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.

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So, let’s get started!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Now technically, you’ll find that all the major Whirlpool parts outlets include these as part of a $400-500 rear tub. Yes, Whirlpool wants you to buy the big honking tub because 1 or 2 $10-20 bearings stopped working. Presumably you’re then supposed to throw your old tub away. If I ever start an “I hate the environment” club, Whirlpool’s the first company I’m asking to join.

So bearings are a bit of a pain to find. Well, maybe not that bad. These are the bearing numbers:
6205
6206

(I pulled the numbers from http://www.hometask.com/washerrepair.aspx where you can find bearing numbers for a number of Kenmore & Whirlpool Duet machines). It’s worth noting that you can buy seals or seals+bearings directly through their site as well.

Otherwise, you can find bearings online for anywhere from $3.50 up (depending on the quality of bearing you’re looking for – I doubt I’d opt for anything less than something made in Japan which is a good bit more, or a stainless steel bearing which starts at around $20), or find them at your local bearing shop. Now finding a new seal is a pain, though the site mentioned above carries them.

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Installation:

I was going to write up a big massive guide with pictures, but as it turns out, others have already put together impressive YouTube videos. The one I’d recommend using as a guide is embedded below.

Again, to give credit where it’s due, this excellent video was created by Jerrod from http://www.hometask.com/washerrepair.aspx – and again, they sell the seals and bearings for the Whirlpool Duet WFW9200SQ02 as well as other models.

They also have a short version available on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd5NKbpVSRM

If you’re interested in getting a general idea as to the process, I’d suggest the short YouTube video. When you’re actually ready to buckle down and start disassembling, watch the long one.

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In case you wanted some pictures anyway, I took a few during disassembly before I realized that my pictures were never going to compete with a video. Here they are if you want to see them anyway.

A few notes (watch the video first, or you won’t know what I’m referring to):

• The 4 shocks that connect the tub to the bottom of the cage… In the short version of the video, he mentions that you just twist and they come out. I found that there’s a little clip/lock on opposite sides of each shock (not opposite as in top/bottom, opposite as in the side you can see and the side you can’t) and to release them you’ll have to put a little screwdriver in the slot and pry a little to open each one. Ideally you’d have 3 arms and do both clips while you twist – however since most of us aren’t that fortunate, I twisted as far as I could without snapping it, and while twisting, did 1 clip/lock, did the one on the opposite side, went back to the 1st side, etc. As long as you’re twisting, the clips/locks will catch a little each time, it’ll twist a little further, and eventually the whole thing will twist 90 degrees and come down.
• the video doesn’t show every possible wire/connector/hose that you disconnect. They’re generally pretty easy to figure out, but make sure everything’s disconnected from the tub before you drop it – the thing’s heavy enough to rip/destroy anything you forgot to detach.
• for the front drain pump – in the video, it’s a screw that comes out. On my model, there are no screws – just a big rubber “latch” on the front that pops out toward you (you can wiggle the pump assembly out from there).
• the main nut on the shaft (15/16 “) was very tight on mine. He uses a ratchet with a pipe – I needed an impact gun.
• he’s not kidding when he says lifting the tub isn’t for the feint-of-heart. I think I pulled 2 or 3 muscles. I’ll either have a helper for reinstallation, or I’ll remove the counter-weights.
• the shaft was seized to the bearings on mine.Thus, I needed a small sledge hammer to pound the shaft through once the tub was split (a regular hammer didn’t cut it). If you do this, make sure you partly thread the bolt on (to protect the threads), put the socket on the bolt (to protect the bolt head), and hit the socket (preferably an impact socket, but wear gloves & eye protection regardless in case it shatters) with the hammer. If you just smack the shaft directly with the hammer, you’ll destroy the threads.
• Take Pictures As You Go!!! Very important, and I can’t stress it enough. Particularly with the wiring, if it takes you a few days in total, you might not remember where everything went. Just about every cell phone has a camera nowadays, so even if you don’t have a regular camera, you should have an option. It’s a good idea to label things with tape (or write with a sharpie marker where appropriate) as well. A few extra minutes being careful in this area might save you hours troubleshooting later.
• keep the screws separate. I like to take a piece of duct tape, and tape screws to whatever panel they came from. I duck-tape clamps to their respective hoses so they don’t get lost. As a side note, for some reason, my rear panel had a mix of fine/coarse threaded screws. By the time I realized it, I’d already pulled 5-6 out and had to guess which went where. Every time you pull a screw it might be worth checking to make sure it’s the same size/type as the other screws you just pulled.

My original bearings were… well… in bad shape. It’s clear why the previous owners couldn’t stand the noise from the unit anymore:

These are the inner bearings, and they’re obviously toast. Things got so bad that some of the bearings wore through the cage and fell out (there was a mess of rusted metal shavings left behind). What’s left of this bearing ws seized to the shaft, so I had to use a grinder/dremel to cut away until I was close enough to the shaft to snap it off.

You can see the seal behind the bearings (black, covered in rust) – upon removal, it actually looks to be in great shape, but obviously it didn’t do it’s job.

The outer bearings were in surprisingly good shape, but they’ll be replaced anyway.

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Thoughts:

on The Process:
-Despite the many things that need to be disconnected/labelled, it’s a pretty quick process.
-Once I got to the shaft/bolt/bearings… let’s just say it took about 80% of the time I spent.
-While you could use a hex screwdriver for everything, the 7mm socket on a ratchet is probably a better idea where possible (easier on the wrists, and less chance of stripping). You WILL need the hex screw for a couple items though, so don’t go thinking you can do it all with the socket.
-Bearing replacement reminds me very much of bearing replacement on cars (the process, and the headaches I ran into). If you’ve ever swapped brake drum bearings, this should be comfortable territory for you.

on Whirlpool…
-Very disappointing that they don’t sell the bearings & seal separately.  Clearly a conscious effort on their part to rake customers for cash.
-Based on reviews I’ve seen around the web, bearing failures are very common. From the sounds of it, the bearings/seals that Whirlpool uses aren’t that great to begin with, and if you use non-HE detergent, it’ll suds up and quickly get in behind the seal and start wrecking the bearings. You HAVE to use the HE stuff.
-Another common issue on these washing machines (usually noticed when draining) is that either they won’t drain, or you’ll get a nasty noise from the pump.  There’s a “catch” by the pump (filter) which has usually picked up coins/socks/etc. I found a penny and a foam bra insert left by the previous owners in my washer. If you’re doing the bearings you’ll be pulling off the pump anyway, so you may as well open the catch and clean anything out of it.
-I wouldn’t buy another Whirlpool unless it were being sold used for cheap (in need of repair). Unless of course they change their ways (for starters, have the bearings as a serviceable item which they sell parts for).

on The Video (linked further up)…
-A fantastic video, and a big thanks to Jerrod from HomeTask for putting it out there to help people around the globe repair their own machines.
-Again, make sure everything’s disconnected from the tub before you drop it. The video isn’t quite as thorough when it comes to all the connectors.
-If the video helps you, by all means consider buying the seal (and possibly bearings) from his site. If for whatever reason that won’t work for you (need a specific method of international shipping that isn’t listed on the HomeTask site for example), it’s possible to find kits on eBay, though I suspect the quality of Jerrod’s seals is probably better than the average eBay kit (and cheaper too).
-As a reminder, the seals/bearings on the HomeTask site are located at http://www.hometask.com/washerrepair.aspx .

Finally, I’m not in any way associated with the HomeTask site. The video’s simply awesome, and I think HomeTask deserves some positive word-of-mouth for putting it up. If you find other videos that you believe are super-helpful in repairing/maintaining/etc a Whirlpool Duet WFW9200SQ02 Washer, have some tips of your own, or found additional places for bearings/seals/etc for these washing machines, feel free to post it in the comments below.

• Garmin 1500W Oil-Filled Heater – 043-5963 (Canadian Tire)
• Bionaire 1500W Oil Filler Radiator – BOF2001-CN (Wal-Mart)

Both have a thermostat that can be set, a digital display, and claim to have a frost protection feature.

Here are a couple pictures of them, side-by-side. Bionaire (black) is on the left. Garrison (white) on the right:

Both are powered on – it’s a bit dim in the room, so in the 1st image, the camera’s flash is off. In the 2nd image, the camera’s flash is on.

As you can see, the Bionaire has a blue backlit display, with some pretty large numbers. You’ll have no problem reading it in the dark. On the other hand, the Garrison has a small display, and it’s not backlit – it’s very difficult to see in the dark. A couple more images closer up:

It’s really tough to read some of the indicators on the Garrison model (right-side). Particularly the stuff on the top and bottom. If your room’s not very well-lit, it’s an exercise in frustration. Try reading/making-out as much as you can in the image above. See what you can pick out.

Now here’s another image with the flash on:

Really, the Garrison’s not meant for a dark room, assuming you plan to read the display. If you’re planning to set-and-forget, it might be just fine though.

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With that out of the way, let’s get this comparison / review moving….

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It’s worth noting that Bionaire’s also has an “Energy Savings Heat & Save(tm)” mode. What it actually does is has the heater run on high for 10 minutes, followed by 30 minutes of medium. This cycle repeats. Unless there’s some particular reason you want the thing automatically switching between high/medium while it’s running, you’ll probably never use it. If you actually want to save energy, you’ll just use the thermostat.

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Conclusion

The Bionaire has a great display and is easy to use. Being able to see the current temperature is a definite plus. If you like to monitor your heater at a glance, prefer big displays, or want something you can figure out without the manual, it’s probably the model to get.

The Garrison has well-rounded wattage settings, locking wheels (a good idea on what’s essentially a hot case of oil on wheels), and is pretty strong when it comes to programmability. It’s not as intuitive, and the display could really use a backlight, but functionally, it’s superior in most ways.

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One major flaw with both models is the lack of any sort of memory when unplugged. This really diminishes the value of the “anti frost” features. Power loss means you have to get back to the oil based radiator/heater before the temperature in the room drops from 5 degrees to 0. Technically, this makes the “manual” models superior for those applications. You might not be able to set the “manual” models to a specific temperature, but at least when the power comes back on, they do too.

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The Bionaire BOF2001-CN is currently available at Wal-Mart Canada for $69.96.
The Garrison 043-5963-6 is currently available at Canadian Tire for $79.99.

A really oddball situation recently arose in Plex. Namely, all of season 3 was picked up in Plex Media Manager except for the 6th episode (“Chuck Versus the Nacho Sampler”). Basically, it jumped from 5-7. I tried a pile of tricks to no avail – moving the folder out and back in, renaming the file to use periods instead of spaces (Chuck.S03E06.Chuck.Versus.the.Nacho.Sampler.mkv), having it as the only episode in the folder (in case for some reason I had a duplicate), etc.

Turns out, the problem is having “sample” in the filename (I suppose there’s a filter for those.. *ahem*… torrents which include samples). To be clear, I’d named the file as so:

Chuck – S03E06 – Chuck Versus the Nacho Sampler.mkv

The fix was dumping “Sampler” from the file name. I changed the name to the following and it worked:

Chuck – S03E06 – Chuck Versus the Nacho.mkv

An ALT-refresh (the files aren’t stored on the local machine, hence the required “alt” to actually rescan the network folder) allowed it to be picked up by Plex.

I’d assume dropping the title completely (and having Chuck – S03E06) would work too, though I like having the episode name in the filename when I’m playing videos on another machine through VLC (Plex clients shouldn’t care – it should show you the properly scraped name including the “Sampler” part). If you’re really irked/OCD about losing part of the episode name in the file name, you could always be creative and try using S4mpler or fudging the name enough that it doesn’t look like it’s a “sample”.