XdN

While moving stuff around on my computer, my STB TV PCI card from 1996 broke. The metal simply snapped due to age.

It had out-lasted half a dozen computer replacements, and finally wore out.

To replace it, I purchased the KWorld PlusTV HD PCI 120.

The TV card has an Analog Tuner, a Digital Tuner, an FM Tuner, a remote, and supports watching HDTV.

Using it reminds me of my STB TV PCI from a few years back – basically I’m left looking for software that actually works with it. The bundled Media Center software works Ok, and the only other program I’ve gotten to work with it is called “WatchHDTV”.

Because it’s a pretty new card, and there aren’t many references to it online, I decided to put up a review page on it – which helped me decide to put up a general review page as well.

The Reviews page: http://xenomorph.net/?page_id=516

The KWorld PlusTV HD PCI 120 review page: http://xenomorph.net/?page_id=519

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815123007

$17 shipped.

I thought it looked nice, it was cheap, it had 7 ports, did USB 2.0, and even had external power.

I get it, and find out the thing is a fucking lightshow. I can’t stand the constant flashing it does. I’m probably going to break it apart and tear out the LEDs.

If you like brightly flashing stuff, this may be fine. For me though, it’s giving me a headache.

UPDATE
I finally brought the thing to work with me.

It’s a piece of shit. Pure shit. USB standard says 500 mA per port. This can’t provide that even with the external power supply plugged in. The unit itself pulls up to 500 mA from the system, and the power supply provides an additional 1000 mA. Seven ports will pull up to 3500 mA though.

There was *no way* I was using anywhere close to 3.5 A on this device. I tried plugging in an external hard drive, mouse, two thumbdrives, and a USB WiFi adapter.

Half of the stuff I plugged into it wasn’t recognized by Windows. With just 5 items plugged in, NOTHING worked. With one device, because it was getting so little power, it’s drivers actually crashed Windows on me.

My external hard drive wouldn’t work at all. Even when the hard drive was plugged into an external power supply itself, it couldn’t pull anywhere near 500 mA from it, so Windows couldn’t see it. Even if it was the only item on the USB Hub, it still wouldn’t work.

It seems to work ok when I have JUST a mouse and a thumb drive plugged in – but what the hell is the point of buying a hub with a lot of ports if I can’t use them?

Pure crap, stay away from this product. It’s ugly and doesn’t work right.

DOUBLE EDIT

Since it doesn’t work right, I went through the RMA process at Newegg.
The item cost $12 w/ $5 shipping. Obviously I wouldn’t get the $5 back, but $12 isn’t so bad.
The Newegg automated RMA said there would be a $2 restocking fee – which is dumb, because if it doesn’t work, why restock it?
But that was ok, I’d still get $10 back.
Newegg had something for me to click to get a UPS label to send it back. UPS wanted $8 to ship it.

I’d end up getting $2 back then.

Well crap, if I’d only get $2 back, I may as well keep it and not go through the trouble of sending it back. After all, not having the $2 but having a sorta-working hub sounds like a deal.

I called up Newegg, and mentioned the crazy cost of things – they told me they would just give me my money back! They understand that going through all the time and effort and cost to send it back just isn’t worth it.

To recap, Newegg rocks!

Give them a visit and buy something! Newegg.com

TRIPLE EDIT

Since Newegg basically told me to throw it away after giving me a full refund, I decided to try and “alter” it a little.

I pulled the 8 LEDs off of it, and put one of the dimmer LEDs back in the middle where the flashing one was.

If you have one of these ugly things, it’s not too hard to do. Just use a flat-headed screw driver and kinda wedge the LEDs up until they pull out. You can then plug them into different locations.

This makes the device less painful to look at, and possibly reduces the power consumption of the device, allowing more for the actual USB devices.

yesterday i spent a few hours taking apart and working on a broken ThinkPad T23. i checked all connections, applied Arctic Silver to the CPU, replaced an inverter board under the screen, soldered an inductor to the motherboard, added additional padding under the motherboard, and then super-glued a busted part of the case. all that allowed the system to boot up and work fine after having been off (and unable to even power on) for almost a full year. i’m actually quite proud of myself for getting my T23 working again.

my T23 has these specs:
Pentium III 1.13 GHz
512 Megs RAM
8x DVD rom
30 Gig HD
built in WiFi

so, its a pretty nice system. i was heart broken when it stopped working last year after i had put so much time and money into fixing it up.

i have a stack of ThinkPads (about 6), and have spent a LOT of time looking at hardware maintenance manuals and researching them online.

NONE of the systems worked when i got them. i purchased about $400 in parts off eBay to get them all working. things like memory chips, optical drives, floppy drives, LCD screens, batteries, AC adapters, keyboards, palm rest/bezels, etc.

most came from a company that had tossed them. many were out dated (three are Pentium 1 systems), and one was very damaged. the T23 had been dropped, so its bezel/case was cracked and the screen would flicker. the keyboard had some chemical damage, and many keys were melted and unreadable.

when i got the T23, i purchased ram, DVD drive, new keyboard, and a new bezel for it. i also re-soldered the inverter board on it to fix the flicker. after all that, the system worked *great* … until one day it died.

it would power on, but then it would just sit, and never post. the fan on it would kinda pulse, fast then slow, over and over.

i did some Google searches, and found it was an issue with other T23 systems, and i read that it could be fixed by soldering a loose part back on the motherboard. after taking apart the system, i couldn’t locate the broken part. so the laptop just sat.

recently, after coming across another ThinkPad that i have been fixing up, i found a web site called thinkpads.com. on the forum on that site, i found more info regarding non booting T23s, including better pictures of the problem part – and i also read that the problem piece was on the *bottom* of the motherboard (where i did not look). so when i took apart my T23 last night, i removed the motherboard completely, checked under it, and actually found the exact broken part shown in the pictures.

the thread that helped me is here:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=27245

the other day, while playing World of Warcraft, my monitor turned off. i had no clue why. i ended up restarting my computer after many random key presses did nothing.
after getting back in the game, my mouse cursor turn into a distorted block, and then my monitor turned off again.

this made me think something was up with my video card. i popped the side of my case off, and noticed the fan on my MSI Radeon 9800 Pro wasnt spinning! the card was overheating. i gave the fan a little push, and it started to spin slowly, and then stopped again. i gave it another push, and it started to spin slowly, and kept going this time.

i started to look online for a replacement fan. it didnt look like a standard fan on the video card. it was some weird fan screwed into MSI’s even weirder heatsink.

after some Googling, i found out that some people had put the “VGA Silencer, Rev 3″ on their MSI Radeon 9800 Pro. NewEgg had one for $20 shipped, so i ordered it.

i got the VGA Silencer in about a day (NewEgg is awesome). i took the heatsink off my 9800 Pro, and popped on the VGA Silencer.

after booting up the system, i was getting “artifacts” (little colored sparkles). that usually means the card is overheating, but it was at the default clock speed.
i pulled the card, and removed the VGA Silencer, i could see from the tiny amount of thermal compound on the heatsink that it wasnt making good connection with the video card’s core. so i re-applied some Arctic Silver, put the VGA Silencer on again, and i made sure i had it on there good and tight.

after booting up, i started to get a corrupted mouse cursor, and the system locked up. i pulled the card again and saw even less thermal compound on the heatsink. like it was barely touching, and i knew the core needed to be fully touching the heatsink for it to be effective.

so i put the VGA Silencer back on, and tightened it a lot more – and then *SNAP*! i had crushed the core of the video card. when i took off the VGA Silencer, i noticed that there still wasnt much compound on it – even with enough force to crush the core, it still wasnt tight enough to make good contact.

obviously the VGA Silencer, Rev 3 that i was told worked great with the MSI Radeon 9800 Pro doesnt even fucking fit the video card. the original MSI heatsink has a slightly raised part that fits flush with the core. the VGA Silencer doesnt have that, so the flat part of its heatsink doesnt reach the core. i guess i should have caught that before i tried putting it on, but i had read several times that the *exact* model of the VGA Silencer i got worked fine with the *exact* model of the MSI Radeon 9800 Pro that i have.

so, i was left looking for a new video card. luckily, someone on Something Awful says they can sell me their old 9800 Pro cheap.

here are some pics of my (now broke) MSI Radeon 9800 Pro and the VGA Silencer, Rev 3:

Wired has bunch of zany USB devices listed. One of them is a USB hand warmer:

You can check out the site here: http://blog.wired.com/weirdusb/