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HTC Amadeus (Qtek 8100, Dopod 585, T-Mobile SDA Music) – Service Manual 25 Aug 2024 10:08 AM (7 months ago)

Complete service manual and hardware specifications for:

HTC Amadeus (Qtek 8100, Dopod 585, T-Mobile SDA Music).

The post HTC Amadeus (Qtek 8100, Dopod 585, T-Mobile SDA Music) – Service Manual first appeared on PocketHacks.com.

Goldenfir T650 128GB SSD – Review and Teardown 2 Jul 2024 4:04 PM (9 months ago)

The PC market is now flooded with various cheap SATA SSD models, no-name brands and many knock-offs, however among all of them there is some “known” popular Chinese brands selling products on websites like AliExpress for many years. One of the most known cheap SSD brand is Goldenfir – being on the market for years, there’s mixed user reviews about the quality of the drives itself (as expected from a Chinese low cost SSD of course).

The main issue with cheap SSDs, is that you don’t really know what you get – the specs differs, two identical drives can have different NAND chips, controllers, firmware etc, fake capacity and so on.

Now on the topic, I like to buy and test cheap hardware and here is my latest purchase – a brand new $8 (7 euro) 2.5″ SATA Goldenfir 128GB SSD from AliExpress (the cheapest 128GB SSD on the market) which I will use mainly to test different operating systems on various laptops, it will not be my daily OS drive LOL – let’s play with it now.

Here’s the package, it has a red Goldenfir logo and some details on it, inside is the actual box containing the SSD itself (there is even an user manual) – seems legit:

The SSD itself is made all of just plastic with stickers on both sides, including the drive details:

Goldenfir Solid State Drive / Model T650-128GB / Interface SATA III 6GB/s:

Now, let’s open it and observe the PCB inside:

As you can see from the photos, there’s two NAND chips and the controller (as for a 128GB SSD, so no more NAND chips on the backside and NO DRAM). The PCB is marked as GF-1825-85N-V2.0-2L and the controller is Yeestor YS9085N (used in many other popular SSDs like Patriot, Netac, Apacer, XrayDisk and many more), the both NAND chips have an unknown markings of DD2312V76:

I connected the SSD on my Lenovo ThinkPad T420 laptop as a second drive using the HDD caddy (SATA III), the first thing that got my attention (after converting the empty drive to GPT and format it) was that CrystalDiskInfo and Hard Disk Sentinel recognized the drive just as “SSD 128GB”, there is no Goldenfir anywhere in the model name or specs:

Here’s the CrystalDiskMark benchmark results of the 128GB Goldenfir T650 SSD, not bad at all (of course on an empty drive):

The most interesting part to me was to check what’s the NAND brand used inside, so I used the tool “sg_flash_id-v0.143a” (DOWNLOAD HERE) and got an interesting results:

Drive: 1(ATA)
Model: SSD 128GB
Firmware: HT3618C1
Size: 122104 MB [128.0 GB]
From smart: [May 23 2023]
From ATA id: 0xad,0x7e,0x28,0xb,0x0,0xc0,0x0,0x0 – Hynix 3dv7-176L TLC 16k 512Gb/CE 512Gb/die
Controller : – (1)
Bank00: 0xad,0x7e,0x28,0xb,0x0,0xc0,0x0,0x0 – Hynix 3dv7-176L TLC 16k 512Gb/CE 512Gb/die
Bank04: 0xad,0x7e,0x28,0xb,0x0,0xc0,0x0,0x0 – Hynix 3dv7-176L TLC 16k 512Gb/CE 512Gb/die

To my surprise, the used NAND chips are Hynix 3dv7-176L TLC 16k 512Gb, which is a TLC 3D NAND flash memory from SK hynix (South Korean supplier of dynamic random-access memory chips and flash memory chips), not bad for a cheap $8 (7 euro)  SSD!

Final words: I am in no way affiliated with anything listed above (as products and brands), so if you’re planning on purchasing the same cheap Goldenfir SSD keep in mind that there is a chance you will receive a drive with completely different PCB and NAND chips inside (different speed ratings, capacity etc.) that’s common for almost every Chinese SSD manufacturer. As an advice, I will suggest to buy nothing bigger than 512GB as most of them are with fake capacity, ideally stay withing the 128-256GB range of cheap SSDs.

The post Goldenfir T650 128GB SSD – Review and Teardown first appeared on PocketHacks.com.

USB 3.0 ExpressCard Upgrade for Lenovo ThinkPad T420 Laptop 9 Oct 2022 3:05 AM (2 years ago)

Here is a quick update on how-to get a fully working USB 3.0 ports on some old laptops like the Lenovo ThinkPad T420 (will suit many other ThinkPads and other makes / models). This one is the cheapest possible USB 3.0 ExpressCard I can found on the internet (AliExpress), keep in mind that there’s two different sizes of the ExpressCards – 34mm and 54mm (purchase according your laptop specs).

It works surprisingly good for a cheap Chinese hardware, installed on the ThinkPad T420 with Windows 10 and it was found immediately by the OS (no drivers needed), anyway the USB 3.0 ExpressCard comes with a CD with drivers just in case. The card features FL1000 / NEC D720202 chip inside so it should work quite well, the transfer speed test I made with an external 1TB HDD shows very good speed difference compared to the laptop’s USB ports: USB 2.0 port copy speed ~20MB/s compared to the USB 3.0 port ~110 MB/s (however the speed is limited due to the HDD).

Overall you can get that exact one USB 3.0 ExpressCard for your laptop and give it some new tech upgrade, the build quality may vary from model to model – in my case it fits quite tight in the ThinkPad T420, the USB ports are a little bit loose, but they keep what’s connected inside. You can buy it from AliExpress for about $10 with free shipping (do a search on the website and found the cheapest one possible).

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Piston – Free Android Car Diagnostic App OBD2 ELM327 10 Mar 2022 5:37 AM (3 years ago)

Piston is free simple and powerful OBD2 car diagnostic app for Android, and it is a must have for any car guy.

The application is capable of:

– reading live data values (RPM, speed, coolant temperature, voltage, O2 sensors, fuel trims, timing advance, and much more)
– reading fault codes / errors and clear them (remove check engine light)
– displaying the logged freeze frame data

The application requires Bluetooth OBD2 or WiFi dongle / scanner (ELM327) to communicate with a car.

BE AWARE that the Chinese cheap OBD2 adapters marked as V2.1 are not working properly (loosing data packages, hangs up, disconnects, freeze), it is suggested to buy and use ELM327 V1.5 OBD2 adapters only! The best working Chinese ELM327 scanners are with dual layer PCB and with PIC18F25K80 chip (the real one). There will be a complete guide how to choose the best Bluetooth ELM327 OBD2 car scanner here on the website, so the article will be updated.

All the popular OBD2 protocols are supported in Piston app:

SAE J1850 PWM (41.6 kbaud)
SAE J1850 VPW (10.4 kbaud)
ISO 9141-2 (5 baud unit, 10.4 kbaud) – OBD2 protocol for Toyota / Lexus
ISO 14230-4 KWP (5 baud init, 10.4 kbaud)
ISO 14230-4 KWP (fast init, 10.4 kbaud)
ISO 15765-4 CAN (11 bit ID, 500 kbaud)
ISO 15765-4 CAN (29 bit ID, 500 kbaud)
ISO 15765-4 CAN (11 bit ID, 250 kbaud)
ISO 15765-4 CAN (29 bit ID, 250 kbaud)

You can download the Piston car diagnostic app for free from Google Play straight on your phone, or follow the link – HERE, it requires Android 4.0 and up to be installed.

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How to test fake MicroSD cards for real capacity 5 Mar 2022 5:41 AM (3 years ago)

The market is now flooded with low priced fake MicroSD cards advertised for larger capacity, you can choose from 32GB up to 512GB or 1TB Class10 as sellers stated. Anyway most of the times all no name MicroSD cards larger than 32GB or max 64GB often are just not with real capacity as the seller claimed on their website. You might be tempted with the lower prices, for example $14 for 256GB MicroSD card, $21 for 1TB or as low as $4 for 64GB MicroSD with high speed (as many others for example on AliExpress), but the truth is completely different story, not only the capacity but the speed of the storage cards is not real, so not get crazy about “What a deal I got” LOL.

This is a good guide how to test a high capacity cheap MicroSD card for example to be used with car dash cameras / video recorders as you will need the real storage capacity for that kind of devices to be able to record normally all the time and not causes interruptions, device hang on, etc. Even more, a not good working storage card can lead to data loss, damaged files, not readable files, glitches and many more software problems – nothing you want, especially in a cameras, smartphones and data backup usage. Some of the real junk ones even became unusable after a format, as they going in to “Read Only” state and lock up itself, or the device cannot even found it.

Bear in mind, that there’s also a lot of fake MicroSD cards selling for cheap branded as well known brands such as SanDisk, Kingston, Samsung, Toshiba, Kodak etc. and they are just counterfeit and nothing to do in specs and performance to the original ones.

And now on the test itself – there is a free powerful tool that you can use to check the real storage capacity of any MircoSD card or USB flash drive and the actual read/write speed.

H2testw is a powerful free tool from Harald Boegeholz which can check your mass media devices for its actual real size. The invention of this tool came about because of the sale of counterfeit SD cards / MicroSD and USB sticks which were not the actual claimed size. With H2testw, you can write and read how much data the storage device is actually capable of holding.

H2testw is available for free download from the authors website here.

Anyway, there is a real chance that a low priced MicroSD card can have the actual capacity or speed stated (depends on the brand, seller), if you find some working low priced ones, please get it shared in the comments – so the users know what to buy on a budget.

Bottom line:

If you’re on a budget it is better to buy a no name / Chinese brand (like MicroData, Vicuna R, KRY) compared to lower priced known brand stamped MicroSD card, the chance you got a good working one is much more. If you want a brand name, just pay the price – don’t waste your money on a fake branded ones / replicas. The suggested capacity to buy for a no name is no more than 64GB MicroSD card (most of them 64GB are real capacity), anything higher you risk it, put it on test first. Also, if you purchase on places like AliExpress, read the customer reviews before you buy, check the photos, comments and all the info from the buyers to choose the one you need.

This post will be updated with known good working Chinese MicroSD cards in the future, models, brands and specs will be added.

 

 

 

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Android 4.4.4 KitKat (CyanogenMod 11) NAND ROM for HTC HD2 8 Nov 2014 2:55 PM (10 years ago)

 

 

Great news to all HTC HD2 users, again and again, the latest Android releases are ported to this beloved device! Here’s a brand new Android 4.4.4 KitKat ROM based on the CyanogenMod 11 which is built from source by merging Evervolvs Legacy code and HD2 related files.

This ROM is stable and almost everything works (not working: the adb for Windows computers, Native USB tethering or using 3rd party app and Bluetooth tethering), also you cannot boot to this ROM from Windows Mobile using Haret.

Kernel features:

• Updated to 3.0.101
• ION
• CPU Governors: Smartassv2, Ondemand, Performance, Interactive
• IO Schedulers: Noop, Deadline, Row, cfq, bfq (default), sio
• Bcmdhd wifi drivers
• pmem camera (works with newer aosp camera)

Download the ROM from here (file name cm11mac4a.zip).

Meanwhile, Android 5.0 Lollipop is coming and we’re waiting for an HD2 port, stay tuned for more info!

The post Android 4.4.4 KitKat (CyanogenMod 11) NAND ROM for HTC HD2 first appeared on PocketHacks.com.

Fake Lenovo Smartphones and Replicas Hitting the Market 7 Nov 2014 1:44 PM (10 years ago)

 

In the past months there’s a massive invasion of fake Lenovo smartphones on the market coming from China, the fake phones are flooded on websites like eBay, AliBaba and AliExpress, so be aware when buying Lenovo phones online.

 

You can identify a fake Lenovo phone just by the pictures – there’s a lack of the specific Lenovo Home button and the Lenovo Vibe UI is missing. Also, the phone specs are fake too, for example – according to the “Lenovo S820i” specs, it features an octa-core MTK6592 chip running at 1.7GHz and 13MP camera, but what you get is a dual-core MTK6572 running at 1.2GHz and a crappy 5MP camera. All other specs are fake too, screen resolution, RAM, etc.

Some users even reported about Chinese phones with missing IMEI numbers (the network cannot identify the device, so basically you have no network), there’s a solution for this one – but that’s not the way it should be!

List of fake Lenovo phones (Chinese phones branded with the Lenovo logo):

• Lenovo 820t & S820i (no such Lenovo product)
• Lenovo A850+ (the fake one is completely different from the original A850+)
• Lenovo N908 (no such Lenovo product)
• Lenovo S960t (no such Lenovo product)
• Lenovo S650c (no such Lenovo product)
• Lenovo P780s+ (no such Lenovo product)
• Lenovo S8 & A8 (poor quality replicas of both phones)

The post Fake Lenovo Smartphones and Replicas Hitting the Market first appeared on PocketHacks.com.

Nokia Lumia 520 – Drop Test, Bend Test and Water Test Videos 7 Nov 2014 11:57 AM (10 years ago)

Nokia Lumia 520 is one of the best budget smartphones currently available on the market, running the latest Windows Phone 8.1 Cyan update and still up-to date with all the apps and games, definitely this is the best choice if you’re on a budget. Here we have a compilation of user submitted videos doing some “tests” like dropping in the water, bend test and of course a “crash” test.

Nokia Lumia 520 water test by Grenz

Nokia Lumia 520 bend test by Reece

Nokia Lumia 520 drop test by II FuZionZz O

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How-to Use an Old Version of Skype 3.8 and 4.2 – Portable and Fully Working 23 Sep 2014 12:28 AM (10 years ago)

 

What we have here is not a regular post about smartphones and tablets, it’s about how-to still use the old versions of Skype 3.8 and 4.2 – yeah, the good old Skype is still working and here’s the guide how-to get it running!

The problem is if you’re still using some of the old versions of Skype there’s no way to “Sign In”, and you’re forced to download and install the latest version of Skype. Of course, the latest version is bigger, uses much more RAM (1.5GB on my desktop, WTF!?) and lags, lags lags….

The magic comes from Russia and it features a modded portable Skype versions – 3.8.0.188, 4.2.0.187, 5.5.0.124 and 5.9.66.114. How it works, well it features some changes in the protocol versions (3.8.0.188 -> 7.8.0.188, 4.2.0.187 -> 7.18.0.106) and that’s how you’re able to “Sign In” without getting an error due to the outdated version.

How-to get the old Skype running:

• Download the files from HERE (torrent file) or direct .ZIP archive DOWNLOAD HERE (archive password is: “pockethacks.com”)
• Open the SkypePortable folder and click on 3.8.0.188.cmd (if you want another version just use the right .cmd)
• Start the icon.cmd file to get a shortcut of Skype on your Desktop and start it – enjoy the good old Skype 🙂
• Use autorun.cmd if you want it in the Start Up folder (DO NOT USE the option “Start Skype when the computer starts”)

 

All the credits goes to Vilko.

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