New Ultrabook

[DeskJockey]

I'll let you know once it arrives. I've always had ThinkPad T-series laptops and apart from some battery issues they've been good.

I'm not impressed by the Surface Pro 3 I've also got. Doesn't do anything very well and the keyboard is too small. For the price I should have bought something else.

[Beany]

I was looking at used laptops last night and got thoroughly confused. And also frustrated - despite having some money to throw at the problem I was trying to get the most value for money Vs quality ; the sort of thing you do when you have no money normally and have to be very very careful.

Different set of problems I guess

[Explosive Newt]

The XPS is soldiering on, but frustratingly it has stopped accepting charge via the USB-C port. It otherwise works fine and the only fix seems to be a new motherboard (which I am somewhat loathe to do!). But again I find myself looking for replacements...

[Beany]

The USB C port might well be on a seperate daughterboard - meaning cheap part, cheap fix (once you get it apart) - I'd be genuinely surprised (but not shocked, honestly...it is Dell...) if it was on the actual motherboard itself.

[Explosive Newt]

Your approach is different to that of a colleague (a physicist) who has sent me a motherboard schematic in order to troubleshoot this.

[DeskJockey]

Time to get the soldering iron out!

[Beany]

Your approach is different to that of a colleague (a physicist) who has sent me a motherboard schematic in order to troubleshoot this.

A quick google suggests that most XPSs (dunno of your exact model) have the USB sockets on the mianboard, which is a pig to DIY.

However, it shouldn't be more than £75-100 for any decent component electronic shop to do. It'll be a standard surface mount USB C port that costs peanuts.

Having tried electronics soldering, I'll suggest paying someone to fix it

[Explosive Newt]

After spending a happy 30 minutes speccing a brand new XPS (10% work discount innit) I tried resetting bios to factory settings.

Now it is fixed.

(shrugs)

[Beany]

Well fuck me, that's weird.

Oh well, saves a trip into town I guess.

[DeskJockey]

Have an interesting issue with the charger that came with the T480s. When plugged into the laptop it emits a fairly loud buzzing. When plugged into another laptop, it doesn't.

Not sure how to dissect that logically.

It isn't a Lenovo original part, but that shouldn't make a difference as the other laptop is also a Lenovo.

[Beany]

It'll be a shitty charger that doesn't like charging at X watts but is happy at Y watts.

No issue with my one (same laptop, same seller) perhaps spunk £50 on a decent Anker 45/65w USB C charger?

Not like the standard is going away any time soon.

[DeskJockey]

That's my plan. Further investigation seems to indicate that it only buzzes when the laptop is plugged in, but not on, this supports your theory. If it is charging at full tilt it isn't happy.

[DeskJockey]

Instead of adding yet another power supply to our getting collection I bought an ElecJet plug converter that transforms any Lenovo square tip charger to USB C. Seems worth a try as we've got at least five of the square tip ones and only one laptop that uses them.

In other news I couldn't figure out why the T480s didn't work with the USB C docking station. Monitors came on, it responded to the power button, but no USB devices. Turns out Thunderbolt is disabled by default in the BIOS. Turning that on solved the problem.

[Mito Man]

I’ve been slowly changing my ordinary double sockets to the ones which have a USB 2 and USB C integrated. Life changing if you want to keep your house tidy

[Beany]

I’ve been slowly changing my ordinary double sockets to the ones which have a USB 2 and USB C integrated. Life changing if you want to keep your house tidy

Right up until you find out the supplier cheaped out on the conversion components, it goes pop, and perhaps catches fire.

Inside the wall of your house.

[Mito Man]

Yeah sure More chance of being struck by lightning…

[Beany]

Yeah sure More chance of being struck by lightning…

Keep telling yourself that. The one in the video above is just one of the ways that if they fail, is a common manner - an IC or discrete component goes pop.

Whether it starts a fire beyond that point is basically random chance, influenced by how much the manufacturer cheaped out to save a third of a penny per unit....same as for regular USB adapters. Except with those, if they catch fire, you can grab them with something and get them clear. can't do that if it's in the wall space.

Hell most of the ones tested by an industry safety charity didn't meet basic regs for being a mains socket, never mind the USB adapter part.

Three quarters of the ones chosen for testing, from unbranded tat to major brands, didn't even have sufficient electrical separation on the mains/low voltage area - enjoy getting 240v into your iPhone.

https://www.electricalsafetyfirst.org.u ... ng-points/

[Mito Man]

I have that same socket but again I'm not concerned. British General must be selling thousands of these a day, if we get to a point where there's multiple houses burning down every day due to faulty sockets I will swap them out. Until then IDGAF.