Subj : Re: What to do with a gia To : Barry Martin From : Ky Moffet Date : Mon Feb 21 2022 12:22:00 BARRY MARTIN wrote: > Hi Ky! > > KM> Yeah, unless you know it was a filesystem/partition problem, > KM> would not be at the head of my trusted list. But for that kind of > KM> use, sure. I don't recall offhand if yours was mispartitioned (which happened sometimes with old tools) or what. But obviously got past it. > KM> However, if the OS touches it, and it's bad, it will make > KM> trouble. Drive that's failing but nothing visible (no bad > KM> sectors) can cause system freezes. > > Hmm: thinking about that one Raspberry Pi I'm having problems with: > randomly locks up/stops. Sometimes a reboot works, sometimes have to > power boot to get going again. Plenty of room on the SD card, plenty of > free memory. Dunno if SD cards need the TRIM function like SSDs do to clean up after used/unused sectors and do wear-leveling... linux has not been good about that, generally, nor Windows before Win7, but newer SSDs TRIM themselves. SDs? no idea. Okay. If it's been in service a while as an OS host, chances are it's worn out: https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/ex7dvo/quick_reminder_that_sd_cards_with_wearleveling/ === Vast majority of SD cards do not have wear-leveling, and might keep on writing to the same blocks over and over. In the end you wear out the card, and it becomes defective. When using SD cards in servers/computers this might become a major issue, especially if you have software running that performs large amount of write operations and/or generates a lot of written data. === BUT! an inexpensive card is now available that does the job! new info from WD says: === Our WD Purple MicroSD's do both static and dynamic wear-leveling. Meaning all blocks across whole address space are considered for wear leveling regardless of if and how the blocks are used. This keeps the number of program erase cycles consistent on all blocks. === https://www.westerndigital.com/products/memory-cards/wd-purple-microsd#WDD032G1P0C Oh, be aware that as an old fogey, once a year you can claim a substantial Old Fogey discount on orders from WD. Last I looked it was 15%. > > the History -- darn!) I probably have a greater chance of a hacker > > attempting to snag my WiFi. (Why has that car been sitting on the > > street for the last hour?) > KM> Anyone trying to enjoy my wifi would be very disappointed in the > KM> speed... > > Still, could be better than nothing! Tin cans and string level better than nothing! Okay, maybe it's time to upgrade from Fidonet. > KM> Yeah, the Asustor has its own little CPU and OS, and it can do > KM> enough stuff that you could almost use it as a desktop. Would I > KM> ever use those functions? I doubt it. > > On one hand there are our types which could make a system from scratch > -- well, select and grab a bunch of software anyway! There are others > who could not. My guess is the units put in all that software for the > latter group. Same unit is sold to mour group, we just don't have to > use what's included. It's designed for small business backup and fileserver type work, where there are liability concerns. Commercial NAS lost data? you were following best practices, no liability in that. Homebrew NAS lost data? See you in court. My sister's work (she's a partner in a big international architecture firm) discards anything that's out of warranty, including vehicles, because the liability is too great. Building fell down? You were using fully supported everything and all to industry standard, so no liability for any defect that derives from said hardware or software. Using unsupported or outdated software OR hardware? See you in court. (We're talking billions of dollars, not small claims court.) THAT is why business doesn't use "free software" unless it's backed by someone they can sue for damages, eg. RedHat. > > So when are you going to price SATA-to-IDE adapters?! > KM> LOL... I've used those. The one that actually works and doesn't > KM> burn a hole in your PC is awkwardly sized and a naked board so > KM> you have to be careful what it touches; the one that's got a case > KM> around the board and isn't so big and gawky runs at FRY. Either > KM> way, not a good solution. > > I've worked with bare/open circuit boards; mostly the electrical side of > things like voltage regulators and chargers. The pre-made aspect is > nice: keeps things compact and the price down -- I'd probably pay the > same for a toroid as I did for the entire unit. Holding the board in > place in the box can sometimes be a bit of a challenge! Yeah, finding a way to dangle the one that worked where nothing would contact metal was more challenge than it was worth. Plus it doesn't fit inside any sort of drive bay. Easier to install an IDE or SATA adapter card (tho the latter need drivers, which can be an Issue. The IDE cards don't.) > KM> Yeah, I like to sort things out that way when I can. > It makes troubleshooting easier! What if we run out of ammo??! > KM> Each one needs its own channel, as I understand it. So the > KM> adapter has to know how to direct traffic. But you still only > KM> have X-bandwidth, until you get into the more expensive adapters > KM> that are designed to give each HD its full bandwidth. > > I was thinking needing their own data channel also, which was the joke > behind my comment, though was a bit hidden. (There's another one!) > The power portion can be soldered together; the data not. Oh yes, saw the joke, but it was actually reality > > Spotted cows! ...I sort of have the theory lower-classed Pentiums, > > etc., were ones that failed to meet the upper-level standards: it works, > > just not at the top level. Waste not, want not! > KM> That's exactly right. Because chip production is so variable, > KM> some work better than others, and whatever the batch tests at is > KM> how they'll be labeled. Lesser chips may "overclock" because some > KM> will actually be up to it. > > Yea! I was right! As for overclocking, I don't do mainly because of the > overall concept of it's designed for only so much, very possible to do > more for a short period of time but after that it fails. My way of thinking: If overclocking makes something uncomfortably or inconveniently hot, it should not be done. If it still runs within normal parameters, then not a problem. Lately learned that I should be able to "overclock" Fireball's RAM, because it actually runs at the higher speed, given a choice. CPU supports it, board supposedly does... if Lenovo didn't disable it. Haven't looked yet. Would be a significant performance boost (to where Fireball could claim "fastest PC in the house"). > KM> And there will be occasional freak chips that can "overclock" to > KM> something ridiculous, like over 5GHz. > > Remember when we were ecstatic at the 8088's 16 MHz?! I think the first PC I ever used was like 4MHz... so slow you had to wait for it to wait for itself! However, it did the job... I still have the 5" floppies for it here somewhere, for DOS5 and WordPerfect 5.0. > KM> And it makes gamers very happy when they can buy a cheaper CPU > KM> and "overclock" it to something silly like that. > > Well yeah: I like a bargain too! Yeah, tho their case is rather a false economy... gambling, in fact. Anyway, I only look at rated speed, and don't consider overclocking when I shop. If it can gracefully do so, great! If not, I still got what I paid for and am not gambling on being able to make it happen. > KM> But there is really no such thing as overclocking; there is only > KM> running a chip up to its maximum ability. > > Agree. I'm thinking the manufacturers want to be able to sell a (say) 6 > GHz chip, and maybe actually have it, but the problem is becomes > unstable/overheats/requires a lot of power/whatever. Cut it down to 4 > GHz, problems go away. ...Let the tinkers deal with those issues, we said Yep. Vaguely recall some CPU managed 7GHz, but keeping it running without melting a hole in the board... that's why they do oil immersion, to cool the whole thing. > it's only good to this level. And Clyde the Corporate Lawyer reminded > to include the 'overclocking may void warranty' clause. That too. No corporation with attorneys on staff would ever allow overclocked anything to come anywhere NEAR their work (see above). > KM> Back in the olden days, for a while the P75 was the market sweet > KM> spot. Intel was already producing P90 CPUs, but they were widely > KM> viewed as too expensive. But P90 was what was coming out of the > KM> production line, and they cost the same to make regardless, so > KM> they rebadged a bunch of those P90s and sold them as P75s. In > KM> fact I've only seen one P75 that was really only 75MHz and would > KM> not "overclock" to 90MHz, because of this. > > Makes sense to me. What did not make sense was the two identical boards... both Micro-Star (MSI in their early days; they used to suck, but have improved greatly). Two early Pentium CPUs, one labeled 66MHz, the other labeled 60MHz. The 66MHz CPU would only run at 60MHz, and the 60MHz CPU would only run at 60MHz. And each one only liked one of the identical mainboards (which were more than identical, they were same batch with consecutive serial numbers). And I also encountered "75MHz" CPUs that would only run at 90MHz. THAT is how goofy it was back when CPUs started climbing out of the XT-to-486 midden pit. > KM> And there are a bunch of different SD card specs. Explaining > KM> Computers channel had a good go-over of the various types a while > KM> back. I printed out his conclusions chart and put it in my > KM> wallet. :) > > (Ky has a George Costanza wallet; very little money, but stuffed full of > notes, coupons, phone number strips for guitar lessons....) How did you know??! And I've had the same wallet since 1973... > Actually something I should do but electronically; store in the phone > as I usually carry when I go out. Guess I'll have to learn how to use > it for something beside talking, pictures, and a schedule calendar! I don't normally carry the phone, or if I do, it's the Retard Phone. For some unknown reason the iPhone666s (as I renamed it) will only do Wifi and can't reliably see the cell tower. I don't much care, since it has such a crap battery (3 hours talk, about 6 hours idle, and that's how crap they are brand new!) that I just leave it plugged in at home. Well, it was free... Did I tell the tale of that piece of *#$#%?? There is no getting its bluetooth to speak to anything but another apple device, unless it's a dumb device like headphones or keyboard. It can see the linux box over wifi (for some reason PCLOS will let the iPhone, and ONLY the iPhone, see its precious files) and I can copy over my .vcf file, but it will not import that. So how the heck do I import contacts? Had to email it to myself, set it up to see GMail (it can only see GMail or Apple Mail) ....let it fetch mail (geezus, not all 120,000 messages in that account, stop!!!!) and THEN it will import contacts. And then Ting issued me a phone number from up in Ronan. Which is on the Flathead Indian reservation. Apparently from all the beating my head against the durn iPhone, I became an honorary tribal member... maybe I should try smoke signals.... > > KM> Only buy Sandisk now regardless, but still there are different > KM> types, and not all work well for everything. > > Right, like some hard drives are recommended for lots of writes and few > reads (surveillance ==> constant recording, occasional playback) some > memory cards are designed for lots of writes and fewer reads, some the > other way. Yeah, and more important vibration tolerance, because there's a lot more of it if you have a bunch of drives in close proximity. > > Brand 1. ...Essentially depends on Reads, Writes. Also seems if a lot > > of writes then better off with a larger capacity card even though means > > a lot of unused space: each (segment) has only so many writes > > available, so if writing a lot then if to a small capacity card one uses > > the same (segment) over and over again, so exhausts/dies effectively > KM> Yeah, true of all flash devices, including SSDs. > I'm thinking with my RPi problem somewhere above going from the the > current 32 GB card, which shows as having lots of room, to a 64 GB card. > Data should be rattling around loose! See above. It's not a space issue, it's a tired card issue. > KM> Yeah... could chuck it into one of the other boxen but... well, > KM> it was both cheap and works, what's not to like?? > It's lime green! > KM> Yeah, they're not really enticing me with the more-recent > KM> shenanigans. Win11 has some nice features, but for every nice > KM> feature there's an equal and negating WTF. > I'm thinking most people stick with Windows because they don't know of > something different or are afraid to make the change. Admittedly Or have liability concerns, which is the real reason business doesn't. > switching from Windows-think to Linux-think is a slight challenge. And I > guess Linux is more for 'fiddlers' -- maybe not as easy for those users Too true. Tho more make an effort to be normal-user friendly these days. > used to clicking. I still like the command line - sometimes easier. > ..Sometimes. Hahaha. Come see my Neon setup and say that a bit louder. > KM> I once suggested to a MSFT rep that it would be really nice to > KM> have modular desktops, so we could use whichever style of Windows > KM> we prefer while having the benefits of updated underpinnings. He > KM> said they were actually considering that, but obviously nothing > KM> came of it. > > Or at least yet. Or could have been said to placate you: yes, we're > working on that, in the meantime you stil have to use the old junk but > with the hopes of something good. We had a substantial discussion about it. They really were looking at it. But there'd have to be a support disconnect between "supported" and "your old crap" desktops, and that likely made it infeasible. þ RNET 2.10U: ILink: Techware BBS þ Hollywood, Ca þ www.techware2k.com --- QScan/PCB v1.20a / 01-0462 * Origin: ILink: CFBBS | cfbbs.no-ip.com | 856-933-7096 (454:1/1) .