Quick [tech] Questions Thread

[Trippy]

Switch the hard drive setting in your BIOS from ACHI to IDE to see if that changes anything. Or if you have a USB external hard drive case or dock stick it in there and see if you can mount it. For Linux you need to make sure you have a driver installed for the NTFS file system.

[Engels]

Also,if your DVD/CD drive is SATA, plug that into Port0 and see if that is detected in BIOS. Its still not entirely conclusive, since there's a slim chance that your Mass Storage Controller (ie, the intel chipset that controls sata connections) is fucked in such a way that it sees a DVD/CD but not an HDD. Slim, but possible.

[K9]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have been out all day, but I'll give them a try.

[Sheepherder]

It's possible that that only the hard disk controller is fried, since it's not reporting anything.  So you may be able to salvage the data off of it fairly cheaply depending on how much your local repair shops like to gouge you.

[Ironwood]

How the hell does one export from Thunderbird 17 to Outlook ?

GAH.

[Chimpy]

How the hell does one export from Thunderbird 17 to Outlook ?

GAH.

Select the mailbox, Events and Tasks -> Export? 

EDIT: BAH never mind, that is a Lightning addon thing.

[Yegolev]

Forward everything?

[Trippy]

Create another account within Thunderbird that points to the Outlook server and drag and drop all the messages from the original account to the new one.

[Ironwood]

Damn.  That would have been a good idea.

I did it the opposite way.  I created another Outlook account that pointed to the Thunderbird IMAP and then dragged them the other way.

But I like the way you think.

[Father mike]

I'm trying to work on an older computer and I've reached that stage in troubleshooting where I'm down to "replace everying one component at a time and see it that fixes it".  But I've grown quite weary of fighting with the case.  So I had the grand idea of laying out all the components on a bench top (not screwed or fastened to anything), hooking everything together and firing it up.  Then I have easy access to memory, GFX card, power supp, etc. and can swap them at will till I locate the problem.

HOWEVER, I am also sure that this is a bad idea.  Static is my main worry.  Can anyone suggest a good surface that would make this idea viable?  If I grounded the legs on a cafeteria table (my current workbench) would that be sufficient?  Is there some sort of vynil sheeting (like the anti-static bags most stuff comes in) I could put down ?

Any suggestions would be welcome.

[Chimpy]

What are the symptoms?

[Father mike]

What are the symptoms?

Northbridge on an K8N-Neo4 motherboard burned up.  I got a refurbed motherboard from China to replace it, but I can't even get the damned thing to post.   I power it up, the fans all spin for about 2 seconds, then it shuts down again.

I have to get it working, becasue I had two drives in a RAID 0 config, using the onboard Raid controller.  Several folks have told me since I got the exact same chipset to act as the raid controller, it will probably be able to read the drives in the RAID config.  The drives have the pics of my daughter from age 4 to 7, so I'd really like to get this working.  Not life critical, but important enough.

Anyway, I've been fighting with this thing for about a year.  I'll work on it for a weekend, get totally frustrated, and not touch it for a few months.  Like I said above, I'm now down to the hot swapping stage, and just want to spread out all the components and not have to worry about snaking my largish hands into tiny, tiny spaces and bending connector pins while plugging and unplugging stuff.

[Chimpy]

Remove all the addon cards if they have nothing to do with your need to pull data off the RAID.

[Trippy]

I'm trying to work on an older computer and I've reached that stage in troubleshooting where I'm down to "replace everying one component at a time and see it that fixes it".  But I've grown quite weary of fighting with the case.  So I had the grand idea of laying out all the components on a bench top (not screwed or fastened to anything), hooking everything together and firing it up.  Then I have easy access to memory, GFX card, power supp, etc. and can swap them at will till I locate the problem.

HOWEVER, I am also sure that this is a bad idea.  Static is my main worry.  Can anyone suggest a good surface that would make this idea viable?  If I grounded the legs on a cafeteria table (my current workbench) would that be sufficient?  Is there some sort of vynil sheeting (like the anti-static bags most stuff comes in) I could put down ?

Any suggestions would be welcome.

Anything that doesn't conduct electricity is fine. I've powered motherboards outside of a case on lots of different surfaces like wood (a table top) or cardboard (the motherboard box) or on top of the anti-static bag the motherboard came in (which you probably don't have). If you are really worried, install some standoffs on the motherboard so that it's elevated and only the standoffs are touching the surface.

[Hoax]

Trying to fix a friend's machine that I built a few years ago.

Its an i7 build on a p6t Asus mobo.

He went from a HD 4XXX card to one of the truly badass 7950's, its the 3GB OC'd Sapphire Vapor-X card. Before I got to it this happened:

-There was some artifacting on the desktop. From online info he went with updating the BIOS (makes sense to me, the card is pcie 3.0) so he set the bios to ASUS's 1408 version with no issues.

-Since the Bios update he's getting BSODs in games that say the cpu is overheating. That's not to say that with the older Bios he wouldn't have gotten same issues. He never got around to playing games until the desktop shit was cleared up by the update.

From everything I can figure it seems like it could be a legit heat issue. The system is idling at high 50's low 60's but if I even start up Torchlight 2 (which is the biggest offender although Borderlands2 and GW2 will cause the BSOD just not as fast) without entering the game I see core temps in CPUID's hardware monitor jump to 90 C.

What is this card doing that is causing the cpu to get so heat stressed? I mean granted its fucking huge and beastly compared to the last one but I'm not seeing a ton of info online and I'm lost.


I've tested the newer Bios with the old card in TL2 and the game played at the same temp that the start screen idles on with the newer card.

The 7950 has a pretty advanced cooling system on it and according to hardware monitor and ATI's catalyst center the card itself is having zero heat issue.

[Chimpy]

Was he on the newest catalyst drivers before the upgrade?

[Trippy]

Sounds like you might have some airflow issues in the case. How are things if you run with the side of the case off? Is the new video card in the slot closest to the CPU or as far away as possible?

[Hoax]

Was he on the newest catalyst drivers before the upgrade?

No the latest 4XXX drivers I don't think are even the same as the latest latest drivers. The 4XXX was on some legacy drivers.

But how could a driver issue cause a real heat problem? Or is there a way it could fool everything into thinking there is a heat problem with the cpu no less?

Sounds like you might have some airflow issues in the case. How are things if you run with the side of the case off? Is the new video card in the slot closest to the CPU or as far away as possible?

The side is off. I was thinking of moving the card to the lower pcie 16x slot which would move it 2" or so away from cpu. I will try that next but is it reasonable for the card to cause something like this?

[Chimpy]

There could be a bug in the driver that spikes the CPU cycles under high graphics load, thus why I asked.

As for the location thing, if the card placement is either restricting airflow or pushing hot air onto the processor's heat sink it could be contributing to the heat. Does he have a stock heatsink/fan or is he using an aftermarket cooler?

[Raging Turtle]

I could use some advice on the next step to take for getting my 2011 Macbook Air screen replaced.  The glass was cracked (my fault) and the screen was 'bleeding' black ink (or whatever it is, it was all internal in the screen) around the edges and cracks.

I sent it in to a shop because they guaranteed they could do it in a week and I don't trust myself to replace it on my own - apparently macbook airs are tricky?  3 weeks and several defective or missing parts later, they want ME to order the necessary part and have it shipped to them, probably so they don't lose any more money doing it themselves 

They also say that upon replacing the screen, they saw that the inverter wasn't working - but if that's just the part that makes (or help makes) the screen light up, then it was working just fine when I sent it in.  What are the odds they broke that?

Anyway, I've copied their email detailing the situation below.  Somebody please let me know if I should just ask for it back and take it in to Apple (where the replacement would probably cost $500-800, hard to get an exact estimate) or demand they order the part themself and give me a discount.  Thanks.

[Trippy]

What's your MacBook Air model number? Or be more specific about the model (13" vs. 11", etc.).

Repairing a MacBook screen is extremely difficult. It's very possible they broke something taking the display assembly apart. Your best bet at this point is to replace the entire display assembly as suggested rather than trying to have them or somebody else fix your now taken apart display assembly.

We actually had this discussion a couple of months ago. You can see a video of what it takes to take apart a display assembly here:

http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=14149.msg1123849#msg1123849

[Raging Turtle]

Yeah that was me asking the question The cracks and bleeding finally spread until it was time to do something.

The model is A1369 13” screen.  Are you suggesting I just ask for my computer back and try to do it myself?  In the email I spoilered they suggested doing the whole screen as well - of course they want me to pay for the whole screen myself, rather than the problem that I brought in 

[Trippy]

Sounds like you might have some airflow issues in the case. How are things if you run with the side of the case off? Is the new video card in the slot closest to the CPU or as far away as possible?

The side is off. I was thinking of moving the card to the lower pcie 16x slot which would move it 2" or so away from cpu. I will try that next but is it reasonable for the card to cause something like this?

Have you tried running a CPU burn in test like CPU Burn-In or Prime95? It's possible the CPU has always been running hot but now that games are no longer GPU-bound they are really taxing the CPU.

[Trippy]

Yeah that was me asking the question The cracks and bleeding finally spread until it was time to do something.

The model is A1369 13” screen.  Are you suggesting I just ask for my computer back and try to do it myself?  In the email I spoilered they suggested doing the whole screen as well - of course they want me to pay for the whole screen myself, rather than the problem that I brought in 

Well you would only save the $99 if you did the reassembly yourself and who knows if they'll screw something up putting things back in for you to do the reassembly yourself since they'll have no way of knowing they put things back together properly. I wanted your specific model so I could check prices. ifixit has your display assembly for $499 if you return your broken one to them ($599 otherwise) but that's a used (i.e. refurbished) display, so the prices you were quoted are within the ballpark.

[Hoax]

Sounds like you might have some airflow issues in the case. How are things if you run with the side of the case off? Is the new video card in the slot closest to the CPU or as far away as possible?

The side is off. I was thinking of moving the card to the lower pcie 16x slot which would move it 2" or so away from cpu. I will try that next but is it reasonable for the card to cause something like this?

Have you tried running a CPU burn in test like CPU Burn-In or Prime95? It's possible the CPU has always been running hot but now that games are no longer GPU-bound they are really taxing the CPU.

Trippy, you just blew my fucking mind. Thanks dude I'll tackle it from that angle and let you guys know.

[Furiously]

Or perhaps the CPU cooler was knocked off slightly when the graphics card was replaced.

[Hoax]

Reseating or replacing with a good aftermarket cooler is the direction I've been heading. Don't see any sign that it had been knocked.

I've run prime95 torture testing to 100% cpu with the new card and the old card and the cpu temps show no difference.

So how can the video card, which isn't been taxed at all be generating enough heat or heat in the wrong place perhaps to almost instantly overheat the cpu to the point of bsod...

I'm going to look at driver options and try the other pcie slot next.

[Lantyssa]

Sounds like the cpu just needs a better cooler, or its thermal paste redone.

[Engels]

Reseating or replacing with a good aftermarket cooler is the direction I've been heading. Don't see any sign that it had been knocked.

I've run prime95 torture testing to 100% cpu with the new card and the old card and the cpu temps show no difference.

So how can the video card, which isn't been taxed at all be generating enough heat or heat in the wrong place perhaps to almost instantly overheat the cpu to the point of bsod...

I'm going to look at driver options and try the other pcie slot next.

When you run Prime95 do you also get the overheating, or only when you're launching Torchlight?

My thoughts that its the interface between video and cpu/northbridge that's at fault. Try down-throttling the ATI card using the ATI overclock utility so that less data's pushed between cpu/motherboard and vid card and see how that does.

The BSOD shouldn't happen before your CPU gets automatically downclocked, so it sounds like something else (northbridge chipset?) overheating, but due to the limited hardware reporting tools, its being reported as CPU overheat.

[Trippy]

Reseating or replacing with a good aftermarket cooler is the direction I've been heading. Don't see any sign that it had been knocked.

I've run prime95 torture testing to 100% cpu with the new card and the old card and the cpu temps show no difference.

So how can the video card, which isn't been taxed at all be generating enough heat or heat in the wrong place perhaps to almost instantly overheat the cpu to the point of bsod...

I'm going to look at driver options and try the other pcie slot next.

Do you have a floor fan you can blow into the side of your open case?

[MisterNoisy]

Reseating or replacing with a good aftermarket cooler is the direction I've been heading. Don't see any sign that it had been knocked.

I've run prime95 torture testing to 100% cpu with the new card and the old card and the cpu temps show no difference.

So how can the video card, which isn't been taxed at all be generating enough heat or heat in the wrong place perhaps to almost instantly overheat the cpu to the point of bsod...

I'm going to look at driver options and try the other pcie slot next.

Out of curiosity, what case is it in and what CPU cooler is on it now?

[Ironwood]

Anyone used any decent unnatended backups to S3 ?

[Trippy]

Anyone used any decent unnatended backups to S3 ?

Are you using EC2 and EBS volumes as well?

[Viin]

I use Gladinet Cloud Desktop (free version). Mounts your S3 volume as a drive and you drag-drop files to upload - it manages the upload process. Could use this with automated backup to the drive too.

[Merusk]

I think Ingmar's computer aids got my PC now.  PC won't turn on and the fan on the power supply doesn't spin-up at all so I think the PS is fried.  Anything else I should check that it could be?