simon.schönbeck.dk

Category: tagged

  • BMW X5 fan blower issues

    Sometimes I had the climate system blower in my BMW X5 slow down so it could barely be heard, even when increasing the fan manually to a higher setting. After some minutes it usually started behaving normally again. Yesterday though it simply stayed on minimum no matter which buttons were activated.

    After a bit of reading I determined that the final stage resistor (aka final stage unit or blower motor resistor) was probably the culprit. This morning I went to the BMW dealer and bought the original unit for €90 and replaced it myself in about 15 minutes without any issues. The most time consuming part was actually to get to the dealer and back in rush hour traffic.

    The BMW part number is 64116923204 (PN 64 11 6 923 204) and is a newer, slightly different formed, and hopefully improved version of the existing unit. You can also buy the same unit cheaper at Ebay but from a different manufacturer. Simply search for the part number in the auction description.

    There are some excellent guides full of pictures to follow which you should have a look at:

    This unit is unfortunately very often the source of other issues, the most annoying one would be draining the battery so you can not start the car. Definitely a recommended DIY job before proceeding to more expensive repairs.

  • Online malware scanner

    I am always very cautious running executables, especially under Windows. Sometimes the antivirus software installed may report supposedly false positives leaving one in a limbo as what to do next, keep installing at risk or avoid the software supposedly reputable and safe.

    The best thing is really to get a second opinion but installing a second antivirus software is time consuming and not feasible. The solution is to use an online malware scanner which uses different engines from several software providers that can shed some light on whether the file in question is really malware or simply a false positive from your installed antivirus software.

    Two online scanners I use regularly are Virustotal and Jotti’s malware scan, both using several engines to compare against each other. I must admit Virustotal is more sleek and has multi language support, plus it provides extra information about the scanned files.

  • DNSstuff alternatives

    In the past I used DNSstuff heavily, but since it went commercial I have tried to find useful free alternatives.

    I gathered this brief set of links and saved is a draft long ago, which I now have remembered to publish:

  • Virtualmin backup restore error

    During a recent process of restoring a site from a Virtualmin backup archive I encountered this discouraging error message during the upload:

    Restore failed : The specified source does not contain any domains, or is not a Virtualmin backup

    No need to say that the archive indeed contained several domains plus it was created by Virtualmin itself in the past…

    A quick search provided me with a hint that the upload and restore process may not work as desired, but instead first upload and thereafter restore the backup archive from the local server may give much better results.

    So simple that I should have tried it the first.

  • BMW option codes list

    If you ever need to know what the option codes on your BMW represent you could use this German page (English translation) containing an extensive list of them.

    There is also another list already in English which unfortunately is a bit old but probably still valid for many of the existing BMW Option Codes in use today.