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D7830 owner with a couple of problems

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D7830 owner with a couple of problems

Postby Steve_94a » Tue Jun 02, 2009 2:00 pm

Hi guys and guyesses,
I have just "Ahem" borrowed a FS Amilo D-7830. The owner fancied my little Asus EEE 900 but wanted to borrow it for a month to convince her husband (my son) to buy her one. In the meantime, she gave me this FS laptop. If everything goes as normal with kids, no matter their age, I have probably seen the last of my Asus.
Anyway, back to this Amilo.
BIOS flashes.
I have been over to the download pages and downloaded every single file there is for this particular laptop, including the BIOS flash downloads. The question is, how do I tell which is the right one to use? Is it just the latest one? Are there BIOS flashes for each different "bit" of the laptop or does the latest on incorporate all the rest automatically?
The battery seems to be dead. If not dead, it must be severely wounded. If I go to the Control panel >> Power Options the battery power is shown as ZERO and not charging. There is also a big red "X" through the battery. My problem here is that I could spend £40 buying a battery only for it to fail if there is something else wrong that is stopping the battery that is already in the laptop from charging. How can I tell what is wrong without handing a blank cheque to a PC repair chap?
Lastly, I have bought some extra RAM to add to the paltry 256 mb that was fitted as standard. I have read up on this forum, and others, and found out where the RAM sits but a user manual would be handy so does anybody know where a manual can be downloaded from? The normal FS download page for manuals says that a manual for my model isn't available.

Cheers for any help.
Steve
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Re: D7830 owner with a couple of problems

Postby Steve_94a » Tue Jun 02, 2009 3:55 pm

OK, scratch the question about the User manual.
I found one and it's about as much use as a Bull's nipples.
Most manuals these days tend to state the obvious a lot.
Do not operate your laptop underwater.
Do not operate your laptop if it becomes frozen in a block of ice.
Info on replacing the RAM?
Oh, you don't need that, Sir ... Look at the pretty colours.
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Re: D7830 owner with a couple of problems

Postby hikaru » Wed Jun 03, 2009 1:07 pm

Why do you want to updade the BIOS? You don't need that! Didn't you notice the pretty colours? ;-)

Seriously:
Unless there is a very good reason you shouldn't updade your BIOS. Have a look at the changelogs of the versions newer than yours to see if you need an update (e.g. because of a missing feature in your current version).
If you plan to update the BIOS you only need the version you would like to install (usually the latest one). It's no incremental update.

If you want to have some more information on your battery, boot from a Linux live CD, open a terminal and have a look at the output of the following commands:
Code: Select all
cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/info
cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/state
(Maybe you will have to replace BAT0 with BAT1 to get a reasonable output.)

This will show you if the battery is detected at all, how its charging status is and some other things. If one of the controllers is defective it won't tell you which one it is, but if the battery cells are defective you will see this.
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Notebook:
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Re: D7830 owner with a couple of problems

Postby Steve_94a » Fri Jun 05, 2009 4:29 am

Thank you for the reply, hikaru.

Why do I want to flash the BIOS?
In all honesty, I don't. I wouldn't dream of doing it under normal circumstances but another web page suggested that one advantage of flashing the BIOS was a better deal for the battery. My thinking being that if it is a problem with the BIOS that has killed the battery, surely buying a new battery won't solve the problem. It just means that I will very shortly have 2 dead batteries instead of one.
I ain't sure if that is the case which is why I asked on here. Especially about the battery icon having a big red "X" through it.
Cheers,
Steve
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Re: D7830 owner with a couple of problems

Postby hikaru » Fri Jun 05, 2009 7:43 am

The battery is the weak point of the D7830, the design is more than five years old and batteries are wear parts.
I couldn't see any obvious improvements concerning the battery in the changelog. So I wouldn't give too much about the BIOS.
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Notebook:
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