Archive for 'Tracy’s Updates' Category

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Raising the White Flag

2 February 2008 Posted By: Tracy
Posted in: Tracy's Updates

Hi, all. So, yes, as usual, I am swamped.

I’m taking six classes (my normal is 4) in order to graduate in May, except two of those have to be done by March 24th since they’re online classes and I can’t have outstanding online/extension courses past the deadline to graduate. I’m also working part-time at an office in order to pay the bills. I’m also planning my May wedding, which any girl knows is distracting to say the least (guys just don’t seem to get this, heh). 

A little busy, but what’s new…

11 September 2007 Posted By: Tracy
Posted in: Tracy's Updates

Like I tend to do, I have a bunch on my plate at the moment. This is my last year in college and I’m trying to get everything done (which right now means four 3-hour major courses and three online courses like history and philosophy). I also have the FE exam to study for since I’m taking that in October and, on top of everything, endless wedding planning (guys reading this may not understand, but trust me).

Refreshing my LE1600…that’s what Spring Break’s for, right?

17 March 2007 Posted By: Tracy
Posted in: Back-Up / Restore, Hardware, Tracy's Updates

After my sound driver breaking (and I’ve tried every other driver I can get my hands on), MS Word breaking, OneNote Printer dissapearing, and a few other weird things after upgrading to Vista (yes, I upgraded instead of doing a fresh install), it’s time to clean house. I think it was viewing all the squeaky clean machines at the Summit that made my poor baby look so unloved.

Considering all I have on this thing and the lack of real record keeping I’ve done (shame on me), this should be fun, but for the best. Anyway, it’s good to keep track of serial numbers, back-up files, and where your install CDs are.

Hold your horses, I’m mid-midterms

28 February 2007 Posted By: Tracy
Posted in: Tracy's Updates

I’ve been dying to share something interesting that will make y’all laugh (those who have been following the blog for a while), but I only have a few moments to spare this week thanks to midterms and I want to spend more time on it than 5 minutes. An unfortunate caveat of any college blog is that the bloggers are (usually) in college…

Good luck to all the midtermers (…?) out there!

Why I can’t wait to attend the MVP Summit in March

31 January 2007 Posted By: Tracy
Posted in: Tracy's Updates

I’m all excited about this so I have to post something, even though it’s a ways away. On March 11-15, I finally have the opportunity to meet Trev, Warner, Josh Eistein (possibly), and something like 400 other MVPs from all over the world at the 2007 Microsoft MVP Summit in Seattle, WA. I think the number of Tablet MVPs attending is around 14 right now.

The Move to Vista - Part 1: Getting Ready

12 January 2007 Posted By: Tracy
Posted in: Tips / Tricks, Tracy's Updates

OK, thanks to the MSDN Microsoft gives to their MVP’s (for some reason I choose TechNet instead of the MSDN for my first MVP cycle), I now have Windows Vista Ultimate edition to install on my Motion LE1600.

I’ve already installed it on a Gateway M275 that I inherited from my mom. I didn’t have anything valuable on it to lose and it was OK if Vista broke it (because you never know), but it’s working so well that I want to get it on my main computer before the school year starts this coming Tuesday. And, yes, you heard me, Vista works great, even on a computer with a PC rating of “1″ (thanks to the graphics card.

Vista, here I come!

27 December 2006 Posted By: Tracy
Posted in: Tracy's Updates

Today I got in the mail a little box from Microsoft that enclosed, you guessed it, Windows Vista. Cool!

As soon as I get a chance, I’ll be installing it on my little Motion LE1600 to see how the two get along. My brother also wants to see how Vista works for gaming on his new system, so may have some comments from him at some point, too.

I am interested to see how Vista works on what I consider an average performance computer (1.5 GHz with an average graphics card). I do have a little “Windows Vista Capable” sticker on the side here, so I don’t doubt it will work, I’m just curious how well it works and what it can do.

Tagged by Jason Dorko

19 December 2006 Posted By: Tracy
Posted in: Tracy's Updates

I was tagged by Jason Dorko of DorkoTech in a little game of sharing spreading through the blogosphere. Apparently I have to share 5 thing y’all don’t know about me then tag 5 more people to keep playing. Let’s see…

1. I love Christmas and decorate the wazoo out of everything I can.
2. I think Foo Fighters and Queen rock.
3. I watch House, Bones, and Gilmore Girls religiously.
4. I have two collies that rival Lassie in cuteness (but not usefulness).
5. I hate sleeping and wish I could give it up altogether. Mostly because I hate waking up.
   

OK, in return, I tag 5 other bloggers, right? Sorry if you’ve already been tagged! I’ve been out of the loop for a while.

• Vic Kaiser
• Hugh Sung
• Aaron Hall
• Josh Einstein
• Trevor and Andrew (I’m only counting that as one, since it’s the same site)
  

             

Update on Motion Tablet Extended Battery Issue

25 October 2006 Posted By: Tracy
Posted in: Hardware, Tracy's Updates

Just thought I’d swing by and let everyone know what the status is on my LE1600. Earlier I mentioned having trouble with the extended battery connecting to the tablet. The first incident of this was right when I got the battery mid-July…today’s date is October 25th…so it’s been now 4 months of experimenting with different ideas to try to solve the problem.

The problem I’m having is when I connect the extended battery to the back of the slate physically, the tablet only will recognize the battery half the time, with random connects and disconnects, though it does seem to work better with a little pressure applied to the connection. This makes charging it a problem since it takes about twice as long to charge because of the disconnects, and then, of course, using any extended battery that randomly disconnects is troublesome.

So far, here’s the list of things Motion Computing’s tried to make the battery connect to the tablet:

1. replacing the battery with a battery that worked in another tablet,
   
2. repairing the metal prongs that connect the battery to the tablet,
3. repairing  the metal prongs that connect the battery to the tablet again, but this time with more specific instructions,
   
4. a brand new replacement tablet (to use with the original battery),
   
5. a brand new battery to ONLY use with the new tablet. <—currently in testing
   

At least I can’t say they haven’t tried ^_^. Actually, Motion’s been pretty good about speedy deliveries and trusting me when I say it’s still not working. Also, I’ve had a temporary tablet each time my personal tablet’s gone off for repair, so it’s not like I’ve been less productive because of it. All this mess just means I have to find an outlet and carry my charger with me more often then I’d like since I don’t have then extended battery like I planned on having.

From talking to the Motion tech support guy, it sounds like the current guess is there’s some sort of problem with the chip in the battery which was messed up from something that was wrong with the original tablet. That’s about as specific as I can get without lying to you since I really don’t know all the details, I just know it’s not working.

For the record, I HAVE seen the battery work as intended by the manufacturers, so I’m pretty sure it’s not something I’m doing (although I can’t think of how you could physically connect the battery wrong…it’s not like you can put it in upside-down like in a calculator). When I had the temporary tablet (a pre-production LE1600 they use for loaners…it still had some funny quirks), my original battery worked perfectly, which is odd since now that exact same battery won’t work with my original tablet or the replacement.

Anyway, we’ll see if the new battery will work with the new tablet. If not, I may need to check my karma out, or do some soul cleansing, because it may just be my bad vibes corrupting the battery. I didn’t think I had bad vibes, but I also don’t think good vibes do this sort of thing.

Cross your fingers.

Replacing a Toshiba M200 LCD Mask

10 October 2006 Posted By: Andrew
Posted in: Tips / Tricks, Tracy's Updates

Sorry for not writing about this sooner. I’ve somehow managed to select a set of classes and other extracurricular activities that constantly and incessantly bombard me with work. As you might remember, my tablet succumbed to effects of hitting a pepper shaker.

After an initial panic, I gained my composure and started looking around. I eventually tracked down number of the part I needed, P000388420. New, the part was going to cost anywhere from $110 to over $250. That wasn’t going to fly. I decided to check eBay, on the off chance someone might be selling one unused. Must have been my lucky day. Not only did I find just what I was looking for, it was going to close in 4 days. I was able to snatch it up for a paltry $61 plus a few bones for shipping.

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