News for Friday, 11 April 2008

PC Inpact

While many businesses are trying to move toward free software, Microsoft may have found a way to reduce the bleeding.
They, reportedly, have already negotiated two offers, one having agreed to use Microsoft OS & productivity software exclusively for a sum of about $240 (150€ / £120) per setup per year, the contract was signed for 4 years.
While it can't hurt to see businessed save money, it would have been far more reliable and less controversy-prone with software from the Open Source world.

In the iMac 24 ", the video card is not soldered to the motherboard, but it connected via a MXM connector.
In theory it should be possible to replace it, but in practice Apple does not offer (to install) a new card, and they are rare in the PC world.
The situation may soon change.

Asus has announced a unique product. It is a PCI-Express card carrying 3 HD Radeon 3850's, these cards are connected via MXM.
Of course, there would still many obstacles in order to install one of these daughter cards in an iMac, but it would be really simple if Apple released a Radeon 38xx HD for the Mac Pro. Then we would have a compatible or least adaptable firmware.

Source: VR Zone

While AMD graphics chips are engraved at 55 nm, NVidia's are still 65. Finer engraving allows not only better power consumption and an increase in frequency, but also stamping out more chips on each silicon waffer and thus reduces the manufacturing costs.
NVidia is expected to engrave chips at this level soon enough. Nothing will change in the architecture of their products. They should offer the G94b and G96b chips. As is often the case, the smaller die size benefits products for laptops, where the power consumption/output ratio is especially critical.

We have already mention in the past numerous cases of defective MagSafe PSU, mostly due to auto twisting of the wire, leading to a short-circuit, and in some extreme cases burning and fire ignition. Couple of months ago, Apple published a TechNote explaining how to roll the cable around the unit to prevent any auto-twisting.
However, I personally own 2 MagSafe units, and for one of them the cable is already looking like it is being twisting inside the plastic shield. Last week-end I went to a friend whose MacBook PSU is just looking like it is going to fail apart, with the cable near the lead completely malformed.
Hereafter is an interesting story from Crispy, a hardmac forum member, reporting his experience with MagSafe units, and describing how defective manufacturing could be responsible of failure in some cases.

My second MacBook Pro power supply failed! the first one was replaced under guarantee the second lasted 16 months with lots of care! I asked the Apple tech support guy if it would be better to mistreat the cable and get it replaced under guarantee every 12 months .... he declined to comment!
Well I thought I would take this one apart to see if it could be fixed. I thought it would be complicated as there are 5 pins on the plug. First you have to cut through the moulded plug:

then you have the silicone like gel to remove and finally you find a little PCB.

It turns out to be rather simpler to fix that I thought. True the soldering is tricky but its just 1 power core with the earth shielding split and soldered on both sides of the PCB. I think the cable is broken about 1 cm from the end so I will have to trim it back and refix the connector.
Now All I need is some solder ... the cupboard was empty DOH!
So now its put back together and strapped up with gaffa tape, cheaper than the £59 or $120 it costs for the replacement in the UK.
Good job I didn't try to fix it immediately as the new power supply died after 12 hours! kept blowing fuses!
.......................
My new power supply has arrived and works, and since they didn't ask for the old one back I took it apart to see if I could use the new MagSafe lead.
It’s not easy!
Firstly the whole assembly is glued together so you inflict serious damage on the plastic housing getting in! This alone kind of rules out repairs.

Secondly the innards are all glued up with a white cement so it looks a right mess. It’s so tightly packed in there that there is no access to the end of the MagSafe lead! That’s where I give up! It’s not a serviceable unit!!

I think I will use a junction box to connect the new lead to the old power supply externally.
The cable started to melt next to the MagSafe connection, so I called it a day and dissected the lead!
It revealed that just the shielding had failed not the inner core!
I guess this means that you could fix the lead by taking the plastic sheath off and repair the shielding. If you can get heat shrink tubing over the MagSafe connector you could have a tidy fix.
I didn't take many pictures of the dissection but this pic shows the inner core is ok and the heat causing the cable to melt came from arcing across the failed shielding.


The final fix looks like this.. not the prettiest sight but it works and the bonus is that I have a new MagSafe connector on a double length lead!

So an improper shielding near the MagSafe lead might explain why in some cases the area start twisting, leading to heat release and short circuit. Last but not least, one could ask what is the impact of the magnet on the lifetime of the solder/wire connection of the MagSafe plug. For sure, over my long history with Apple notebook, I have never seen so many cases of defective PSU units. So, is the MagSafe really safe for the user?

Another update released by Apple during the night, the MacBook Air Bluetooth Firmware Update 1.0:

The MacBook Air Bluetooth Firmware Update 1.0 should be installed on all MacBook Air Systems.
The updater application will be installed in the /Applications/Utilities folder.
To complete the bluetooth firmware update process, please follow the instructions in the updater application(/Applications/Utilities/MacBook Air Bluetooth Firmware Update.app). The updater will launch automatically.
For more information about firmware updates for Intel-based Macs, please visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1504

Apple released a rather large (63.7 MB) Pro applications update:

This update improves reliability for Apple's professional applications and is recommended for all users of Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Server, Logic Studio, and Shake.
Pro Applications Update 2008-01 is a revision to Final Cut Studio 2.0. This update includes Final Cut Pro 6.0.3, Compressor 3.0.3, which addresses specific customer issues, installation issues, compatibility updates, general performance issues and improves overall stability.
This update is recommended for all users of Final Cut Studio 2.0 and later.

Apple provides a surprisingly detailled release note regarding changes in this update:

Pro Applications Update 2008-01 is a revision to Final Cut Studio 2.0 focused on new camera support. This update includes Final Cut Pro 6.0.3, Compressor 3.0.3, Apple HDV Codec 1.4, PluginManager 1.7.3, and a cumulative update of shared technology components from Pro Applications Update 2007-01 forward.

Additional information at the following webpage: http://www.apple.com/support/releasenotes/en/Final_Cut_Studio_2.0_rn/