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utonium
Dec 17, 2002

Germstore posted:

gigabyte g1 sniper z97 and ocz arc 100 240gb
I have an OCZ SSD (it was free) that gave me trouble the other day after moving around some components in my old system, and reseating then eventually replacing the SATA cable 'fixed' it.

The drive doesn't have a place for the SATA cable latch to catch on, and I'll bet your ARC doesn't either.

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Surgeon General
May 26, 2004
Delightfully Mad
Can running bittorrent on a micro SD card kill it?

I bought a 128GB microSD about a month ago that I've been using on my phone. It wasn't used for anything taxing until a few days ago. I set the destination folder for a bittorrent app to the microSD card and downloaded maybe 30GB of stuff in the past few days. My phone froze and could not see the card after rebooting. When I plug the card into my PC it will only read. The card cannot be written to or formatted (the lock is set to off). The card did get very hot doing this and I just ignored it, probably stupidly.

future ghost
Dec 5, 2005

:byetankie:
Gun Saliva
SD cards have limited numbers of writes, and the flash memory used is generally not to the same quality as say a SSD.

While bittorrent does tons of small writes which could hammer the card and thus it's probably more than 30GB writes, it's more likely the heat and flash quality that killed it. Phones and SD cards really aren't designed for using for torrenting, so don't do that unless you want to kill more cards. Tether your phone instead if it's an unlimited data connection or whatever that you're using, and hope that your carrier doesn't drop you. Alternatively don't use your phone for torrenting duh.

future ghost fucked around with this message at 16:30 on Mar 10, 2015

sleepy gary
Jan 11, 2006

Surgeon General posted:

Can running bittorrent on a micro SD card kill it?

I bought a 128GB microSD about a month ago that I've been using on my phone. It wasn't used for anything taxing until a few days ago. I set the destination folder for a bittorrent app to the microSD card and downloaded maybe 30GB of stuff in the past few days. My phone froze and could not see the card after rebooting. When I plug the card into my PC it will only read. The card cannot be written to or formatted (the lock is set to off). The card did get very hot doing this and I just ignored it, probably stupidly.

Are you sure it's a real 128GB card?

ConspicuousEvil
Feb 29, 2004
Pillbug
Not entirely sure if this is the right place, but here it goes.

I'm looking to buy some kind of desktop solution that can run dual monitors when I'm using it to do computer-y stuff and a third monitor (TV) when I just want to watch stuff. I'm looking into a mac mini because I love OSX, but I don't want to have to purchase a second desktop to be able to run the third monitor. If it helps, I also have a pre-built small tower that I'll be using in the living room to run a second, more primary tv. Is there a better option I'm unaware of? Will the mac mini work for this kind of thing? I don't need the computer itself to do anything super powerful.

Edit: If it helps, I'm looking into the mac mini because I want something small.

Surgeon General
May 26, 2004
Delightfully Mad

DNova posted:

Are you sure it's a real 128GB card?

Yes. It's a PNY that I bought at Fry's. It wasn't from some shady ebay seller.

And I did all this through wifi.

sleepy gary
Jan 11, 2006

Surgeon General posted:

Yes. It's a PNY that I bought at Fry's. It wasn't from some shady ebay seller.

And I did all this through wifi.

Then what you did should not have killed the card.

HalloKitty
Sep 30, 2005

Adjust the bass and let the Alpine blast

cisco privilege posted:

SD cards have limited numbers of writes, and the flash memory used is generally not to the same quality as say a SSD.

While bittorrent does tons of small writes which could hammer the card and thus it's probably more than 30GB writes, it's more likely the heat and flash quality that killed it. Phones and SD cards really aren't designed for using for torrenting, so don't do that unless you want to kill more cards. Tether your phone instead if it's an unlimited data connection or whatever that you're using, and hope that your carrier doesn't drop you. Alternatively don't use your phone for torrenting duh.

But most if not all torrent clients will pre-allocate the files, then when downloading, cache the chunks, then write them, they don't generally write every single bit to disk as it is received. There's no way 30GB of writes should kill the card. It is not a good use for an SD card, that said.

To Surgeon General: You only had the card for a month, though, just get it replaced under warranty.

Nintendo Kid
Aug 4, 2011

by Smythe
Small writes wouldn't "hammer" the card anyway. SD cards are specifically designed to be able to handle a bunch of small writes close together, because of their origin as camera memory cards.

future ghost
Dec 5, 2005

:byetankie:
Gun Saliva
It's an early failure for for the card that should be replaced under warranty just fine by PNY, but it doesn't make torrenting on a phone any less dumb.

Alereon
Feb 6, 2004

Dehumanize yourself and face to Trumpshed
College Slice

Surgeon General posted:

Yes. It's a PNY that I bought at Fry's. It wasn't from some shady ebay seller.

And I did all this through wifi.
In the future I'd strongly recommend that you only buy flash memory products sold under the brand of a flash memory manufacturer, such as SanDisk or Samsung. Memory cards already use the lowest grade of flash memory, products sold by a second-tier manufacturer undergo even more limited validation than those a manufacturer was willing to attach their brand to.

KKKLIP ART
Sep 3, 2004

Would a bad video card produce the following issues:

On a clean Windows 8.1 pro install, it will boot for first run, but in the event that I need to restart, it hangs on a gray screen after the computer posts. If I restore and try to install the graphics drivers (latest, downloaded from nVidia's site), about half way through the installation, the screen just goes completely to an orange-yellow gradient. Previous install of Windows, the screen would bug out, hang, turn black, and I would get a bubble saying that the GPU driver had an issue, restarted and recovered. I have a GTX670 that was gifted to me, so if it seems like it makes sense, I can start the RMA process.

future ghost
Dec 5, 2005

:byetankie:
Gun Saliva
Maybe. What power supply do you have and how old is it?

Schroeder91
Jul 5, 2007

I bought a new case to build out of today. It ships with 3 fans, but has space for 4 more. Should I worry about getting fans for these slots? it's going to house an i3-4150 w/ H97M mobo and an EVGA 750 ti superclocked 2gb. I live in Phoenix and had a computer nuke itself of me before. Small case, but I probably didn't clean it enough either.

Also, it's a black case and clear side panel. If I were to get fans with LED, what color would go best with it?

KKKLIP ART
Sep 3, 2004

cisco privilege posted:

Maybe. What power supply do you have and how old is it?

A SeaSonic G Series 550-Watt SSR-550RM that was picked from the SA parts thread, purchased in 2013. The only other clue is that it seems like when it hangs on boot, I get nothing. No lights on mouse or keyboard either, so I am sort of ruling out the GPU. I am going to try a format and fresh install and seeing how that goes. Maybe it was something funky with the "refresh" that 8.1 did.

HalloKitty
Sep 30, 2005

Adjust the bass and let the Alpine blast

KKKLIP ART posted:

A SeaSonic G Series 550-Watt SSR-550RM that was picked from the SA parts thread, purchased in 2013. The only other clue is that it seems like when it hangs on boot, I get nothing. No lights on mouse or keyboard either, so I am sort of ruling out the GPU. I am going to try a format and fresh install and seeing how that goes. Maybe it was something funky with the "refresh" that 8.1 did.

That's a good PSU, so I wouldn't be so suspicious of that just yet. I would definitely pull out the graphics card and just use the onboard Intel graphics for a while, to see if anything similar happens again. That would be the best way to either point the finger at or away from the GPU.

KKKLIP ART
Sep 3, 2004

HalloKitty posted:

That's a good PSU, so I wouldn't be so suspicious of that just yet. I would definitely pull out the graphics card and just use the onboard Intel graphics for a while, to see if anything similar happens again. That would be the best way to either point the finger at or away from the GPU.

Good plan. If it still hangs on loading Windows, I will give that a shot. I am leaning more motherboard at this point due to the lack of USB when it does this, but it gives me one less thing to worry about.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

Dis is amazing!
I gotta try dis!

Schroeder91 posted:

I bought a new case to build out of today. It ships with 3 fans, but has space for 4 more. Should I worry about getting fans for these slots? it's going to house an i3-4150 w/ H97M mobo and an EVGA 750 ti superclocked 2gb. I live in Phoenix and had a computer nuke itself of me before. Small case, but I probably didn't clean it enough either.

Also, it's a black case and clear side panel. If I were to get fans with LED, what color would go best with it?

You most likely won't need more fans than the 3 included ones since your system isn't overclocked and you aren't getting a video card with high power use. You could replace them with quieter ones if they're loud but I'd wait until you try them out first. LED color is personal preference but a lot of folks go with colors complimentary to the accents on their other hardware. If you plan to sleep in the same room as it and you might leave it on avoid blue LEDs.

KKKLIP ART
Sep 3, 2004

So I pulled my GPU, clean install of windows, boots fine at first, no video after POST messages/Windows 8.1 splash screen while using integrated graphics. Am I safe to assume its probably my motherboard?

Schroeder91
Jul 5, 2007

Rexxed posted:

You most likely won't need more fans than the 3 included ones since your system isn't overclocked and you aren't getting a video card with high power use. You could replace them with quieter ones if they're loud but I'd wait until you try them out first. LED color is personal preference but a lot of folks go with colors complimentary to the accents on their other hardware. If you plan to sleep in the same room as it and you might leave it on avoid blue LEDs.

I'll wait and check out the stock. I was looking at the Cougar case fans, and reviews seem to point to them being quiet and moving good air, so if I replace fans I may just got for those and skip LED. I was thinking white or red LED but I don't think anything inside the case will be those colors.

Alereon
Feb 6, 2004

Dehumanize yourself and face to Trumpshed
College Slice

Schroeder91 posted:

I'll wait and check out the stock. I was looking at the Cougar case fans, and reviews seem to point to them being quiet and moving good air, so if I replace fans I may just got for those and skip LED. I was thinking white or red LED but I don't think anything inside the case will be those colors.
There really isn't a significant difference between case fans at similar rpm to justify replacing them, if you want lower noise levels just turn down the fan speeds using your motherboard fan speed control (or low noise adapters). There are some differences, but it's more of a last 10% thing when it comes to noise so not generally worth changing fans that don't have bad motors or bearings. There are much more significant differences when it comes to radiator and heatsink fans, as the amount of pressure generated by the design of the fan blades is extremely important to the amount of air that is actually moved at a given noise level.

bushisms.txt
May 26, 2004

Scroll, then. There are other posts than these.


What's the best router/modem worth spending money on to replace the lovely comcast loner?

Gothmog1065
May 14, 2009

bushisms.txt posted:

What's the best router/modem worth spending money on to replace the lovely comcast loner?

I think a general consensus is the Asus AC68U is one of the best consumer routers on the market right now

JesusDoesVegas
Jul 8, 2005

The Funk Ambassador
Lipstick Apathy
I just got a new laptop, an MSI GS60. It has windows 8.1 installed, and it is up to date. I tried plugging in my 1TB Transcend external USB 3.0 hard drive, and it doesn't show up anywhere. Not in my computer, device manager, or disk management. I've tried all three USB ports (which do work with other devices), and I've tried the HD in another computer so I know it's working. This isn't a power issue because the HD spins up upon plug in, and the LED comes on. I found a forum post where someone suggested turning off fast-boot in power management, but that didn't do the trick either. I've uninstalled all of the USB drivers and restarted the computer to reinstall them, but no luck. From what I can see from MSI's website, they don't have proprietary USB drivers available for download, so there's nothing new there I can get.

I'm sort of at a dead end here and I'm thinking about just reverting back to Windows 7. Has anyone else had this issue? Any ideas?

ufarn
May 30, 2009
Best wireless adapter for a 80/30 connection on a ASUS P7P55D-E P55 S-1156 ATX motherboard?

Alereon
Feb 6, 2004

Dehumanize yourself and face to Trumpshed
College Slice

ufarn posted:

Best wireless adapter for a 80/30 connection on a ASUS P7P55D-E P55 S-1156 ATX motherboard?
Intel Wireless-AC 7260 Desktop kit, a bundle of the laptop and a desktop slot adapter with antenna kit. This is the best option for desktops, and the version without the desktop adapter is excellent for laptops as well.

Gromit
Aug 15, 2000

I am an oppressed White Male, Asian women wont serve me! Save me Campbell Newman!!!!!!!

JesusDoesVegas posted:

I just got a new laptop, an MSI GS60. It has windows 8.1 installed, and it is up to date. I tried plugging in my 1TB Transcend external USB 3.0 hard drive, and it doesn't show up anywhere. Not in my computer, device manager, or disk management. I've tried all three USB ports (which do work with other devices), and I've tried the HD in another computer so I know it's working. This isn't a power issue because the HD spins up upon plug in, and the LED comes on. I found a forum post where someone suggested turning off fast-boot in power management, but that didn't do the trick either. I've uninstalled all of the USB drivers and restarted the computer to reinstall them, but no luck. From what I can see from MSI's website, they don't have proprietary USB drivers available for download, so there's nothing new there I can get.

I'm sort of at a dead end here and I'm thinking about just reverting back to Windows 7. Has anyone else had this issue? Any ideas?

So other USB storage devices work fine? Does your 1TB drive show up if you boot your laptop with a live OS CD? This might give you some idea if there's a hardware issue.

JesusDoesVegas
Jul 8, 2005

The Funk Ambassador
Lipstick Apathy

Gromit posted:

So other USB storage devices work fine? Does your 1TB drive show up if you boot your laptop with a live OS CD? This might give you some idea if there's a hardware issue.

I have a dongle I use for my Logitech mouse, so I used that in all the ports and it worked... I'll try a thumb drive when I get home.

There's no CD drive in the machine sadly. Gotta get that thing skinny somehow. Like I said though... The HD does work in other machines.

Edit - thumb drives dont work either... Hrm.

Edit again - So I thought I took all the updates to Windows, but today I got a notice to restart for 83 new updates... Gave it a restart, waited about an hour and bam, everything works.

Update your poo poo kids. Fixes problems.

JesusDoesVegas fucked around with this message at 04:22 on Mar 15, 2015

Blue On Blue
Nov 14, 2012

Couldn't find anything relating off a brief look;

Is there a thread dedicated to Roomba modding?

I feel like tinkering with my soldering iron and making my roomba smarter at navigation

ufarn
May 30, 2009

Alereon posted:

Intel Wireless-AC 7260 Desktop kit, a bundle of the laptop and a desktop slot adapter with antenna kit. This is the best option for desktops, and the version without the desktop adapter is excellent for laptops as well.
Cool, thanks. They're currently out of stock in my country, so is there a really basic cheap-ish USB adapter to get in the interim?

KKKLIP ART
Sep 3, 2004

So my hardware issue about no screen response was only partly a hardware issue. Having a newer i5, they come with onboard graphics which I had originally turned off. For some reason windows turned them back on and then proceeded to flip its lid trying to decide what should actually be displaying my desktop, onboard of my discrete GPU. All fixed now but man it was a pain in the rear end.

JesusDoesVegas
Jul 8, 2005

The Funk Ambassador
Lipstick Apathy

Sappo569 posted:

Couldn't find anything relating off a brief look;

Is there a thread dedicated to Roomba modding?

I feel like tinkering with my soldering iron and making my roomba smarter at navigation

Never seen a specific roomba thread, but the diy and hobbies sub forum of creative convention is probably the place to start one. I remember there being a robotics thread a while back. They've got an arduino thread that may be useful if you go that route.

caberham
Mar 18, 2009

by Smythe
Grimey Drawer
Hi I'm trying to build my own Home network server. I'm thinking of setting up a Linux LDAP server for my laptops, phones, computer - even though I already have Dropbox. The server will also be a VPN :china: and have plex installed to serve video to max 3/4 clients at the same time. And maybe hosting my own website through Dynamic DNS and if I'm lucky enough set up my own wifi with RADIUS authentication.

I already have a basic synology unit for data but I will probably have another NAS just for files. How stupid is this idea? Should I just get a student version of windows server 2012 r2 and skip linux? And if I use the server to transcode NAS movies off gigabit ethernet, am I boned or should I have plex installed on top of the NAS instead?

Finally, from what I read, it's wise to have a spare domain controller, what basic hardware should I use?

PBCrunch
Jun 17, 2002

Lawrence Phillips Always #1 to Me

JesusDoesVegas posted:

I just got a new laptop, an MSI GS60. It has windows 8.1 installed, and it is up to date. I tried plugging in my 1TB Transcend external USB 3.0 hard drive, and it doesn't show up anywhere. Not in my computer, device manager, or disk management. I've tried all three USB ports (which do work with other devices), and I've tried the HD in another computer so I know it's working. This isn't a power issue because the HD spins up upon plug in, and the LED comes on. I found a forum post where someone suggested turning off fast-boot in power management, but that didn't do the trick either. I've uninstalled all of the USB drivers and restarted the computer to reinstall them, but no luck. From what I can see from MSI's website, they don't have proprietary USB drivers available for download, so there's nothing new there I can get.

I'm sort of at a dead end here and I'm thinking about just reverting back to Windows 7. Has anyone else had this issue? Any ideas?
This is almost definitely a power issue. Try plugging the drive to the laptop through a powered (plugs into the wall) USB hub. Just because the drive spins up doesn't mean it has enough power to run properly.

Germstore
Oct 17, 2012

A Serious Candidate For a Serious Time
About a week ago I posted:

Germstore posted:

My HTPC wouldn't boot because the SSD was not showing up at all. It's a new build and had been running fine for a week. I unplugged and replugged the data cable, and made sure both ends of the power cable were secure. It then booted fine. Is there a most likely culprit in this type of situation? The cables all seemed secure before I reseated them.
...
gigabyte g1 sniper z97 and ocz arc 100 240gb
Today the PC won't even post. I switched out the PSU, still wouldn't post. Switched out the ram for a stick from my other machine. It boots to desktop fine. But then I try other combinations, just one of the sticks, then the other, and sometimes it posts sometimes it doesn't even if it booted with that stick before. Then I put in the stick from the desktop that originally works, and it won't post. Am I correct in thinking it can't be anything besides the motherboard? Should I switch out the SSD to be sure?

Edit: I switched out the SSD, and then it booted, but I restarted and it didn't boot again. Why would it boot occassionally?

Germstore fucked around with this message at 16:59 on Mar 17, 2015

Alereon
Feb 6, 2004

Dehumanize yourself and face to Trumpshed
College Slice

Germstore posted:

About a week ago I posted:

Today the PC won't even post. I switched out the PSU, still wouldn't post. Switched out the ram for a stick from my other machine. It boots to desktop fine. But then I try other combinations, just one of the sticks, then the other, and sometimes it posts sometimes it doesn't even if it booted with that stick before. Then I put in the stick from the desktop that originally works, and it won't post. Am I correct in thinking it can't be anything besides the motherboard? Should I switch out the SSD to be sure?

Edit: I switched out the SSD, and then it booted, but I restarted and it didn't boot again. Why would it boot occassionally?
Have you tried running Memtest86+ to verify it actually can pass diagnostics with the RAM you're using? If so, update the motherboard BIOS and clear the CMOS via the jumper on the board.

Germstore
Oct 17, 2012

A Serious Candidate For a Serious Time
It's not even posting dependably. Out of maybe 20 attempts it only posted like 3 times.

edit: now it's not posting at all. I reset the CMOS and removed it from the case in case it was a short. Is dead I think.

Germstore fucked around with this message at 19:01 on Mar 17, 2015

SteveMcQueen
Jun 16, 2005

I did a quick search but apologies if this is a frequent question. How often should I replace a hard drive? I have a 1TB Samsung from 2010 coming up on its 5 year anniversary. Crystal Disk pegs it at 4,500 hours powered on. No sign of problems yet but I thought I heard 5 years was a good time to upgrade somewhere. Thanks!

SteveMcQueen fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Mar 17, 2015

Gothmog1065
May 14, 2009

SteveMcQueen posted:

I did a quick search but apologies if this is a frequent question. How often should I replace a hard drive? I have a 1TB Samsung from 2010 coming up on it's 5 year anniversary. Crystal Disk pegs it at 4,500 hours powered on. No sign of problems yet but I thought I heard 5 years was a good time to upgrade somewhere. Thanks!

Back up your data and replace it when it fails. You could get another 10 years out of it. You should have a backup regardless.

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SteveMcQueen
Jun 16, 2005

Gothmog1065 posted:

Back up your data and replace it when it fails. You could get another 10 years out of it. You should have a backup regardless.

Sounds good, thanks. One more reason to finally set up the home server I've been pondering.

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