PC Tech Thread

File is corrupt.

New NAS is up and running.

I've only received 5 x 16TB drives so far, and the 2 x 1TB SSDs for the SSD cache, and the 2 x 32GB RAM modules... but that's enough to be up and running.

I've configured it for SHR2 with BTRFS and so far copied over about 5TB of data.

This thing is fast... and it turns out that's because the entirety of the BTRFS metadata can be stored in the SSD cache, so there's zero HDD activity for doing a directory listing or navigating the folder. Given some of my directories have low tens of thousands of things in them and they're now near-instant over the network, the whole experience is incredible.

Still waiting on another 3 x 16TB HDD though, I only have 46TB usable at the moment and will have 96TB usable once I have the other drives in place.

Well yeah.

Actually I ended up reinstalling office 365 and that fixed it. Quote weird situation

weird situation

More weird that it doesn't happen more often TBH.

ECC RAM is not standard, resilient file systems are not standard, CPU errata lists are surprisingly long.

Almost everyone has corrupt files, but that one was in the file header that allows Windows to understand what the file is. Only needs a few bits to be incorrect in the wrong place and it breaks. Mostly though, mostly the bits that are corrupt fall in parts of the file system and files that no-one cares about.

I have a similar setup with 4x16tb drives (wd red pro), 2x m.2 ssd cache drives and 64gb ram in a qnap ts464.

will have everything networked over 2.5gb/10gb ports with cat6a to summer house and cat 8 in the house with mesh nodes on wired backchannel.

just waiting for the freshly laid fibre in our street to be activated early next year and I'll be golden.

One of my SATA drives has just disappeared, and isn't seen by the OS (neither windows nor Linux).

I have turned it off and on again, which is the limit of my troubleshooting knowledge.

What next?

check the cables are securely plugged in, which means opening the case of the computer.

Next step is to test it plugged into another machine (e.g. using a SATA dock). If no response, buy a new disk.

The drive cam back online of its own accord, so who knows.

Although I will happily suggest that it was new Nvidia drivers fucking everything up, as usual.

Either way, I installed an additional new 2TB drive, as I vastly underestimated the amount of data I am using for a project I'm working on.

Obvs in doing so, I accidentally disconnected something, and spent an hour troubleshooting end of the world errors.

I've got a 7yr old Razor DeathAdder and suspect the left click isn't working right. Seems like a decent lifespan considering how much use it gets.

Anyone had a similar issue? Pulled one apart to fix it or swap the switch or similar?

https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/579399/How+can+I+replace+button+switches

Omron - D2F-01F (Japan), D2FC-F-K(50M)-RZ, D2FC-F-7M (20M), D2FC-F-K (50M)

I just replaced my switches with Omron - D2F-01F (Japan).

Those switch models are global numbers and easily searchable.

Kailh GM Red

Huano Micro Switches

TTC Gold.

Each of these manufactures also makes switches that work as substitutes but have a different tactile feel and actuation pressures.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5JfXuRcJHU

Razor are a bit notorious for their buttons dying, 7 years is a good run. Their newer optical ones are better. I've swapped to using a Corsair and it's been flawless.

suspect the left click isn't working

Right click 3 times and it does the same thing

I'm not sure I can be arsed dealing with ordering new switches and resoldering them (as per above). But then there's the ewaste issue.

I've run with buttons swapped in the past, but it gets confusing as hell when you're balls deep in VMs that don't have the buttons swapped.

Someone else suggested using "DeoxIT" to clean the connections.

Anyone tried that? It's some kind of posh contact cleaner. £12 for a tube though sucks when you could buy a new mouse for that.

Isopropyl alcohol any good for electrical contacts like this?

Just get a new one
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/corsair-harpoon-rgb-pro-optical-fps-moba-gaming-mouse-rgb-back-lit-12000dpi-wired-usb-20-6-button-10

[this post was too dull to keep]

Does anyone know anything about GPUs for video editing?

I've got a friend with a budget of about £300 who wants to buy a new GPU for his video editing machine. He does it as a bit of a hobby but has been getting paid work recently. CPU-wise he's got a Ryzen 5600g and 32Gb of RAM.

His research led him to the Nvidia 3060ti which seems to be quite widely recommended as an affordable card which is good for video editing. I've read around a bit more and it seems it might be smarter to buy a 3060 12Gb instead of a 3060ti 8Gb because more RAM is always good but especially for video. But I don't really know a lot about graphics cards at the moment and I know next to nothing about video editing...

Halp?

Which software editing platform do they work with, and which codecs?

If the answer to the second question is in any way ‘ProRes’, then just get a Mac, even a £600 M2 Mini, as this is the only platform with hardware acceleration for ProRes.

Davinci Resolve. They've already built a whole PC so Mac isn't on the cards, but as I understand it Davinci works well with Windows.

Oh woe is me!
2 year Asus laptop. I note there is something odd/new in the taskbar. Clicking on it, I'm informed the laptop needs a restart to finish the latest Windows update.
Shut down open Explorer windows/tabs etc.
I'm told the update is progressing
and the laptop restarts with the expected welcome screen and a prompt to input my Pin number.
Rotating 'please wait' then screen goes black and no progress to the expected home screen.

Have powered down/restarted 3 times.

Cannot get 'into' this (updated) laptop.
Any suggestions?

^ addendum.
Ctrl-Alt-Del does bring up the Task Manager.
41% memory in use,
With highest user Antimalware Service Executable.

Transpires it is the only non-standard addition to this laptop the Explorer modifier I installed to allow this now W11 laptop have the Taskbar where it should be at the top of the screen.

PEBKAC 

Either of your GPU options will be more than enough for Resolve. That machine will swallow editing loads easily.

It turns out expanding BTRFS volumes is slow.

I didn't have all the drives at once, which is preferred as I like buying some different batches. So I started with 5 * 16TB HDD, and then added another... that took 3 days. Now it's working I've just added another, which will take another 2-3 days to expand the volume.

I do realise it's doing a lot of work, effectively redistributing all files and their parity across all of the new space in an even way to guarantee durability... but still, it takes a long time.

Top tip for anyone setting up BTRFS in future, wait until you have all the drives before you create the volume.