Random Tech Questions you want answered.

And I would again suggest removing chips and running the test to isolate the fault down to possibly a single chip.

Replacing 1 chip rather than a full set would obviously be cheaper, if you want to keep investment low given your intent to replace the system soon. Even could snap up a used RAM chip on eBay or locally on Craigslist, if you're willing to accept a little risk.

What's the current state of smart LEDs, light bulbs, etc., in terms of security and privacy? I've been reluctant to get any due to issues with IoT security, but I'm out of the loop since the last few years. I'm looking to get something for my office that I can change colors and brightness and such from my phone or PC.

beanman101283 wrote:

What's the current state of smart LEDs, light bulbs, etc., in terms of security and privacy? I've been reluctant to get any due to issues with IoT security, but I'm out of the loop since the last few years. I'm looking to get something for my office that I can change colors and brightness and such from my phone or PC.

You can get devices which are only LAN-accessible. If you only care about affecting the devices from within your home network, then you're set. I have a bunch of LED strips using a cheapo wifi-accessible controller that's only LAN-accessible, so there's no "phoning home" or creating connections to an outside service for me to be able to manage the device over the Internet.

If you do want to be able to access devices over the Internet, I think what you want are still LAN-only devices, with one device acting as a gateway to the Internet, so that your commands all run through it.

This is how my house is set up. I use a bunch of devices which only communicate over LAN, and then I use my Apple TV as a HomeKit hub, which then provides the connection out to the Internet which I can use to access my devices remotely. (I'm also running a service on my local network called HomeBridge, which allows my cheapo non-HomeKit devices to be accessible through HomeKit.)

This way, I am only trusting the Internet security of one device - Apple's - rather than the security of a bunch of cheapo Chinese devices all making their own individual connections out to the Internet.

Thanks! I don't need or want to control them over the internet, so I know what I need to look for now.

Guys.. I need your valuable help AGAIN.
As some of you may know.. i am starting to have issues with my gaming pc...

it 1st began to randomly freeze... (no blue screen) just flat out freeze while playing FFXIV .
Then as of late... it began to shut down on its own.... i have since down the following

1. installed a brand new PSU ... it still turned off
2. cleaned the ram --- still turned off
3. tried 3 different CPU coolers.. still turns off

i ran speccy and noticed that just by opening youtube the CPU temp goes up to 80 celcius and the mother board to like 69ish

I have a AMD FX-8370

what would it be guys?
my machine was ok for hte past 4 years.....

Darkhaund wrote:

i ran speccy and noticed that just by opening youtube the CPU temp goes up to 80 celcius and the mother board to like 69ish

I have a AMD FX-8370

AMD's site says the TJmax (max safe temperature) for that CPU is 61 Celsius. Other sources claim the chip can go up to 72 Celsius.

Either way, if your temperature readings are accurate, your CPU is soaring well past the safe zone almost immediately. This suggests something is either very seriously wrong with your cooling solution, or the chip itself.

You said you've tried 3 different CPU coolers... you are using thermal paste, right? You are confirming the fans are turning, right? Because temperatures that extreme suggest a serious problem, unless your software is reading temps incorrectly.

Darkhaund wrote:

Guys.. I need your valuable help AGAIN.
As some of you may know.. i am starting to have issues with my gaming pc...

it 1st began to randomly freeze... (no blue screen) just flat out freeze while playing FFXIV .
Then as of late... it began to shut down on its own.... i have since down the following

1. installed a brand new PSU ... it still turned off
2. cleaned the ram --- still turned off
3. tried 3 different CPU coolers.. still turns off

i ran speccy and noticed that just by opening youtube the CPU temp goes up to 80 celcius and the mother board to like 69ish

I have a AMD FX-8370

what would it be guys?
my machine was ok for hte past 4 years.....

Darkhaund, I was also having crashes and blue screens with FF14 recently. Two things helped it: updating to the latest nvidia drivers (this fixed some intermittent DirectX 11 crashes), and turning off a setting in my motherboard's BIOS that was automatically overclocking my CPU. Before that, the CPU was at anywhere from 80 to 99 degrees C. Prior to figuring that out, I also replaced the PSU and reseated the CPU cooler. See if your motherboard has a similar setting.

Thank you

1. yes I APPLIED THERMAL PASTE every time i swapped for a new cooler.
2. I upgraded to the new NVIDIA DRIVERS (i have a GTX 970)
3. I suspected that my 4 year old corsair HI100 was faulty?

But just in windows... running superanti spyware... my CPU temp goes to 78 Celcius!!!!
Yesterday, when I reapplied thermal paste and placed the new cooler, everything was FINE. But today... it began to reach 80s again and I did noting. No gaming, nothing just testing.

Could it be that the proccesor is super ultra heating that it vaporized the paste?
I mean, i tired 3 different coolers..

I am so frustrated.
I even rested flashed the BIOS....

Darkhaund:

Did you disable all overclocking in BIOS?
When swapping coolers, were you cleaning the old paste completely off the CPU, or just keep applying more?
Did you make sure to remove the plastic protective sheet from the bottom of the new cooler (if one exists)?
Are these coolers all water AIOs like your Corsair HI100, or have you tried some air coolers too?
Are you sure the coolers are actually pumping / spinning?

Thanks for all the help guys

1. yes.. i cleaned the processor with a swabb and alcohol
2. yes the other COOLERS are these in fact... and the fans were spinning

This was one

COOLER 1

THIS WAS the other one

COOLER 2

Also, yesterday my CPU temperature was ok... I DID NOTHING. no gaming since i WAS JUST TESTING Stuff, bu today, it started heating up again. I did not do nothing other than waking up and turning it on.

Ok so the fans are spinning but are they spinning up correctly? If you are hitting 80 degree and higher they should be ramping up pretty high and making a good bit of noise. Double check you are connected to the correct fan header and double check fan settings in the BIOS (maybe even just reset everything to factory and see how that goes). If you have any apps installed for managing fans or clockspeeds or the old water cooler disable or uninstall them. Also check your cases airflow. Do you have a good balance of intake and exhaust? Does the hot air from the CPU have a clear path away from the cooler and is it getting fresh air from somewhere?

It's possible the fault lies in the CPU. That chip is about 7 years old now, so it's certainly within the realm of possibility that the chip itself is just on the way out.

Since you are applying paste and have repeatedly swapped coolers, it seems unlikely that the cooler mounting is the problem. Not making good contact could easily explain one time, but it is unlikely to happen every time after multiple re-mounts with completely different coolers. And you confirm the fans are turning on the various coolers, so we can cross that off the list.

A couple questions:

1) Can you try installing HWINFO64 and see if its temperature readings match what you're seeing in your current software? I'd like to rule out incorrect readings from the software.

2) If the temperature is ramping up sometime after booting into Windows, what happens if you boot into your BIOS area and just leave the system running there for a while? Most modern BIOS areas have temperature readings. Do you see temperatures ramp up after sitting idle at the BIOS screen for 15-30 minutes or so?

Also note if you reset the BIOS to defaults, my mobo BIOS defaulted to automatically overclocking the CPU. So again, make sure you don't have a similar setting in yours turned on.

Rykin wrote:

Ok so the fans are spinning but are they spinning up correctly? If you are hitting 80 degree and higher they should be ramping up pretty high and making a good bit of noise. Double check you are connected to the correct fan header and double check fan settings in the BIOS (maybe even just reset everything to factory and see how that goes). If you have any apps installed for managing fans or clockspeeds or the old water cooler disable or uninstall them. Also check your cases airflow. Do you have a good balance of intake and exhaust? Does the hot air from the CPU have a clear path away from the cooler and is it getting fresh air from somewhere?

I second the notion of double checking the fans are spinning up properly as temp rises. I have occasionally had a weird issue where my bios was misreporting the temperature as staying flat even under load, and that resulted in the fans not spinning up at all. Weird thing was that 3rd party temp monitoring software all reported the temps correctly. So maybe make sure your system is reporting temps correctly in the bios, not just 3rd party software.

Thank you guys SO VERY MUCH for the support
I was busy working on the machine before i read this

So... what i did (for now) i placed an older AMD FX cup (6CORES) installed a normal cooler, flash reset the bios

RUNNINT ATM FFXIV

CPU TEMP = 44 - 50 ISH CELCIUS
MOBO TEMP = 33 - 45ISH CELCIUS
MSI GTX 970 = 49 - 65ish CELCIUS

Could it be that thep procceso itself was faulty
The last attemps my pc would shut down entirely as soon as i booted into windows...

Pc is shutting down because the cpu is overheating and thus triggers the auto shutdown. Could be the original cooler went bad and then CPU overheated and then went bad as well. Or it’s just old and finally is on its way out.

UPDATE!!!!

I inserted an old AMD FX-6300 CUP on my MSI MOBO 970 with a decent air cooled cooler with two fans and (sofar) things seem to go well.

AT idle the CPU temp goes from 18 C to 35ish C
I launched FFXIV YESTERDAY AND TEP WAS 45 ISH TO 65ish
MoBo Temp was around 40sh

Could it be tat my other CPU was now faulty?

Darkhaund wrote:

Could it be tat my other CPU was now faulty?

Well I've suggested that as a possibility twice so far so yes, it certainly could be exactly that. Hard to prove to a certainty, but most other options have been eliminated.

I agree... and THANKS to each and everyone who has taken time in helping me.

I will see how my machine behaves. So far... nothing wrong has happened. So i will run a few more games tonight and tomorrow. So far so good

Pc just died. Need a reality ceck since i haven't dealt with a full blown comp death in a long time.
Started it up, it was a bit slow and hung before all startup programs were finished loading. Monitors flickered multiple times too. Hit the restart button and was greeted by the mobo splashscreen and the light says there is something wrong with the cpu (couldnt get into the bios, so it was frozen there). Opened the case and nudged the cpu to make sure it wasnt a slight missed contact, restarted and greeted by splashscreen and the light for memory problem.
Reseated (and switched slots for good measure) ram and now there's nothing, no power, no lights.
So anyone think I'm wrong that the power supply died and, possibly, took some hardware with it?
If I'm right, what power supplys are good for reliability and future upgrades
Current box;
750 rosewill PS (oldest part)
Asus tuf x570 with 3700x
Evga 1070
32g ddr4 ram
4ssds, 2hds, 1 dvd drive
4 case fans

I plan to upgrade my cpu and gpu in a year or two.

I would probably start by using a single stick of RAM and rebooting it. If it doesn't come up, use a different stick of memory.

If that doesn't work, remove the cmos battery and wait 5 minutes. Put it back in. And reboot.

In A1 slot, or whatever your motherboard considers the first slot. Since you have 4 memory slots, you may need to put 1 memory stick in A1 and B1. But try just A1 first.

New psu is installed and everything is working again.

Any musicians? I'm thinking about getting back into piano and buying an electric piano keyboard. I've never really played on one before and know nothing about the technology advancements, what I need, etc. I don't think I need anything advanced. Looking to get back into playing, learning how to read sheet music again, learning songs I enjoy, etc. Would be a hobby and I'd keep it in my office.

bigred wrote:

Any musicians? I'm thinking about getting back into piano and buying an electric piano keyboard. I've never really played on one before and know nothing about the technology advancements, what I need, etc. I don't think I need anything advanced. Looking to get back into playing, learning how to read sheet music again, learning songs I enjoy, etc. Would be a hobby and I'd keep it in my office.

If you're looking to get back in then I'd buy the cheapest thing available and call it a day. A midi controller can be super cheap. (Even cheaper.) Granted a midi controller will be used in conjunction with a pc, but there's plenty of free pianos out there.

Only after you actually play the thing for a bit worth about getting something truly decent because the jump in price is significant.

I am not a pianist by any means, but I did take lessons and can squeeze a decent-sounding sequence of notes out of a piano. If you like a piano, and not a keyboard, get something with at least weighted keys. It just doesn't feel right otherwise. If you have a Guitar Center or really any kind of music store in your area that carries a variety of instruments, you should be able to sample both types side-by-side. Something without weighted keys can be had for cheaper, but I think the comparison will seal it for you.

Can anyone recommend a good Composite to HDMI converter and/or Component to HDMI converter? I want to hook my Wii and Xbox 360 to my new television. (Yes I'm a patient gamer.)

NSMike wrote:

I am not a pianist by any means, but I did take lessons and can squeeze a decent-sounding sequence of notes out of a piano. If you like a piano, and not a keyboard, get something with at least weighted keys. It just doesn't feel right otherwise. If you have a Guitar Center or really any kind of music store in your area that carries a variety of instruments, you should be able to sample both types side-by-side. Something without weighted keys can be had for cheaper, but I think the comparison will seal it for you.

Tis true. Problem is that semi-weighted or weighted keys are one of the reasons prices begin to jump up. If you want a full 81 keys one is looking at $200+ at a bare minumum. For less keys you can find semi-weighted at $150, but less keys isn't optimal if you want to play with both hands.

I mean, even the cheapest Casios with weighted keys are $300+.

That's why I'm suggesting going the cheapest route before jumping in with both feet. Of course, musical instruments are generally easy to re-sell locally so jumping in with both feet isn't a terrible thing to do.

On the tech side of things I don't think there's much inside them to look for other than weighted and semi-weighted keys and aftertouch (pressure sensitivity to the keys). Most of the innovations are on the software side. Otherwise it's just touch pads, bigger screens, touchscreens and so on. If you want to play piano and not compose then those added extra buttons and knobs won't much matter.

Can anyone recommend a good Composite to HDMI converter and/or Component to HDMI converter? I want to hook my Wii and Xbox 360 to my new television. (Yes I'm a patient gamer.)

I always did it with a VCR/DVD player. That may not be helpful. But of note is that you might have one laying around and the VCR/DVD had the bonus of having the inputs in the front as well as back.

PaladinTom wrote:

Can anyone recommend a good Composite to HDMI converter and/or Component to HDMI converter? I want to hook my Wii and Xbox 360 to my new television. (Yes I'm a patient gamer.)

Low tech solution is to buy whatever $20 component-to-HDMI adapter on Amazon that tickles your fancy. They should all be roughly the same, there's no market in making a better one anymore. If you have a BestBuy nearby you might be able to find one there, but from what I saw they run about double to triple the price.

High tech would be a multimedia switch, which will probably run around $100-$200 for a decent one. The benefit would be having your systems both on one HDMI port of the TV, then using the switch to bounce between them. I'd only go for this option if you were planning to add more things to it later on.