Tag: 8.1

How to Change a Motherboard and Keep Windows Untouched

December 31, 2014

I have been wanting to upgrade my Motherboard, CPU and ram for a while now but I had been dreading re installing Windows and all of my applications. After searching around, I came across a built in system preparation method which seemed interesting. It prepares Windows in a way so that the next time it boots, it re installs any new hardware just like when Windows first installs. This allows for Windows to accommodate itself nicely on the new hardware. Sysprep

All you have to do is:

  • Open Command Prompt as administrator
  • Run: “%windir%\System32\Sysprep\Sysprep.exe”
  • Set the action to OOBE, Generalize, and Shutdown
  • Wait for Shutdown
  • Install New Hardware
  • Boot up and install specific drivers

iPad Air iOS 8.1 Battery Drain

November 5, 2014

It may not drain as bad as other tablets but it is draining at a rate of roughly 5-10% per day with no use. It used to drain a maximum of 2% per day and always be ready for me when I needed it. The last few times I went to use it, it would already be drained and that is sometimes quite inconvenient. Performance has been drastically improved with this update, and using it is quite a joy, if only the battery didn’t drain when in standby like it used to.

Another issue with 8.1 is that sometimes the multitask gestures just do not work. It used to happen much more frequently before on iOS 8 but it did happen to me once on 8.1.

The issue of battery drain seems to be from Skype according to the battery usage info, but I had Skype before and never had any drain issues. Hopefully it is just a compatibility issue and will be fixed soon.

Nokia Lumia 1520 on WP 8.1 (Battery Drain | Lag)

April 24, 2014

Feature wise, 8.1 has been a pleasure and joy to use. It looks great and feels great as you can see below. That is the end of the good.

WP_20140424

Battery wise, there have been times where it drains randomly and slightly heats up on top and there are other times where it lasts decently at best. Last night, from 1:30 AM to 7:30 AM it drained from 100% to 91% while on wifi which is unacceptable for the so called GSM Arena battery king. The standby time has been cut significantly with this update and I really hope that with the official Nokia Firmware, things return to the way they were.

On top of random battery drains throughout the day where it would heat up and drain around 5% every time, performance has also taken a hit. The majority of apps run slightly slower after the update and the new Music and Videos apps are horrible too. I have faith that Microsoft will update these apps as they are standalone now but overall system performance needs to be fixed too. I am not sure if it is an optimization issue that Nokia can fix on their hardware or if it is a system wide issue that Microsoft needs to address, but while using the phone for extended periods of time, weird things begin to happen…

  • The start screen gets stuck in a loading or resuming state
  • The notification bar gets stuck and freezes the phone
  • The phone heats above the camera on the back while in my pocket
  • The UI lags sometimes which is unacceptable as a lag free experience is the reason I switched to Windows
  • The Music, Videos and Games apps are slow and always loading something
  • The volume would not get lower even though it showed it was getting lower
  • The power button works when it feels like it, even when the device is already on and unlocked sometimes it doesn’t work
  • Some apps such as viber barely work in the background
  • Random reboots (very rare but they happen)

All in all, these are only a start to all of the issues there are in the current build of 8.1 on the Lumia 1520. I must say though, I am still enjoying it and I am still getting through a full day without charging it. I would however like to go back to reaching almost 2 days without charging it.