Random Tech Questions you want answered.

Robear wrote:

Use the stores they bought from and look up their transactions.

Valid and useful when they have that info to share. Often I resort to getting them to tell me make model they bought and I look it up. So often it’s been years since purchase and they don't have/know the details anymore and the best I get is a picture of a sticker on their tower. Sometimes it’s enough. Not always.

So I decided to ask New Bing Chat for an answer because it's been useful to me lately (full disclosure I work for Microsoft but not on Bing). I usually use HWiNFO for my own stuff but it doesn't show things like power supply AFAICT. Speccy is what I used many years ago. CPU-Z is more limited than HWiNFO if memory serves. I don't know the other two.

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I'm not sure I'd consider CNET more trustworthy than Softpedia. I have to be more specific about which sources I'd trust I guess.

Maybe power supply info isn't something easy to see from Windows unless it's specifically pushing that info. Likely the main info I get is fan speed and not much else? Does the power supply communicate any info to the mobo through it's usual connections?

Yeah that's what I was worried about but I'm sure I've seen this info in Speccy before. I guess I can go confirm that myself:
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While I was digging around in HWiNFO settings to see what more it could do if reconfigured I saw an option I didn't understand and asked. Now there is another whole rabbit hole I can learn about if I ever had time but isn't helping me right now.
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So I think I have to settle with not being able to get power supply info this way. Just getting a screenshot of the HWiNFO summary seems like the path I trust. I might look more into that Flitskikker tool and see how much I trust asking people to use it. I like that it exports a text file summary of the PC info for easy sharing.

Okay. Recently my Roku Ultra failed. Bought a new one, set it up with the new controller. It's attached to a Sony Bravia, which is also attached to our FIOS set top box. We use a FIOS voice controller.

What's happened is that when I turn the TV on with the FIOS controller, the Roku activates and grabs the screen. If I turn the Roku off, it turns off the TV. Rinse and repeat.

I turn the TV on with the FIOS remote. The set top box and the TV activate, then the Roku fires up and takes over. I then hit the "Input" button to select the Cable input. The set top box input takes over. BUT... if I hit the Guide or Menu buttons, the Roku takes over again.

Sometimes it will activate the Guide before the Roku butts in; then I can change the input again and I'm in the TV Guide menu. But I can't get to the FIOS menu at all.

I tried re-pairing the FIOS Voice remote; that worked, but the same problem exists.

WTF is going on? Any ideas?

Sounds like HDMI-CEC being overly helpful. Look in the Roku settings for "HDMI-CEC" or "HDMI Control" or something like that, and turn it off. Might be a setting on the TV, but I'd check the Roku first.

Winner, winner, BBQ dinner! On the Ultra it's called "Busybody mode"... Er, I mean "On-touch Device Control", where the use of any remote control input is taken as a signal to wake up the Roku. And I do mean any.

Turned it off, everything is back to normal. I owe you one, Merphle.

So my android phone fell off a table and broke, I am borrowing an old iPhone while I get it fixed or otherwise. I’ve never had an iPhone before, what iPhone specific things or interface tricks should I enjoy in this short time?

Mermaidpirate wrote:

So my android phone fell off a table and broke, I am borrowing an old iPhone while I get it fixed or otherwise. I’ve never had an iPhone before, what iPhone specific things or interface tricks should I enjoy in this short time?

Text all your friends and family to show them you've joined the blue bubble gang.

Seriously though, I doubt there’s anything you can do in a short amount of time that would be remarkably different than Android. Both platforms are mature enough and are generally pretty equal. There may be some iPhone apps or games that are not on Android as devs usually develop for iPhone first.

For me, it’s become more about the ecosystem. The stock iPhone apps are really good now so there’s no need to pay for third party ones. iCloud works great - especially if you’re a Mac user. AirPods and Apple Watch are fantastic with iPhones. iPhones also last a long time and get updates far longer than Android phones. And lastly, I just can’t stand Google and I avoid their products as much as possible.

Mermaidpirate wrote:

what iPhone specific things or interface tricks should I enjoy in this short time?

Not having your data stolen by malware on the app store?

iPhone apps have made it on to the store with malware before. It's just that there are so many more Android phones that it's likely easier and more profitable to find tools to develop malware for them.

Android is based on Linux while IOS is based on BSD. Those are closely related variants of UNIX and both are susceptible to shenanigans. There is nothing magical about iPhone security.

PaladinTom wrote:

And lastly, I just can’t stand Google and I avoid their products as much as possible.

It's funny because I have been saying that about Apple since before Google even existed as a company.

The vetting process to get on the iOS App Store is more stringent than Google Play.

Attaching my phone to my monitor with a USB-C to HDMI cable was not effective, sigh. Don't know if it was the cheap, s*** cable I got from officeworks or what.

If you asked my question the other way around, I would say the back button is a useful thing. I don't know if that's changed on the newer ones, but I miss being able to hit back as a dedicated button at all times.

kazar wrote:
PaladinTom wrote:

And lastly, I just can’t stand Google and I avoid their products as much as possible.

It's funny because I have been saying that about Apple since before Google even existed as a company.

I used to say that too. But back then, it was only Mac and I was always a Windows guy. My first Apple thing I ever owned was the iPad 1 and slowly over time I migrated completely over to Apple. Mainly because of the ecosystem, but I also appreciate how Apple has double-downed on security and not making me feel like my data is being exploited for profit. A perfect example is HomePod. I’d much rather pay a little more for something, than go with dirt cheap echos that badger me to buy buy buy.

Google though has been the colossal let down for me over the years. I was once all in with them, but after too many frustrations with their products and services I’ll likely never go back. Couple that with how much data they collect and it just started to feel gross to me.

To each their own though. I hate arguments comparing Android vs iPhone. They’re both fine. In fact, I’ve even said I wish Microsoft would fork Android and make their own phone. I’d consider using Android if it stripped out all the Google stuff.

Mermaidpirate wrote:

Attaching my phone to my monitor with a USB-C to HDMI cable was not effective, sigh. Don't know if it was the cheap, s*** cable I got from officeworks or what.

I've had mixed results with my Samsung tablet and my TV using a USB-C to HDMI cable. The TV screen occasionally flickers like once every few seconds or something. It's not dramatic but it makes watching anything on the TV impossible because it's so distracting. I think it may have something to do with the refresh rate as when we connect our laptop to the TV we have to tweak the refresh rate in Windows to fix the same problem. I can't find any sort of setting on my tablet to adjust that though.

I use an iPad with MS Office for my (personal) work mobility extender. But I gave up on iPhone a long time ago. I prefer the wider range of apps for Android, as well as the choice in form factors and manufacturers. Apple really is a private garden, but if you don't like the plants they have, you have no recourse.

Still, my son still uses iPhone and it serves him quite well. It's just a matter of taste for me. I'd say part of it was to do with size issues, the Galaxies are larger than iPhones I think, but then I remember the late 90's when I had a Sony CMD Z-1 phone approximately the size of a postage stamp (so small you had to fold out a mike arm to be heard, and that doubled as the "wake up" action). So it's probably not just the screen real estate.

pandasuit wrote:

So I think I have to settle with not being able to get power supply info this way. Just getting a screenshot of the HWiNFO summary seems like the path I trust. I might look more into that Flitskikker tool and see how much I trust asking people to use it. I like that it exports a text file summary of the PC info for easy sharing.

Instead of asking the user to run the program, you could connect remotely to their box with TeamViewer or something and run it yourself. If the user can pop the side panel of the box, they can take a photo of the PSU label which might help.

PaladinTom wrote:

In fact, I’ve even said I wish Microsoft would fork Android and make their own phone. I’d consider using Android if it stripped out all the Google stuff.

Ironically, that's almost what the Surface Duos are/were. The Google stuff is still there, probably contractually, but every default is set to the equivalent Microsoft application if one exists.

PaladinTom wrote:

I used to say that too. But back then, it was only Mac and I was always a Windows guy. My first Apple thing I ever owned was the iPad 1 and slowly over time I migrated completely over to Apple. Mainly because of the ecosystem, but I also appreciate how Apple has double-downed on security and not making me feel like my data is being exploited for profit. A perfect example is HomePod. I’d much rather pay a little more for something, than go with dirt cheap echos that badger me to buy buy buy.

Google though has been the colossal let down for me over the years. I was once all in with them, but after too many frustrations with their products and services I’ll likely never go back. Couple that with how much data they collect and it just started to feel gross to me.

I am not a Google fanboy, and only use what I need to. Like you, in the past it was an easy all in.

Apple to this day still has an anti competitive attitude and actively does things to make their devices locked to their eco system making it very hard for anyone else to innovate on their products. Even if they made the objectively best smartphone (which they did for a long time), I can't justify supporting them.

PaladinTom wrote:

To each their own though. I hate arguments comparing Android vs iPhone. They’re both fine. In fact, I’ve even said I wish Microsoft would fork Android and make their own phone. I’d consider using Android if it stripped out all the Google stuff.

I believe you can remove most Google apps from an Android phone and not have any of that tracking. My Samsung phone uses all Samsung apps by default, and even has it's own storefront. Microsoft has their own apps that cover a lot of what google does (edge, outlook, etc...) and even created their own front end.

I wish Microsoft would create their own Linux distro and make it look like Windows. With all the Steamdeck stuff happening, it could be a very easy decision to switch.

kazar wrote:

I wish Microsoft would create their own Linux distro and make it look like Windows.

I wish I could bundle up that quote and send it back to 1998 Slashdot.

*Legion* wrote:
kazar wrote:

I wish Microsoft would create their own Linux distro and make it look like Windows.

I wish I could bundle up that quote and send it back to 1998 Slashdot.

Yep.

You can make a feature request here
https://github.com/microsoft/CBL-Mar...

Or spend a pile of time adding a WM and Windows theme yourself if you want

I am aware they have an internal linux distro, which is why I put the "and make it look like Windows" part, so we can use it.

NAS owners, what useful and/or fun things do you have your NASes doing?

I've had a Synology Diskstation 115j since 2015 and am now in the process of deciding whether to replace/upgrade it or just let it keep doing its thing until it dies. The 115j started out as a home file, backup, and media server, then gradually turned into just a local cache for my OneDrive once I started using OneDrive for file storage and various streaming services for music and video.

I went Unraid, and my Unraid server is hosting so many services for me.

Plex, Bitwarden, Unifi Controller, Nextcloud, Homebridge, Tailscale, Syncthing, Photoprism, qBittorrent, Tor relay, and a few more.

*Legion* wrote:

I went Unraid, and my Unraid server is hosting so many services for me.

Plex, Bitwarden, Unifi Controller, Nextcloud, Homebridge, Tailscale, Syncthing, Photoprism, qBittorrent, Tor relay, and a few more.

Which underlying hardware are you using for Unraid and the services on top?

I built a server using a Ryzen 1700 that was previously my desktop machine platform. I put it into a SilverStone CS380 case that has eight hot-swappable drive bays, and shoved a bunch of drives in.

You can definitely run Unraid on less. But I got tired of how ridiculously overpriced dedicated NAS devices are. An 8-bay Synology is like $1200 and up, and that's with a piddly Intel Atom CPU (which is fine if it's just a storage device, but not so much if you want to run more full-featured services).

The SilverStone case cost me a bit over $200, and while I was reusing a CPU/MB/RAM I already had, you can do an 8-core Ryzen desktop CPU, motherboard, and RAM for probably around $350-400? Come in at easily half the price of the Synology and with much more power. Then $90 for an Unraid Pro license that supports up to 12 attached drives, more than covering the 8-bay server's capacity, and you've got the software side of the equation taken care of.

How are you finding Plex on Unraid these days? I remember a couple of years ago there was some big issues when I looked at it.

Haven't had any issues. Pretty much the same as when I was hosting it manually on a Linux server, except updating versions now means a one-click pull of an updated Docker container, instead of downloading a new .deb, scp'ing it from my desktop to the server, and running dpkg to install it.

*Legion* wrote:

I built a server using a Ryzen 1700 that was previously my desktop machine platform. I put it into a SilverStone CS380 case that has eight hot-swappable drive bays, and shoved a bunch of drives in.

You can definitely run Unraid on less. But I got tired of how ridiculously overpriced dedicated NAS devices are. An 8-bay Synology is like $1200 and up, and that's with a piddly Intel Atom CPU (which is fine if it's just a storage device, but not so much if you want to run more full-featured services).

The SilverStone case cost me a bit over $200, and while I was reusing a CPU/MB/RAM I already had, you can do an 8-core Ryzen desktop CPU, motherboard, and RAM for probably around $350-400? Come in at easily half the price of the Synology and with much more power. Then $90 for an Unraid Pro license that supports up to 12 attached drives, more than covering the 8-bay server's capacity, and you've got the software side of the equation taken care of.

Thanks! I'm running Plex on an Intel NUC nuc5i3ryk (with WIN 10) right now. My WD MyCloud has been collecting dust for a few years, since it's rife with security holes. Some quick googling tells me that Unraid with USB 3.0 storage bays are workable, if those bays are high quality.

Major hurdle would be my lack of Linux expertise, but it seems like a fun project to move the Plex to Unraid and add a local backup option through external storage, recycling the HDDs in the WD NAS.

Seems like the NUC is powerful enough to handle it, at least.

Pretty much everything you do with Unraid would be through its web-based UI. I expect most Unraid users never touch a terminal window.

That was part of the appeal for me, because while I am very experienced in Linux, I do enough of that at work and wanted something a lot less demanding of me for my home setup.

It's nice to just pull up the applications "store", click to install, and mostly be done with it. The only time there's really any complexity is the initial configuration step for a new application.

*Legion* wrote:

I built a server using a Ryzen 1700 that was previously my desktop machine platform. I put it into a SilverStone CS380 case that has eight hot-swappable drive bays, and shoved a bunch of drives in.

You can definitely run Unraid on less. But I got tired of how ridiculously overpriced dedicated NAS devices are. An 8-bay Synology is like $1200 and up, and that's with a piddly Intel Atom CPU (which is fine if it's just a storage device, but not so much if you want to run more full-featured services).

The SilverStone case cost me a bit over $200, and while I was reusing a CPU/MB/RAM I already had, you can do an 8-core Ryzen desktop CPU, motherboard, and RAM for probably around $350-400? Come in at easily half the price of the Synology and with much more power. Then $90 for an Unraid Pro license that supports up to 12 attached drives, more than covering the 8-bay server's capacity, and you've got the software side of the equation taken care of.

Any idea on the power draw for that system? I’ve been looking at building a NAS, but at $0.42/kwhr, I have to at least approach the power profile of a Synology or I’ll be giving back all hardware savings in power usage.