Golf GTI edition 30 mpg update 27.5 mpg

Over a few tanks, mixed speeds

Ford Kuga 163 2.0 tdci mpg update

Early fill up, 39mpg over 427 miles

Samsung Galaxy S4 i9505 : Sandisk 32GB card corrupt again. lets try a Samsung brand

For months my Galaxy S4 works fine, then bam my battery usage increases massively and my phone goes dead in 3 hrs, as well as any apps Ive copied to SD Card now failing.
I have actually lost very few photos because i have autobackup enabled (for Google+ whilst plugged in at night)

Eventually I worked out this was due to corrupt files on the SD forcing unmounting, the OS would try to remount soon after and just eject again. Continous cycle that just kills battery.

This can be tested by using SD Card Monitor to view the cycle 
(it shouldnt be very often!)

SDCardMonitor on GooglePlay


In the time Ive had the phone Ive had
had one card fail due to manufacturing defect (free replacement, see an earlier blog post)
another fail and I cant be bothered with all the tech support calls to Sandisk.


So now Im trying a Samsung branded card to see if that makes any difference.

Samsung 32GB Class 10 UHS-1 Grade 1 48MB/s MicroSDHC Plus Memory Card without adapter

Samsung-MicroSDHC 32GB

Lets see how this one goes

[EDIT 07/04/2014] : I have not had any SD card problems since fitting the Samsung version!!! go figure.

Ford Kuga 163 2.0 TDCI : diy replacing front and rear discs and pads

For this years (2013) MOT the brakes and pads were an advisory, they had started to get noisy so reckoned they needed changed.

Dealer wanted over £550 all in (inc fitting) to supply and fit new front and rear, but i thought I'd buck the trend and fit my own, as I've done lots of brakes before.

Heres how they came off, note the front brake pads being a little lacking in material!
I didnt strictly need to replace the discs (could have ground off the old disc lip) but preferred this way.

Front and Rear (car at 44,000 miles)

I chose to get the parts from ebay auctions. generally its from OE Ford dealers just selling parts. 
You could also try other brakes places e.g. TPS (need trade account) / EuroCarParts, or even your local dealer if you can get a good discount, but I preferred this way.

Camskill even do a full set for £120! but they are pattern parts and I've had bad experience with pattern brake parts before, so I avoided.

http://www.camskill.co.uk/m41b0s3952p49996/FORD_KUGA_-_SERVICING_PARTS_TUNING_SPARES_and_SERVICE_ACCESSORIES_-_Front_and_Rear_Brake_Discs_and_Pad_Set_-_Ford_Kuga_-_All_Models



I actually bought these :

front discs (vented) OE Ford + pads (pads only, didnt have springs or caliper bolts, need to use existing)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220904237632&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:GB:3160

£117

rear discs (solid) OE Ford + pads (includes fitting springs and 4 new caliper bolts)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220904189751&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:GB:3160

£111.49

Being OE you should also keep the Ford warranty, if that bothers you.

front calipers just push back so do not require a special tool (but by all means use it to help)

The tool is definitely required for the rear , both calipers turned clockwise using tool for me.(so you only use one of the 'twisters' below)

This is the caliper kit I bought for this use.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00A8LX7YW

I also used threadlock (removable) on main bolts as well as a light smear of copper grease to make getting the wheels off easier next time.

I had planned to paint the calipers but ran out of time, so that will have to wait until early 2014.

So far, so good, they have been great, and the pedal feel is much better than before.
I did do a few mid level stops to attempt some break in for them as well after fitting.

Advent 4213 installing clean Windows XP Professional SP3 from USB

So I bought a small notebook from a friend at work. My plan to use it for data logging and OBD diagnostics.
It came with Linux Mint but really needed XP but no discs supplied and the original recovery partition long gone. Although I have a copy of Windows XP somewhere I couldnt find it!

Heres the original specification

Advent 4213
CPU Intel Atom N270 (1.6Ghz)
Memory 1GB DDRII - Hard Drive 160GB
Web Cam 1.3 MegaPixel

Connectivity 3G / Bluetooth /WiFi
Windows XP Home edition

So I went looking for a (non legitimate) copy of XP, ideally XP Pro with SP3.
Lo and behold I found the version below which has all the updates added and options to install lots of apps i would need anyway.

Windows XP Professional SP3 32-bit - Black Edition 2013.12.16
Easily found on your favourite filesharing site (i used piratebay)

Next download http://www.winsetupfromusb.com/
Follow the instructions in the XP pack to create a bootable USB stick

i used a normal 2GB usb stick

you must format the usb as FAT32 format (use the HP Format button within winsetupfromusb)
I tried NTFS and got hal.dll errors etc first time around until I switched to FAT32 format

With the usb stick prepped, place it in the advent 4213 and switch on  holding F11 (to trigger boot options)
Select usb stick (in fact mine had the right boot order so would have chosen USB first)

do step 1 , let it reboot then do step 2

Once windows setup is running, I chose to delete all partitions and created single new for windows (full disc size)

leave the usb stick in
I got an missing parameters error, but chose ignore and it continued ok.(i think this contributed to my boot.ini issues below)

Windows XP is now installed (whoo hoo) , but first time I tried to boot withe the usb removed i got error!
In order to fix this I had to ...
enable viewing of system files as a folder option
edit boot.ini to match expected

post below can help with some info
http://forums.techguy.org/windows-xp/905775-cant-boot-windows-xp-without.html

At this point windows has only generic drivers used, so some functions dont work or are low res (e.g. screen resolution is odd)
Nows the time to download and update the drivers, which can be found links below

http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/advent/laptop/4213.htm

key page is this one http://www.adventcomputers.co.uk/product-download-select/155

ADVENT 4213 10.2Inch with 3G Downloads
Type Name Size Download
Driver 3G drivers for Advent 4313 3.19 MB download
Driver Audio drivers for Advent 4313 24.8 MB download
Driver Card reader drivers for Advent 4213 4.48 MB download
Driver Chipset drivers for Advent 4213 2.07 MB download
Driver Connection manager Advent 4213 82.79 MB download
Driver F6 installation fix for Advent 4213 193.92 KB download
Driver Graphics drivers for Advent 4213 17.3 MB download
Driver IMSM drivers for Advent 4313 20.81 MB download
Driver LAN drivers for Advent 4213 4.52 MB download
Driver Modem drivers for Advent 4213 3.94 MB download
Driver OSD drivers for Advent 4213 635.65 KB download
Driver WLAN drivers for Advent 4213 29.21 MB download

Click to download them.

For each that you need, extract and run the .exe file (id try the graphics driver first so it looks much nicer)

install antivirus etc

have fun :-)

it boots pretty quickly for XP and runs great.
Next up to try and install ELMConfig and change options on the wifes Kuga.........

Ford KUGA mpg update 485 miles 38.4 mpg

38.4 mpg 485 miles

Golf GTI Edition 30 mpg update 315 miles @ 26.5 mpg

315 miles  @ 26.5 mpg