troubleshooting Archives - The Silicon Underground

Who still uses Wordperfect?

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 07 Jul 2017 11:00:15 +0000

I had an odd question come up the other day: Who still uses Wordperfect? It’s a fair question. Wordperfect, as you may know, is still very much in production. Corel releases new versions every year or two. It’s the #2

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All about the Lionel RW transformer

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 12:00:15 +0000

The Lionel Multi-control Trainmaster RW is a sturdy tin box of a transformer from early in the postwar era. The presence of a whistle controller is the only thing that really distinguishes it from a prewar transformer. Lionel made it

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Is my IT department spying on me?

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 11:00:29 +0000

There’ve been some stories floating around about how to make your IT department spy on you. The advice is good. The question you may be asking is how much does your IT department really know? Or, more directly, is my

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How to disassemble a Lionel 1001, 1060 or 8902 locomotive

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 04 May 2016 11:00:25 +0000

Disassembling a Lionel 1001, 1060, 8902 or 8302 locomotive isn’t too difficult. The biggest problem is knowing where the three screws are that you have to remove. These particular locomotives weren’t really designed to be repaired, but there’s some basic

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Why domain squatting works

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 03 Feb 2016 12:00:00 +0000

I lost an afternoon troubleshooting a Websense non-issue. A web site related to Salesforce wasn’t working, and any time something like that happens, Websense goes on trial. About all I can do is make sure it’s a fair trial. Such

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All about the Lionel LW transformer

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 12:00:14 +0000

The Lionel LW Trainmaster is a 125 watt transformer that Lionel produced from 1955 to 1966. They are reasonably durable and Lionel made them for a long time. That means you can find them easily on the secondary market. They can be

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Lionel 1033 transformer repair and troubleshooting

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 31 Dec 2015 12:00:57 +0000

As I’ve written before, Lionel 1033 transformers are well regarded because they’re reasonably high wattage (90 watts), very readily available, relatively inexpensive and pretty dependable. They really only have one design flaw: the circuit breaker. Here’s how I approach Lionel

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All about the Lionel 1033

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 25 Dec 2015 12:00:12 +0000

The Lionel Multi-control 1033 is a 90 watt transformer produced from 1948 to 1956. They are reasonably durable and were popular in their day, which means there are still a lot of them floating around so they tend to be

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Testing electric train track

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 16 Dec 2015 12:00:27 +0000

I have a method of testing electric train track from Lionel, American Flyer, Marx or any other brand. The key is to test it one piece at a time, so you know any problem you found is isolated to a single

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Model train won’t move? Here’s the fix

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 08 Dec 2015 12:00:24 +0000

A common problem with HO, N, and other scales of electric train that run on DC power is that when you put them on the track, they light up but don’t move and instead make a weird noise. If your

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