that can barely game, and the $1000-1500 laptops that game well but at a high cost.

I may pop in an SSD one of these days, and will definitely be replacing the RAM with 2x4GB sticks that I have kicking around.

At the time of this writing, the only laptop that would give the same specs for less money would be an Acer for around $50 less, but I’ve never been pleased with the build quality of Acer’s stuff.

Anyway, that concludes the review. If you bought a Samsung Q460-JS01CA and have thoughts to share, feel free to leave them in the comment section below.

I was looking for a case to replace my current Antec Sonata III. The Sonata’s not bad, except that it’s incredibly heavy (I dread moving the thing, especially since I somehow lost the rubber feet and the bottom now wants to scratch everything), and when I decided to run an Intel i7 and Radeon 6950… well… the PSU’s top-placement meant that it was getting kinda hot. And loud.

A huge plus to the Sonata was the plastic, removable air-filter. I’d gone from pulling out handfuls of dust, to opening up the case after 2 years and finding all the components still looked brand-new. A filter on the new system was a must. In any case, these were the requirements for a new case, in order of priority:

• Easy to move/transport. This meant a handle of sorts.
• Bottom-mounted PSU. Cooler air = quieter PSU.
• Intake air filters. I hate lugging the thing to the garage so that I can use the compressor to get all the crud out. I’d rather just keep the crud out from the start.
• Large fans. 80mm fans are just too small/noisy, and they don’t push as much air anyway.
• Reasonably priced. Around $100 is fine. Beyond that, I’ve built a custom 100% silent, perfectly cool case in the past out of MDF and spare case parts for around $50. The most expensive part was the furnace-filter it used. Of course, it weighed about 60 lbs and was pretty huge (so not portable) but it worked better than any case money can buy. So $200+ is out of the question. I’d build my own case at that point.

Anyway, Cooler Master had a decent looking case that seemed to meet the requirements (the Storm Scout), so I picked it up. This is the one I’m referring to:

So I opened it up, and had a look. Before going any further, it’s important to note that despite what you might infer from my furnace-filter case-building endeavors mentioned above, I don’t expect a HEPA-quality filter or anything on these things. The old Antec’s plastic filter worked well when it came to dust, and really, anything that’ll catch the majority of the dust is fine by me.

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First, the filter for the bottom-mounted PSU (click for a larger image):

It’s attached to the bottom intake from the inside. I have no doubt it’ll perform well enough. It would have been nice if they made easy to remove/maintain (as it is, you’ll have to yank the power supply out to clean it), but they put some thought in, it’ll keep dust out, and that’s what counts. It didn’t require any modification.

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Next, the front panel. It comes off easily with a hard yank (a + to CoolerMaster there). Again, click for a large image.

As you see, they have a foam filter over the fan grill, and filters over each of the drive bays, held in by metal tabs. They definitely didn’t take short-cuts here, and I have to say, I was pretty impressed.

This really was well-thought-out. Air can come in anywhere from the front (a lot of surface area), and it all gets filtered. If you need to clean it, just yank the front panel off – quick and easy.

It’s not perfect though – if you look in the right side of the image, you’ll see that where the handle is, you’ve got a big space. Here’s a look from the bottom with it installed:

While air from the front is filtered, air sucked in through this space at the bottom isn’t filtered. Since there’s very little resistance to airflow here, and since the fan is located very close to this space, I expect a lot of dust to make it’s way in here over time. Remember, the filters are on the right side of this space – the intake fan’s on the left.

Time for the first mod!

This one’s pretty easy. Get some screen and either tape or glue it over the hole. Here are a few pics (clicky clicky for large versions):

A few flaws with my mod that I’ll point out for you:

• As you could probably tell, I didn’t cut it perfectly straight. It’s not perfectly flush.
• Since the screen is flexible, it’s possible that it’ll be sucked up a bit and create a larger gap.
• It’s more of a pain to pull the panel off without pushing the screen through – you can only grip the ridge of the plastic.

Alternate ideas if you’re looking to mod this area:

• If you don’t have access to screen, you can simply use black electrical tape to cover the area and block airflow from the bottom altogether. That way all the air will be pulled from the (filtered) front. If you don’t have electrical tape, duct tape would probably work fine too – it’s at the bottom, so nobody’s going to see it anyway.
• Rigid perforated plastic would be more durable, and wouldn’t flex with the airflow (instead of using screen).

Ideally, Cooler Master would have done one of 2 things:

1. used rigid perforated plastic here, mounted at an angle so that it doesn’t interfere when you’re reaching your hand in, or
2. had this section sealed off, with a handle moulded in.

Really though, I was so pleased that they filtered the entire front (individually on each drive bay!) that I can’t fault them too much for this oversight. Just block off or filter the bottom yourself and you should be set here.

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Next, the side-panel, where you’d generally put 2 intake fans (the only fans that are not included by the way):

It’s worth quickly noting that CM put protective plastic on both sides of the panel. Just another indication that they put some care into the case. Also, if you’re not planning to mount fans here, you can simply leave the plastic on and it’ll keep dusty air from sneaking in here. Oh, and check the height of your CPU cooler – if it’s tall, you’ll probably only be able to install a bottom fan.

Anyway, if you’re putting fans here, you can see the flaw. Once you remove the plastic, this area’s completely unfiltered. Time for another quick mod!

Above (again, you can click for larger images), you can see that I’ve again cut some screen.  I used the existing push-rivets to hold it in place, and then some electrical tape on the sides to make sure it’s held flush (and to hide the screen edge). Installed the fans, and voila!

Again, alternate ways to do this:

• perforated plastic (or solid metal screen) – you could cut it to size, drill 4 holes for the fan mount, and rather than having to use tape, the fan would hold it on. It’d probably look even better too.
• if you go with the screen/tape method as I have, some colored tape might look a little more appealing depending on the color of the LED lights you’re using.

Before anyone asks why I used ugly brown/beige Noctua fans, they’re fairly quiet and I happen to like them :p . Obviously if you want to use some fancy LED fans, it’ll look a little prettier.

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I’ll fault CM for the side panel – they really had nothing here, which is a shame seeings how they took care of the PSU intake and front. If you’ve installed both fans here, around half the air that goes into the case will be from the side-panel. It won’t be dust-free.

At the very least they could have included a couple metal screens (similar in size to the ones used at the PSU intake) with 4 holes drilled for the fan screws/mounts. Anyone who bought the case for filtration-reasons would probably use them (and anyone who doesn’t want filtration is probably ripping out the PSU/front filters so it doesn’t impede their airflow anyway).

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Minimizing dust:

That’s it for the mods (only 2 were needed!), so on to other things.

Aside from making sure your air intakes are filtered well, aim for positive (but close to neutral) case pressure. Don’t know what that is? It’s the opposite of negative pressure of course! In basic terms, you want more intake air than exhaust air. Why? If your exhaust is “stronger”, it’ll suck air into the case from every crack and crevice it can, which means you’ll find dust in all the cracks and crevices – most noticably around CD/DVD drives, case seams, etc.

On the other hand, with positive case pressure, (more air being “pushed” in than being “sucked” out) air will be pushed *out* those cracks/crevices/etc. Because the air in your case has been filtered, this air being pushed out wont leave dust in all those crevices.

You could of course aim for “neutral” case pressure (intake air = exhaust air), but it’s a little harder to attain, and as your filters plug up it’ll start to become negative pressure.

Now, before somebody goes and turns all their fans into intake fans (“Hey Matt, I read your article and now I have 7 fans all blowing in so I have lots of positive case pressure!”)… that’s a bad idea. You also want air-flow too which means a mix of intake and exhaust fans. Just make sure more slightly more air is being pushed in than is being sucked out, and you’ll get the best-of-both-worlds; good, efficient air flow, and you’ll minimize dust.

To accomplish this, you’d generally match the # of intake/exhaust fans, and have one of the exhaust fans set slightly lower in speed. In the case of the CM Storm Scout:

• the front intake and top exhaust are the same size (should equal out)
• because the PSU gets it’s “own” intake and exhaust, it’s intake should roughly equal it’s exhaust
• 1 intake side fan should offset the rear exhaust fan
• 1 (the other) intake side fan should hopefully not only offset the video card’s exhaust, but add some additional air to create positive pressure.

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Conclusion & other stuff….

All in all, it’s a pretty good case – not perfect when it comes to filtration, but as you see above, it’s close enough that it’s pretty easy to mod the rest of the way.

I was surprised at how quiet the case actually is compared to the Antec Sonata III – don’t get me wrong, the Sonata III is quieter (very quiet) when you’re dealing with low temps and low fan speeds, but as soon as you add heat to the equation and need the fans turned up, you really start to hear it.

That said, comparing it to the Sonata III isn’t quite fair. A better comparison would probably be the Antec 900 which is priced similarly and aimed at a similar audience. While I don’t own a 900 (though buying one for a CM Storm Scout vs Antec 900 comparison sounds enticing), looking through the details the CM Storm Scout seems like a better buy. I say that, being quite the Antec fan by the way.

The Cooler Master Storm Scout looks to beat out the Antec 900 in…:

• front filtration
• 4 front/top USB ports (vs only 2 on the Antec 900)
• carry handle
• CPU cutout on the motherboard tray
• separate air intake for PSU
• tool-less design
• better cable management – space to hide wiring behind motherboard tray (though not perfect, it’ll hide away a few wires at least)

The Antec 900 does have adjustable fan speed switches (which the CM unfortunately lacks), and a monster 200mm top fan (CM’s is only 140mm and I’d venture to guess it’s louder). Aside from those, the Storm Scout blows it away feature-wise. You’d have to step up to the more expensive Antec 902 to get the front filters and cable management, though even that model’s still behind in the other areas.

Regardless, I’m quite pleased. If your priorities are similar to the ones I mentioned at the beginning, the Storm Scout won’t disappoint. It’s not perfect, but it’s certainly on it’s way there. And hey… maybe we’ll get a Storm Scout 2.0 one day :p

In any case, there are 11.9 drivers that’ll work on the MBP (running Windows 7 64-bit), and they don’t require crazy hacks or anything. They’re just a pain to find. They’ll show up as the “6600m and 6700m series” once installed as you’ll see in the image below.

They’re on AMD’s site here:
http://www2.ati.com/DRIVERS/mobile/11-9_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc_ocl.exe

Yes, they look strikingly similar to the mobility drivers you probably already downloaded, but the filename is slightly different (note the “ocl” in the filename), as is the source location. They also appear to be 64-bit only (versus 32/64 in the easier-to-find-but-totally-worthless version).

It installs without much of a hitch (Microsoft Visual C library might not install due to being old, but that was it for me). It’s worth noting that I uninstalled the old drivers first through the AMD/ATI uninstaller. It may not be necessary, but if you run into headaches, it’s worth trying to uninstall the old stuff first.

Credit to twannguyen on the Apple disscusion boards for this one.

ERROR! MySQL server PID file could not be found!

UPDATE: cPanel put out a fix on Oct 12 2011, in the latest WHM EDGE (version 11.31.1.6). Mind you, it may not help if you’re already in this situation (so keep reading), but should help prevent it from happening to others – from the looks of it the depreciated options will be handled during the upgrade, assuming you’ve upgraded WHM to beyond 11.31.1.4  before upgrading MySQL to 5.5 anyway.

There are plenty of possible reasons, but one strong possibility is that it doesn’t like something in your old my.cnf file. Some things in 5.0 were depreciated and cause newer versions of MySQL to choke on startup (I found this out playing with 5.1 on another server, and it again hit me again recently).

The quick-fix in this case is to simply rename your existing my.cnf file (located in /etc/my.cnf ), and try restarting MySQL again ( /etc/rc.d/init.d/mysql restart should do the trick). If it works, create a new my.cnf (or copy over one of the defaults included with the installation) and start re-adding your previous tweaks, being sure to restart MySQL after each change. Eventually you’ll probably hit the one that made MySQL choke, and you can simply omit it at that point.

If you’ve been using shadowbox and trying to validate through the w3c’s validator, one of these headaches might look like this:

The message is “Bad value shadowbox for attribute rel on element a: Keyword shadowbox is not registered.”

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What does this mean? Well, there are only certain things you’re technically allowed to put in a “rel” tag. For example, the following is okay:

<a href=”image.png” rel=”nofollow”>

“nofollow” is a valid “rel” attribute. You’ll find other valid attributes in the links provided by the W3C validator. Unfortunately, you won’t find things like lightbox, shadowbox, etc as valid rel attributes. And as you’re probably aware, the W3C’s validator can be rather picky.

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The first thing I tried was looking for an alternative. Fancybox ended up being one of the few which appeared to use id’s and classes instead of rel, but for the life of me, I couldn’t get it working. Maybe it doesn’t recognize the new html5 doctype (it mentions it’s picky). Or maybe I just messed up trying to implement it (yeah yeah, probably this).

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What I tried next, and what ended up working, was looking through shadowbox’s js file. I figured that “rel” must be mentioned in the file somewhere, and maybe it would be as simple as changing anything that says “rel” into “class“.

As it turned out, it was that easy.

There were 2 instances of “rel“, which I changed into “class“. After making the changes, saving the file, editing my html to change every rel=”shadowbox” into class=”shadowbox”, and re-validating through W3C, I got the following:

Success!
(the 1 warning was the W3C’s standard message about the HTML5 validator being experimental right now)

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If you’re looking to do the same thing, it’s pretty easy. The shadowbox.js file is minified, so rather than hurting your eyes trying to find the right places to change, simply use your favorite editor to do a quick search (and replace) of “rel” to “class”. Save it, update your html, and you should be golden.

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Of course, if you upgrade Shadowbox.js in the future, you’ll have to remember make the change to the new version.

Incidentally, whether it’s worth it to begin with is something you’ll have to decide on your own – being 100% compliant isn’t necessarily critical – I mean… I don’t forsee your site crashing browsers or even rendering wrong simply because you have rel attributes you technically shouldn’t. And heck, even Google’s main search page fails the html5 check (with 37 errors no less).

If that nice green validation bar makes you feel all warm and fuzzy though (I know it does for me!), hopefully the above instructions help you out.

Whitelisting only goes so far – the fact that I change IP addresses a lot (and am trying to remember which of the dozens of different passwords I might have used) doesn’t help.

Incidentally, WiredTree (my current VPS host) has been rather gracious (and fast) in getting me un-banned. They’re a great host in so many ways.

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Anyway, there are a few possible ways to get back in all on your own, and I’ll mention a couple of them here.

METHOD #1 – SSH and manual unblocking in CSF and CPHULKD

Warning: Before messing with this stuff, make sure you’ve got good backups – if you don’t, it might be worth simply asking your host to unblock you from their end. While I’ve tried to be accurate here, it’s possible that I’ve made a mistake (or that the writeup will be messed up the next time I do a theme change), that you will make a mistake, or that your system is configured differently and that something will still bork your machine regardless. Proceed at your own risk!

1) SSH in as root. If it lets you, great. If not, you may be able to do so through another server you have SSH access to (since it’ll appear you’re logging in through the other server’s IP address). To do this, SSH into server2 and from there SSH into server1.

Regardless as to the route you go, once you’ve managed to SSH in, there are 2 common places where you may have been banned – csf and cphulkd.

WHITELISTING YOUR IP IN CSF

First, you’ll try to add your IP address to csf (the most common if you can’t even visit your websites on the server). It’s dead-simple. Type the following:

 csf -a xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

(replace xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx with your current IP address)

If that’s where you were banned, you’ll see the following message:

Removing xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx from csf.deny and iptables DROP…
Adding xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx to csf.allow and iptables ACCEPT…

Now try accessing the server again. If it still doesn’t work, you’ll have to check cpuhulkd.

REMOVING YOURSELF FROM THE CPHULKD BLOCKLIST:

(note: credit for this solution comes from “thobarn” on the cpanel.net forums. Feel free to visit that page for the original, more detailed version which includes the command to back up the database).

To check cphulkd and remove yourself from the blacklist, type the following:

mysql

(prompt should change to “mysql>”)

use cphulkd;

(should say “Database changed”)
(in the next line, replace xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx with your ip address. Note that ` and ‘ are used in different places. ` is left of the 1 key on most keyboards and shares with the tilde (~). ‘ is the apostrophe you are probably accustomed to typing with.)

SELECT * FROM `brutes` WHERE `IP`=’xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx’;

(note: you should see your IP come up now. If instead it says “Empty Set”, you were NOT banned through cpuhulkd and don’t need to do the next DELETE line. If you got an ERROR message about your SQL syntax, you probably messed up your typing and will need to try again, remembering to use the correct ‘ ` and ; )

DELETE FROM `brutes` WHERE `IP`=’xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx’;

(again, replace the xxx.xx parts with your IP address. Remember, only do the DELETE line if it spit out your IP address when you did the SELECT)

quit

Hopefully, you’re unblocked now. Try logging into WHM – if it’s still not working, you’ve been blocked via some other method and may want to consider contacting your web host provider for support.

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METHOD #2 – switching your IP address

The easiest method (doesn’t involve SSH) is to simply switch your IP address, at least temporarily. Before doing so, TAKE NOTE of your current IP address because you’ll probably want to whitelist it.

1. If you’re at home, many ISP’s don’t give you a static IP and this is one case where that might actually work to your benefit. Reset your modem and you might end up with a new IP – try to get back in.
2. Another option is to head to another location to log in. If you’re friendly with the neighbours or happen to be 5 minutes away from work, this could be an option.
3. A slightly more dangerous option is to check the nearby wireless connections to see if there’s an unsecured wireless network around (a neighbour’s for example), and connect to it. Beyond the moral (and possibly legal) implications here, if somebody’s purposely left their connection unsecured for nefarious purposes, well… let’s just say it’s an option to be avoided. If you do go this route, be sure to disconnect from that network afterwards – if nothing else, your neighbour might be paying through the nose for data-transfer or having speed issues they can’t figure out, and leeching on to their internet access just plain isn’t nice.

Once you’ve connected via another IP, log into WHM and get to the cPHulk Brute Force Protection page (Main —> Security Center —> cPHulk Brute Force Protection).

From here, you can:

• Whitelist yourself (Trusted IP List). Type in your IP address. If you’re only connected through another IP temporarily, make sure you enter the IP address you wrote down earlier!. Once you’ve typed in the IP address, click the “Quick Add” button, and you should be good to go. If there are other IP addresses you regularly connect from, you may want to add them as well. If your ISP doesn’t give you a static IP address it’s possible to enter a range, but I won’t go into the details here.
• Edit the Blacklist (lower right of the picture) – It’ll bring up a page showing blacklisted IP addresses – make sure yours isn’t on it and delete if so!
• Clear failed logins ( the “Flush DB” button). While I usually do this just to make sure I don’t have any problems, this will also flush all the naughty-people from the database who’ve been trying to break in, meaning they’ll get a few more attempts at your server if they’re still trying. Use at your own discretion.

Get back on your regular connection/IP, and hopefully you should be able to log in.

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Ideally, you’ll be in and good-to-go at this point.

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Feel free to leave a comment below, particularly if:

• Something above has worked for you.
• Something above hasn’t worked for you.
• You know of additional methods (perhaps better methods!) that may help others.