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George Sex - REAL
Dec 1, 2005

Bisssssssexual
Do stockpiled, but unused hardware (graphics cards and motherboards specifically) become more unreliable as they age? I ask because my laptop is on warranty with Dell and while I had a good first two years with it, I've been having Dell replace the graphics cards about every four months and it seems like their lifespan is dropping. I'm just trying to figure out why this is.

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Alereon
Feb 6, 2004

Dehumanize yourself and face to Trumpshed
College Slice

Dorkopotamis posted:

Do stockpiled, but unused hardware (graphics cards and motherboards specifically) become more unreliable as they age? I ask because my laptop is on warranty with Dell and while I had a good first two years with it, I've been having Dell replace the graphics cards about every four months and it seems like their lifespan is dropping. I'm just trying to figure out why this is.
Not really, capacitors do decline in quality with age, but that's less significant with the types of capacitors used on graphics cards and modern motherboards.

George Sex - REAL
Dec 1, 2005

Bisssssssexual

Alereon posted:

Not really, capacitors do decline in quality with age, but that's less significant with the types of capacitors used on graphics cards and modern motherboards.

Would you have any idea on why their stockpile of parts is seemingly degrading? Could they be using parts that are refurbished many times over? That would most definitely effect their lifespan, right?

fishmech
Jul 16, 2006

by VideoGames
Salad Prong

Dorkopotamis posted:

Would you have any idea on why their stockpile of parts is seemingly degrading? Could they be using parts that are refurbished many times over? That would most definitely effect their lifespan, right?

It could just be that the laptop you had with the GPU option you selected had a large amount of defects all around.

What's the model anyway, where the GPU is actually separately replaceable from the rest of the system?

BreakAtmo
May 16, 2009

Not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but here goes. How much of the price of a high-end laptop like the Dell XPS 15 or the HP Spectre 13 is a result of the innards (mobo, CPU, GPU, RAM and storage)?

George Sex - REAL
Dec 1, 2005

Bisssssssexual

fishmech posted:

It could just be that the laptop you had with the GPU option you selected had a large amount of defects all around.

What's the model anyway, where the GPU is actually separately replaceable from the rest of the system?

It's an Alienware m17X (ranger) with a nvidia 880m. It is replaceable.

To my credit, I didn't order an Alienware, I got it because Dell recalled the entire line of XPS system I had originally owned because they were overheating in such a way that could cause injury.

fishmech
Jul 16, 2006

by VideoGames
Salad Prong

Dorkopotamis posted:

It's an Alienware m17X (ranger) with a nvidia 880m. It is replaceable.

To my credit, I didn't order an Alienware, I got it because Dell recalled the entire line of XPS system I had originally owned because they were overheating in such a way that could cause injury.

Given that, it might be that there's something else broken or defective inside the laptop, and a result of that is it damages the GPU board quickly. You should see about getting the system board/fans/etc replaced too the next time the graphics board fails.

FCKGW
May 21, 2006

BreakAtmo posted:

Not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but here goes. How much of the price of a high-end laptop like the Dell XPS 15 or the HP Spectre 13 is a result of the innards (mobo, CPU, GPU, RAM and storage)?

A good chunk. Unless youre Apple, there's not much profit in PCs.

BreakAtmo
May 16, 2009

FCKGW posted:

A good chunk. Unless youre Apple, there's not much profit in PCs.

Thanks. I've been looking at the Kickstarter for the Superbook (the $99 laptop shell that you plug your phone into to use) and it got me wondering about the potential for a company to take the shells of their most high-end laptops and do the same thing - or sell the shells to the Superbook company to use for a premium model. The processing power would be lesser and the OS would be different, but it would be cool if owners of powerful Android phones could enjoy a high-end laptop's great build quality while paying a fraction of the price, assuming they weren't looking for high-end laptop gaming or professional editing apps or something.

Alereon
Feb 6, 2004

Dehumanize yourself and face to Trumpshed
College Slice
So basically add up the price of the screen, battery, and keyboard you want, plus a little bit extra for some molded plastic and there you go.

BreakAtmo
May 16, 2009

Alereon posted:

So basically add up the price of the screen, battery, and keyboard you want, plus a little bit extra for some molded plastic and there you go.

Pretty much, though I thought a display like the XPS 15's lovely 4K touchscreen might cost more than I imagined.

FCKGW
May 21, 2006

BreakAtmo posted:

Thanks. I've been looking at the Kickstarter for the Superbook (the $99 laptop shell that you plug your phone into to use) and it got me wondering about the potential for a company to take the shells of their most high-end laptops and do the same thing - or sell the shells to the Superbook company to use for a premium model. The processing power would be lesser and the OS would be different, but it would be cool if owners of powerful Android phones could enjoy a high-end laptop's great build quality while paying a fraction of the price, assuming they weren't looking for high-end laptop gaming or professional editing apps or something.

It's been done before by other major PC companies. No one bought them.

The problem is you can buy a $200 Chromebook that will do everything your android phone does without tying up your phone. Why would you buy a dock like that instead?

HalloKitty
Sep 30, 2005

Adjust the bass and let the Alpine blast

BreakAtmo posted:

Thanks. I've been looking at the Kickstarter for the Superbook (the $99 laptop shell that you plug your phone into to use) and it got me wondering about the potential for a company to take the shells of their most high-end laptops and do the same thing - or sell the shells to the Superbook company to use for a premium model. The processing power would be lesser and the OS would be different, but it would be cool if owners of powerful Android phones could enjoy a high-end laptop's great build quality while paying a fraction of the price, assuming they weren't looking for high-end laptop gaming or professional editing apps or something.

Motorola tried this ages ago. Nobody cared. ASUS has tried this. Nobody cared.

Sorry, it's an idea that doesn't seem to have any traction in the marketplace. I'd be more interested to see slider phones make a return. The few 2012 premium models that are still knocking around keep getting sold and used and refurbished and re-sold on ebay many times, since there's nothing better.

BreakAtmo
May 16, 2009

FCKGW posted:

It's been done before by other major PC companies. No one bought them.

The problem is you can buy a $200 Chromebook that will do everything your android phone does without tying up your phone. Why would you buy a dock like that instead?

Well, in the case of the version being kickstartered right now, because it's $99-129 instead of $200, and in the case of the hypothetical premium version, because it would hopefully have a superior look and build quality compared to a $200 Chromebook. Plus, unlike with the Chromebook where you have to update to the new one every once in a while, this one just gets an automatic update in processing power when you get a new phone. Also, does it tie up your phone? You plug it in but I doubt it would prevent you from taking calls.

HalloKitty posted:

Motorola tried this ages ago. Nobody cared. ASUS has tried this. Nobody cared.

Sorry, it's an idea that doesn't seem to have any traction in the marketplace. I'd be more interested to see slider phones make a return. The few 2012 premium models that are still knocking around keep getting sold and used and refurbished and re-sold on ebay many times, since there's nothing better.

Well, the current kIckstarter is going very well for them, but yeah, we'll have to see how the thing sells once it's actually been made. Slider phones would be nice, though I'm more interested in the concept from my avatar - phones that open into tablets via foldable OLED screens. Especially if the phone front was BlackBerry-style, since you already have a big screen inside.

edit: Just looked up the Motorola Atrix dock. Only worked with one phone and launched at $500 (or $300 when bought with the phone). I wouldn't be interested in it either. What was the ASUS one?

BreakAtmo fucked around with this message at 07:36 on Aug 13, 2016

HalloKitty
Sep 30, 2005

Adjust the bass and let the Alpine blast

BreakAtmo posted:

edit: Just looked up the Motorola Atrix dock. Only worked with one phone and launched at $500 (or $300 when bought with the phone). I wouldn't be interested in it either. What was the ASUS one?

The Motorola Lapdock worked with more models than just one.

Many of their phones around that time had the option to boot into a different Linux desktop environment when plugged in, called Webtop.

ASUS, PadFone. They have a fair few versions, but it's essentially a phone you slap in a tablet, and you can also have a keyboard dock for it.

Maybe these examples aren't exactly the same, but they're not far off. I know they're older and not worth looking into now, but I just thought I'd show the idea isn't totally original.

Edit: Foldable phones are nifty I guess, but unless you have a gap, the stress on the folding part of the screen is going to be high, and it will surely eventually fail.

HalloKitty fucked around with this message at 10:02 on Aug 13, 2016

BreakAtmo
May 16, 2009

HalloKitty posted:

The Motorola Lapdock worked with more models than just one.

Many of their phones around that time had the option to boot into a different Linux desktop environment when plugged in, called Webtop.

ASUS, PadFone. They have a fair few versions, but it's essentially a phone you slap in a tablet, and you can also have a keyboard dock for it.

Maybe these examples aren't exactly the same, but they're not far off.

They do seem to be basically like the Superbook, but all worse in every way. The Lapdock worked only with select phones using a proprietary cable and cost hundreds. The PadFones seem cheaper, but again, limited to the specific phones. The Superbook is much nicer and cheaper, and will work with every Android phone that fits the pretty standard requirements (Lollipop, 1.5GB RAM, etc) via USB (micro and Type-C). I see what you're saying, but I really do think the ability to work with all those different phones is a critical difference that will allow for vastly more widespread adoption, even before you consider the cheaper price. It also means they're very useful in schools. Of course, it could still easily fail - successful Kickstarters don't always make for successful products. And they really should get it working with iPhones if possible.

quote:

Edit: Foldable phones are nifty I guess, but unless you have a gap, the stress on the folding part of the screen is going to be high, and it will eventually fail.

That's one of the main reasons why the tech is taking so long to come out, I think. I remember hearing years ago that a prototype had been made that was capable of being folded and opened repeatedly, and the only deficiency after 100,000 folds was a small line with a brightness loss of about 5%.

fishmech
Jul 16, 2006

by VideoGames
Salad Prong
The Lapdock worked with any phone or other device that could be powered with USB 2.0 and had an HDMI output. That's actually most phones for a long time, as well as all sorts of things like Raspberry Pis or even the Amazon Fire TV sticks and some models of Roku.

reagan
Apr 29, 2008

by Lowtax
Seagate vs Western Digital for external hard drives? Any manufacturer I should avoid?

NihilCredo
Jun 6, 2011

iram omni possibili modo preme:
plus una illa te diffamabit, quam multæ virtutes commendabunt

e: nm, didn't google hard enough

FCKGW
May 21, 2006

reagan posted:

Seagate vs Western Digital for external hard drives? Any manufacturer I should avoid?

Hitachi, or the WD branded Hitachi drives.

Seagate, WD and Hitachi are all pretty much the same though quality wise outside of some specific model failures.

reagan
Apr 29, 2008

by Lowtax

FCKGW posted:

Hitachi, or the WD branded Hitachi drives.

Seagate, WD and Hitachi are all pretty much the same though quality wise outside of some specific model failures.

Avoid the Hitachi drives?

FCKGW
May 21, 2006

No, sorry, Hitachi are probably the best of the bunch. It's all negligible though, they all follow the same bathtub curve of failure and you're probably talking a couple percentage points difference of failure rate over the life of the different brands.

HalloKitty
Sep 30, 2005

Adjust the bass and let the Alpine blast

BreakAtmo posted:

The Lapdock worked only with select phones using a proprietary cable and cost hundreds.

It was just standard USB2 and micro-HDMI.

BreakAtmo
May 16, 2009

HalloKitty posted:

It was just standard USB2 and micro-HDMI.

Really? That's odd, when I saw some pictures it seemed to use some large cable type. I'm surprised that so many phones had micro-HDMI, how well did it work?

BreakAtmo fucked around with this message at 18:51 on Aug 13, 2016

HalloKitty
Sep 30, 2005

Adjust the bass and let the Alpine blast

BreakAtmo posted:

Really? That's odd, when I saw some pictures it seemed to use some large cable type. I'm surprised that so many phones had micro-HDMI, how well did it work?

Fine, you can connect to a normal TV, the pinout is identical to that of HDMI, so you just buy a passive adapter or cable. Have a Droid 4, Droid RAZR MAXX HD and an Xperia Pro lying around here which do that perfectly.

The combined large cable you saw is just microUSB-B and micro-HDMI next to each other - Motorola standardised the port placement at that time, so a combined connector could be hooked up quickly. None of their newer devices are like that, though.

HalloKitty fucked around with this message at 19:04 on Aug 13, 2016

22 Eargesplitten
Oct 10, 2010



Is it bad to keep a computer on for a long period of time? I pretty much only restart for updates, I just put it to sleep otherwise. Old habit. I guess I could schedule a task to restart it every X days at 4AM or something. I never used to do that because my sleep was so erratic that I never knew what time I would be off the computer.

fishmech
Jul 16, 2006

by VideoGames
Salad Prong

22 Eargesplitten posted:

Is it bad to keep a computer on for a long period of time? I pretty much only restart for updates, I just put it to sleep otherwise. Old habit. I guess I could schedule a task to restart it every X days at 4AM or something. I never used to do that because my sleep was so erratic that I never knew what time I would be off the computer.

Only if you're still using something older than Windows 98SE, as the earlier versions would become increasingly unstable after months on since boot when not patched. You don't need to worry about that in newer versions, unless you happen to have some software you run with similar defects.

reagan
Apr 29, 2008

by Lowtax

FCKGW posted:

No, sorry, Hitachi are probably the best of the bunch. It's all negligible though, they all follow the same bathtub curve of failure and you're probably talking a couple percentage points difference of failure rate over the life of the different brands.

Awesome, thanks for the help.

22 Eargesplitten
Oct 10, 2010



fishmech posted:

Only if you're still using something older than Windows 98SE, as the earlier versions would become increasingly unstable after months on since boot when not patched. You don't need to worry about that in newer versions, unless you happen to have some software you run with similar defects.

Cool, thanks. It seems like I get parts failing more often than I should, although given that it tends to happen when I upgrade other parts I might just be bad at that.

fishmech
Jul 16, 2006

by VideoGames
Salad Prong

22 Eargesplitten posted:

Cool, thanks. It seems like I get parts failing more often than I should, although given that it tends to happen when I upgrade other parts I might just be bad at that.

As it happens, parts fail most often at turn off or turn on, because they both incur the most massive power usage changes the part tends to see.- something that's about to fail will tend to stay working for as long as it's powered normally, and then finally break after the next power cycle.

You might want to check to make sure that your power supply is reliable though, that can certainly stress other components more than they should be.

22 Eargesplitten
Oct 10, 2010



How would I check that? I actually just put in an older 620W PSU to hold me over until a blown PSU can get RMAed. It's not being strained very hard right now, just an SSD, DVD, HDD, and wireless card. I took my graphics card out. Integrated graphics can do everything I need for now.

Really, I'm lucky that nothing else went when the 4.5 month old PSU blew. It was a 650W Rosewill capstone, too. 1 OCed card with 8gb ram and the above parts shouldn't strain that.

SnatchRabbit
Feb 23, 2006

by sebmojo
I'm using my dual shock 4 on Windows 10 with ds4windows for steam games. It's been working fine for months. Then last night the controller just dropped the connection mid game. When I try to reconnect nothing happens. I've tried repairing, reinstalling driver and two different Bluetooth devices. Restarted ds4windows. The Ds4 will connect for a few minutes then drop again. I read somewhere that a recent update broke ps4 and X one controller support. Anyone experienced this?

Kintamarama
Oct 3, 2013
I wasn't sure which thread this should go in, but here goes.

I got a second hand Corsair h70 for a really good price, so I bought a Kraken g10, and thought I'd play around with it on my R9 290.

Most info on the net I had read about this set-up had me expecting load temps of 60C, but it's performing no better than the cooler the card came with (Sapphire Tri-X).



As you can see here the temps are settling in at 70C-75C, and the results are actually worse if the cooler is inside my case. I got these results with the cooler outside the case (as shown below) as I had read having the leads at the bottom of the rad might give you better results, and with my restrictive case I can only have the inlet/outlets at the top.



The rad was hot to the touch, so the cooler seems to be functional. I have tried remounting, with no effect. I got the cooler for cheap enough that I have no qualms about opening it up to clean it out, which a couple of blogs/forums i found in my searching seemed to show was effective in cases where aio's cooling performance had dropped.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what to try?

Alereon
Feb 6, 2004

Dehumanize yourself and face to Trumpshed
College Slice
It looks like your fan is blowing around your radiator rather than through it, do you still have the fan it came with? If not, try making a duct out of cardboard and duct tape or something to see if that helps. Radiators typically use high-pressure fans to force the air through them, and an oversized low-pressure fan is almost a worst-case scenario.

Kintamarama
Oct 3, 2013
Thanks for the quick reply.

I tried out one of the included fans.



And the results speak for themselves.



I feel like such a dumb-dumb, but in my defense this is my first liquid cooler of any type, the fact that the fan could be the wrong kind wasn't even a thought. I could tell straight away when I tried touching the rad that there was going to be a difference, as I could actually feel the air flowing through it.

I'm glad the solution was so simple, and that I didn't resort to mutilating my cooler.

Many thanks, again.

Edit. My computer is pretty loud now. I need to mount the fan on the outside of the case (older pic), and it's generating quite a bit of noise. That's the compromise, I suppose.

Kintamarama fucked around with this message at 05:25 on Aug 14, 2016

Paul MaudDib
May 3, 2006

TEAM NVIDIA:
FORUM POLICE

fishmech posted:

Only if you're still using something older than Windows 98SE, as the earlier versions would become increasingly unstable after months on since boot when not patched. You don't need to worry about that in newer versions, unless you happen to have some software you run with similar defects.

I mean, it's always good to restart your systems at some point. We were having massive mystery problems with latency/dropped connections/etc for a client who had four years of uptime on their Solaris install for an Oracle DB. Restarted it and oh hey the problems went away.

Hotpatches are a cool idea in theory but they don't work for years on end. Hello, tech support, have you tried turning it off and on again? :toot:

Even modern end-user OSs are really best if you restart them once every couple weeks.

Paul MaudDib fucked around with this message at 07:59 on Aug 14, 2016

Regrettable
Jan 5, 2010



SnatchRabbit posted:

I'm using my dual shock 4 on Windows 10 with ds4windows for steam games. It's been working fine for months. Then last night the controller just dropped the connection mid game. When I try to reconnect nothing happens. I've tried repairing, reinstalling driver and two different Bluetooth devices. Restarted ds4windows. The Ds4 will connect for a few minutes then drop again. I read somewhere that a recent update broke ps4 and X one controller support. Anyone experienced this?

Open settings and go to update & security, then click on recovery and under advanced options choose restart. Wait for it to get to the restart menu then choose troubleshoot, advanced options, startup settings then again click restart. At the next menu hit 7 to disable driver signature enforcement and reinstall your drivers once you get back into windows. This worked for my ds3 which just stopped working with he newest update.

Literally Lewis Hamilton
Feb 22, 2005



I was using Firestorm yesterday and cranked the fans to 100% on my GTX970, which promptly resulted in a black screen, but the computer operating. This had happened before, but I figured it was because the fans were going 100% and made a note to not have the profile ever go to 100%. The temps rarely broke 70C before, so not a big deal.

When I booted today, I was in 640x480 monochrome with the card showing an error in device manager. I rebooted and everything appeared to work fine. I was playing a light game, and the monitors went blank. It happened on both so that rules out a monitor issue. When I booted up, I had a black screen with a green bar, again fixed by rebooting.

I'm 99% sure my card is dying, but is there anything I'm missing here? Could this be a motherboard or PSU issue? I unfortunately don't have another motherboard or graphics card to test.

spiny
May 20, 2004

round and round and round
another possibly dumb question:

What would be the best router for a 500meg leased line ?

yes, it's 500 meg, 500/1000 line. Normally we sell up to 100/100 and use Draytek gear, which works fine for us. But checking the specs on Drayteks, the WAN throughput seems to be listed at 300meg - does this mean that the pinch point would then be the router ? If so, what routers would you gusy suggest?

The service is a literal 'wires only' as in the provider will terminate a cable with an RJ45 on the end, no managed switch etc.

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Furism
Feb 21, 2006

Live long and headbang

spiny posted:

another possibly dumb question:

What would be the best router for a 500meg leased line ?

yes, it's 500 meg, 500/1000 line. Normally we sell up to 100/100 and use Draytek gear, which works fine for us. But checking the specs on Drayteks, the WAN throughput seems to be listed at 300meg - does this mean that the pinch point would then be the router ? If so, what routers would you gusy suggest?

The service is a literal 'wires only' as in the provider will terminate a cable with an RJ45 on the end, no managed switch etc.

I would recommend a professional SOHO device. Check Point's are great: https://www.checkpoint.com/products/600-appliance/
They are the leading professional firewall vendor and they are really good. One of the reason I like them is the actual performance you get is pretty close to what the datasheet claims (unlike other vendors). I have personally tested this using that kind of hardware-based load generators.

Note that if you use the IPS the performance drops *a lot*, which is normal. But you don't have to buy/use that feature (when you buy the device it comes with 1 year of IPS/Anti-virus/Anti-bot subscription but you don't have to enable them). Another good thing is that it's got built-in IPSEC VPN which is the best encryption you can get if you're into that sort of thing.

Another very good device is the Fortigate 60D: https://www.fortinet.com/products-services/products/firewall/fortigate-entry-level-firewall.html

Fortinet is the main Check Point competitor in the Enterprise and Carrier market. Both are really, really good.

Disclosure: I know this first-hand because my job is to test Enterprise- and Carrier-grade firewalls and other network devices. I know very well the makers of these to brands for several years as customers.

E: The price for each of those is around $1,000.

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