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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 12th, 2023

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  • I don’t understand why you were downvoted for asking this question. I’ve literally watched techs cause this damage by trying to open the lid with the back cover screws removed.

    Most laptops have at least one screw on each side that goes through both the back cover and the hinge. If the hinge is normally affixed with 3 screws and you open the lid with one missing, each mount is taking on that extra stress.

    Best practice is to reinstall those screws before opening the lid with the back cover removed.



  • Romkslrqusz@lemm.eetoLinux@lemmy.mlLinux on old School Machines?
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    25 days ago

    useless

    pre-7th gen i5’s

    I’ve got systems with second and third gen i5s that are handling Windows 10 just fine, seems like what the school really needs is some SSDs.

    Linux would definitely run better, so that’s worth it too.

    If this school is heavily embedded im the Google ecosystem, ChromeOS Flex is an option. FydeOS is similar but without the Google Account requirement.


  • What’s uniquely “proprietary” about Apple’s hardware that distinguishes it from a Dell or Lenovo PC?

    Well, for starters, they design their own A_X_ and M_X_ silicon. When they were using Intel x86_64 silicon, the T_X_ security coprocessors were also custom / proprietary.

    Consoles are all using custom AMD APUs that are still x86_64 based, so they have more in common with a Dell/Lenovo PC than anything Apple makes. Apple’s entire hardware lineup is about as proprietary as it gets.



  • Awesome breakdown and troubleshooting so far!

    I wonder if the previous owner removed the battery because of this issue in the first place.

    The fact that the flickering is full-width bands that don’t appear in screenshots indicates to me that this is a signal issue to or through the display.

    An important variable to pay attention to and experiment with is the display’s refresh rate. It’s possible that is what is changing with and without the battery, though you most likely would have noticed if that were the case.

    Since the problem varies based on battery presence, it would be appropriate to source a replacement battery - especially if you purchased a cheap aftermarket battery. The real deal for your system is available for $80USD from Parts People compared to $20-$40USD for low quality Amazon junk.

    After the battery, my main suspicion is a fault on the mainboard leaking voltage from the battery circuit and affecting the display signals. Even without the infrequency of the problem that would be tricky to isolate and remedy.

    Overall, this screams hardware issue and I don’t believe you will find a software trace of it. The problem is not visible in screenshots, so the software environment does not know that it exists.


  • A software approach to a hardware problem is an exercise in futility.

    Test your memory with Memtest86

    Test your disks too. badblocks is a Linux utility. I like the Victoria and HDDScan Windows programs because they’re less pass/fail in their reporting - you can see that a disk is degraded even if all of the sectors technically respond.