I recently fixed a persistent problem with my 90 Honda Accord EX with a F22A4 motor, that the oxygen sensor heater circuit was malfunctioning and throwing a “check engine” code #41, causing poor fuel economy. Here is how to troubleshoot this problem.
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Repair Honda Accord code 41 – O2 sensor heater circuit
March 10th, 2010Fortron/FSP Mini-ITX power supply repair
February 28th, 2010My little Mini-ITX system froze and would only sometimes power back on, only to freeze shortly thereafter. The problem was two 1000uF 10V capacitors in the PSU which had developed bulging tops and ESR greater than 1 ohm. Replacing these capacitors brought the system back to life. It would not be a surprise to see more capacitors fail in these power supplies due to the small space the Mini-ITX form factor requires several very hot power transistors to be crammed into.
Gateway 900G 19 inch LCD monitor flickering, power cycling
February 15th, 2010Guess what? Yep, it’s more bad capacitors.
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Antec SL350 power supply re-cap
February 15th, 2010A fairly common problem with Antec power supplies from 2002-2005 is the “Bad Caps” issue. Very frequently, when an Antec power supply manufactured during that period begins to make strange noises or become unstable, the capacitors have gone bad.
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How to replace the front to rear brake line on a 91 Ford Explorer
January 24th, 2010I have a 91 4-door Explorer with 4 wheel drive and rear anti-lock brakes (RABS). While bleeding air from the brakes to try to solve a spongy pedal, the brake line that goes from the proportioning valve to the RABS pump “popped” and brake fluid began to drain onto the concrete.
Why does this brake line fail prematurely? Ford wrapped a spring around it for some reason, probably to dampen vibration, but the spring is an incompatible metal which corrodes the brake line in accelerated fashion. The result is total loss of rear brakes, a soft pedal, and a brake fluid leak.
Here is what to do about that problem. We will replace the broken brake line with Poly-Armour lines which are corrosion resistant, easy to bend, and which simply screw together with no flaring tool necessary.
Problems with FTPS? (FTP-SSL, TLS, etc)
January 6th, 2010More and more hosting providers are moving to FTPS to replace FTP. But there are several aspects of modern networks that make using FTPS more challenging than FTP or the other alternatives.
Getting along with the VIA EPIA-M10000 Mini-ITX HTPC motherboard
December 12th, 2009I got this motherboard for free with a 933MHz Ezra-T C3 processor. It is still the cheapest option for a HTPC/MythTV box. Linux has low enough system overhead to make it usable and also has fairly well maintained open source drivers for the aging VIA hardware. But there are a few things you need to know.
Why were Athlon/VIA systems so notoriously flaky back in the day?
July 31st, 2009I remember fondly the NASDAQ bubble days, when it seemed like everyone was upgrading their PC every six months to be able to do useful and fun things, like play the newest 3D games (or to take advantage of the emerging high-speed internet without being slowed down by the piles of cable/DSL ISP crapware that came on the modem install CD).
Back then, custom PC shops competed with the big-box system builders by offering cheaper AMD Athlon based systems that frequently outperformed the much more expensive Intel Pentium III based systems, especially when unlocked and overclocked. But a common thread in the day was debating whether a motherboard with an Athlon CPU and a VIA chipset would be stable enough for the customer’s needs, or if his system should be specified with an Intel CPU and a 440BX based motherboard instead.
Hardware choices for my retro-utility/gaming rig
July 7th, 2009What hardware goes into a machine that exists for the purpose of interfacing with old hardware and software?
Notes on programming Creative Sound Blaster series ISA cards
July 6th, 2009In the world of PC hardware, Sound Blaster cards were the market leader in terms of install base. There are three different types of Sound Blaster cards which interest us. The types are derived from the BLASTER environment variable from DOS. We discuss the non-Vibra and non-PCI types only, because compatibility with software written for the standard “classic” Sound Blaster series was really suffering with those.
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