Because 1and1 are asses when it comes to allowing SMTP (and other things), I switched my blog over to the WONDERFUL WebFaction hosting service. I also gave the blog a needed facelift with the LightWord theme.

Instructions on Silencing Frigidaire Mini In-Window Compact Room Air Conditioner Model FAA065P7A – 6000 BTU MSII

If you look at reviews for this otherwise nice, small A/C unit, you’ll see lots of people complaining about a loud beep every time you press a button on the unit or the remote (e.g. changing fan speed or temperature). It’s a high pitched, noisy, piercing, annoyingly loud beep, which wakes spouses and babies. I know of no way to disable or turn off this “feature”. I looked for a wiring diagram and didn’t find anything promising, so I decided to slightly disassemble the unit and hope to find a speaker. I wound up fixing it and here’s how you can to!:

Tools required:

• Phillips screwdriver
• Flathead screwdriver
• Glue (I used a glue stick)

Time required: about 10-15 minutes

Skills required: Basic Handyman. Having said that, here’s my disclaimer: Only skilled, certified electricians should attempt to fix electronic equipment. These units may contain capacitors which hold electric charge. Do not touch any of the electronics. I am absolutely not responsible for loss of property or person, damage to this unit or your cat, accuracy of these instructions, nor do I guarantee that this will even work. Opening this unit may void the warranty.

Steps:

1. UNPLUG THE UNIT!
2. Swing open the front vent like you’re going to change/clean the filter and then gently and slowly swing open further to pop the two bottom hinges until it comes off. Set it and the filter aside.
   

   ( First swing open, then remove vent )

3. Remove 3 large screws and set aside (be careful not to brush anything up against the fragile aluminum vents).
   
   

   ( Location of the 3 screws to be removed for removal of outer plastic ring )

4. Remove 4 (there may only be 3) small screws around the control panel and set aside.
   
   

   ( Location of the 3 (or 4) small screws needed to remove the control panel )

5. Pop off the outer plastic front piece which has the top vents attached. Do this by gently inserting a flathead screwdriver from the inside into the slot about half-way down on the right side until that side comes off. Repeat for the left side. Then, the trick is to try and gently pull this outer plastic piece up (there are two tabs along the top like there were on each side). Be careful as there is a wire which attaches this piece to the rest of the unit, so orient it so that you don’t put any tension on this wire.
   
   

   ( From along the inside, press tab with screwdriver to assist in removal of outer plastic ring )

   
   
   

   ( Set plastic ring gently aside -- there's a wire connected to it )

6. Remove 3 screws (there may only be 2) which were behind the control panel and set aside.
   
   

   ( 2 (or 3) screws to remove from electronics plate )

7. Lift slightly (there are two hooks along the right edge) and carefully pull out this plate with attached electronics only far enough so that you can see and can just access to the small, black cylinder (about the size of an Altoid mint). This is the PCB mounted speaker.
   
   

   ( View of the hole to plug with glue (looking down) )

8. Take your glue and make a small (about the size of a grain of rice) ball and place on the end of your flathead screwdriver.
9. Carefully use the screwdriver to apply the glue ball to fill the hole which is at the center of this piece (don’t get glue on anything else). Be sure to pack enough in the hole to muffle the sound (about 2 grains of rice worth). You can also use an unfolded paperclip to help push the glue inside the hole and to damage the diaphragm which makes the noise.
10. Now, carefully reassemble the unit in the reverse order.

NOTES:

• I would not test your success until you have at least the two electronic panels securely screwed back into place.
• For my three attempts at this, one now makes no beep, one left the beep barely audible and the other reduced the volume by half.
• I did all this while my units were installed in windows.
• If not obvious, this is basically irreversible.
• This also works on model # FAA055P7A and may work on these model #s: FAA084P7A, FAC124P1A, FAA086P7A, FAA064P7A and FAC104P1A.

Good Luck!

Micro$oft’s latest addition of editing online docs to compete directly with Google is great, just check it out:

Edit, 05 June, 2010:
Wow, just wow, it’s been 3 weeks and it still looks like that. Stay classy Microsoft.

I have an Apple Airport Extreme wireless router. Because I have an iPhone (it can’t connect via 802.11n), I had to have my Airport Radio Mode set to “802.11n (802.11b/g compatible)”, which means when the iPhone was connected (and maybe at other times) the Airport was broadcasting at the slower b/g protocol speeds. Well, I also have a spare Linksys WRT54G v2.0 wireless router. So, I flashed it with dd-wrt firmware, and following these instructions I’ve configured the Linksys as a Wireless Access Point (WAP) and connected an ethernet cable from one of its LAN ports to a LAN port on the Airport (serving as the “main router”). I now have a 802.11g router (Linksys) for my iPhone to connect to, and my Airport’s Radio Mode is now set to “802.11n (5 GHz)” for my Macbook Pro and Macbook to connect to at their fastest speeds. Goodness.

Shameless plug for the writings of my grandfather, Arthur Tolstrup, at http://tolstrup.us. You’ll find stories and pictures of him growing up in the midwest in the early part of the 20th century.