Author Topic: Fettled any computer stuff today? (Read 216711 times)

TimO · « **Reply #800 on:** 08 February, 2017, 05:04:18 pm »

Spent most of the day trying to debug a red "Critical Error" LED on one of our HP ML350 G5 servers (being used as a headless desktop). After swapping around almost every component, including the CPUs and Power Supplies, I've come to conclusion that it's a dead motherboard, so that box has been reduced to a pile of spare parts for the other ML350.

I actually ended up mixing bits together, so the remaining machine has 2TB of SSD and dual quad-core Xeons (E5320's). A decade ago, when we bought these machines they were very powerful. It's not too bad now, but still only has about half the performance of the PC that I'm typing this on (and this machine is a couple of years old).

Afasoas · « **Reply #801 on:** 13 February, 2017, 10:00:58 pm »

I'm custodian of two HP ML350 G5s - they've not given any trouble in the (almost) 3 years I've been responsible for them, but the critical LED light has just started blinking on one of them.

Has anyone recently tried procuring unregistered EEC DDR3 RAM in dual rank configuration? Non-Xeon Dell R310s are very fussy on exactly what RAM they'll eat.

woollypigs · « **Reply #802 on:** 13 February, 2017, 10:29:49 pm »

Fettled a laptop sound, for some reason it stopped muting the speakers when mini jack was plugged in. Might be because Peli was sure it was gagging for a cuppa,two days after she got the laptop. So I had to take it apart a few times, first to dry it out and then to check that I had plugged in the cables correctly as it didn't boot. Since the little dip the sound played up. But with faffing the sound to the HDMI port, I didn't know you could do that, I managed to get the speakers to mute. And my headset now works too without a funny echo or picking up my hammering on the keyboard.

T42 · « **Reply #803 on:** 15 February, 2017, 03:56:41 pm »

Gave my main box its biannual blast out with compressed air to remove dust, hack hack splutter sneeze. With two dogs in the house the danger of CPU-fan gunge-up is middling high. Last time it happened it cost me a motherboard and a new copy of W7 Enterprise.

Vince · « **Reply #804 on:** 17 February, 2017, 01:52:26 pm »

Flashed the BIOS on the house server.
It had been chucking a NVRAM error on boot up, replacing the CMOS battery hadn't helped and internet knowledge suggested a BIOS flash could help.
A bit nerve racking whilst it was updating, but ultimately successful.
This afternoons job, re-organise the server cupboard for an extra network switch.

simonp · « **Reply #805 on:** 17 February, 2017, 04:45:10 pm »

Been refactoring stuff to clean it up. The number of files I've touched keeps on growing.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #806 on:** 18 February, 2017, 05:50:18 pm »

So I put a new network switch in the Great Hall, which left me with a surplus-to-requirements 5-port switch. "I know", I thought, "I will use this one instead of the one that's already in the Estate Office as, being not made of cheese, the mass of the cables plugged into it will not try to drag it from its position atop FatBoy (4TB NAS) into the dark and hellish maw of the spaghetti monster under the desk!"

Wait,... what? Network cables are supposed to go "click" when plugged into something, yes? Why, then, does this 'ere green one just slide in and, perhaps more importantly, out of its 'ole? Might the periodic "network errors" afflicting the PC up there be due to a quid's worth of string not staying put?

Fortunately MrCreosote (the new NAS) came with a network cable which clicked satisfyingly into place at both ends. Even if it is the wrong colour.

Vince · « **Reply #807 on:** 27 March, 2017, 03:29:51 pm »

Replaced the palm rest on my laptop. This involved open heart surgery, so I cleaned out the fan at the same time.

Kim · « **Reply #808 on:** 27 March, 2017, 03:34:43 pm »

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/OpCJzdWxEbQ&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/OpCJzdWxEbQ&rel=1</a>
https://youtu.be/OpCJzdWxEbQ

Earwormed.

Vince · « **Reply #809 on:** 27 March, 2017, 04:41:36 pm »

I was thinking of that as I prised the lump of felt out.

Vince · « **Reply #810 on:** 28 March, 2017, 11:33:28 am »

Do cool PCs run faster than hot PCs? Having cleared the fan debris the laptop seems to perform much better.

fuaran · « **Reply #811 on:** 28 March, 2017, 11:53:11 am »

Quote from: Vince on 28 March, 2017, 11:33:28 am

Do cool PCs run faster than hot PCs? Having cleared the fan debris the laptop seems to perform much better.

It it detects overheating, then it may throttle the CPU. So yes, this would slow it down.

Afasoas · « **Reply #812 on:** 30 March, 2017, 01:06:19 am »

Set-up a couple of HE / Tunnelbroker.net IPv6 over IPv4 tunnels. So now we have IPv6 connectivity on both WANs.

Thus far only the DMZ has a route-able IPv6 address and DHCPv6/RA configured. WANs are in failover so NPt on the secondary IPv6 tunnel and policy routing take care of things.

I've got to suss DNS integrated DHCPv6/RA on home server before I can roll it out to the home network. And find away of ensuring VPN clients can't reach any of the IPv6 gateways, which depends on all clients fully supporting DHCPv6 / static assignment

tiermat · « **Reply #813 on:** 05 April, 2017, 03:40:42 pm »

After nearly 2 weeks of battling with it, I have finally managed to get IdentityX installed and working.

The documentation is rubbish, the logging is non-existent and the helpdesk is vague.

Now I just have to repeat it all over again, in AWS.

Gattopardo · « **Reply #814 on:** 06 April, 2017, 12:23:50 pm »

Managed to fettle a working screen on to laptop with screen issues.

Managed to clear out a few older laptops to the recycling. They were broken

Have also been trying to figure out why one laptops connection is getting really hot while working to the point of smoking and can't figure out why.

Dave_C · « **Reply #815 on:** 06 April, 2017, 12:36:15 pm »

I've just changed the battery on my son's Samsung Galaxy Tab 2. Quite simple really.

Afasoas · « **Reply #816 on:** 07 April, 2017, 09:02:14 am »

The main LAN is now IPv6 enabled, with the main server and one desktop talking to the Interwebs over IPv6.

I can't figure out why dynamic DNS updates aren't happening for clients assigned addresses from the DHCPv6 server. I can make the updates manually using nsupdate, so I'm 100% certain BIND is configured correctly. I can't see what's wrong with the isc-dhcp-server configuration. I'll probably just park this for now until I switch out ubuntu in favour of debian. The point of the whole exercise was getting the HE IPv6 'sage' certificate.

In other news, adding configuration to dovecot to autexpunge trash and junk folders just stops dovecot from restarting, without any useful explanations. :/

Vince · « **Reply #817 on:** 08 April, 2017, 08:24:06 pm »

Unwillingly upgraded Mrs Wunja's phone to Windows 10. Faceache was no longer supporting Win 8.1 and as this is what she uses the phone for 70% of the time the change had to be made.
All went well, although it stalled for an hour or more, which was a worry.

woollypigs · « **Reply #818 on:** 13 April, 2017, 10:20:48 pm »

Well after I dropped my GPS onto Peli's laptop yesterday. I had to open it up - boy they like their screws, just to get to the hard disk - to find out what was wrong it it. Sadly diagnose is dead hard disk. Freezing it for a few hours and giving a little tap only made it beep more. It's dead, Jim. So new disk ordered. Good news is that it means faster disk than what was it in.

tonycollinet · « **Reply #819 on:** 16 April, 2017, 10:22:55 pm »

FIL's iphone - after an update - decided it wouldn't do anything until he put in a passcode, even though there had never been a passcode setup. Only solution was a restore, fortunately being 80+ he doesn't store any data on the phone.

Pickled Onion · « **Reply #820 on:** 17 April, 2017, 02:32:46 pm »

Quote from: Afasoas on 30 March, 2017, 01:06:19 am

Set-up a couple of HE / Tunnelbroker.net IPv6 over IPv4 tunnels. So now we have IPv6 connectivity on both WANs.
Thus far only the DMZ has a route-able IPv6 address and DHCPv6/RA configured. WANs are in failover so NPt on the secondary IPv6 tunnel and policy routing take care of things.

I've got to suss DNS integrated DHCPv6/RA on home server before I can roll it out to the home network. And find away of ensuring VPN clients can't reach any of the IPv6 gateways, which depends on all clients fully supporting DHCPv6 / static assignment

Sometimes I can only follow the smileys - and my CV says I'm an IT professional $:-\$

simonp · « **Reply #821 on:** 20 April, 2017, 10:15:17 pm »

Plotted some performance graphs. New code already has better performance than old despite still having a lot of scope for further optimisation.

Afasoas · « **Reply #822 on:** 21 April, 2017, 10:10:16 pm »

Quote from: Pickled Onion on 17 April, 2017, 02:32:46 pm

Sometimes I can only follow the smileys - and my CV says I'm an IT professional $:-\$

Ask me a programming question and odds are I won't be able to answer it.
I've given up on IPv6 for now. An IPv6 router announcement gets all the Android devices trying to communicate with the world via IPv6, even though the firewall black holes the traffic - slowing down internet browsing etc. quite badly.
I don't want to allow all IPv6 traffic out of the LAN until I find a reputable IPv6 VPN provider, cos privacy.

The DMZ still does IPv6 and so does the home server with some magic static routing.
*sigh*

Pickled Onion · « **Reply #823 on:** 22 April, 2017, 08:23:34 pm »

I know IPV6 is a Good Thing, but as everything's still working at the moment I don't see a compelling reason to worry about it.

Afasoas · « **Reply #824 on:** 23 April, 2017, 10:27:35 am »

Quote from: Pickled Onion on 22 April, 2017, 08:23:34 pm

I know IPV6 is a Good Thing, but as everything's still working at the moment I don't see a compelling reason to worry about it.

There are certain advantages to using IPv6 - for example being able to route an entire /48 or /64 to my home. If IPv4 disappeared, static IPs would be easier to get hold of and I'd be able to do proper high availability Firewalls.

I would love to get my hands on a couple of statically assigned /29s in the IPv4 range, but that's an unjustifiable undertaking given the costs involved because IPv4 addresses are getting scarce.

Author Topic: Fettled any computer stuff today? (Read 216711 times)

Afasoas

simonp

Afasoas

Afasoas

simonp

Afasoas

Afasoas