Author Topic: Fettled any computer stuff today? (Read 217830 times)

Kim · « **Reply #1300 on:** 26 September, 2022, 04:06:33 pm »

Installed a recently-discontinued g4m3r d00d ATI graphics card in my desktop, to replace the cretaceous-era Nvidia one, in anticipation of an upgrade to 4k.

This was relatively painless, as it turned out that the required magic power connector was just flapping about inside the case. I purged all traces of nvidia drivers from the system, and - as hoped - the open-source drivers Just Worked. Managed to scrounge up a cable to temporarily connect my second monitor to the HDMI port (the previous card was a rare beast with two DVI outputs), so normal service is resumed.

I'm just hoping that I'm not going to seriously regret owning a graphics card with fans on it. I got stung by that back in the TNT2 era, and have made a point of seeking out passively cooled cards ever since. At least these ones are quiet.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #1301 on:** 26 September, 2022, 04:31:29 pm »

Sub-desk grovelling physically to remove and reinstall possibly-ailing SSD. Now formatting it utterly to DETH to see whether this cures it of what ails it before dropping a couple of hundred sovs on a swanky new M2 job.

Also: Kingston, your webby SCIENCE is this: utter shite. I don’t want to sign up for spammy e-mails just to view your products. Also, Box have the same hardware for eighty quid less. Ha!

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #1302 on:** 27 September, 2022, 06:25:02 pm »

Disk repopulated; now running somewhat delayed backup. No loss of speed thus far…

SoreTween · « **Reply #1303 on:** 01 October, 2022, 08:02:58 am »

Quote from: Kim on 26 September, 2022, 04:06:33 pm

I'm just hoping that I'm not going to seriously regret owning a graphics card with fans on it. I got stung by that back in the TNT2 era, and have made a point of seeking out passively cooled cards ever since. At least these ones are quiet.

BTDT, almost identical history wise:
Driving force for upgrade: move to large pixel count
From: dual screens
Driven by: Rare cretaceous-era dual DVI card
Also: fanless for noise reasons

Only real difference was my new card wasn't ex-d00d, just far far enough from the bleeding edge to be palatable. Fans spin occasionally at 10% in the summer, you'll be fine.

SoreTween · « **Reply #1304 on:** 01 October, 2022, 09:19:54 am »

And phew!

Recently a disk in my NAS failed (raid5). At the time I was in the middle of a regular but not as frequent as it should be backup. I elected to not stop the backup, it takes ~ 24 hours for a full. When that ended I confirmed the drive was brown bread but as it was now the day before departing for work I could do nowt about it except cross fingers. For 30 days. Thursday on getting home a replacement was ordered, fitted yesterday & now the raid is rebuilt I can uncross my fingers.

Tootles off to div thread to complete the story...

Kim · « **Reply #1305 on:** 26 October, 2022, 11:56:38 pm »

Lobachevskied and modified so it actually works a shell script that allows me to switch between audio output devices at the press of a button. This innovation brought to you by the discovery that my new monitor has less-shit-than-anticipated^[1] squeakers, and that arseaudio has automagically configured itself to communicate with them over the Displayport cable.

_{[1] Ie. Good enough for system bingly-bongs and to work out whether videos that the publisher can't be arsed to caption are worth watching.}

Afasoas · « **Reply #1306 on:** 03 November, 2022, 01:24:43 pm »

Making Fedora + Docker + Kubernetes + kind work on a Windows lapdog for a training course.
Because the only Lapdog I own that has enough ooomph and enough RAM is running Windows for some specific Amateur Radio Software.

I could use work Lapdog but that is carefully setup to use Fedora + Podman for shiz managed at work and kind refuses to work with Podman. I think that's because Podman insists on cgroups v2 and kind is looking for the original cgroups API.

Only person running Windows on the training course. No credibility. Can't believe how ubiquitous macbooks have become amongst developers.

If I'd had more notice I'd have ordered and wedged some more RAM in my decent Linux laptop and used that instead.

ian · « **Reply #1307 on:** 03 November, 2022, 04:42:45 pm »

The devs on my team just got Macbook Pros courtesy of ian the September Santa. Apart from one Windows malingering malcontent who got a bloody enormous Dell the size of a table.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #1308 on:** 11 November, 2022, 10:41:26 pm »

Released the updated version of my trailer mod for American Truck Simulator into the wild. Then released another version without the egregious cockups from the first one.

And I'll have to do another update early next week coz they're releasing the next map DLC. And it’s Texas.

Bledlow · « **Reply #1309 on:** 11 November, 2022, 11:59:54 pm »

Wanted a basic but robust laptop. Someone suggested ex-corporate lease ones might suit, so bought one from Dell. Seems better made than Mrs B's old & now defunct laptop (hardware failure: salvaged the HDD as a backup drive). Keyboard good, case solid, everything internal looks good, but irritatingly slow on startup compared to our desktops. Cloned the HDD to a SATA SSD (cheap & no worries about motherboard compatibility) & stuck it in yesterday. Perfect! And still good value, I think.

Now I have another spare HDD for backup use. Just got to get an external drive caddy.

I did the same with our old desktop 18 months ago when it was getting erratic & I thought the HDD was probably the problem. Mrs B said it was time for a new computer so I got one, but thought the old one would still be useful if fixed up. It's come in useful for when we're both working at home.

Kim · « **Reply #1310 on:** 17 November, 2022, 02:52:10 pm »

New flattery for the UPS, which had a "you had one job" moment on Tuesday night.

As is traditional for such things, this involved removing it from the rack, taking it apart and blasting the innards with compressed air. It wasn't actually as bad as I expected, but the fans^[1] are now noticeably quieter.

_{[1] I replaced the originals with much quieter^[2] fans some years ago. Frustratingly, this caused a fan failure alarm. Weirdly the original fans were two-wire, and it wasn't obvious how to spoof whatever it was sensing (I experimented with resistors to match the original current draw at the time), so I went for the beeperectomy approach. The weird thing is that at some point it seems to have stopped objecting to them
[2] It being a truism that all rackmount computer equipment is designed to be as loud as possible, because all rackmount computers, switches, etc. go in datacentres, and never places like offices, classrooms or recording studios.}

Kim · « **Reply #1311 on:** 17 November, 2022, 09:27:27 pm »

...and the UPS is now returned to service. Took the shutdown as an opportunity for the server to get the clean the fan treatment too. It was this: Minging.

Diver300 · « **Reply #1312 on:** 19 November, 2022, 11:15:38 am »

My laptop's keyboard is intermittent for the "3", "e", "d" and "c" keys. I tried cleaning it out, to little effect. I had to remove just about everything from the body of the laptop to get the keyboard out, so I was quite pleased it all worked afterwards.

A nw kyboar is on orr.

I am having to use a USB or on-screen keyboard to allow me to type those characters consistently.

Kim · « **Reply #1313 on:** 19 November, 2022, 11:27:02 am »

Keys failing adjacently like that suggests it's a duff column in the matrix, and if disconnecting and reconnecting the ribbon cable doesn't fix it, a new keyboard is likely the least painful solution.

I once attempted to bodge a corroded track on the keypad of our old-enough-to-be-really-good microwave oven. It kinda-sorta worked for a while, but the lasting effect was that we habitually never microwave anything for times with '0's '2's or '6' in them.

Diver300 · « **Reply #1314 on:** 19 November, 2022, 02:03:32 pm »

The circuit board is flexible, and it also forms the ribbon cable. There are backlights in there somewhere. It can’t be tested without taking the computer to bits. It’s all stuck together with sticky backed plastic. I can’t even work out how to get the visible bits of the keys off non-destructively.

£25 for a new one seems the least painful solution.

Diver300 · « **Reply #1315 on:** 21 November, 2022, 08:26:35 pm »

Quote from: Diver300 on 19 November, 2022, 02:03:32 pm

The circuit board is flexible, and it also forms the ribbon cable. There are backlights in there somewhere. It can’t be tested without taking the computer to bits. It’s all stuck together with sticky backed plastic. I can’t even work out how to get the visible bits of the keys off non-destructively.

£25 for a new one seems the least painful solution.

Well the new keyboard arrived today and is fitted, and working, so I can write this without extraordinary measures. I defeated the DRM on the new keyboard by ignoring the instruction "Contains technical equipment to be installed only by qualified service engineer. Not for consumer installation".

The two ribbon cables, for the keys and the back light, needed to be carefully folded, but there are guide marks. I got that nearly right.

It took a total of 70 screws to be removed and replaced. The threads ranged from 1.4 mm to 2.5 mm.

Booting up after the BIOS battery has been removed takes sufficiently long that I thought the computer was bricked, but it eventually booted and needed the BIOS setup running, which was fairly trivial.

chrisbainbridge · « **Reply #1316 on:** 29 November, 2022, 07:27:32 pm »

I have had a couple of PTZ cameras for a little while which are great but could I access their web pages to setup the LAN control. Not a chance.

I have spent ages trying to access the IP address from my laptop, my desktop, getting nowhere.

Finally today found out how I had to change my Laptop IPv4 address to the same subnet. Light dawned!!

chrisbainbridge · « **Reply #1317 on:** 30 November, 2022, 10:41:58 am »

I now have 3 new PTZ cameras with assigned IP addresses, linked to a controller.
2 of them will use HDMI as the distance to the Stem mini pro switcher is short enough. The third will run NDI and the NDI to cdmi converter arrives tomorrow.

Thanks to Kim for her intro to POE (The best I have ever seen) I have added an 8 port powered switch to the system. this will allow me to also run a couple of other bits and pieces over spare ethernet cables!! this will mean I can remove all my mains plugs and make the whole system much cleaner.

chrisbainbridge · « **Reply #1318 on:** 30 November, 2022, 05:20:52 pm »

The 8 port switch with 4 POE is now installed and working perfectly. 2 cameras and the overall controller are now running off that switch. The final camera at the other end of the church is running off a separate injects with a small 4 port switch to join everything together. That camera streams via NDI and I am just waiting for the proper decoder to arrive on Friday but the laptop NDI tools see a clear picture.

POE has let me reduce the cable clutter by 50% with no mains cables and a couple of microphone receivers will be supplied by a separate POE cable and a splitter which again makes for a smaller footprint on the wall and a cleaner look.

Everything has a designated IP address and all the IP addresses are stuck on the various bits of equipment should I leave.

One problem was that the wiring was installed by somebody else and one of the ethernet cables showed power getting through but no signal. This worried me for a moment but switching to a different port (they are all separately wired) solved the problem.

A learning curve getting to grips with the POE and NDI but very worthwhile.

Kim · « **Reply #1319 on:** 14 December, 2022, 05:30:22 pm »

Finally (after being thwarted by barakta's surgery, brexit and similar) installed an unobtainium UPS into the downstairs network rack. This involved molishing custom kettle leads with right angles at both ends, and it fit with -1mm of clearance.

In principle this should avert any electricity issues this winter, but it doesn't seem to be working for my studded tyres.

Polar Bear · « **Reply #1320 on:** 14 December, 2022, 05:35:14 pm »

I installed an Asus Bluetooth 5 dongle into a spare USB A port on the back of one of our PC's. The objective is that I can use my headphones when I am using said machine.

The ANT+ dongle arrived for the soon-to-be Wahoo Kickr turbo pc in the Office. That is her to be installed alongside another Asus Bluetooth 5 dongle.

I like to pace myself ... 😉

Wombat · « **Reply #1321 on:** 17 December, 2022, 11:08:53 am »

Well, yesterday... finished building the new PC, and after the usual gut wrenching moment when nothing appeared to be happening, it started just fine. Windows 11 announced this PC was not suitable (it fecking well is, mate, with that spec!) but I then realised what it actually meant was "you haven't plugged in your ethernet cable, so I can't verify that activation code".

Now, the long drag of rebuilding all the software, and finding Acronis True image 2017 is no longer available to me... bugger.

Capture One Pro now loads in about a quarter of the time, and so it should, with those nvme gen 4 drives. And 64GB of RAM helps.

Canardly · « **Reply #1322 on:** 17 December, 2022, 11:39:40 pm »

Still prevaricating with regards to a new graphics card. They are so bloody expensive and pricing is all over the place atm. Example. Sapphire Pulse 6700xt from AWD £399.99, same card from Scan £587. Maybe I will just wait until the new year or CES on 5th Jan. Decisions decisions.......Sod it bought the Sapphire.

CommuteTooFar · « **Reply #1323 on:** 25 December, 2022, 10:44:11 am »

A few days ago I built a new computer for my brother. AMD Ryzen 7700X, MSI MPG B650 Edge motherboard, 32GB of DDR 5 - Kingston Beast Fury, Fractal Design Meshify 2 Lite case, Fractal Ion Gold 840W power supply, Be Quiet Silent Loop 2 360 processor cooler. 2TB Seagate Firecuda 830 PCI4.0 nvme ssd. No graphics card for now.

Three little problems

1. The fans on the cooler were running flat out. Fix connect the fans to the cpu fan plug not the fan plug next to the pump plug.
2. Would not do a software restart. Fix downloaded latest bios now restarts as expected
3. Dropped a radiator screw onto the Carpet. No fix, screw not found. Radiator is attached to case with 11 of 12 screws, not a problem.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #1324 on:** 25 December, 2022, 10:08:56 pm »

I'm doing a factory reset on a very ancient (10yo) Mac Mini. It is taking a long time, not helped by the fact that we possess only one Mac keyboard with a cable, normally attached to My Dear Wife's much more recent Mac Mini. She bought her current one to replace this, some time last year I think.

Author Topic: Fettled any computer stuff today? (Read 217830 times)

Afasoas

ian