If you don’t understand what that title means, chances are you won’t need to use this little trick that I am writing today.  But for the curious minds, here’s some clarification:

• PSU: Power Supply Unit
• Mobo:  Slang for Motherboard

So, today, I will be talking about a little handy and very popular trick that involves testing your computer’s Power Supply Unit without the Motherboard.

Understand better?

So yesterday my PC decided to tell me that I had to concentrate on my studies yesterday by making a loud, irritating clicking noise.  It was so loud it actually woke my roommate up from her nap.  Without hesitating I carefully opened my CPU case to detect the source of the clicking.  It became very obvious to me that the sound came from the PSU, probably a faulty fan or something.  I tilted the CPU a little bit and the sound ceased.

I wanted to make sure that the problem came from my PSU, not from my hard drive (oh no!).  But at the same time, I didn’t want to test my PSU with my motherboard, just in case it might damage it too.  So how can I get my PSU running WITHOUT my mobo?

By bypassing a simple connection to trick my PSU that it is still connected to the motherboard.  It’s called the “Paper Clip Trick”, because all you need, really, is a paper clip.  It’s not something I came up with, so don’t give me credit, I just want to share it here for sharing’s sake.  Who knows, maybe it’ll come in handy to one of you someday.

So here’s how it’s done.

Disclaimer: I am not responsible if any harm occurs to your hardware or you. Please take appropriate safety measures before you begin.

1. This is generally how a complete PC system looks like. That black box at the bottom is the PSU. Trace for the cables that connects the PSU to the motherboard. It’s usually the fattest with the largest connector.
2. Here’s a closer look to where it is usually placed:
3. Make sure the entire CPU is powered down before you start. Then, remove the connection, and you’ll see a bunch of wires connected to its head. Look for the green wire. There’s only ONE green wire, you can’t possibly miss it.
4. Now, we will bypass the connection by connecting the green wire and EITHER one of the black wires right next to it. This is where a paper clip comes in handy. Bend it and bypass the connection. In this case I used a copper wire because one of my friends who is a to-be Electrical & Electronics engineer has a lot of them. Yes, the place I’m currently staying is Geek Haven. Connect the wires as shown – you can add insulation for safety purposes.
5. Then, at the back of the PSU lies the switch to Power On and Off. Turn it On… and the PSU should come to life without having to have a real connection to the mobo. In my case, I managed to confirm that the weird clicking noise was coming from the PSU (not the hard drive, thank God!) which is still under warranty. And that concludes the “Paper Clip Trick”.

Anyway, one of the cons of building your own PC is that you may get accidentally purchase faulty parts.  For instance, before my PC was officially born, the motherboard I bought had a dented pin and my hard drive was also wonky and I had to exchange them for good ones.  I suppose this could happen to anyone, because hardware life is very unpredictable.

One of the pros, however, is that whenever a problem arises, you know how to diagnose the problem without having to call for external tech support because you know your machine better than anyone else.  Yes, I like looking at things from the bright side.  I see problems as a way for me to add another solution into my mental manual.

Plus, my ‘uninterrupted’ studying paid off when I managed to leave the examination hall of my last paper with a smile on my face.  =)

It has only been slightly more than 24 hours since I posted “The Mac Affair” and it occurred to me that I have almost successfully drawn a clear line between the Mac and Windows clan in my circle of friends.  The Mac Pack was very eager to help me with my conversion, and I quote one of them, “Welcome to the Mac side.”  The Windows Heroes screamed in horror upon my previous entry – they felt as if they were losing an honorary geek to a world-dominating cult.

To both parties, I say, “Chill lah.”

I wrote an extensive post of my personal opinion regarding Macs, but just because I focused less on Windows that doesn’t mean I was all ready to take the leap.  It’s like believing in a new religion, you know?  You don’t just jump right in.  You gotta pick one that ‘calls out to you’.  Lol.  Trust me, you guys made me dramatize this.

While the Macbooks were shouting and waving towards my way for the past couple of days and casting the Apple effect on me, the divine power of Geektopia somehow directed me to a different path.  That’s where I found this:

For those who thought that based on my last entry I was all ready to jump into Macville, I’m sorry to disappoint you.  Even though I expressed my wants as an ordinary consumer who occasionally lusts for those expensive sexy machines, my judgment was still very neutral.  I was just trying to keep my options open and to see from the point of view of the Mac Pack.

Now to all you Mac-a-bies, let’s be fair and see through the windows of….uh…Windows.

This is the Asus UL30VT.  It is 13″, weighs about 1.8kg and has a battery life of 10 hours.  Familiar?  It’s very similar to the Macbook Air, isn’t it?  It doesn’t have an optical drive, neither does the Air – and runs on a regular SATA drive of 500GB, more storage space as compared to the expensive 128GB solid-state drive of the Air.  The Asus utilizes the new low-power consuming Intel processors (ULV = Ultra Low Voltage) as well as the Turbo33 technology.  Turbo33 offers a simple and straightforward way of overclocking its system by no less than 33% via the included Power4Gear utility.  In other words, the 1.3GHz SU7300 processor is able to work at just over 1.7GHz without impacting stability and with a surprisingly small effect on battery life.

Uh, in short – it’s speedy enough for me to handle the tasks I want, much speedier than the Atom processors on netbooks, and consumes very little power.

Now check this.  The Macbook Air costs RM4299.  The Macbook Pro, RM3899.  The Asus is a well shy of RM2899.

I told you a Windows platform would save me AT LEAST one thousand ringgit.

Funny, I’m finding words to continue to add icing to my Windows thesis but I think the punchline was at the price.

Oh yes, its design and structure.  I think it looks good.  Almost similar to the Mac, which is why it does look good.  Oh and guess what?  It has a multi-touch trackpad too!  It also has a feature that I absolutely love from my current Vaio: Hybrid Graphics.  Which means if I want to save even more power, I can simply switch between its integrated and dedicated graphics with a push of a button.

I don’t know, the Apple effect is wearing out, isn’t it?  =)

I’m taking time off from Failure Analysis and Non-Destructive Testing to write this entry.  Because it has been bugging my geeky alter ego for awhile now.

My brother bought a Macbook Pro recently.  His girlfriend won an iPad not too long ago.  Now he’s suggesting that I should get a Macbook Air.  To complete the Apple family, perhaps?  My  brother and I share a lot of similarities, but when it comes to our preferences in gadgets we can be quite worlds apart.

He’s a diehard Apple fan.  iPhone, iPod, Mac Mini, Macbook and now the Macbook Pro – to his credit I think Apple should endorse him at some point.  I don’t have anything drastic against Apple products, but I still think I can get a lot more from Windows-based / Android-based products for the money I’m footing out.  As a matter of fact, if one really likes the Mac OS, there are numerous ways to create your own ‘Hackintosh’ system for almost half the price you would pay for a Mac hardware.

But I’m not prejudice.  I can see why once a person steps into the Macworld, they’re most probably bound to declare their loyalty and citizenship to that Apple flag.  We can’t deny it, if there’s one word to describe Apple gadgets, it would be : sexy.  And they are premium products, in a class of their own.  Of course, the less possibility of your Mac being infected by a virus adds a plus point too.

Just like everyone else, I often find myself hopping into a Mac store, fiddle around with its gadgets, secretly hoping I’ll be able to own one of these babies when I have the extra moolah to splurge.  Yes, it doesn’t matter how loyal you are to the Windows / Open Source community – you know “it would always be nice” to own a Mac provided you don’t have to feel the pinch in your wallet.

My brother’s innocent (or is it?) suggestion of me getting a Macbook Air stuck on to my mind longer than I thought.  I looked at my old-faithful Vaio who has been serving me for almost 5 years and sighed.  Most of its keys aren’t working anymore, I have to get it repaired (cost: RM200) and once again, the battery is fried.  Vaio batteries are ridiculously expensive (cost: RM800) and I won’t be spending anymore money to get another.

To-date, I have successfully built myself a high-end desktop PC (yes, I have to boast on this one – it’s a humble-looking rig that oozes a lot of power and speed, silently) but obviously it does not have the mobility that laptops do.  I need a laptop, but now, my preferences have changed.  There are only two things I look for in a laptop now:  Portability and Long Battery Life.  I need a laptop for presentations, my knack for writing, a little bit of web-surfing and watch movies on it.

Immediately, the word netbook comes to mind.  For those non-IT savvy, netbooks are smaller laptops that packs both portability and long battery life.  But it’s a legal, wide-open scam.  I’m sorry to all netbook owners out there, but you know your netbook cannot multitask. And after opening 4 browsers at once, it begins to crawl.  I have friends who own netbooks, and most of them end up telling me: Don’t get one.  Spend a little more to get a decent-working machine.

Anyway, my entry is not to criticize netbooks (I can start an entire entry on that one).  If you have one, good for you and I hope you’re happy with it.

So back to Mac (gee, that rhymes!).

Let’s pretend I have the money.  And let’s see it in a point-of-view of a person with the money.

The prospect of getting a Macbook Air seemed very tempting to me.  It’s lightweight, has long battery life, and is surprisingly, extremely fast.  It does not use the latest Intel Core-i processors, but merely the outdated Core 2 processors.  But guess what?  Real-time reviews have shown that the Macbook Air boots up seconds faster than the higher spec Macbook Pro.  For further explanation, this is mostly due to the fact that the Macbook Air uses the ground-breaking (pocket-draining) solid-state storage drives, similar to iPads.  I won’t discuss how solid-state drives work as compared to our normal SATA drives – but you just have to know that they work MUCH faster, but they are much more expensive too.  It will take time to seep into the market because right now, SATA drives work just fine and gives us much more storage space for a lower price.

The Macbook Air does not have a CD-slot, a few ports are missing, no back-lit keyboard, unlike the Macbook Pro.  Both have impressive long battery lives, but just like clothes nowadays, you pay more for less material.  In other words, despite the missing things from the Macbook Air, its lightweight factor makes it more expensive than the Macbook Pro.  We may think it’s quite stupid to opt for the Mac Air with this kind of reason, but once you’ve personally lifted the Mac Air – somehow, it has that Apple effect on you.

Oh, what’s the Apple effect?

It transforms “Bah, it’s not worth it” to “OMG, this is amazing.”  Even when it doesn’t make sense.

And then I realized, this has become a Mac vs Mac affair!  I did do some research on other portable laptops out there, such as the Lenovo Ideapad U460, HP Envy 13 and some Dells along the way.  But currently, the Apple effect is dwelling in the atmosphere.  Of course, I just have to think about the price to snap out of it.

But just comparing these two, I would opt for the Macbook Pro for now.  Although the Macbook Air is as light as, well, air, the Macbook Pro isn’t heavy in the first place.  It’s slimmer and more compact than any 13″ laptops out there, has amazing battery life than any 13″ laptops out there and is actually quite worth the money if you compare it with the likes of the HP Envy and Dell Studio laptops.  Some may think the whole uni-chassis and un-removable parts of the Mac is a turn-off, but honestly, I would rather have “a laptop-that-says-it-all-as-it-is” compared to having a custom 9-cell battery sticking out of my notebook for extra power.  Do you know that even those huge batteries cannot match the longevity of Mac’s battery juice?

And then you compare the prices.  A PC system similar to both Macs up there would cost at least a thousand ringgit less.  That’s a lot of money saved.

And then there’s the Apple effect.  Sigh.

Here’s my most expensive toy investment to-date:

After weeks of sourcing for best prices and finding the pieces that would fit, I finally had a taste of putting some of the bits and pieces together today.  And I think the person who invented the cable tie is a genius.

I’m not even sure if I had the cables connected alright.  Or if this thing would even start.  I can’t find out yet cos it’s still missing a heart.  (Hey, that rhymes!)

I just know that my geek-iness  has increased a whole lot more today.

And this geek is glad.