Subj : Re: USB 3 Issue? To : Barry Martin From : Ky Moffet Date : Tue Mar 03 2020 14:06:00 BARRY MARTIN wrote: > Hi Ky! > > So I taught you something for a change! :) > KM> It can happen, despite myself. > "Sometimes better to bend in the breeze like the mighty willow." Willow grow on riverbank. River flood, willow become raft. :P > KM> WTF is IOMMU ?? > IDK! AASQ... > Input Output Memory Management Unit -- which stil doesn't mean much to > me, especially as to get USB 2 and 3 working properly it's turn IOMMU > off, install Ubuntu with a additional command, on reboot turn IOMMU back > on and allow the install to complete. Instructions are on-line; not > complicated, just the "why isn't it done automaticlly?" feeling. Um, yeah... stupid Debian under there... never, ever again want to hear some linux weenie crow about all the interruptions during a Windows install. Never had to babysit any OS install so much in my life, plus it took an hour. Debian did not stay. Conversely, PCLOS is a few clicks and takes five minutes. > Without this little 'dance' I had where the keyboard and mouse plugged > in to the rear USB 2.0 ports stopped working. My new machine also has > on the front panel a pair of USB 2 and USB 3 each. Front USB 2 also > didn't work but the USB 3 did. On reboot the USB 3 didn't work but the > UBS 2 did.... Arghhh! There's a bug in a lot of mainboard designs where either front USB or back USB will work, but not at the same time. This was so common for a while I didn't bother plugging in the front ones. > My personal experience was 'annoying' but I also had a faulty RAM > stick. It tested fine on the quick tests so looked to be fine but a > couple of minutes into the extended testing and the errors popped up. Well, that'll do it... RAM dies but rarely, but when it does... > The RAM issue and the IOMMU issue combined... had thought of that > computer you said you hung on the fence as a lesson to the other > computers! That was a typewriter! But the principle is the same. It's Been Warned. > KM> Tho this is WinXP; its twin had PCLinuxOS on it, on a removable > KM> drive, but since PCLOS is now on one of the Dells, that'un will > KM> be used to swap out this'un so I can rebuild it with the New! > KM> Improved!! guts. > > That almost needs to be drawn on the chalkboard to be understood! > Have done similar here: build a new computer, upgrade others, maybe > change the usual usage, so to keep costs down reuse some hardware. Haha... had been delaying because the logistics were untenable. Then Silver's guts tried to die, so I can just eject 'em, no need to play musical motherboards. Anyway, that got done today... Silver is now sitting there empty and naked, awaiting New! Improved!! innards, and Cash has been repurposed as the WinXP machine, since it required nothing but copy the drive over and wait for it to whine a bit about different video card. (Didn't want to swap it because Cash might need to run its old PCLOS install again, and linux throws more fits about such things.) Addendum: Silver is now Silver II, with shiny 'new' (only 5 years old) innards, but yet awaiting an OS. XP won't run and I'd forgotten how annoying naked Win7 is. Linux, sadly, isn't quite there for everyday. > KM> When I get it apart, I'll stick the PSU on the tester that reads > KM> voltage; seems to be very accurate. I don't think anything this > KM> mainboard says can be trusted at this point. And according to the tester, the PSU is fine. However... The reason the board was misbehaving was flamingly obvious once I had all the other junk out of the way: Two blown capacitors, as in tried to explode and have rods of boiled-off gunk sticking out the top. (First time I've seen a PC throw a rod...) So I'd guess those two caps just happen to be in the voltage-control circuit, and durn good thing it decided to fade rather than spike! This was where I also noted a subtle difference between these identical boards: Good one: PCB made in Taiwan. Bad one: PCB made in China. (And version label is pasted on rather than silkscreened.) > Make sure the readings are done under load: plug in an old inefficient > current-sucking hard drive. I haven't had with a PSU but with a UPS > battery where the battery initially tests good but a hare more draw the > battery fails (no output). Thinking a power supply could do similar: My tester simulates draw, tho you can usually get different readings by adding a couple fans or HDs. I was already an Enermax bigot, and became a worse one after I used it to test all the "tested good" PSUs and found only Enermax were 100% good ALL the time (no spikes or sags). > work fine with a light draw, then shut off when the load becomes too > much. Yes, "fuse" and "circuit breaker" come to mind, so can "crowbar > circuit" which is effectively an automatically resetting circuit > breaker. Hadn't heard that term :D > Would be funny if 'just' that IOMMU setting! It would be a lot better than two exploded capacitors!! > > > KM> Regardless... Something Went Wrong! > > I tend to concur! > KM> D'oh!! ("Something Went Wrong!" is the standard Mac error > KM> message. Very helpful, in Apple's usual way.) > Yeah: I know 'something went wrong'! It sure did! > KM> Haha, yes. Thus have I acquired two copies of Vista, tho the one > KM> on the faster machine ran like crap and was ejected for Win7, > KM> which runs better there. Someone please explain to me why two > KM> identical Vistas, neither with any OEM crapware, have their > KM> hardware performance backwards! > > Just to annoy you! I think it might be partially due to (how's that > for a wiggle-phrase?!) tolerances: slight variances in the individual > parts (even within integrated circuits, etc.), so a fraction gain here, > fraction loss there. No, these are different lines entirely. The faster Vista is an HP, Asus board, AMD CPU (which are usually much slower than the nominally similar Intel). The slow Vista is a Dell, Foxconn board, Intel CPU -- tho it's much better with Win7. So probably some Vista-specific driver that's bogus on the Dell. I didn't care enough to pursue it; if I was gonna be annoyed by changes to the OS, might as well have Win7, which ran much better. > > Correction: it is Lexar, but no, it is 128 MB: Model JDSP128-04-500A. > KM> Really? Holy crap. I still have a Cruzer of that era somewhere, > KM> but gods know which box it's in cuz it's nowhere to be found. In > KM> its day USB was still so hit or miss that I never got in the > KM> habit of using it. > > I think Dad may have given it to me for use with a digital camera, or > maybe to Sneakernet, ...I'm trying to think what to do with it - just a > bit quirky but no one here really would know as they don't get into the > details. I'm thinking maybe using it with an older Raspberry Pi for a > 'fun' project. And too good to throw away... as storage on a Pi sounds good. I wound up with a bunch of flash drives I was using as Poor Man's external HDs. > KM> Niftiest flash drive: one in the shape of a padlock from Symantec > KM> (and it's all metal, so it's as heavy as a real lock). You push > KM> in the hasp to expose the USB connector. I don't know what I did > KM> to earn it, but one day it arrived in the mail. Musta been > KM> conference fodder I'd long since forgotten about. > Don't drop it on your toe! I tend to avoid the cutsie devices but that This has already been done! > one would be fun to pullout of one's pocket and see others reactions > when used. Or have it hanging as a lock and plug it in! Haha, yes :D > > KM> So went looking on eBay to see if it has any particular collector > KM> value (didn't find any samples) but discovered this actual > KM> combination lock flash drive: > Ah! I was thinking the 'traditional' padlock with the curved metal bar Like mine! > but that one is an attention-getter too. As far as eBay prices, I've > also found they are not always the lowest True, especially as the pool of suckers expands. > > > > > > > Will continue to ground-before-insert just as a good practice. > > > > KM> If only because *I* don't like getting zapped. :) > > > > So we have found out you're not into that cheap a thrill!! > > > KM> I am no fun at an electrocution. :P > > > That comes as no shock! > > KM> I prefer dynamic to static. > > AC? DC is more fun! > KM> Surely you can sing better than that. > I barely carry a tune in a bucket! And my bucket leaks. > KM> And as I respond up above (we are nothing if not redundant!) PSU > You can say that again! That again! > KM> gets tested too, when all apart. But board was already suspect, > KM> just had the wrong suspect in custody. > > "It was my evil twin, honest!" It was! more evil than we knew. > KM> Needed a small-footprint heatsink for an AMD hotplate that I > KM> didn't have the right size ready to hand... so used the above > KM> copper heatsink. CPU stayed tolerable but HOLY CRAP did this > KM> thing get hot. Yeah, it transmits heat just fine!! > > I'm think the "AMD approved" heatsink and fan for the CPU in this > computer isn't all that it should be. Had to air dust again the other > day but wasn't that much - yes, a a thin layer but seems like shouldn't > be killing the thing. The other computers up here have just as much > dust. Maybe a water cooler type? Any experience? AMD's stock heatsinks are crap -- too small and all aluminum. AMD CPUs get too hot for anything less than copper core, and preferably solid copper heatsink. I got this for the better AMD: https://www.amazon.com/Adaptec-Socket-Heat-Sink-ACC-9520/dp/B000HRPHKE Works absolutely wonderfully; dropped CPU temp by about 30 degrees. All copper heatsink, and the fan is nearly silent, too. Except I paid about $11 on eBay. And liked the first one so much that I ordered another, get while the getting was good. Fits the AM2+ socket perfect; 939 socket not so much -- can be forced, but why bother, since that thing is too slow to use for anything but dire emergencies. > KM> 'em all tested and matched to one another, those AMD boards might > KM> depart to eBay, not like I'm short and vintage gaming boards are > KM> all the rage lately. > > If you have the storage room and the time to sell them. OTOH if it I have the storage; I may not have the patience. > weren't for people like you selling thir stuff on eBay people like me > couldn't buy stuff there! True :D > (Maybe I should start avoiding AMD -- this computer is AMD but so is the > one I'm using for MythTV and it's fine.) I'll take AMDs if they fall on my head, but I won't pay money for 'em. Seen too many bugs and too many fails, and WAY too much not near as fast as claimed once you set 'em to doing real work, not just gamer-suckering benchmarks. (Eg. Westworld's CPU supposedly is faster than a high-end Core2Quad. In Real Life it's about 40% slower than a midrange Core2Duo.) And from the donor pile at AVMUG... about half the AMD-based boards and/or CPUs were DOA. Few of the Intel-based boards, and NONE of the Intel CPUs were dead. > KM> Yeah, they have vidcards now too (NVidia chips, IIRC), I have a > KM> couple of 'em I picked up because they were reasonably modern yet > KM> fanless. > I don't recall which is which right now but I have a fanless video card > which works/worked fine except the heat sink is so huge it extends into > the next slot position. Most do stay within their confines but some are > a bit tight. I lied, I have four of the fanless sort, but all with compact heatsinks, so they only drive in their own lane. And I'm eyeing one on eBay, with more RAM... Silver's new guts deserve better... I've seen the oversized kind, tho... and I have one of the 3rd party radiator doodads. Got that with a used vidcard that was DOA (asked for and got half refund on that one, cuz I'd really wanted the radiator) and have a notion it might be useful for something other than vidcard. > > KM> Hackintosh, if I get around to Catalina will need ALL of it. > > KM> (14GB just to admire its navel.) > > It's not idling, it's pontificating! I was surprised both of > KM> LOL! That sounds right. > KM> And I found a board I could transplant the Giant Server to (same > KM> CPUs and RAM and it has onboard SAS) that is functionally > KM> identical to the innards in a Mac Pro... > > So you going to post to Instructibles.com "How I Built My Own Mac Pro"?! That's what this site is for https://www.tonymacx86.com/ One of the Dells is already a Hackintosh, albeit an older version, cuz it's whatever-I-had-ready-to-hand. Everything worked out of the box except the NIC, but I didn't bother installing kexts (drivers), so... soon discovered that while 8gb was okay, it's a lot happier with 24gb. Geesh... this is a ten year old version.... > Yes, I also try to futureproof -- have been burned a few times: need > some 5¬" floppies? As far as the thumbdrive capacity, it seems 16 GB is Whoops! No thanks, I still have plenty! > more than enough for what I do. Of course I'm not running a business. I liked how Techhole (youtube) described what he was doing so well that I pilfered it for my Borg listing: "I'm not a production environment, I'm a basement." > KM> Silly VM tricks: PCLOS will not speak consistently to the Windows > KM> network. However, XP in a VM works fine with the network. So when > KM> I need to move files, I fire up the XP VM and use it to copy > KM> stuff across the network. Very silly, but works without causing > KM> baldness. > > I've noticed Copy & Paste doesn't work consistently across the VM either > -- like earlier when I wanted to look at your lock thumbdrive link. Yeah, run into that too. Sometimes the setting doesn't stick. Or you forget to set it (default in VBox is Off). > Usually easier and faster to use the Linux Firefox than the VM Windows' > Firefox but this time nothing would copy over. For some reason even had > a bit of a problem copying from XP's editor to XP Firefox (had to put > the three lines back to one). Kinda irritating when you know it SHOULD work... > As for networking, here I haven't needed to have a remote computer look > at VM XP but do need to have the local machine 'chat' with the virtual > one so created a 'rabbit hole': VM XP has a networked drive which > connects to a shared folder of the Linux machine. My XP VM has no problem seeing the mandated host drive, so... > > want it for trial/testing out ==> for example eventually will move the > > X10 home automation (primarily turning on/off lighting) from XP to > KM> Being a troglodyte, I still use my finger on the switch. I > KM> remember when you installed the X10 -- I got one of the freebies > KM> they were handing out at the time, but never used it. > "Someone around here" used to have all sorts of timers and extension > cords to turn lights on and off automatically. Nice, but the cords > looked messy; main problem was the darn twice-a-year time change plus Did any of yours throw up on Feb.29th? had one decide it was some random number of hours earlier, on the day before. And did so somewhere in the middle of the day, so it wasn't even at midnight. > the power would fail somewhat frequently because of the birds and > squirrels being curious about the pole transformer in the back yard. > (We're in a residential neighbourhood with lots of trees.) Reset the > time on the timers without battery backup.... Ooops. > > .. And as the cream sauce said to the asparagus -- Happy Hollandaise! > KM> That's my tagline! > > Spread the words! :) > Where's the butter knife?? > > .. Bad love lines: You set my heart aflame - you give me heartburn. Definitely something lost in translation. 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) .