Life Hacker

Vendor: HP Product: HP Laptop 15 da0022ca Model: da0022ca Year Manufactured: 2018 CPU: Intel Core i3-8130U BIOS Firmware Version: F.04 Bought this 2 yr old model for under CAD$400 which has 8th Gen Intel Core technology that supports DDR4 RAM with higher capacity. The first issue I found in Internet about HP laptop is often it cannot boot from USB device, and card reader, which seems to experience by many earlier models.  This issue is encountered in my laptop that sold in 2018-2019 as well. Further testing found that booting from the build-in SD card reader is not available as well. The BIOS's boot order obviously is buggy, and don't allow to boot from both USB device, and build-in SD card reader Following is the procedure to follow in order to make bootable USB thumb drive.  These guideline could be applicable to other laptop models as well as these are general firmware programmer knowledge gap on various technologies and hardware. Option 1: BIOS Firmware Instruction: Upgrad...

Listing out troubleshooting process when shift knob stuck at P (Parking) gear for Honda or Acura. 1. Press on BRAKE pedal - check whether rear brake light turns on If no light, see Solution 1 2. Check brake fluid - check it has brake fluid If low fluid, see Solution 2 3. Manually press on BRAKE switch above BRAKE pedal - ensure brake light turns on If switch doesn't turn on brake light on pressing, see Solution 3 4. Connects 12V to shift control solenoid to each pin connector (one pin control 1 solenoid) - it looks like below.  If no clicks when the pin touch 12V, see Solution 4 5. Test battery when cranking (starting) car - make sure it is above 11V If low battery, see Solution 5 6. If needs to drive the car immediately, and no time to diagnose the issue, see Solution 6 as temporary workaround Solution 1 - No brake light 1. Replace fuse for the brake light, if fuse burned 2. The brake light fuse control the gear locking solenoid 3. Temporary w...

Product: LG G4 Model: H810, H812, H820, H830 Tested Country: Canada Other related product: LG G3, G4, G5, G6 and newer I bought a used LG G4, and without considering Android's Factory Reset Protection, I went into Setting, and done a "Factory Data Reset" from the menu. After boot up, then I am shock that I have to login as previous owner's Google account in order to use the phone. I went into firmware hard reset page below to reset it, but still can't bypass Factory Reset Protection (FRP): With the phone off, hold both Power + Volume Down buttons to power it up When the very first LG logo (static picture) appears, temporary release Power button while holding Volume Down button Within split second, hold both  Power  +  Volume Down  buttons again.  Some internet homepage said keep holding, and some said release both temporary, but I found both are not applicable to my phone The phone should still be in the static LG logo, and not in the animate...

Product: Thunderbird My Yahoo Spam Folder disappeared from Thunderbird, and I do not see the "Bulk Mail" folder any more. Following is the configuration steps to re-enable it: 1. Subscribe to Spam folder 1.1. Right-click on Yahoo.com account 1.2. In the pop up context menu, select " Subscribe... " 2. Select " Bulk Mail " folder, which is Spam  folder in Yahoo web mail 3. Repeat step 1.1, and select " Setting... " to configure spam folder configuration 3.1. Under Yahoo account, select Junk Setting  menu item 3.2. Select radio button "Junk" folder on: Yahoo.com  entry 4. Now Bulk Mail  will be visible under Yahoo account in Thunderhead

Product: Apple macOS Mojave 10.14.x Partition type: APFS Container & Volume Someone reminded me that macOS runs faster than Windows 10, even the latest 10.14 Mojave OS.  So I spent few days to install it into my Lenovo Thinkpad W530, and managed to get it up in 3 days. After few more days of playing around with Clover bootloader, and "Recovery" boot menu.  I stumble on a tool in "Recovery" partition which called Disk Utility > First Aid. First Aid acts similar to chkdsk (Check Disk) in Windows, or fsck in UNIX, which will umount the drive to perform disk repair, e.g. bad sector, lost cluster/inode, etc. 10.14 Mojave always converts the partition from earlier HFS+ to APFS (latest) file system during installation or upgrade.  The "Recovery" partition in earlier HFS+ now become one of the volume in the APFS container (every partition become a APFS volume in 1 container).  When First Aid trying to umount the volume, it further tried to unmount ...

Honda/Acura Head Unit/Stereo Connector This connector is used prior of ~ 2000 models and earlier.  These wire hardness doesn't has AUX in, and CD changer connector used a 8 pin DIN connector. Following are various primary connector:  Following is for the 8-pin DIN connector Alpine Pin# Acura Pin# Pin Name Pin Function Wire (ext) Wire (int.) 8 8 GND Ground Black Orange/White 6 6 BATT +12V Yellow Blue/White 7 7 ACC Accessory Red White 1 1 BUS Bus Green Red/White 3 3 B.G Bus Ground Black Orange/White 4 2 R Right Signal Red Blue/White 2 4 S.G Signal Ground Black White 5 5 L Left Signal White Red/White Shell Shell Chassis Chassis Ground Black Chassis Ref: https://www.nsxprime.com/wiki/CD_Changer

Saeco Incanto RS Automatic Coffee Machine Maintenance Overview Saeco Incanto has several sub-models, and across the years, the brew group is progressively changed.  However, 90% of the maintenance part are identical. This post is to show total maintenance parts when maintaining Incanto.  Please note that most of the o-ring are food grade, which should be orange or red in color. This post is specifically checked using Incanto Rapid Steam model.  The objective is to provide generic parts, if there is one, which will save the cost compare by buying from coffee machine retailer, or online store. If you have multiple parts to replace, it is best to search for "repair kit" in eBay, as the total price for the parts and o-ring will be cheaper than getting the parts separately.  Moreover, the o-ring cost will be lowest when it package as repair kit. Boiler Water Spray There are 2 o-ring needs to be replaced if you see water leak below this spray head.  Onc...