Rod and Todd

Rod and Todd
Brand	Lenovo
Series	T470
Model	20JM-000CUS
Manufacturer Serial Number	PF-0ZZC8B (Rod) PF-0ZZAQW (Todd)
Date of Manufacture	December, 2017
Date of Purchase	March 8, 2018
End of Support	March 14, 2022
Operating System	Windows 7 Pro 64-bit Service Pack 1
Product Key	237XB-GDJ7B-MV8MH-98QJM-24367 (Rod) HYF8J-CVRMY-CM74G-RPHKF-PW487 (Todd)
Hardware
Display	14" HD (1366x768)
Processor	Intel Core i5-6200U 2C, 2.3 / 2.8GHz, 3MB
Memory	1 x 4GB DDR4-2400T 1 x 8GB DDR4-2400T
Storage	465GB 7200rpm 2.5in x 7mm
Battery	3-cell (24Wh) + 3-cell (24Wh) 11.4V / 2060mAh
Camera	720p
Power Adapter	45W Slim Tip
Network
Wireless MAC Address	40:A3:CC:4A:F7:D6 (Rod) 42:A3:CC:4D:DB:D0 (Todd)
Ethernet MAC Address	8C:16:45:0E:14:AC (Rod) 40:A3:CC:4D:DB:CC (Todd)

Rod and Todd are Lenovo laptops used for presentations, succeeding Itchy and Scratchy. They were named after Rod and Todd Flanders from The Simpsons.

Todd is running with complete drivers and Windows updates. Some software is installed.

Rod has a fresh Windows 10 installation. Firefox, MSO, VoiceMeeter, Behringer drivers, Skype, OBS Studio, VLC, and Intel graphic drivers have been installed.

Hardware

Storage-related failure

In the case of an untimely storage-related failure (such as mechanical failure or update corruption), see Maude for cold-swapping instructions.

Battery

Rod and Todd have one 3-cell built-in battery and one 3-cell removable battery. Before opening a machine for repairs, navigate to the BIOS power settings and disable the internal battery. Click here for an instructional video.

Memory

Rod and Todd have been upgraded with an additional 8GB memory module.

Configurations

Software installed

• Acrobat Reader DC
• Audacity
• Behringer U-Phoria UMC202HD Windows Driver 4.38 (Todd only)
• ESET
• Firefox
• Microsoft Office Suite 2016
• OBS Studio
• Skype
• VLC media player
• VoiceMeeter

Windows features

Windows features that have been disabled:

• Internet Explorer 11
• Media Features

Firefox Settings

The following Firefox settings have been modified:

Setting	Value
General
Restore previous session	Off
Ctrl+Tab cycles through tabs in recently used order	Off
Home
Homepage and new windows	Off
New tabs	Off
Privacy & Security
Send websites a "Do Not Track" signal	Always
Delete cookies when Firefox is closed	On
Ask to save logins and passwords	Off
Autofill addresses	Off
Firefox will...	Never Remember History
When using the address bar, suggest	None
Allow Firefox to send technical and interaction data to Mozilla	Off
Allow Firefox to install and run studies	Off

Services

The Black Viper Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Service Configuration has been applied partially. The following list contains the services that have been disabled.

• ActiveX Installer (AxInstSV)
• Adaptive Brightness
• Application Layer Gateway Service
• Application Management
• Bluetooth Support Service
• BranchCache
• Certificate Propagation
• Diagnostic Policy Service
• Diagnostic Service Host
• Diagnostic System Host
• Distributed Link Tracking Client
• Fax
• Function Discovery Provider Host
• Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper || Disabled
• Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service
• Netlogon
• Offline Files
• Parental Controls
• Peer Name Resolution Protocol
• Peer Networking Grouping
• Peer Networking Identity Manager
• PNRP Machine Name Publication Service
• Portable Device Enumerator Service
• Problem Reports and Solutions Control Panel Support
• Program Compatibility Assistant Service
• Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator
• Remote Registry
• Windows Media Center Receiver Service
• Windows Media Center Scheduler Service

Known issues

Rod's integrated camera is not accessible by Skype, although the LED indicator does turn on. It can be viewed through Lenovo Web Conferencing tool.

Security questions

These are the security question and answer pairs:

• What is the name of the city where you were born? Cambridge
• What is the name of the first school you attended? Harvard College
• What was your childhood nickname? Minda

Setups

Skype

Set up the laptop on the side of the table nearest to the projection screen, facing away from the audience. Set up the webcam on the back of a chair facing away from the projection screen. Use gaff tape to secure the webcam. Set up the Shure boundary microphones to maximize audience audibility. For example, if the audience is all on one side of the table, as in the case of a defense, put both microphones on that side of the table. Otherwise, if it is a round-table event, put one mic on each end of the table. They have a cardioid polar pattern, so orient them to maximize signal. Use gaff tape to secure the wires and make them as inconspicuous as possible. Plug the microphones into Larry White and turn on 48V phantom power.

In Skype's audio and video settings, set the playback device to the HDMI output. It may be labelled as "Crestron". Set the video device to the webcam used. Note that if the microphone device is set to the Behringer, Skype will only take the first channel. Skype does not mix it down to mono. To do this, open VoiceMeeter. Select the Behringer as input 1. Set the virtual output to mono. Then, in Skype's audio settings, choose VoiceMeeter as the microphone device.

Notable events

Orientation 2019 crisis

On September 5, 2019, one hour before the fall orientation, Todd failed midupdate, leaving it in an unbootable state. Lenovo recovery tools could not fix the problem. Peter Stevens attempted to replace the hard drive with Lola's hard drive. However, Lola's hard drive was thicker than 7mm, preventing the bottom housing from mounting. Stevens used Vassilito for projection.

Michael Berrio attempted to reinstall Windows 7 Pro, but encountered an error stating that optical media drivers were missing. Rod and Todd do not have optical media. Nonetheless, installation could not be completed without the drivers.

Stevens suggested cloning Rod's hard drive to Todd and then resetting the product key. Jim Parada was using Rod at the time, so Stevens and Berrio waited until he left for the day to take his laptop and clone his data.

Berrio used Magical Jelly Bean to recover Todd's product key, because there was no sticker on the computer. It was only later that Berrio discovered that he had mistakenly copied the product ID. Berrio recovered the product key from BIOS memory on September 17.

To avoid mistake, Rod's data was first cloned to a 1TB drive using Clonezilla. Then the hard drive was reinstalled in Rod and given back to Parada.

Unfortunately, cloning a 1TB drive to a 500GB drive proved more complicated than expected. The resulting drive failed to boot. After several unsuccessful attempts, Berrio was able to find the optical drivers and copy them to the Windows 7 Pro bootable USB.

Stevens successfully reinstalled Windows 7 Pro more than a week later on September 13. For unknown reasons, Windows 7 refused to be installed on a GPT disk. Both disks were converted to MBR, and the BIOS settings for both computers was changed from UEFI to legacy.

Neither Rod nor Todd has a Lenovo recovery partition anymore.

Skype foofaraw

Derek Penslar asked for help with Skyping a professor in Chicago during his class in Giedrojc Gallery on September 18, 2019. Stevens set up the Skype call following the normal procedures. When tested, Skype would properly play audio out of the computer speakers when the playback device was set to Realtek audio. When the playback was set to the HDMI port, the audio included only the ringer sound but not the voice. When Stevens loaded a video of Binging with Babish to test audio outside of Skype, he found that the audio included the background music but not the voice-over. Because Stevens could hear artifacts in the sound, he assumed that the audio was being passed through a voice removal filter to prevent feedback. Coincidentally, John Pioccone arrived for an unrelated meeting. When Stevens described the issue, he checked the amplifier in the back and discovered that the channels were wired incorrectly. This flaw existed from the time of installation in 2013.