Random Tech Questions you want answered.

Update: turns out my Corsair H100i liquid cooler was slowly biting the dust. I guess stuff gets weird when a CPU hits 75 Celsius at idle.

I'm using Windows Storage Spaces in a two-way mirror with two identical external drives. The drives are relatively new, purchased back in November.

I had a notification that one drive needed attention, so I opened SS and ran a "Reset" on the drive. SS now reports it has "retired" the drive for unspecified reasons. I ran CrystalDiskInfo and the drive reports OK there, so I don't believe there was a hardware fault.

Can I do anything with that "retired" drive to re-add it to the storage space? I'll probably get another drive (ugh) and add it to the space for more redundancy, but I'd really like to continue using the retired drive, especially if there are no hardware faults.

Screenshots:
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/jvxOijr.png)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/qvyr3up.png)

(ignore Disk 1 reporting "Caution" - separate drive outside this storage space)

Me and a friend did a number of tests of various solutions including Windows Storage Spaces and Unraid and the best most dependable option we came up with was StableBit Drivepool. Storage Spaces were very prone to just doing random weird things like what you had happen to you.

Add a new drive and then reformat that one and it might let you add it back in.

Middcore, the virtual SD card is a file with a hard size limit, so you could fill it up. I checked the dolphin docs and it's called "sd.raw"; I did not see a mention of "sd1" or whatever so I assume you'd have to swap it, as you said.

However, I see that the default size is 128mb, according to the docs; maybe you should update your version?

T-Prime, the thing that stands out to me is that Disk 1 (presumably the one that is having issues) has a yellow status for heat, and Crystal reports it as topping out at 75 degrees (presumably C?). The manufacturer gives the max operating temp as 60C. Is it possible you've got airflow issues?

Been a while since I did any photo editing but I'd like to get back into taking photos on my Canon DSLR. I used to use GIMP, as well as Corel Paintshop Pro (which I think I still have a copy of somewhere). Beyond those, what would be some good software for producing photos? This is on a Windows 10 based PC by the way.

Robear wrote:

T-Prime, the thing that stands out to me is that Disk 1 (presumably the one that is having issues) has a yellow status for heat, and Crystal reports it as topping out at 75 degrees (presumably C?). The manufacturer gives the max operating temp as 60C. Is it possible you've got airflow issues?

Disk 1 in a Caution state is a known issue for me - the Storage Space array I have set up (Disks 4 and 5) are meant for getting the data off Disk 1 before it goes completely kaput

Ultimately I'm just going to get another drive, add it to the Storage Space, format the "Retired" drive, and see if I can re-add it to the space.

Is there a password manager that stands above the rest? I'm looking for one that works with android.

dhelor wrote:

Been a while since I did any photo editing but I'd like to get back into taking photos on my Canon DSLR. I used to use GIMP, as well as Corel Paintshop Pro (which I think I still have a copy of somewhere). Beyond those, what would be some good software for producing photos? This is on a Windows 10 based PC by the way.

Affinity Photo.
Affinity Designer is a cheap and amazing Illustrator clone. Affinity Photo is the same except for a Photoshop clone.

Rezzy wrote:

Update: turns out my Corsair H100i liquid cooler was slowly biting the dust. I guess stuff gets weird when a CPU hits 75 Celsius at idle.

Belated comment, because I haven't read this thread in some time: there's another liquid cooler down. And troubleshooting them is so goddamn annoying, because the CPU cooler is kind of the last place you look for performance problems or game glitches. You're normally eyeballing the video card and drivers, or software changes you've made recently.

If you're running an AIO cooler, CoreTemp is becoming an important early tool in your troubleshooting kit, rather than a late one.

My power supply has been generally working without any issues since I bought it years ago, it's a 650w platinum from seasonic. Starting this february however it's begun to make buzzing noises. The noises vary in type and volume from "bird chirping" and humming, or from nearly inaudible to louder than a spoken conversation.

From what I can gather from googling around there are several causes:

1. The PC is putting a high load on the PSU and pushing it close to it's maximum
2. Some part of the PSU is failing
3. The power supply is receiving "dirty" power coming in from the electrical outlet where it is plugged in.

I'm fairly certain the third one is the problem I'm having. Reason being is that the state of my computer has zero effect on the buzzing sounds. They do not happen at night, or in the morning. During those time periods my i7 and 1060 can be running at full power without causing any noise. The noise usually happens in the evening from 5pm to midnight, or sometimes from noon to midnight.

I'm using an extension cord to plug the computer into power outlets further and further away from my desk and they all have the same noise. So I'm wondering if the city power supply coming into the house might be the issue. If so is there anything I can do to "insulate" my computer from this noise? Would a UPS make any difference?

I use LastPass on Android, seems pretty good. Though I heard from people here that the company that bought them 1-2 years ago isn't so great. I haven't tried any others to compare.

Tamren, if it's "dirty power" then any UPS will clean that up (I've never heard of one that wouldn't).

The power supply is receiving "dirty" power coming in from the electrical outlet where it is plugged in.

It would be interesting to run a voltmeter on your outlets when the supply starts to complain. It could very well be a failing supply, but with the time being fairly consistent that way, I'd be interested to see what the voltage looked like.

Are your various digital clocks keeping proper time?

I have a digital clock radio on my desk, I use my computer's time to set it and so far it's deviated about 40 seconds since the last time it was turned on. I don't have a voltmeter but my dad has an analog multimeter I could borrow. What should I be looking for/what setting should I use? I used to know how to use a multimeter but high school electronics class was a very long time ago.

I've also been thinking of getting a UPS in general, not just to solve this problem. So far my computer has been through two blackouts from trees falling onto power lines, the last one happened just a couple houses down the block. Would this one do the trick?

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00...

I don't know anything about UPSs, this is just the first result I got when I searched for UPS on amazon.

Yeah that is a decent one. You might want the pure sine wave version for compatibility proofing. I have this version in 1350W and no complaints:

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00429N19W/...

Tamren wrote:

My power supply has been generally working without any issues since I bought it years ago, it's a 650w platinum from seasonic. Starting this february however it's begun to make buzzing noises. The noises vary in type and volume from "bird chirping" and humming, or from nearly inaudible to louder than a spoken conversation.

Could it just be a fan issue?

LeapingGnome wrote:

Yeah that is a decent one. You might want the pure sine wave version for compatibility proofing. I have this version in 1350W and no complaints:

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00429N19W/...

That looks good, I'll order one tomorrow. If I'm reading the description right the power-filtering aspect doesn't impact battery life, which is good because that's the primary feature I need.

EDIT: Just bought the 1500 version. It's a little overkill but it was on sale for 25$ cheaper and the 1350 was out of stock and marked as "will deliver in 4-7 weeks".

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Could it just be a fan issue?

Eh I doubt it, the PSU is platinum rated and it generates so little heat that the fan doesn't run the majority of the time. My PC case has a removable dust filter for the PSU, I just checked it and in several years worth of use it's gathered what I would describe as "less than a fingerprint" worth of dust.

I'm pretty sure it's a dirty power issue given that the noise is linked to the time of day. I can run my computer like a racecar overnight and it won't make a single peep of noise in that time. If there was something wrong with the PSU itself or another component in my computer it would have problems all the time, but it runs perfectly fine other than the noise.

My question is: Can I trigger Malor?

Good ol' water cooling. Linus' very recent "desk PC" maintenance video is a tour de force of the various things that you may have to contend with when maintaining a water cooling setup. I really don't intend this post to be negative, by the way. Some folks have a real application for water cooling, or they enjoy the nifty factor so much that they don't mind fiddling with their machine more than usual. Still, this video is a great look at what you're signing up for.

That video is spot on accurate. I ran a full WC setup for about a year and a half with my dual GPU’s and it was never fully right. I was constantly fiddling with it and not enjoying the PC at all. I know people who have more experience with it are pros and can go through all the checks and tweaks really fast so they probably don’t have near the issues I had but still have to go through the maintenance.

That’s why I stick with the AIO water coolers for the CPU.

Obviously water cooling is a big mess. You should do phase change cooling instead

Rykin wrote:

Obviously water cooling is a big mess. You should do phase change cooling instead

a.k.a. putting your computer in a fridge.

LouZiffer wrote:

My question is: Can I trigger Malor?

Hi, ho, triggered away!

I had pretty good luck with a Koolance unit, back about fifteen years ago. It had one major issue: it lost water steadily, so I had to top it up pretty frequently. And it didn't do what I bought it to do, which was to be quiet; PCs were at their noisiest then, and I was desperately trying to find something quieter. Sadly, the Koolance was still loud as heck, and I was really irked, after spending close to a thousand bucks on the whole setup. But it worked very well at cooling (40-45C no matter what I was doing), and it didn't take much maintenance.

Well, okay, it did in one sense: I cooked my RAM. The case had no airflow at all, and the RAM overheated and eventually died. I had to redo the loop, adding in special RAM coolers, which was a PITA, and taught me to always have some airflow inside a case, even with a full watercooling rig.

But I didn't have the problems that Linus seems to be having with erosion and dirt and ick building up. I used some blue additive in the water, and nothing ever grew in there. It's also a lot easier to work on a cooling setup that's not built into a desk. I had to add water every two or three weeks, which was annoying, but that was the only ongoing maintenance I had with it.

With the AIOs, though, you're adding in the multiple failure points of liquid cooling, without actually gaining very much. They're only a little better at CPU cooling (a few degrees over a good air cooler), and while they're smaller and more convenient to work with, I never work on that part of my computers anymore. The CPU/motherboard/RAM seem to go in, these days, as a unit, and I never touch them again until I replace the whole board. On modern machines, all I mess with is expansion cards, and those aren't affected by CPU cooling.

I tend to think you should stick with air, or go to a big loop if you know exactly why you want to, but that the AIOs give you most of the bad points of both approaches.

I don’t follow that AIO have all the bad points of both solutions. In fact it’s the opposite. They are far easier to install than a giant air cooler and perform about as well if not better. They are easier to move a case around as well as far easier to work inside the case.

They have zero maintenance (outside your usual dust removal) compared to a loop system and require no management of liquid levels or extensive testing to eliminate issues.

Your good points are that they are more expensive per degree cooled than an air cooler is very true. As well that a loop system will cool significantly better than an AIO allow for better and more long lasting OC scenarios. Not to mention possibly a quieter gaming experience if you also include GPU’s

But your negative seems to mostly focus with an almost hyper degree of sensitivity to failure. I don’t believe AIO have any higher or lower statistical level of failure than any other piece of computing equipment. Like everything in life there might be cheaper more reliable alternatives but they wouldn’t have the unique features someone might desire which would push them into a decision you might not make.

Real Enthusiasts Do Submersion Cooling

eh, nevermind, I've said this before. I'll just point at the cavalcade of failed AIO coolers we have marching through here. Computers are supposed to solve problems, not be problems.

A couple of days ago my monitor decided it will no longer go into sleep mode when Windows 10 turns off the screen--instead it just turns off, which is extremely annoying because it won't wake up when I move the mouse/tap the keyboard. Any thought on what could have caused this change? Factors that may be involved:

- I recently installed the monitor on a VESA mount. When doing so I unplugged the video cable (HDMI > DVI) while the computer was on.

- Around the same time, my PS3 controller plugged into the PC suddenly decided to stop allowing Windows to shut the screen off. Unplugging the controller fixes this, but any time I plug it back in, this issue returns. From what I've read it's a USB problem that happens with game controllers

-Recently installed Windows updates

Monitor: LG 23EA63

How about a CPU cooler designed to sit right on top of a delidded CPU?

Rykin wrote:

How about a CPU cooler designed to sit right on top of a delidded CPU?

I'm not certain what's made up for entertainment's sake, but the results of Linus' "shortcuts" are always fun to watch.

Chairman_Mao wrote:

A couple of days ago my monitor decided it will no longer go into sleep mode when Windows 10 turns off the screen--instead it just turns off, which is extremely annoying because it won't wake up when I move the mouse/tap the keyboard. Any thought on what could have caused this change? Factors that may be involved:

- I recently installed the monitor on a VESA mount. When doing so I unplugged the video cable (HDMI > DVI) while the computer was on.

- Around the same time, my PS3 controller plugged into the PC suddenly decided to stop allowing Windows to shut the screen off. Unplugging the controller fixes this, but any time I plug it back in, this issue returns. From what I've read it's a USB problem that happens with game controllers

-Recently installed Windows updates

Monitor: LG 23EA63

I've had the same secondary issue with my wired 360 controller keeping the monitor on. I wonder whether you have any other USB device connected that's causing issues....