PC Tech Thread

Yeah, I'm sure that's going to be a major problem for WW and even if he was balls deep in symlinks, how does it prevent the identification of storage use?

Now then, no need to argue over me. You're both special.

delete some of your porn.

you've changed man

Hey, it's Will's porn, not mine. I don't care :D

Actually, delete Windows, keep the porn.

In my defence I did mean to add some caveat about the relevance to the actual problem, but my partner told me to put my phone down, stop sending silly messages to internet people and pay attention to her.

Internet people > real people. Everyone knows this.

I use WinDirStat all the time for finding out why some box is full of shit. Takes like 20 seconds to go "oh I see, this shitty app is in debug mode still and is logging everything it does to this folder". Others are like "fuck it, storage is cheap, allocate more" but I hate that attitude unless it's n+1 bikes.

WizTree is vastly faster than WinDirStat, as it reads directly from the master file table - although that has some pros and cons.

I mentioned the two I've used and I only use those two because I've had the .exes sat around for the last 10 years. I'll care about upgrading when what I have stops working... :D

I bought a second hand PC off of Facebook marketplace (I know, I know...)

It has good specs and works well, however it has an annoying fault: 5-15 minutes after booting up, it crashes spectacularly. The computer completely freezes and doesn't accept any input, and I get treated to an absolutely horrible glitched out noise through the speakers. After killing the power and restarting, usually it works completely fine for the rest of the session/day/etc until it is turned off, and then the issue happens again after a restart.

The issue doesn't seem related to whatever I'm doing on the computer - it might freeze while playing a game, or browsing the web. It's done this from the start - I initially thought it was the hard drive so I swapped it out for an SSD, but that's not helped. I also did a fresh install of Windows, which didn't help.

Are there any diagnostic tools to help me figure out what the issue is, or is anyone familiar with this type of crash and able to offer some advice?

Every time I have had an intermittently crashing computer it has been memory-related.

First, take the memory out and put it back in, making sure it is properly seated in the slots. Then run this when that doesn't work. https://www.memtest86.com/

Cool, thanks for the advice!

That definitely looks & smells like a memory issue to me.

If it has two or more memory sticks, you may be able to isolate a fault to one of them by only using one stick at time. Try different sockets too.

It could also be that the RAM isn't fully compatible. I had a very similar issue recently on a brand new PC - my fault for not buying exactly the right RAM - but a second-hand PC might have whatever RAM was lying around.

Looking to set up a small server for WFH and considering just bunging it on a mini PC (think GSKtec G3/G5 sort of thing) as it'll only really be a glorified hard drive for keeping all my work files on. Anyone got any recommendations as to how to go about doing that? Can I run it all off Windows 11 and just map a network drive? Zero experience with doing this, but thinking it can't be that difficult, can it? Anything else I should consider instead?

Cheers.

Sounds like a good case for a NAS.

Had a brief look at that as an option but I probably don't need that level of storage/expansion capability and don't really want to spend that much either. What would be the main advantages (apart from storage capacity/expansion) of running a NAS rather than just storing everything on a 2TB mini PC?

I have a 24/7 PC running Windows 11 that serves up files (mainly media). It's pretty robust (running for the past three years), main thing is setting it to auto-update, auto-login, not sleep, etc. You might want to consider security to a lesser or greater extent depending on what files you have on there and a backup procedure.

Although if that's all you're using it for I'd just be tempted to use Onedrive or something instead.

I've only ever had a pretty basic 2-bay Synology thing, it has an old 2.5" SSD for the OS and single 8TB HDD. Mainly use it for backup from my main PC, and in turn it gets backed up to the cloud every night. Doesn't need a windows licence, very easy to connect to and administer via a browser.

Right. Mesh. Happening.

Just ordered Zen (via openreach unfortunately so only 100mb up - better than the 10mb up if I'm lucky through virgin) and I want to have stuff in place.

Zen send a "FRITZ!Box 7530 ax"

Anyone care to point what I need to do to have fast wifi throughout the house? I currently use a powerline thing for ethernet into my work computer but I'm open to running cables.

Shopping list?

I'd be open to getting maybe 2 of these to keep it Fritz: https://www.amazon.co.uk/AVM-FRITZ-Repeater-1200-AX/dp/B09N4SJLWM?th=1

But not sure if that's the best thing for my needs. What's a wired/wireless backhaul? Again, am open to running cables throughout the house assuming it's relatively DIY-able (presume I'd need to protect them somehow from mice etc under floorboards?)

We live in a 3 bed Victorian terrace. Prob 20-30m or something from front of house to the back.

I probably don't need that level of storage/expansion capability and don't really want to spend that much either

I've fucked about with running a standard windows box as a server when I was a boy, and as a result I absolutely don't regret getting a Synology DS223 with 2×4GB drives when I was rebuilding my desk earlier this year. For eliminating all the hassle and getting RAID and durable drives ready to run in minutes rather than days, it was ~£500 well spent.

2×4GB drives

Might need more storage than that... :D

E2a: did you buy the drives separately or go for the Synology HDDs?

Might need more storage than that... :D

I'm so old I remember when hard disks were in MB🙂

I went for a ready made box with Synology HAT3300 4TB drives. I'm sure somebody will chime in and say WD Reds are better. Depending on where you shop, there's basically no difference in price.

I'm so old I remember when hard disks were in MB

waves

I have a WD Red in my cooler external box thingie. It works, that's about all I know.

Repeaters can either daisychain via wi-fi and pass the signal on. (I.e you put it somewhere where there is still wi-fi strength from the router and it re-transmits with it’s own range from that point) or you can run Ethernet between the router and repeater - faster, but hassle of cable. You might find that depending on where your primary router is located vs main rooms, office etc, that wireless is fine (even if not optimum) if it’s just to avoid dropout in the garden/top rooms etc depending on use case.

You could also experiment with powerline to the repeater from the router. Have a try, see what’s fastest. Best will be wired backhaul, but depending on where on the faster/hassle continuum it lies is use-case dependant. Although also nice to have Ethernet run through the house if that’s your thing.

Thanks, I think ethernet throughout seems wisest. I'll look up best practices on running cables.

I'm presuming that the fttp box is the 'modem' and the fritzbox feeds from that over ethernet and acts as an initial wireless source. Then ethernet out from that to a couple of further wireless points? And somehow that becomes 'mesh'?