Upgrade your Gaming Hard Drive

Ever feel like there is not enough space on your hard drive on your game console? Well don't worry your not alone. I have people want more space to save games, movies, music, and pictures. To some people game consoles have replace their DVD player, radio or mp3 player, and for some even their computers! I agree that there is always need for more space to save your games and personal files and switching out hard drives is the easiest way to go about that. 

The first thing I would do before doing a hard drive switch is delete anything you don't want saved or transferred. Then you can do a back up by going into settings, make sure you have either a external hard drive via USB or a large USB flash drive.  Once you have it backed up to a storage device your ready to swap out hard drives. You will need a small to medium size philips screw driver to remove hard drive from the playstation. Now if you are switching out hard drives on a xbox 360 you have to use a xbox hard drive unless you know how to exchange hard drive from it's case. 

Once you have switched out the hard drives you will either have to format the hard drive or install Sony playstation software which you can get from sony's site. Once you get the software installed, you are ready to restore your files from your back up. You will just go into settings again and restore from USB device. Now you have more storage and haven't lost any files. If you have any troubles or questions you can call or bring your device to Gadget Grave. 

Gaming Console Upkeep

3)      The 4 best tips for keeping your game console (Xbox, Playstation 3, or Wii) running smooth. One, make sure that the area the game console is in has plenty of space on all four sides. This is to make sure the console is getting enough air flow. If the console doesnt have enough air flow it will not run properly. It will over heat and cause you more issues. The more area console has to breathe the better it will run.

Second, dusting is another issue games don't think about. Console's pull air in, as dust is in the air it builds up on the inside console housing. Dusting is a key tip in making the life of your console longer.

Third tip for keeping your console running smooth, if you are not playing it turn it off! The longer it runs the longer the heat could effect it. People always want to leave it running, but when it is running the circuit board heats up along with the GPU chips causing the solder to heat up and cool down to fast causes cold solder joints. Which causes yellow light of death. It is fixable about 90% of the time. You can send it in to Gadget Grave if you ever run into this issue. You can contact us via phone (479-431-6091) or visit us a www.gadgetgrave.com

The fourth tip to keep it running longer is using a CD/DVD laser cleaner once a month. "Which we sell for $15 plus tax." This help keeps all the dust and build up of the laser. If the laser does go bad, it could need a cleaning or need a new laser. To have a laser replaced it $100 to $120 for playstation 3's depending on the model you have and $64.99 for xbox 360 and nintendo will's. So these are some things you can do to keep the repair cost down and the life of your gadget long.

4) Jailbroken iPhones have a wide range of neat stuff they can do! One of those

iPhone Tethering

1) How to tether your iphone: One of the most useful ways of using your iphone is turning it into a wireless internet source for your other devices that do not have internet capability out side of home or work. This is known as tethering. Using your iphone to allow your laptop, ipad, ipod, tablet, or other wifi device to connect to the internet while you are mobile. I can say I use this everyday as my home and on the go internet source. There are a few ways you can go about tethering, you can go through your phone carrier or you can jailbreak your iphone. Going through your carrier will cost you a little more on your plan.

If you decide to use your carrier you can go to settings, then general, network, and use Set Up Personal Hotspot.  If you choose to jailbreak your iphone to tether, the App that I use is MyWi 4.0. If your iphone is not jailbroken you can do it your self or Gadget Grave for $20. It will take Gadget Grave about an hour to jailbreak your iphone. And if you choose to do it yourself I would find some good forms or youtube tutorials. One good site is www.jailbreakmatrix.com  

After you have your iphone jailbroken, cydia will be on your iphone. Going through cydia will allow you to download MyWi and it will allow you to tether 3 ways. You can use wireless tethering, usb, and Bluetooth. Which ever way you choose to use make sure that device has the ability to access the tether. If you have any questions you can contact Gadget Grave (www.gadgetgrave.com) 

2) Coming soon!!

iPhone - Battery Management and How to Get the Most Out of It

Battery life iPhone

The iPhone seems to be in almost every hand in the world. Well not yet, there are still some people who choose too use other types of phones and all power to them! But us with iPhones know how easy it is to use! But one big complaint is the battery life! That's something I struggle with but can't change.

There are a few ways to control your batteries life. Turning off everything you have running in the background. The wifi if your not using it. Because it is continuously searching for a signal. Just go into settings and turn it off.

Bluetooth is another tool that the iPhone has that is always sending out and searching for a signal! Going into settings and general to turn bluetooth off can and will save battery life.

Brightness of you lcd screen or called your display can greatly effect your screen! When the screen display is turned all the way up it cuts the battery life in half. It uses so much that it's better to have it turned down to save you lcd screen life and battery life. Going into settings can keep that battery lasting longer.

There are other things such as closing all the programs you aren't using! Turning off all applications that are always using the Internet! The consistently sending info to and from iPhone! Takes less battery to send text then a phone call. These can help as can others. But If u do these things and better life still drains quickly might need a new battery. Which aren't easy for everyone to replace. But Gadget Grave will be glad to help you out! Go to our website www.gadgetgrave.com

 

or call 479-431-6091! Tell them you read this blog and receive $5 off your battery replacement.

How to Care for Your Xbox 360

You now have an Xbox 360, but you don't want it to be smashed, scratched or mistreated. You may worry about it being scratched, but now you can protect your pride and joy.

Steps

1. Don't get rid of the box the system came in, or the receipt for that matter. You will not have trouble with it or it won't shipped broken. This is no problem. Simply bug them until they repair it. Or you can take the clever approach and get a similar system.
2. Keep paddles, games, instruction booklets, and any Xbox Live membership cards in a safe place. You can put them in the same box that you received your system in as well!
3. Keep track of the cords. For recharging rechargeable batteries in the USB port, for power, TV hookup, Ethernet cable, any cords, and know where they are at all times...

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How to Mod an Xbox

Adding a media center to your Xbox allows you to share of music, movies, pictures and videos between Xboxes and computers, use emulators, and get weather forecasts.

Steps

1. Buy or get the necessary equipment. Xbox Action Replay(
2. spare USB cable) & Original Mechassault. (You must find an original copy of MechAssault or Splinter Cell.)
3. NOTE: To be certain that your copy of MechAssault will work, take a look at the laser etching on the inner ring of the disc. If you see MS02301L then it will work, if it is MS02308L then it will not..

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How to Connect to Xbox Live Through a Wireless PC

For those of you wondering, there is a very simple way of getting around the fact that the Xbox 360 only uses the 10$ Microsoft made Wireless adapter, using only the Ethernet cable that comes with the Xbox, a computer/PC, and your Xbox 360. It's logically impossible to hack the xbox with the pc.

Steps

1. Make sure to have your wireless laptop or PC close enough to your Xbox 360 for the ethernet cable to reach.
2. Turn on your computer, but NOT your Xbox 360. (Make sure to have your Xbox 360 plugged in, just not on...

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Jalibraking Your iPhone and Using Dreamboard!

Jailbroken iPhones have a wide range of different features they can do. If you do not have your iPhone jailbroken bring it in to Gadget Grave and we will jailbreak it for you for $20. One of the neat features is called Dreamboard! Dreamboard allows you to change the way your phone's interface looks. If you want the layout to look like android OS you can, if you want to look like the Lion OS for Macs you can. I will show you a few of my choices and the way to go about installing this awesome interface!

Making sure you are jailbroken is the first step. Cydia is going to be the main source to retrieve all your interfaces. I have the repos cydia.xellize.com, in which I downloaded dreamboard from. Or you can go into cydia and search dreamboard and I think a few other repos have it along with some awesome interface templates!

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My iPhone has a White Screen - Fort Smith AR Repair

This issue can be caused by a few things, but is fixable. If you have this issue or it suddenly happens to your 3G and 3Gs your looking at any where from $0.00- $59.99. iPhone 4 is $0.00 - $129.99.

The first thing to try is a hard reset - hold down the power button and home button at same time. This will power your phone down then the apple logo will reappear. If the issue still occurs the next thing I would try is a back up and restore.

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How to Tether Your iPhone

One of the most useful ways of using your iPhone is turning it into a wireless internet source for your other devices that do not have internet capability out side of home or work. This is known as tethering. Using your iPhone to allow your laptop, iPad, iPod, tablet, or other wifi device to connect to the internet while you are mobile...

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