Idlier's Tech Craze

    I just dumpster dived a new Lenovo IdeaPad laptop (IdeaPad-3-15IML05) yesterday. I wasn't expecting anything from this new find and I proceed to do the usual: Find the suitable power adaptor (Luckily I got one from a previous find of a Lenovo laptop) Try to power up and see if it works.  Try to install Linux Lite 7.6 (Latest version)     During the setup of the BIOS to disable secure boot and TPM, I initially thought this laptop has only 2GB RAM but later I found out it actually has 20GB RAM! Wow, this is the highest RAM laptop that I found. The storage is 512GB. Likely a NMVe type since I did not open the case to look at the internals.  Image from: Gadget Review     As it turns out, there is no issue with the laptop and this laptop would likely be replacing my favourite laptop that I have. The main limitation is it weighs 1.7Kg. However, for an 15.6 inch laptop, the weight is normal but so far the keyboard is pretty smooth for typing and...

Image from notebookcheck.net      I just dumpster dived 2 big sceen laptops (15.6 inch and 17.3 inch) so this is one was the first I tried to refurbish to see if it will work. Initially I thought that this laptop is screwed since the back cover seems to be exposed to moisture and looks like it will peel off the back cover. However, after I tried to remove the back cover, I noticed that the laptop interior looks pretty clean and also I noticed that the NVMe SSD (storage) is missing. I just found a NVMe SSD but unsure about its capacity so I decided to put into this laptop to see if the laptop works and the capacity of the NVMe SSD. Well, the laptop actually works and also the NVMe SSD is actually 512GB. Wow! I was delighted!     This laptop is actually a 15.6 inch laptop but is actually less than 1Kg. So it feels light. I was impressed by this laptop for its weight based on its size. As usual, I installed Linux Lite 7.6, the latest Linux Lite that was released on...

      I managed to dumpster dive a HP Eny  13-d065tu laptop. This is the lightest laptop that I have found and has reasonable hardware specs to run a normal Linux distribution. However, I noticed that the laptop is unable to charge the battery anymore and also there are times when the power will be cut off and cause the laptop to be shutdown or power off unintentionally. This problem actually prevents me from wanting to use this laptop. Only recently I decided to remove the problematic battery from the laptop and see if it fixes the power issue and it really did. I was right that the power cut mechanism is due to protect the battery from overcharging but is causing issue to the laptop. I do not intend to buy a battery replacement since I do not want to spend money upgrading anything on the dumpster dived laptops.  Image from HP.com HP Envy laptop specs: Product name: HP ENVY Notebook - 13-d065tu Microprocessor: Intel® Core™ i5-6200U with Intel® HD Graphics ...

** I have gave away this refurbished laptop to a community volunteer uncle whose laptop has screen issues. His basic usage is normal surfing the Internet and writing chinese using pinyin so this laptop basically meets his needs after I changed the default language to Simplified Chinese and enable pinyin write method on this laptop.       Recently I have dumpster dived 2 ACER laptop. One of which is the Acer Aspire-V3-471G (Gold). It is quite a heavy laptop but when I realized the specifications are not too shabby and also the battery is still able to hold more than charge for more than 50%, I decided to refurbish the laptop for Linux Lite and becomes a spare laptop for my laptop collection. My first task was upgrading the RAM from 4GB to 8GB since I have quite a lot of spare RAMs. I did not upgrade to 256GB SSD since I prefer to have larger capacity compared to speed whenever possible.   Image from https://cdn.rios.hu/dl/cnt/2012-07/88012/pic/acer...

  MX Linux logo from https://linuxiac.com/mx-linux/      Recently I have successfully installed MX Linux Fluxbox on my Acer Aspire One 725 (AO725) netbook. I initially wanted to install Bodhi Linux onto my AO725 netbook, but failed. Finally I tried MX Linux Fluxbox, after trying Anti-X linux and some other ultra-lightweight Linux. MX Linux Fluxbox is suppose to be a lightweight Linux for low-powered laptops such as netbooks or very old laptops. Upon bootup, it only takes 337MB of RAM (438MB for Thinkpad X200) before you load any apps. With 4GB RAM, it is still a lot of RAM for for most apps, like the browser but the CPU utilization is close to 100% after running a Chromium broswer and DeadBeef music player. Things likely be slow... after this point from my observation but I have not tried to do anything more than those common things that I usually need to do.      Since I managed to install MX Linux Fluxbox, I initially did not bother to use the A...

     2ndLife series is a blog journal of the electronic gadgets that I have dumpster dived and refurnishing process (update apps, reinstall operating system like Linux) to make them usable for my simple needs, mainly watching and downloading Youtube videos, reading mangas and running torrents.      Since I have been dumpster diving and come across  gadgets  such as laptops, tablets and mobile phones, I decided to write on how I actually refurbish these  gadgets  and giving them a second life to be useful, hopefully until hardware breakdown (quite unlikely since most that I have refurbished actually lasted longer than hardware failures, except when I find that I have too many and decided to throw away to make space for newer gadgets.      For laptops, I have currently Asus, Acer, Dell, Lenovo and Apple laptops. Only the Lenovo laptop was given to me and I purchased the Asus as a desktop replacement (15 inch). Most of the ...

    I just managed to dumpster dive an old 2013 Macbook Air laptop. I like its thin and sleek built with the picture below. Specifications Codename: MacBook Air. Processor Speed: 1.3 GHz Boost Speed: 2.6 GHz. Processor Architecture: 64-bit. Processor type: Core i5 (3427U) “Ivy Bridge”. Iterations: Core i7 (4650U) “Haswell”; i5 (4260U) “Haswell”. Processor upgrade: soldered. Cores: 2. Graphics core: Yes. On-Board RAM: 4 GB, DDR3 1600 MHz. Max. RAM: non-upgradeable. Display: 13.3-inch LED-backlit TFT active matrix IPS, 16:10 widescreen, 1440 x 900 pixels max resolution. Webcam: FaceTime 720p resolution. Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 5000 graphics with 1.5 GB of shared DDR3 memory. Storage: 256 GB SSD. Early-2014 version – upgradable to 512GB from 256GB at the time of purchase. Fusion Drive: No. Input\Output: 2 x USB 3.0, analog audio out, SDXS card slot and Thunderbolt. Power Connector: MagSafe 2. Battery: inbuilt lithium-ion polymer, 54-watt-hour. Internet \ Wireless...

     I recently dumpster dived a Macbook Pro (A1502) with a plastic peeling power adapter. I usually do not dumpster dive Macbooks since I have not managed to reuse any until now. Since Apple Macbook hardware is pretty good and better battery life, I decided to try to reinstall the operating system (MacOS) to Linux Lite. Main reasons are not having the login password for previous owner and also the installed MacOS likely is no longer supported so not worth reinstalling a fresh copy of MacOS. Linux Lite has been my favourite lightweight Linux distribution since I like to reuse older laptop hardware. Previously I did this for Acer and Dell laptops.  Macbook Pro (A1502) image from cp24.pl Specs: LED-backlit 13.3" widescreen 2560x1600 (227 ppi) "Retina" display 2.9GHz Intel "Core i5" processor (5287U) 8GB DDR3 RAM 128GB Solid State Drive Intel Iris 6100 graphics processor FaceTime HD Camera Two USB 3.0 ports, two "Thunderbolt 2" ports, an HDMI port, an au...

Thinkpad X200 screenshot Recently I just reinstalled my Thinkpad X200 with LinuxMint 20.3 Xfce as I am uncomfortable with Bodhi Linux. I cannot remember what was the reason but I prefer to have a more comfortable distribution like LinuxMint.  NOTE: This laptop has been reinstalled with WattOS Linux(debian based). 

I recently acquired an HP Stream Notebook PC 13 with a problematic keyboard (some keys not working). The limitation of this laptop is as follows: Limited RAM (only 2GB) and unable to upgrade higher Limited storage (32GB) and unable to upgrade Running Windows 8.1 or 10 (Are you CRAZY??)     This laptop reminds me of the netbooks, with a 10-inch screen and size with limited RAM or the newer Chromebooks. This budget laptop is only suitable for light users, who may consider using a tablet with a Bluetooth keyboard instead.  With the above limitation, especially the limitation of internal storage and RAM, there is only so much you can use this laptop for, right?       Well, there is always Google Chrome OS Flex operating system, meaning you just need a browser for all your work online, provided with a stable internet connection. I am not a fan of doing everything online as I prefer to do work offline as well. So not Chrome OS Flex for me.    ...