Personal computing discussed

Search found 139 matches

by mnecaise
Wed Aug 03, 2016 4:25 pm
Forum: General Hardware
Topic: Void Warranty stickers illegal?
Replies: 22
Views: 7673

Re: Void Warranty stickers illegal?

I agree with JBI: just blow it out using canned / compressed air. That should be adequate. It doesn't have to be perfect. (I take mine to my workshop and use the air compressor. More pressure, more air volume). For what it's worth, I tend to read those "Warranty Void if Removed" labels and...
by mnecaise
Wed Jun 08, 2016 6:39 pm
Forum: Cases and Power Supplies
Topic: Portable UPS
Replies: 24
Views: 5556

Re: Portable UPS

Hey guys, the car battery suggestion was based strictly on availability and cost. Yes, they are far from optimum, being designed to supply 600-800 amp surge, and not designed to be deep cycled. However, they're just about as common as could be; and, if availability or cost are an issue then finding ...
by mnecaise
Tue Jun 07, 2016 7:46 pm
Forum: Cases and Power Supplies
Topic: Portable UPS
Replies: 24
Views: 5556

Re: Portable UPS

As most have already said, don't try to take a UPS with you, your device already has a battery. Save the weight for more useful items. You've already indicated your devices don't have removable batteries. Bring spare power adapters and a small AC inverter. Use the internal battery and fall back to t...
by mnecaise
Wed Feb 03, 2016 6:39 pm
Forum: Cases and Power Supplies
Topic: Circuit Breaker Size
Replies: 59
Views: 10073

Re: Circuit Breaker Size

Up here in Canada we use the copper water main coming into the house for grounding in residential installations, typically. As for GFCI receptacles, you could also get GFCI breakers, but they are a bit more expensive. That's no longer allowed in the U.S. Too many instances of people replacing coppe...
by mnecaise
Wed Feb 03, 2016 6:35 pm
Forum: Cases and Power Supplies
Topic: Circuit Breaker Size
Replies: 59
Views: 10073

Re: Circuit Breaker Size

Thanks for the explanation. My AC wiring experience has been limited to replacing individual breakers, light fixtures, switches, and outlets. I figure I can't make anything worse than it already was if I don't try to change things around! Well back in the day before all these modern things, there w...
by mnecaise
Tue Feb 02, 2016 10:38 pm
Forum: Cases and Power Supplies
Topic: Circuit Breaker Size
Replies: 59
Views: 10073

Re: Circuit Breaker Size

Just out of curiosity, what's the reason for the requirement to keep the ground and neutral separate in the sub-panels? To ensure a single-point ground (at the main panel only)? Yes, for safety. You want all the neutral current to stay on the neutral. If you bond neutral to ground in the sub-panel,...
by mnecaise
Tue Feb 02, 2016 7:09 pm
Forum: Cases and Power Supplies
Topic: Circuit Breaker Size
Replies: 59
Views: 10073

Re: Circuit Breaker Size

based on your description, I would run three circuits, two for outlets, one specifically for the A/C, sized for the unit you plan to install. You're in the wall, now is the time to pull the wire. Having a separate circuit also lets you put in a 240V outlet for the A/C. If you know roughly what your ...
by mnecaise
Fri Jan 22, 2016 4:03 pm
Forum: Cases and Power Supplies
Topic: REAL Ultra Tower Flagships
Replies: 37
Views: 6790

Re: REAL Ultra Tower Flagships

Oh great, another car analogy on a tech site. Yes. Car analogies happen... because so many of us spend as much time on our cars as we do on our computers. I spend all day at work debugging and designing electronics and software. There was a time when I used to go home every day and tinker with comp...
by mnecaise
Thu Dec 17, 2015 8:12 am
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Anyone repair anything today?
Replies: 1407
Views: 198266

Re: Anyone repair anything today?

EDIT: One thing though. Is there something I can do to make my iron stop oxidizing? This seems to be the bane of my existence and leads to much frustration. Even when the iron is hot enough, many times they simply will not tin. When applied directly to the iron solder just balls up at the end of th...
by mnecaise
Wed Jun 17, 2015 6:25 pm
Forum: Storage
Topic: Crucial BX100 or Mushkin Reactor?
Replies: 13
Views: 5126

Re: Crucial BX100 or Mushkin Reactor?

I have a Mushkin Striker 480GB SSD in my laptop for 4 months now. I've had zero problems with it and it's fast, faster than the Samsung SSD that came with it. It appears that Mushkin is using Micron NAND in both the Striker and the Reactor drives. My opinion, for what it's worth, is that given these...
by mnecaise
Thu Apr 09, 2015 6:27 pm
Forum: Storage
Topic: Large size SSD for personal machine - poll
Replies: 35
Views: 5441

Re: Large size SSD for personal machine - poll

Just upgraded the hybrid drive in my laptop with a Mushkin Striker 480GB SSD. A little risky because it's new to the market. Very happy with the result so far. I don't get the question. Other than price, what reasons are there not to prefer a larger SSD? all your eggs in one basket idea. Buy a handf...
by mnecaise
Tue Mar 17, 2015 6:02 pm
Forum: General Hardware
Topic: Refilling inkjet cartridges
Replies: 10
Views: 2678

Re: Refilling inkjet cartridges

To keep my family happy... I use an Epson printer, which have simple tanks for cartridges (Epson carts do have a drop counter eeprom which has to be reset). I buy ink in "bulk" 4 oz per color at a time from Inksupply.com. Never had a problem with their inks.
by mnecaise
Tue Feb 24, 2015 10:17 pm
Forum: Motherboards, Chipsets, & RAM
Topic: Who is still using PCI slots these days?
Replies: 139
Views: 50910

Re: Who is still using PCI slots these days?

I have to (indirectly) support optical measuring machines, laser engravers, CNC laser cutting machine, a 3D printer, a pick and place robot, and numerous product test systems that have legacy PCI cards in them. I think we even have a couple of machines with 16-bit ISA bus cards in them. You don't th...
by mnecaise
Thu Feb 19, 2015 8:21 pm
Forum: General Hardware
Topic: So, I think my PC is dying.
Replies: 18
Views: 2615

Re: So, I think my PC is dying.

Power supply, instability in the output voltage. Edit: I should add an explanation. Seen this before a number of times in an industrial application where the company insisted on using standard PC's and would not pay for power filters or UPS. PC plugged into "dirty" power would eventually h...
by mnecaise
Tue Feb 10, 2015 7:10 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Vegemite / Marmite - Love or Hate?
Replies: 35
Views: 3164

Re: Vegemite / Marmite - Love or Hate?

As an American born son of a New Zealander, I have to say... it's an acquired taste. One which I've never really appreciated. Sorry guys, if the choices are Love It or Even cheese won't help it... Then I have to vote for the latter.
by mnecaise
Mon Jan 19, 2015 9:03 pm
Forum: General Hardware
Topic: Naked LED Bulb
Replies: 69
Views: 8556

Re: Naked LED Bulb

JBI: If the glass is intact, just glue it back on. I dissected one and from what I recall, that's all they did -- glue the globe to the heat sink. If it's cracked or broken, send Cree's customer support an email and describe the failure. I had one just quit working (some kind of infant mortality), s...
by mnecaise
Wed Dec 24, 2014 7:25 pm
Forum: General Hardware
Topic: Simplest way to isolate main hard drives from a live usb?
Replies: 26
Views: 9283

Re: Simplest way to isolate main hard drives from a live usb

Flatland_Spider wrote:

Why would the new OS get infested with viruses? Assuming you're getting your games from reputable sources, they shouldn't be a problem.



xkcd virus aquarium:
Image
by mnecaise
Tue Dec 02, 2014 10:43 pm
Forum: Motherboards, Chipsets, & RAM
Topic: New board supports replaceable op-amp, help!
Replies: 27
Views: 6057

Re: New board supports replaceable op-amp, help!

Don't the really fast ones also typically require external compensation to remain stable when used with heavy negative feedback? Or is my age showing here and this is less of an issue with current designs? Define "really fast"... One of the amps I like to use in some high speed instrument...
by mnecaise
Fri Oct 17, 2014 7:06 am
Forum: General Hardware
Topic: Anyone try converting an iMac to a standalone monitor?
Replies: 8
Views: 3624

Re: Anyone try converting an iMac to a standalone monitor?

You're going to run into two problems: Power. The power supply for the iMac supplies the panel's requirements for the panel driver electronics, TFT, and backlight. You'll have to accommodate that. Driver hardware. If Apple incorporated the panel driver on the Mainboard (or do they still call it a Lo...
by mnecaise
Tue Oct 07, 2014 7:20 pm
Forum: General Hardware
Topic: Are 9 Partitions on a 500 GB HDD too many ?
Replies: 34
Views: 4716

Re: Are 9 Partitions on a 500 GB HDD too many ?

Like what others have said, I can see having two partitions to separate the OS and user data. You could make a similar argument for just having two drives (and would see better performance with two drives). Unless you have special data storage and security requirements, there's really no justificati...
by mnecaise
Fri Oct 03, 2014 8:55 pm
Forum: Windows
Topic: OS Decay
Replies: 53
Views: 16084

Re: OS Decay

If you had to reinstall Win9x monthly you had a PEBKAC problem, not a Windows problem. I used my copies of Win95 and Win98 heavily for years and never once had to reinstall them. Anecdotal, but, I had a Win98/ME machine that I had to re-install every two or three months. Couldn't keep the machine r...
by mnecaise
Wed Sep 17, 2014 7:19 pm
Forum: Mobile Tech
Topic: Laptop with Detachable Screen?
Replies: 5
Views: 1920

Re: Laptop with Detachable Screen?

Motorola made such a thing a few years back. It didn't do well and the whole concept was discontinued.
by mnecaise
Sun Sep 14, 2014 1:31 pm
Forum: General Hardware
Topic: 512GB SD-Card
Replies: 11
Views: 2561

Re: 512GB SD-Card

If they can fit 512 GB on an SD card... How big can they make an SSD? Sounds to me like they'd have no problems matching the latest 6, 8 and 10TB spinning disks in a form factor that might fit in a laptop. The most they could get with an 8 channel controller with one NAND package per channel is 2TB...
by mnecaise
Sun Sep 14, 2014 8:11 am
Forum: General Hardware
Topic: 512GB SD-Card
Replies: 11
Views: 2561

Re: 512GB SD-Card

If they can fit 512 GB on an SD card... How big can they make an SSD?

Sounds to me like they'd have no problems matching the latest 6, 8 and 10TB spinning disks in a form factor that might fit in a laptop.
by mnecaise
Fri Sep 12, 2014 5:55 pm
Forum: General Hardware
Topic: need a new pc right away
Replies: 16
Views: 2926

Re: need a new pc right away

Hey, if the PC is for your son at college, check with the school to see if they have a discount program with Dell. That's a pretty good price for the spec; but, they may have something similar in the discount program for a slightly lower price. If you buy it through the university / college discount...
by mnecaise
Wed Jul 02, 2014 10:27 pm
Forum: General Hardware
Topic: Good, affordable NiMH charger
Replies: 46
Views: 23773

Re: Good, affordable NiMH charger

I've been using a Maha 8 cell AA/AAA charger for the better part of a decade. It was pricier than your target. Only problem with it is it likes to cook (overcharge) cheap AAA batteries. The moral of that story is don't buy cheap AAA batteries, of course. Around here batteries are "food for toys...
by mnecaise
Wed Jul 02, 2014 9:45 pm
Forum: Motherboards, Chipsets, & RAM
Topic: Your motherboard that had the most CPU upgrades
Replies: 77
Views: 16777

Re: Your motherboard that had the most CPU upgrades

I haven't upgraded just a CPU since the 486 and 1st generation Pentium days. I had one board that went through three 486/586 upgrades -- I think they were 80486 pin compatible AMD and Cyrix chips. Ever since then I've kept a machine intact until I reached the point I would do a full technology upgra...
by mnecaise
Sun Jun 29, 2014 8:20 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: The new old farm truck
Replies: 36
Views: 5616

Re: The new old farm truck

Since road salt and time have taken their toll (what Chevy doesn't have rust on it?) I plan to replace it with the classic wood bed, which ironically will cost more than buying a new factory steel bed. My old 80 was rust free right up until I got rid of it last year. The body was still flawless. Th...
by mnecaise
Sun Jun 29, 2014 6:06 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: The new old farm truck
Replies: 36
Views: 5616

Re: The new old farm truck

I'm planning to pull the rusty steel floor out of the bed of my '71 and replacing it with wood. There are many first-gen Toyota pickups (never actually named HiLux here in the US) here in VT whose rust-cancered beds have been replaced by pressure-treated 2x6. Adventurous types add 4x4 PT bumpers. Y...
by mnecaise
Sun Jun 29, 2014 12:54 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: The new old farm truck
Replies: 36
Views: 5616

Re: The new old farm truck

Ford announced they're building the F-150 body out of aluminum beginning with the 2015 model year, which will give them another 6~7 mpg thanks to weight reduction. The hood on this one happens to be made of aluminum. I also noticed that the front wheel wells are a composite instead of metal as well...
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