Author Topic: The computing stuff rant thread (Read 414256 times)

pcolbeck · « **Reply #2750 on:** 08 April, 2022, 05:12:11 pm »

Quote from: Kim on 08 April, 2022, 11:14:34 am

Our long-serving Procurve switch appears to have some sort of droid-rot, where it pretends to work but stops switching packets on some of the ports until power-cycled. Bah!

Cisco Catalyst 2900s did that when they were brand new. Took them about two weeks from out the box then they downed tools and just stopped until power cycled. That was very embarrassing for Cisco. I expect the IOS-XE coding gnomes didn't get a bonus that quarter and weren't allowed out until they finished the patch.

Kim · « **Reply #2751 on:** 08 April, 2022, 05:22:07 pm »

Given it's age (bought used in 2010), and that it's been reliable for most of the intervening years, I'm assuming it's a hardware problem. It failed to boot first time when powered on from cold after some electrical work last year, which suggests some poking around with the ESR meter may be fruitful. Fortunately I have a spare, which I'll swap over to when barakta isn't trying to get work done, and I can face the awful web interface.

Kim · « **Reply #2752 on:** 09 April, 2022, 02:19:40 pm »

Swapped over to the spare and had a poke around the innards. Capacitors all look fine, and the voltages are stable. I'll let it cool off and see if that changes things. Then I'll poke around with the ESR meter. Then, no doubt, I'll declare it to be gremlins.

Update: It appears to be gremlins.

ian · « **Reply #2753 on:** 14 April, 2022, 05:59:46 pm »

More of a firstworldgrumble really about the pain-in-the-arsery of modernity. I bought a swanky new iPad Air and I was very happy with it except it came with a small scratch near the volume control (which I belatedly noticed but was sure I didn't do and looked like a bit of a tool mark from cutting the holes). Ordinarily, I'm not so precious but I'm usually minded to trade in old devices and they'd knock umpteen pounds off the trade-in and well, it wasn't cheap so I had paid the price of perfection. It's just a phone call innit.

Lordy, the hours on the phone to alternately Singapore and then Ireland sorting out a replacement because I can't be arsed traipsing to a store. To be fair, they offered to replace it without quibble, and I could have simply dropped it.

And probably, after all of this, I will likely drop it. Into a sand-blaster knowing my luck.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #2754 on:** 19 April, 2022, 12:41:39 pm »

No amount of faffage with memory and shit will persuade a fresh Windows install on the Estate Office PC to get as far as allowing me into Windows. Our old friend PAGE FAULT IN NON-PAGED AREA again. Time to bite the bullet and get a new one. Bollocksbollocksbollocks

ian · « **Reply #2755 on:** 19 April, 2022, 01:01:06 pm »

Quote from: ian on 14 April, 2022, 05:59:46 pm

More of a firstworldgrumble really about the pain-in-the-arsery of modernity. I bought a swanky new iPad Air and I was very happy with it except it came with a small scratch near the volume control (which I belatedly noticed but was sure I didn't do and looked like a bit of a tool mark from cutting the holes). Ordinarily, I'm not so precious but I'm usually minded to trade in old devices and they'd knock umpteen pounds off the trade-in and well, it wasn't cheap so I had paid the price of perfection. It's just a phone call innit.

Lordy, the hours on the phone to alternately Singapore and then Ireland sorting out a replacement because I can't be arsed traipsing to a store. To be fair, they offered to replace it without quibble, and I could have simply dropped it.

And probably, after all of this, I will likely drop it. Into a sand-blaster knowing my luck.

In the end, rather than faff with couriers (which I'm not sure was going to happen, given the lack of follow-up email with details), I wandered to the Apple Store and they gave me a new one, no questions asked. Not dropped it yet.

FifeingEejit · « **Reply #2756 on:** 19 April, 2022, 01:33:08 pm »

Quote from: Mr Larrington on 19 April, 2022, 12:41:39 pm

No amount of faffage with memory and shit will persuade a fresh Windows install on the Estate Office PC to get as far as allowing me into Windows. Our old friend PAGE FAULT IN NON-PAGED AREA again. Time to bite the bullet and get a new one. Bollocksbollocksbollocks

If not memory then probably a Mainboard or CPU cache issue

Sent from my BKL-L09 using Tapatalk

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #2757 on:** 19 April, 2022, 02:58:37 pm »

Now suspecting it may be the SSD I was trying to reinstall it to, coz hauling it out, bunging it in a USB caddy and trying to Do Stuff with it on another machine coughed up some error message which the Internets translate to “It's fscked, mate!”.

Replacement not-a-Crucial SSD ordered for next-day delivery; it’s a metric fuckton cheaper than a new PC and I can always find a use for it if the problem turns out to be summat else.

Edit: It is summat else. All that faffing with very tiny screws and sub-desk grovelling for nowt. Arseburgers. Time for a shop

lissotriton · « **Reply #2758 on:** 02 May, 2022, 02:29:35 pm »

Replaced a network switch with a gigabit version. Works fine, but the power supply has a high pitched whining noise. Rather annoying.
Seems to be a quite common issue with this model (TP-Link TL-SG105). Maybe could replace the PSU, but a decent one would cost about as much as a new switch.
Or any (cheap) switches that can run off USB power? Would mean one less plug required.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #2759 on:** 04 May, 2022, 11:29:13 am »

Jurek's elsethread grumble about copy/paste from Worm into Outhouse reminds me that the Mega-Global Fruit Corporation of Cupertino, USAnia are fast approaching “Bunch of mindless jerks who'll be first against the wall when the Revolution comes” status. Because when I copy a bunch of text from A and paste it into B it puts a leading space into the pasted bit.

Was that space originally in A, FruitCo? Why, no! No, it was not. So fuck off with your attempt to be “helpful”, because it isn’t helpful if you have to fanny around trying to get rid of the damn' thing with stubby peasant fingers. Just paste what I copied. No more and no less.

ian · « **Reply #2760 on:** 12 May, 2022, 01:01:59 pm »

What's this Apple, my phone is out of storage? How can this be in this great era of cloud?

Checks phone. Really, 45 fucking GB of system clutter? What, are you a teenager? Clean up your shit.

Kim · « **Reply #2761 on:** 12 May, 2022, 01:35:58 pm »

If people would plz to be not having strings that look like years in their phone numbers, that would make life slightly easier for my shitty parser. kthnx.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #2762 on:** 17 May, 2022, 05:30:00 pm »

Why new PC not boot??? Roll about on floor successively trying two keyboards, three meeces and four HDMI monitor cables, not to mention a handy Windows 10 installation stick I had lying around. Nada.

What’s that you say? The laptop doesn’t detect that monitor either? Shuffle Big Monitor out of the way, plug in Small Monitor…

Yay! I haz a Windows

Big Minotaur had better not be b0rked, or there will be harsh language. I haven’t yet installed the turbo nutter bastard video card out of the old one but I would expect the mobo's onboard graphics wossname to be able to talk to it

Now, Microsith, I told you that I did not want a trial version of Orifice 365 when doing the initial startup. Why, then, did you decide to install it anyway? Bad Microsith.

Next I have to figure out where to put the disks wot I want to xfer from the old machine. There are three. Of them. How many slots are there in the Thing You Put Disks In? Two. I may have to get creative with the d/s tape again chiz.

Jaded · « **Reply #2763 on:** 17 May, 2022, 11:23:40 pm »

Seagate SSD gone a bit funny. Couldn't be unmanned from the Mac, and started freezing bits of the OS. No amount of command line stuff, or specialist software would sort it. The files were still accessible.

I checked the LaCie website, but quickly realised I needed to check the Seagate one. Result - item under warranty, so sent off...

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #2764 on:** 18 May, 2022, 02:24:43 pm »

Quote from: Mr Larrington on 05 March, 2022, 12:38:57 pm

Edit: also there doesn’t appear to be any way of accessing the thing from the command line chiz. The instructions from Seagate are very simple; go to “Services” in the webby interface and poke the button to enable SSH. Which in my case I have not got

Hurrah! I haz discovered how to enable ssh on the NAS in question

ian · « **Reply #2765 on:** 18 May, 2022, 02:40:44 pm »

Copied all backup data from cranky disk to new, all done, reformatted cranky disk*, now OK (if distrusted). I'm not sure I need 8 TB of anything.

*some dud file had been created, empty but spanning 138 GB, I presume the index somehow got corrupted though why it couldn't fix it, who knows, so it locked the disk in read-only mode. A most pointless expenditure of £80 earth pounds.

woollypigs · « **Reply #2766 on:** 18 May, 2022, 03:32:08 pm »

\o/ "free" paperweight

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #2767 on:** 18 May, 2022, 05:29:30 pm »

That’s an idea ^^^^ I could put my dead SSDs under the little rubbery feet of my new PC to lift it clear of the carpet fluff, fag ash and general sub-deskoid mank

Gattopardo · « **Reply #2768 on:** 18 May, 2022, 11:43:22 pm »

Is there a cheap or free way to get word for mac?

Seem to having issues with libre office and pages transfering to gmail.

Beardy · « **Reply #2769 on:** 19 May, 2022, 05:18:28 pm »

There was a time when I didn't worry about the cost of Broadband and fully understood quoted broadband speeds. I used to think that people who complained about broadband were just trying to wind me up, though I did secretly agree with most of them that BB providers should publish more truthful estimates of download speeds.

fast forward to today, 4 yeats after I left the business, and 2 or so years since they caught up with me and stopped my free broadband. Ive been with Plusnet about two years now, but the recent economy drive has had me looking at what I'm paying. Twice as much as what most providers, INCLUDING Plusnet, are currently offering to charge for the same service! To add insult to financial injury, it would seem that I've lost about 20% of the download speed I used to get and most providers suggest that what I'm now getting what they'd expect. OK, I accept that a new wind of honesty has swept through the industry (Was blown by the regulator) but why would that also alter what I'm now seeing when I do a speed check.

To be fair to Plusnet, they do offer me a new contract at the current rates when I checked on their website. However, they are offering the top tier package with speeds I used to get, though even their speed checker says I can only expect the new lower speeds. Gits!

Oh, and I've also got a similar situation with my mobile contracts, and just to make things especially difficult to compare, nearly all providers offer discounts when you get more than one service from them. sheesh.

I mean, I do know it's complicated, I was often involved in trying to define the systems trying to present this stuff to customers, but it seems they've not got much better since I left.

ian · « **Reply #2770 on:** 19 May, 2022, 05:23:34 pm »

I confess I stayed with BT despite paying twice as much as others because I know that (a) it works reliably and (b) consistently delivers the promised 70Mbps.

Jaded · « **Reply #2771 on:** 19 May, 2022, 05:23:59 pm »

Quote from: Jaded on 17 May, 2022, 11:23:40 pm

Seagate SSD gone a bit funny. Couldn't be unmanned from the Mac, and started freezing bits of the OS. No amount of command line stuff, or specialist software would sort it. The files were still accessible.

I checked the LaCie website, but quickly realised I needed to check the Seagate one. Result - item under warranty, so sent off...

And they have dispatched a replacement already!

‘Hob Knob’ the SSD will rise again!!

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #2772 on:** 19 May, 2022, 05:41:15 pm »

Machine! Why will you not detect the second monitor properly? You know it’s there coz it shows up in “Advanced Display Properties”, so how about you send some voles scuttling down the wire and waking it up, eh?

Edit: Dunno whether it was trying a different DP cable or plugging in the one which connects the minotaur's USB ports to the Babbage-Engine, but it's working. Which has saved me a Several of hundred of the BRITONS' pounds

chrisbainbridge · « **Reply #2773 on:** 22 May, 2022, 12:53:53 pm »

why design a piece of equipment to run on USB but then use a non USB connector and then not say whether it is centre pin +ve or not. So I now have to use a standard USB plug to a USB socket cable just because you put in a proprietary plug. Idiots

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #2774 on:** 22 May, 2022, 01:10:10 pm »

I think the Seagate Personal Cloud (sic) wot goes by the name “FATBOY” on TowersNet has got droid rot

Wretched fellow wants rebooting more and more frequently to restore the sprightly behaviour he had when he was young.

Bah!

Edit: What’s that, Messrs. Western and Digital? You're knocking out 6TB NASen at forty quid off? Get thee behind me, Stan, lest I am tempted to pension off both FATBOY and TUBBYJOHNSON (who has been slower than the Slow Children since day 1)!