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Quick Charge iPad, iPhone and iPod On PCs

Martin Brinkmann — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 08:09:30 +0000

Why does it take so long to charge my iPad, iPhone or iPod on my PC? If you have been asking that question to yourself you might need to know that they do not play that well with low powered USB ports. There even have been reports that iPads could not be charged at all on some computer systems.

The motherboard manufacturers Gigabyte, Asus and MSI have developed a software update for Windows that will enable quick charging the Apple devices. The software update improves the charging speed by up to 50% and can even charge the device in multiple power stages.

Apple devices users who use Windows computer systems might want to head over to Gigabyte, Asus or MSI to download the new drivers that improves the charging time of their devices.

Gigabyte is the only company that is restricting the software to specific motherboards. Reports at Engadget suggest that it is possible to install the drivers on unsupported hardware as well as they are showing a video of a user who is using the Asus software on Sony laptops.

Things To Do When Your Motherboard OnBoard Lan Dies

Martin Brinkmann — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 14:42:16 +0000

The onboard LAN of my Gigabyte ep35-ds4 motherboard died just a few hours ago. Was surfing the Internet and suddenly connection errors showed up. That’s bad as the onboard LAN is located on the motherboard of the computer system. It could be that not only the LAN died but also other components. Now what can you do if your motherboard’s onboard LAN dies?

First thing was to check the installed hardware in the Windows Control Panel. If you operate a different operating system you need to find and access the equivalent there. The LAN was not listed there anymore. That was bad. It could have been a driver problem so the next step was to check for hardware that was not installed yet. The LAN was not found there either.

Next step was to reboot the computer and check in the Bios. While doing that I verified that the LAN led was still on. The BIOS showed zero LAN configuration options. I knew that there were some before which gave me the confirmation that something was seriously wrong. Next step CMOS reset. This is done by setting a jumper on the motherboard. The LAN options did not show up then either. I could have tried installing a new BIOS but this sounded awfully risky with dead components on the motherboard.

You got two options basically at this point. The fast option is to add a new PCI LAN card and install it on the computer system. Good LAN cards should provide better performance than onboard LAN. That’s what I did. The other option is to contact the manufacturer of the motherboard and wait for an answer. Can take some days, usual result is a replacement or repair which can take weeks or even months. Not a good option if you need to be online most of the day.

To put everything in a list:

Check if the operating system lists the onboard component.
Check if it can be found by scanning for hardware.
Check if the lights are on (if it has lights)
Shutdown the computer and see if everything is connected properly
Check the Bios for the onboard component
Reset the Bios
Replace the Nic or replace the motherboard or contact support.

Do you have any additional tips on how to cope with a dead onboard LAN?

Gigabyte M528 MID

Martin Brinkmann — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:42:21 +0000

The Gigabyte M528 is a ultra-portable Mobile Internet Device that is scheduled for release later this year. The mobile device is powered by an 800 Mhz Intel Atom processor, 512 Megabytes of on board Ram, a 4 Gigabyte Solid State Disk and integrated graphics.

The screen dimensions are 4.8″ with a maximum dimension of 800×480 pixels and a touch panel. Other specs include Bluetooth 2.0, Wireless Lan 802.11b/g a 300k Pixel webcam and a 3M Pixel Auto Focus Camera, a QWERTY keyboard with backlight and integrated GPS and 3G.

It runs on Linux and comes preinstalled with a browser that is based on the Firefox 3 engine, Open Office, Skype and the Instant Messenger Pidgin.

The suggest retail price for Europe will be around 700 Euros and $750 in the United States but it is likely that Gigabyte will try to cut some deals to reduce the price tag.