Mobile broadband modems (Gallery: 10 most annoying hardware headaches)

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RE: 10 most annoying hardware headaches

Another great article with wonderful dashes of wit & sarcasm - every bit as good as your 10 Most Annoying Programs article!

IMHO, here's one more that should definitely be on the list: laptop DC jacks. Manufacturers still insist on designing the DC jacks so that they're hard-soldered to the motherboard; and as we all know, they inevitably tend to go bad when subject to normal stress & strain. I make a lot of $ repairing & retrofitting clients' bad DC jacks. My old method was to apply a nice size glob of 2-part epoxy to prevent the new jack assembly from flexing in relation to the mobo. I finally found a company that makes a nearly-universal replacement jack design that connects to the mobo with WIRE leads, thus eliminating the possibility of the leads breaking away from the motherboard ever again.

Some manufacturers have gotten smart and have started using jacks that are soft-wired to the mobo with Molex connectors or whatever.

A couple other thoughts:

* I actually kinda LIKE glossy laptop screens. To me, the image appears slightly sharper and less "diffuse" than a standard matte finish LCD screen. It's sort of like the "glossy vs. matte" debate when printing photographs. When I worked in a photo store years ago, I would always recommend glossy finish if the customer wanted maximum sharpness; if they were gonna be passing around the pix to a bunch of people with greasy mitts, I would recommend matte finish to minimize fingerprints.

* I agree - wireless mice & kybds are battery pigs that always seem to crap out at the worst time. I suppose they're fine if you happen to own stock in DuraCell. Of course, most people try to use the included (Chinese) NeverReady batteries, and then wonder why they crap out after 4 days.

* I don't have much experience with mobile broadband modems, but I suppose there's no thecnical reason why they couldn't be designed to take advantage of the Mini-PCI slots found on most modern laptops. Obviously, since most laptops have only a single Mini-PCI slot, you would need some kind of "combo" card that supported both mobile broadband AND regular Wireless-G or whatever. There's probably also an issue of antenna compatibilty...

* The whole USB connector Tower Of Babel seems to have gotten somewhat better in the last few years. Most newer gizmo's now tend to use the standard 5-pin MiniUSB connector - it's about time! A while back I purchased one of those 12-piece universal USB connector kits that included every possible type of oddball USB connector (except the downright strange USB connector for my Creative Labs Rio MP3 player, of course). These days I don't need to resort to that kit too often - thank god!

JohnB

Posted by: johnnyzero   Posted on: 06/16/08 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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