Hi everyone, In this post, we will see how to update the BIOS of the ASUS E210MA laptop I got for Christmas. It came with the BIOS 301 version, but we can update it to BIOS 304. Here, we will see the steps to update it. Downloading the BIOS The first thing we will do is go to ASUS Download Center support page and type our model number. This particular machine is model E210MA. We will click on “Driver &…
Hi everyone, In this post, we will see how to install an SSD to the ASUS E210MA laptop: This laptop features an M.2 2280 slot to install a separate NVMe drive, expanding the storage from the internal 64GB eMMC drive: We will be installing a 500GB Samsung SSD 980 NVMe drive in this slot, which will be used as a separate drive to hold the machine’s data, while keeping the 64GB eMMC drive for the Ubuntu operating system. The 500GB…
Remember the Netbook days? We can still find out some small laptops in the market, particularly laptops in the 11.6-inch range. This is the case of the ASUS E210 laptop. Small, lightweight, with a basic processor that allow us to do basic tasks on the go. This laptop is currently on Sale at Best Buy locations in the United States. Its sale price is just $100 dollars. You read that right, just $100. At that price, you get the following:…
Hi everyone, In this post, I will be showing you the CableCC / CY M.2 Key A+E PCI Express to dual SATA adapter. This adapter is a similar product from the controller we saw yesterday, with a different form factor and controller chip. This model is made to fit into the Wi-Fi M.2 slot that usually has an A+E key on modern motherboards, whereas yesterday’s post was about a Mini PCI Express version. Today’s model also uses a JMicron JMB582…
Hi everyone, In this post, I will be showing you the CableCC / CY Mini PCI Express to dual SATA adapter. As I have mentioned in other posts, I’m running Windows inside Linux by using QEMU/KVM. I try to pass most of the hardware by passing through their PCI Express devices, which should theoretically give better performance than virtualizing. The reason to add a PCI Express SATA adapter has to do with this, so that I don’t have to virtualize…
Hi everyone, Today, we will be seeing an interesting Mini PCI-Express Expansion Card that adds 2 USB 3.0 headers to a machine. When I say “interesting”, it is due to the fact that this is a very small PCI Express card. Usually, the Mini PCI Express slot in machines is used for a Wi-Fi card, but some companies manufacture other types of peripherals, and this is one of them. Mini PCI Express slots is seen on most laptops before the…
Hi everyone, As I’ve been using Linux as my main operating system for a while, I’ve been doing some virtualization experiments to also use Windows with it. I discovered QEMU/KVM and virtio/VFIO PCI-Express passthrough, but unfortunately, one of my CPUs doesn’t support the Intel’s VT-d extension. This extension is used to enable direct hardware access, which enables us specifically to pass PCI-Express devices to the VM and act like if it was connected natively. My old CPU was an Intel…
Hi everyone, Today, we will be seeing the PNY Nvidia GeForce GT 1030 2GB PCI Express Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). This weekend, I didn’t write a post since I spent it diagnosing an issue with my Gigabyte GeForce GT 1030 D4 2G, where it seems it “died”, at least partially, on Windows. After diagnosing the issue and trying it on another PC, I realized that the card may have an internal malfunction preventing the Nvidia Windows drivers from working with…
Hi everyone, EVGA is reportedly quitting the graphics card market and will not make next-generation cards. With the NVidia GeForce 40-series reveal right around the corner, those who wish to upgrade their cards must make the switch to a new GPU vendor, like ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, PNY, and Zotac. I myself got my first EVGA card back in 2016. It is the EVGA GeForce 1060 3GB Superclocked version that costed just about $200 dollars at that moment. This GPU is…
Hi everyone, Some months ago, I wrote about my CHUWI UBook having a swollen battery. Today, I’m sharing the pics of it using a replacement battery I got on AliExpress: This battery seems to no longer be on sale but searching for CHUWI Ubook battery will show some results. You may get more refined results by either searching for CWI509 or by HW-31130148. As long as the description says it fits the CHUWI Ubook and the connector matches and is…