Month: January 2022

Enlarge / Burned out MOSFETs on an Asus Z690 motherboard. (credit: Reddit user Duhjahno)

Intel’s high-end 12th-generation Core processors use a lot of power and generate a lot of heat, but Asus’ ROG Maximus Z690 Hero motherboard takes things to the next level. A “potential reversed memory capacitor” in some boards can cause them to catch on fire.

The problem was initially hunted down by the Actually Hardware Overclocking YouTube channel, which diagnosed the issue using images from Reddit users and posters on Asus’ support forums whose boards had failed. The reversed capacitor causes increased current leakage, which generates heat that subsequently burns out the neighboring MOSFET transistors. Users with the flipped capacitors noted that they noticed a burning smell or even fire before their systems shut down. Once the MOSFETs have burned out, the motherboard’s built-in status display will show error code 53, indicating that the motherboard doesn’t detect any installed RAM.

Not all ROG Maximus Z690 Hero boards have the capacitor installed backwards, and the Actually Hardware Overclocking video shows you the exact place to look to see if the capacitor has been installed properly or not. Entering your motherboard’s serial number into Asus’ support page for the problem will tell you for sure whether your board is affected, and the page will walk you through contacting Asus support to get a replacement.

Enlarge / Here’s the first publicly released render of Samsung’s new Mini LED TV. (credit: Samsung)

It’s that time of year again: The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is upon us, and companies like Samsung are announcing the first details of their 2022 product refreshes. That includes Samsung’s flagship TV lineup, which will this year see an iterative step over last year’s models.

The company’s line of popular, high-end Mini LED 4K and 8K TVs (which it calls its “Neo QLED” line) isn’t seeing any radical changes this year. Rather, the line will get small improvements to picture and sound quality.

First off, these TVs now support 4K input at 144 Hz in addition to 120 Hz. Unless you’re using your TV as a computer monitor for high-skill, pro or semi-pro esports on a high-end gaming PC, the bump from 120 Hz support to 144 Hz isn’t going to mean much. And even then, it’s still not significant. Samsung is just looking for a place to one-up competitors on specs any way it can.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Marco Bottigelli)

AT&T and Verizon yesterday rejected a Federal Aviation Administration request to further delay a 5G rollout on C-Band frequencies but said they will adopt one of the world’s “most conservative” power limits near airports for six months after the planned January 5 deployment. This is in addition to other voluntary limits the carriers recently announced even though it has been almost two years since the Federal Communications Commission determined that use of the spectrum should not interfere with properly designed airplane altimeters.

“Specifically, for six months, until July 5, 2022, we will adopt the same C-Band radio exclusion zones that are already in use in France, with slight adaptation to reflect the modest technical differences in how C-Band is being deployed in the two countries,” the carriers said in yesterday’s letter. “That approach—which is one of the most conservative in the world—would include extensive exclusion zones around the runways at certain airports. The effect would be to further reduce C-Band signal levels by at least 10 times on the runway or during the last mile of final approach and the first mile after takeoff.”

The exclusion zones in France are 910×2100 meters, the letter said. AT&T and Verizon said they will use bigger exclusion zones with “an additional 540m on all four sides to accommodate” the higher power levels permitted in the US.

Enlarge / Former Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes goes through security after arriving for court at the Robert F. Peckham Federal Building on September 17, 2021, in San Jose, California. (credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Jurors in the Elizabeth Holmes criminal trial have been unable to reach a verdict in three of the 11 counts of fraud she has been charged with, according to a note read in court today.

Eight men and four women have been deliberating for more than 40 hours over six days, much of which occurred before an extended holiday weekend. Today is their first day back from break.

It’s unclear what decision the jury reached in the eight counts they have been able to agree on. 

Enlarge / The James Webb Space Telescope lifts off from French Guiana on an Ariane 5 rocket on December 25. (credit: ESA – S. Corvaja)

Nine days after the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA says it has made good progress deploying the $10 billion instrument and has now begun the critical process of “tensioning” the sunshield.

On Monday, six motors on board the telescope began the process of fully extending the first of five layers of the sunshield. These tennis-court sized layers, each made of a polyimide film called Kapton, will shade the instrument and allow it to cool down to 50 Kelvin, which is -223 degrees Celsius and just 50 degrees above absolute zero. This cold environment is critical for Webb to observe infrared light and detect heat from very distant objects.

NASA’s Webb project manager, Bill Ochs, said the first of these five layers should be completely deployed by the end of Monday. The goal is to extend the other four layers on Tuesday and Wednesday. After this time, the massive sunshield—the most complex aspect of an intricate deployment process—will be complete.

Enlarge / The Galaxy S22 Ultra, complete with S-Pen. (credit: 91mobiles)

With a new year comes new phones, and Samsung will be one of the first out of the gate with the Galaxy S22 series. The device should be released sometime in the next month or two, so there are naturally a lot of leaks to look at.

91mobiles has the official Samsung-made renders of the company’s next flagship. The big news this year is that the highest-end SKU, the Galaxy S22 Ultra, is being converted into a Galaxy Note substitute and will ship with an internally stowable S-Pen. Samsung killed the S-Pen-equipped Galaxy Note last year, with reports saying the Note and S line were too similar and that culling the slab smartphone lineup would let Samsung focus more on foldables. With its squared-off design and S-Pen present in all the renders, the S22 Ultra is a Galaxy Note in everything but name.

Fans of the S-Pen will be happy, but Samsung is sacrificing some runtime for S-Pen storage. There’s no getting around having to carve out a big chunk of internal space to store a stylus, and in 2020, the 5000 mAh S20 Ultra had 500 mAh more battery capacity than the 4500 mAh Note 20 Ultra. This year, the S22 Ultra is rumored to hit 5000 mAh even with the S-Pen hole, thanks to battery density improvements. Still, the battery could have been larger without S-Pen storage.