DosFreak wrote on 2024-01-06, 00:29:

Upgraded my unsupported hardware and VMs from Windows 11 22H2 to 23H2 via "setup /product server". No issues. 😀
No crashes and no issues with updates since release on 2021.

Kinda makes you think "I wish there was a problem so I could enjoy a challenge" haha

GigAHerZ wrote on 2024-01-05, 11:42:

Bought a 64GB flash memory stick from aliexpress. It was damn cheap (about 4€) so i half-expected it to be fake. It arrived and […]
Show full quote

Bought a 64GB flash memory stick from aliexpress. It was damn cheap (about 4€) so i half-expected it to be fake. It arrived and disconnected from computer every time i tried to write more than 64MB on it.

I have another 64GB stick from aliexpress, that is good. But its case was very soft metal that bent and broke apart in all places.

So now that i got my refund on the fake one, i transplanted the good 64GB stick's internals into the fake's case. (Which is better, more solid metal)

Got at least some benefit out of this mess. 😀 (Made pictures, videos, had to justify multiple times to aliexpress that it is obviously a scam memorystick, etc.)

That is common actually if bought these from there and any chinese and foreign sellers.

This is old as rocks. Long ago, I started to hear about fake storage sticks with tiny storage purported to be a titan.

Weighted metal bits in a undersized external power supply, etc.

Fake semiconductors, Using rejects or under-specified transistor die in a powerful transistors for an amplifier. Seens these too when I was working in TV shop, no shop isn't cheap bastard, just poor knowledge of parts ordering, I came across this too long ago. Wouldn't drive at all and leads breaks like a dry stick when attempted to bend the leads to realign with solder holes.
I had few pieces of fake memory chips for video car with metal pins made of very strange alloy that wouldn't solder even I sanded clean.

Cheers,

pentiumspeed wrote on 2024-01-06, 16:54:

That is common actually if bought these from there and any chinese and foreign sellers. […]
Show full quote

GigAHerZ wrote on 2024-01-05, 11:42:

Bought a 64GB flash memory stick from aliexpress. It was damn cheap (about 4€) so i half-expected it to be fake. It arrived and […]
Show full quote

Bought a 64GB flash memory stick from aliexpress. It was damn cheap (about 4€) so i half-expected it to be fake. It arrived and disconnected from computer every time i tried to write more than 64MB on it.

I have another 64GB stick from aliexpress, that is good. But its case was very soft metal that bent and broke apart in all places.

So now that i got my refund on the fake one, i transplanted the good 64GB stick's internals into the fake's case. (Which is better, more solid metal)

Got at least some benefit out of this mess. 😀 (Made pictures, videos, had to justify multiple times to aliexpress that it is obviously a scam memorystick, etc.)

That is common actually if bought these from there and any chinese and foreign sellers.

This is old as rocks. Long ago, I started to hear about fake storage sticks with tiny storage purported to be a titan.

Weighted metal bits in a undersized external power supply, etc.

Fake semiconductors, Using rejects or under-specified transistor die in a powerful transistors for an amplifier. Seens these too when I was working in TV shop, no shop isn't cheap bastard, just poor knowledge of parts ordering, I came across this too long ago. Wouldn't drive at all and leads breaks like a dry stick when attempted to bend the leads to realign with solder holes.
I had few pieces of fake memory chips for video car with metal pins made of very strange alloy that wouldn't solder even I sanded clean.

Cheers,

I've been lucky so far. I don't buy completely BS items (like 16TB external hard drives and other such things) and my failure rate in maybe almost 2 decades is in single digits.
All my SD and CF flash cards, memory sticks, everything like that has come from china. I always test them fully before usage and they are usually fine.

Though, I've read all the same stories myself and seen the pictures. Somehow I've been mostly lucky so far.

I got a USB cable to run between computer and monitor so I can utilize USB ports in the monitor 😉

Switched out a switch 😁
Simple dummy one got replaced with a managed HP switch. Let the games begin! 😁

I'm going through the Windows MIDI Discord right now. There's some interesting technical stuff and discussions going on and they have Developer Preview versions of their software, for Windows 11. I understand some of it, but it's really something that the code goblins would better enjoy and understand.

Spent the evening troubleshooting this MSI Trident 3 gaming PC that I use with my media centre. Went to power it up this evening and it promptly shut itself off.

Took it the bench and proceeded to spend a couple hours testing things. On occasion I could get it to boot up to the Windows 11 desktop. I even managed to have it run for about 30 minutes and updated a bunch of Steam games in the process. But then when launching a game, it immediately powered itself off again. System thermals seemed fine with CPU at ~40C and MB at ~35C.

This PC uses an external power brick, a 330W / 19.5V DC supply. Testing with a multimeter and both pins read almost 19.5V on the dot. Power brick barely got warm during testing.

I suspect the likely culprit is the power brick. There are some generic replacement PSUs from Amazon of questionable quality. The only other viable replacement is a 780W Eurocom power supply that would cost over $700 (CAD) including shipping and taxes.

At this point I'm about ready to give up, but I decide to plug it back into my media centre.

It immediately starts up with no issues. Boots into Windows, able launch a bunch of games, did a bit of performance testing, and even managed to run the Windows 11 updates including reboots with no issues.

I don't get it.

edited:

It seems I spoke to soon. Just tried playing a game for about 20 minutes and it spontaneously shut off again. 😒

Updating my website and resume for 2024 😀

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-01-15, 00:32:

Spent the evening troubleshooting this MSI Trident 3 gaming PC that I use with my media centre. Went to power it up this evening […]
Show full quote

Spent the evening troubleshooting this MSI Trident 3 gaming PC that I use with my media centre. Went to power it up this evening and it promptly shut itself off.

MSI Trident 3 cover removed.jpg

Took it the bench and proceeded to spend a couple hours testing things. On occasion I could get it to boot up to the Windows 11 desktop. I even managed to have it run for about 30 minutes and updated a bunch of Steam games in the process. But then when launching a game, it immediately powered itself off again. System thermals seemed fine with CPU at ~40C and MB at ~35C.

This PC uses an external power brick, a 330W / 19.5V DC supply. Testing with a multimeter and both pins read almost 19.5V on the dot. Power brick barely got warm during testing.

MSI Trident 3 PSU brick.jpg

I suspect the likely culprit is the power brick. There are some generic replacement PSUs from Amazon of questionable quality. The only other viable replacement is a 780W Eurocom power supply that would cost over $700 (CAD) including shipping and taxes.

At this point I'm about ready to give up, but I decide to plug it back into my media centre.

It immediately starts up with no issues. Boots into Windows, able launch a bunch of games, did a bit of performance testing, and even managed to run the Windows 11 updates including reboots with no issues.

I don't get it.

edited:

It seems I spoke to soon. Just tried playing a game for about 20 minutes and it spontaneously shut off again. 😒

Some boards I have had behaving like that have turned out to have a cracked joint somewhere, runs until a lead or contact warms up and expands away, lifting a pad is common. Annoying as hell to find though.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-01-15, 15:17:

Some boards I have had behaving like that have turned out to have a cracked joint somewhere, runs until a lead or contact warms up and expands away, lifting a pad is common. Annoying as hell to find though.

That sounds like it would be a nightmare to try to diagnose. 😮

I found that after the computer shuts off, it won't restart until after I unplug the power brick from the wall. Just unplugging the computer but leaving the power brick connected to mains doesn't solve the issue. It seems like power supply needs to be drained or cooled before it will start working again.

So I strongly suspect a problem is somewhere in the power brick. I'll have to crack it open and try to do some further diagnosis.

Updating the OS of all my Apple devices. And revisiting some classic HTML/CSS coding for retro awesomeness.

It's always bothered me that I've had to allow 80 and 443 traffic through my firewall and rely on subpar solutions to block traffic that shouldn't be that difficult to block. So do as it should be done, block it at the source.
I've been playing around with Artica proxy and started testing blocking all 80 and 443 traffic except for what I've allowed. These allows are initially based off of noscript exports from each browser where I've "Trusted" a site so I can view it.
So far going pretty well. The odd named domains aren't importing into the proxy so I'll have to figure that out but I give it about a week of regular browsing then I'll switch my firewall to require 80,443 traffic from the proxy.
I'm sure I'll have to review the logs for devices that I don't browse from but traffic there is minimal and it's not as critical if they stop doing whatever they are doing behind my back until I look into it.
Suck it modern web.

Trying to figure out the value of this burnt smd. My guess is an inductor.
On the bottom of a i3 4170. No power on when installed.

I'll desolder it and test it to see if it works again.

Nexxen wrote on 2024-02-09, 12:27:

Trying to figure out the value of this burnt smd. My guess is an inductor.
On the bottom of a i3 4170. No power on when installed.

I'll desolder it and test it to see if it works again.

If you need it, I have about 40 Xeon CPUs with similar-looking SMDs rotting in a box...

Minutemanqvs wrote on 2024-02-09, 12:43:

Nexxen wrote on 2024-02-09, 12:27:

Trying to figure out the value of this burnt smd. My guess is an inductor.
On the bottom of a i3 4170. No power on when installed.

I'll desolder it and test it to see if it works again.

If you need it, I have about 40 Xeon CPUs with similar-looking SMDs rotting in a box...

Good to know, thanks! I'll desolder it and then check the other two. Hopefully they have the same value.
Your bet would be an inductor? I don't have many i3 beyond 2nd gen as I consider those to be "modern" and thus don't really collect them. Probably I should start before they get pricey 😀

Nexxen wrote on 2024-02-09, 13:02:

Minutemanqvs wrote on 2024-02-09, 12:43:

Nexxen wrote on 2024-02-09, 12:27:

Trying to figure out the value of this burnt smd. My guess is an inductor.
On the bottom of a i3 4170. No power on when installed.

I'll desolder it and test it to see if it works again.

If you need it, I have about 40 Xeon CPUs with similar-looking SMDs rotting in a box...

Good to know, thanks! I'll desolder it and then check the other two. Hopefully they have the same value.
Your bet would be an inductor? I don't have many i3 beyond 2nd gen as I consider those to be "modern" and thus don't really collect them. Probably I should start before they get pricey 😀

I have no idea, I'll take some pictures later. If you need it I can desolder all the components of 2-3 CPUs with a hot air gun and send them to you, not a big deal.

There you go, if you need it just ask. Unfortunately they seem different than your broken component:

That's funny, I see ones like that in that pattern on an i5 3570, but none on either haswell that's handy. Seems like it's an ivybridge thing. I guess you might find one on an ivybridge pentium or celerunt.

Though I'm thinking that it must need to make a connection, or it would still maybe work halfassed when it's burned out, since if it was gonna work halfassed when you desolder it, it would work now. Therefore dunno if you wanna try sticking a 1 kilohm resistor on there instead.... enough connection for connection enough resistance to keep magic smoke in.

Minutemanqvs wrote on 2024-02-09, 20:29:

Thanks!
I desoldered the component and cpu still dead. No codes.
While trying an i5 two caps came off, one I found the other no clue. Still works though.

It's death trying to resolder it.

Edit: it measured 850nF 0.5 ohm, 5.8% ESR

I have a Gigabyte "Ultra Durable" AM3 Phenom2 board that I've owned since new. It's never been very good as far as reliability and things working correctly.
Out of necessity I started using it as my office PC. It's a terrible choice for that, but I don't have anything better handy.
A few days ago it started giving beep codes about the video card instead of booting.
Even after reseating and then swapping video cards it was still giving the same code. The edge connector looked clean, and it was just sitting there for the last few months so no idea how it managed to lose contact.
After Deoxit though, it started working again.
I didn't think I needed to Deoxit a connector on something this young, that was already in functional contact with a card.

Just one more act of this machine trying to frustrate me. It likes attention.