What Have You Done Today - (Computer Version)

[Obelisk]

The graphics are integrated on to the chip. Drivers wont change that.

What speed USB do you have? (2.0, 3.0, 3.1?). USB graphics aren't great. Unless you spend a lot of money, you wont get much more performance than the HD 4000.

I believe it's a 3.0. I've been looking at gaming laptops on the side as well.

 

[DQuaN]

I believe it's a 3.0. I've been looking at gaming laptops on the side as well.

Considering your current one is 2012 spec, a new laptop would probably be more cost effective.


To add to the topic of "what I have done today":

I started upgrading my home Virtual Environment. Installed two 2016 servers and migrated FSMO roles. Installed exchange 2016 on one of them.

This is to replace my SBS 2011 VM.

 

[Nexus]

I finally got around to dual booting Linux and Windows 10 on my desktop. I used to use Linux in a VM, but decided that it might be good to switch to a native install due to potential performance impacts from Meltdown and Spectre patches in the future.

I was originally planning on installing Kubuntu, but it refused to even boot up for me. I eventually decided to just get a plain Ubuntu image and download the KDE desktop instead. Apart from theming acting a bit buggy (which may just be a KDE thing, as my laptop running Kubuntu seems to have similar problems), it's pretty nice.

 

[Flex0r]

Working on a laptop of a friend, which wouldn't boot properly anymore.(the laptop, friend still boots up normally )
Was reinstalling Windows 10, first times it went ok and I plugged it in to the network to bring it up to date, only to have it encounter an error on boot after installing some updates and not booting windows.
As the laptop had some boot problems before, I assumed then it was when windows installed their own amd gpu drivers while amd catalyst drivers were installed.
I fixed it then by uninstalling the catalyst drivers.

So naturally I checked if there was a driver issue, eventhough it was only still using the windows drivers.

Went back to restore points before installing the patches multiple times, but every time windows failed to boot properly after rolling in updates, didn't find out which update caused it.
Even after configuring windows update to not install drivers of any kind, it kept failing.

So I let the windows reinstall setup do a clean install without the preservation of data.
I made sure important files were on another partition.
Tried to install it two times but eventually it went into a loop were it would state that the setup encountered an error and would restart the system and it encountered an error and would restart etc. etc.

I created a rescue USB from my own system to check if that would, only to find out the windows setup did a format of the whole drive.
So immediately ceased all my actions and powered down the laptop.

Removed the drive from the laptop and hooked it up to my USB to Sata/IDE thingy to verify that indeed the windows setup ruined my day.
I always warned them to regularly make backups of their important data, but you know how it is with not so tech savvy people.
Searched for free recovery tools online and found multiple and let them deep scan, so I could see if the data could be found and/or recovered.
Took a very long time, would have been faster if I installed the drive in my system, but it was already scanning for a few hours, so I just let it continue.

Finally one tool was finished and it showed a NTFS partition that was the same size as the partition the data was on.
To my luck I found that windows setup just used a quick format and the data was still there in good condition.
The tool I used was quite fast and easy to use, but unlicensed it would only recover 1GB of data.

As it was a good tool and having a company recover the data would probably be a bit more expensive, I bought a license.
Now I could recover the ~100GB of data.
So now that the data is safe on my own system, I can check the drive and after that see if I can get windows installed again.

Never lost important data before as I'm usually even more careful, but it had to happen eventually I guess.
Glad I got the data back and beware of the install without preservation of data option.

Sorry for the long story.

 

[TB]

I know some of you have a Raspberry Pi and I've considered grabbing one but haven't yet, so I thought I'd toss this out there. The Pi Hut is giving away a Pi-Top. Certainly can't hurt to sign up for it.

 

[Sonygamer455]

Tuesday, I fixed that issue I mentioned earlier by using the System File Checker (SFC) after reading about it here and it worked for a while, but as of today I have discovered it's back yet again. Problems are same as before, I have done the scan twice already and unlike before, it did not fix it and I am once again not sure what to do. I guess it's back to backing everything up again and doing a system restore, unless I find a better solution. Even if I do fix it again, I have a bad feeling this about to become habitual....

Other than that, I have just browsed Amazon looking for a decent lipo charger/discharger that doesn't cost a fortune. Contemplating on getting a 3S Lipo battery and a charger, but haven't made up my mind what I will do yet.

 

[Obelisk]

Tuesday, I fixed that issue I mentioned earlier by using the System File Checker (SFC) after reading about it here and it worked for a while, but as of today I have discovered it's back yet again. Problems are same as before, I have done the scan twice already and unlike before, it did not fix it and I am once again not sure what to do. I guess it's back to backing everything up again and doing a system restore, unless I find a better solution. Even if I do fix it again, I have a bad feeling this about to become habitual....

Other than that, I have just browsed Amazon looking for a decent lipo charger/discharger that doesn't cost a fortune. Contemplating on getting a 3S Lipo battery and a charger, but haven't made up my mind what I will do yet,

Get a balance charger, and try looking around at Airsoft and hobby stores for fairly priced lipos.

Make sure you know what maH you want, as well as voltage (a 3S is 11.1 volts) and current (usually starts at 20c).

Annnnd make sure the plug matches what you need.

 

[Castrol96]

Recently modelled a low-poly car, which I tested in Unity

...I tried re-creating GT2 / GT3 style graphics,...still needs some work.

 

[sesselpupser]

I know some of you have a Raspberry Pi and I've considered grabbing one but haven't yet, so I thought I'd toss this out there. The Pi Hut is giving away a Pi-Top. Certainly can't hurt to sign up for it.

I've got a Pi-Top at work, it's a great thing really, just not especially well-made. Mine came with what look like superglue finger prints in a few places and the thermal insert for the GPIO bridge came out with no hesitation at all when I was putting it together... But the good news is someone has made the "drivers" available for Raspbian so you don't even have to use Polaris to get things like automatic shutdown and battery monitor. The one thing it doesn't do that I wish it would is lock out the trackpad while you're typing but I use mine with the CLI maybe 80% of the time anyway.

 

[Grayfox]

Typed up a batch file script to backup my raid drive to another hard drive.

Not 100% if it will work correctly and testing for any errors will take ages to do a full backup on a 7.45TiB takes time.

@echo off
color 0A
title Back up Proraid
:home
cls
:start
ECHO.
echo Select an option:
echo //====================================================================================================================//
echo // 1: Back up(Copies all files and folders, Files deleted from source say at target location)                         //
echo // 2: Update Back up(Copies all files and folders, Files and folders deleted from source will be removed from target) //
echo // 3: Restore Backup(Restores Backup)                                                                                 //
echo // 0: Exit                                                                                                            //
echo //====================================================================================================================//
echo.
set /p choice= Please select an option.
if not '%choice%'=='' set choice=%choice:~0,1%
if '%choice%'=='1' goto Backup
if '%choice%'=='2' goto UpdateBackup
if '%choice%'=='3' goto RestoreBackup
if '%choice%'=='0' goto Exit
ECHO USE EITHER 1, 2, 3 or 0

:: Note - list ERRORLEVELS in decreasing order
IF ERRORLEVEL 3 GOTO Start
IF ERRORLEVEL 2 GOTO Start
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO Start
IF ERRORLEVEL 0 GOTO Start

:Backup
ECHO robocopy P:\ S:\ /B /E /V /W:1 /R:1 /XD J:\System Volume Information /XF J:\Autorun.inf
pause
Exit

:UpdateBackup
ECHO robocopy P:\ S:\ /B /E /V /W:1 /R:1 /XD J:\System Volume Information /XF J:\Autorun.inf /purge
pause
Exit

:RestoreBackup
ECHO robocopy S:\ P:\ /B /E /V /W:1 /R:1 /XD J:\System Volume Information /XF J:\Autorun.inf
pause
Exit

:Exit
ECHO Exit
pause

 

[Grayfox]

Finished that code.
So far it is working nicely.

 

[DK]

I managed to find the option to enable XMP in the BIOS. Next stop is buying an actual PC monitor rather than using a TV.

 

[Lain]

Ordered this last week:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MU8TZRV/?tag=gtplanet-20

Broke it this morning. Was lying in bed, and knocked my Macbook off my belly trying to swat a mosquito which pile drove the inserted thumb drive into my floor. I’m a shining example of how not to take care of your electronics... you’d think i’d have learned from cracking my iPhone screen last year in a similar manner, but nope.

On the bright side, the thumb drive might’ve helped save the laptop.

 

[sesselpupser]

I've had a good bit of luck with money this month (got paid more than I expected for some overtime I did ages ago, decided to have a cheap month and got paid back some money I was owed) so I'm naturally looking at PC parts. The only reason I didn't order an 8700K, Asus Z370-F, 2x8GB DDR4-3000, a Noctua NH-U14S and a Fractal Meshify C tonight is I'm not sure I'll be able to take the first half of Thursday off in order to receive the shipment at home... I'm, like, 99% sure I'm going to order all this as soon as I figure out when I can be at home to receive it. I've got a 4690K right now paired with a GTX 1080 and it just doesn't feel right, you know?

Edit: spoke to my boss, I've got tomorrow morning off as I have a package to wait in for...

 

[Grayfox]

Added 2 more lines to my script, it works perfectly

@echo off
color 0A
title Back up Proraid
:home
cls
:start
ECHO.
echo Select an option:
echo //====================================================================================================================//
echo // 1: Back up(Copies all files and folders, Files deleted from source say at target location)                         //
echo // 2: Update Back up(Copies all files and folders, Files and folders deleted from source will be removed from target) //
echo // 3: Restore Backup(Restores Backup)                                                                                 //
echo // 4: Fix Source Autorun                                                                                              //
echo // 5: Fix Destination Autorun                                                                                         //
echo // 0: Exit                                                                                                            //
echo //====================================================================================================================//
echo.
set /p choice= Please select an option.
if not '%choice%'=='' set choice=%choice:~0,1%
if '%choice%'=='1' goto Backup
if '%choice%'=='2' goto UpdateBackup
if '%choice%'=='3' goto RestoreBackup
if '%choice%'=='4' goto FixSourceAutorun
if '%choice%'=='5' goto FixDestinationAutorun
if '%choice%'=='0' goto Exit
ECHO USE EITHER 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 0 YOU IDIOT!

:: Note - list ERRORLEVELS in decreasing order
IF ERRORLEVEL 5 GOTO Start
IF ERRORLEVEL 4 GOTO Start
IF ERRORLEVEL 3 GOTO Start
IF ERRORLEVEL 2 GOTO Start
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO Start
IF ERRORLEVEL 0 GOTO Start

:Backup
robocopy P:\ S:\ /B /E /V /R:1 /W:1 /XD P:\System Volume Information /XF P:\Autorun.inf /XD P:\$Recycle.Bin
pause
goto start

:UpdateBackup
robocopy P:\ S:\ /B /MIR /V /R:1 /W:1 /XD P:\System Volume Information /XF P:\Autorun.inf /XD P:\$Recycle.Bin
pause
goto start

:RestoreBackup
robocopy S:\ P:\ /B /E /V /R:1 /W:1 /XD S:\System Volume Information /XF S:\Autorun.inf /XD S:\$Recycle.Bin
pause
goto start

:FixSourceAutorun
robocopy P:\Grayfox\ P:\ autorun.inf
pause
goto start

:FixDestinationAutorun
robocopy S:\Grayfox S:\ autorun2.inf
attrib S:\autorun2.inf -H -S -R
ren S:\autorun2.inf autorun.inf
attrib S:\autorun.inf +H +S +R
attrib S:\BackupPlus.ico +H +S +R
pause
goto start

:Exit
Exit

 

[Sonygamer455]

Tried to extract some sounds files from Need for Speed Most Wanted and didn't have any luck converting it to wav, may try again later. In the process of backing up my files and doing a reset on my computer, hopefully then it will obliterate whatever is causing my games to minimize since nothing else seems to be working.

Much to my shock, I learned earlier the PS3 can be jailbroken without an e3 flasher now! I am now contemplating on jailbreaking my PS3 very soon, so I have done a bit of research and will probably do some more later. For good reason, I don't dive headfirst into these things.

Get a balance charger, and try looking around at Airsoft and hobby stores for fairly priced lipos.

Make sure you know what maH you want, as well as voltage (a 3S is 11.1 volts) and current (usually starts at 20c).

Annnnd make sure the plug matches what you need.

Yea I know, a balance charger is what I need and I do plan on running a 3S lipo. I don't know any places around here I could find them, so I will probably get them on Amazon.

I am actually planning on using one for my soon to be modified Nerf Stryfe. Flywheel blasters are pretty incredible when modified to say the least.

 

[Obelisk]

Tried to extract some sounds files from Need for Speed Most Wanted and didn't have any luck converting it to wav, may try again later. In the process of backing up my files and doing a reset on my computer, hopefully then it will obliterate whatever is causing my games to minimize since nothing else seems to be working.

Much to my shock, I learned earlier the PS3 can be jailbroken without an e3 flasher now! I am now contemplating on jailbreaking my PS3 very soon, so I have done a bit of research and will probably do some more later. For good reason, I don't dive headfirst into these things.
Yea I know, a balance charger is what I need and I do plan on running a 3S lipo. I don't know any places around here I could find them, so I will probably get them on Amazon.

I am actually planning on using one for my soon to be modified Nerf Stryfe. Flywheel blasters are pretty incredible when modified to say the least.

Try Hobbyking. I picked up a bunch of handy stuff there.

Also, make sure your Stryfe gearbox can handle it. I've seen Vulcans get wired to lipos and melt down from the speed.

 

[Lain]

Been creating custom poster art for the Youtube channels I've downloaded and added to my Plex library, lookin' pretty good so far:

 

[sesselpupser]

Yesterday I got my new parts, so my PC is at home in a reasonably built state but I need to do all the cabling. Annoyingly I can't read so the USB 2.0 plates I bought are for SFF PCs, I might use them temporarily anyway because I've only got two USB 2.0 and two 3.1 Gen 1s on the back, so with my keyboard, mouse, monitor and Vive plugged in it'll be full. I might, therefore, plug the mouse into the monitor too (along with my mic) to save a 2.0, to which I might connect my Bluetooth dongle, only problem is I have frequent trouble with that which requires me to unplug it from whichever port it's in and plug it in somewhere else.

Anyway, the case looks great, but look at the clearance between the front fan and my graphics card (Zotac GTX 1080 Amp Extreme, aka the biggest cooler you can get):

Like a glove! Again, I completely forgot to check this. My bad, but I got lucky.

 

[Sonygamer455]

Plugged my old 1TB hard drive into my laptop with my adapter and checked to make sure it didn't have anything of value on there. I am planning on using it on my PS3 now that I have jailbreak because 120GB just isn't cutting it for me. My iPod Classic is the only device I have that is large enough to hold a back up from the PS3, but it apparently didn't like working with the PS3. So I restored it and tried again, it made it farther but still failed. Then I found out my CFW had a debug backup feature that apparently works a lot better, so I put all my music on my ipod and went with that.

I also tried booting the original Star Wars Battlefront II last night and it worked. Tried again this evening and it didn't, but now it's working for some reason. I don't understand....

Try Hobbyking. I picked up a bunch of handy stuff there.

I've been recommended that, but it's not an option for me though, luckily I know a good cheap one on Amazon that works well.

Also, make sure your Stryfe gearbox can handle it.

The Stryfe doesn't have a gearbox. I am not aware of any flywheel blasters having them.

I've seen Vulcans get wired to lipos and melt down from the speed.

Funny enough I am working on rewiring my Vulcan. I am going to hazard a guess they didn't replace the wiring and switches or remove the PCB board before doing it because those stock components don't hold up well when subjected to that.

Before electronic modding became what it is today, people would do the old school with mod alligator clips and a battery pack with no internal modifications, which makes it easy to burn it up. Of course even with proper mods, it can still happen.

 

[Robin]

Trying to find out why Seatools hangs on scanning when I launch the programme I then have to force close it.

A while ago one of my laptops suddenly froze up and wouldn't boot again, took the Seagate drive out and it read fine in a USB caddy so I backed it up. I then bought a replacement and put this drive aside.

Now I'm trying to test its health as it appears to be working fine but Seatools seems to be a pile of garbage. They can't even make a good diagnostic tool! Anything else I can try?

 

[Rallywagon]

Started working on building a website this week. Is covering a part-time project I'm working on. Doing it all using sublime, inkscape and gimp. Once i feel the website is far enough along, I'm going too look into starting up an apache VM and try to get it up and my dns pointed at it.

Added 2 more lines to my script, it works perfectly

@echo off
color 0A
title Back up Proraid
:home
cls
:start
ECHO.
echo Select an option:
echo //====================================================================================================================//
echo // 1: Back up(Copies all files and folders, Files deleted from source say at target location)                         //
echo // 2: Update Back up(Copies all files and folders, Files and folders deleted from source will be removed from target) //
echo // 3: Restore Backup(Restores Backup)                                                                                 //
echo // 4: Fix Source Autorun                                                                                              //
echo // 5: Fix Destination Autorun                                                                                         //
echo // 0: Exit                                                                                                            //
echo //====================================================================================================================//
echo.
set /p choice= Please select an option.
if not '%choice%'=='' set choice=%choice:~0,1%
if '%choice%'=='1' goto Backup
if '%choice%'=='2' goto UpdateBackup
if '%choice%'=='3' goto RestoreBackup
if '%choice%'=='4' goto FixSourceAutorun
if '%choice%'=='5' goto FixDestinationAutorun
if '%choice%'=='0' goto Exit
ECHO USE EITHER 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 0 YOU IDIOT!

:: Note - list ERRORLEVELS in decreasing order
IF ERRORLEVEL 5 GOTO Start
IF ERRORLEVEL 4 GOTO Start
IF ERRORLEVEL 3 GOTO Start
IF ERRORLEVEL 2 GOTO Start
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO Start
IF ERRORLEVEL 0 GOTO Start

:Backup
robocopy P:\ S:\ /B /E /V /R:1 /W:1 /XD P:\System Volume Information /XF P:\Autorun.inf /XD P:\$Recycle.Bin
pause
goto start

:UpdateBackup
robocopy P:\ S:\ /B /MIR /V /R:1 /W:1 /XD P:\System Volume Information /XF P:\Autorun.inf /XD P:\$Recycle.Bin
pause
goto start

:RestoreBackup
robocopy S:\ P:\ /B /E /V /R:1 /W:1 /XD S:\System Volume Information /XF S:\Autorun.inf /XD S:\$Recycle.Bin
pause
goto start

:FixSourceAutorun
robocopy P:\Grayfox\ P:\ autorun.inf
pause
goto start

:FixDestinationAutorun
robocopy S:\Grayfox S:\ autorun2.inf
attrib S:\autorun2.inf -H -S -R
ren S:\autorun2.inf autorun.inf
attrib S:\autorun.inf +H +S +R
attrib S:\BackupPlus.ico +H +S +R
pause
goto start

:Exit
Exit

Is that a batch file?

 

[Grayfox]

Started working on building a website this week. Is covering a part-time project I'm working on. Doing it all using sublime, inkscape and gimp. Once i feel the website is far enough along, I'm going too look into starting up an apache VM and try to get it up and my dns pointed at it.


Is that a batch file?

Yeah.

My knowledge of batch scripts is quite limited.

But it works in the following manner

Echo off turns off the C:\Users\%Userprofile%> on each new line
color 0A sets the color of the CMD prompt to black background and Bright Green Text
Title sets the window title
:home is the home section of the script
cls clears any thing on screen that would be present
:start is the start portion of the script
echo unneeded line
echo Select an option: this types out "Select an option:" as well as the text box below
echo //====================================================================================================================//
echo // 1: Back up(Copies all files and folders, Files deleted from source stay at target location) //
echo // 2: Update Back up(Copies all files and folders, Files and folders deleted from source will be removed from target) //
echo // 3: Restore Backup(Restores Backup) //
echo // 4: Fix Source Autorun //
echo // 5: Fix Destination Autorun //
echo // 0: Exit //
echo //====================================================================================================================//
echo .unneeded line
set /p choice= Please select an option. this is an environment variable
if not '%choice%'=='' set choice=%choice:~0,1% for processing batch commands and will take you to one of the scripts below
if '%choice%'=='1' goto Backup
if '%choice%'=='2' goto UpdateBackup
if '%choice%'=='3' goto RestoreBackup
if '%choice%'=='4' goto FixSourceAutorun
if '%choice%'=='5' goto FixDestinationAutorun
if '%choice%'=='0' goto Exit
ECHO USE EITHER 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 0 YOU IDIOT! If you do not select the correct choice this message will be displayed

:: Note - list ERRORLEVELS in decreasing order If there is an error with either the selection or script the script will take you back to :Start
IF ERRORLEVEL 5 GOTO Start
IF ERRORLEVEL 4 GOTO Start
IF ERRORLEVEL 3 GOTO Start
IF ERRORLEVEL 2 GOTO Start
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO Start
IF ERRORLEVEL 0 GOTO Start

:Backup if 1 is selected this command runs
robocopy P:\ S:\ /B /E /V /R:1 /W:1 /XD P:\System Volume Information /XF P:\Autorun.inf /XD P:\$Recycle.Bin
pause Suspends processing of a batch program and displays Press any key to continue . . .
goto start will take you back to :Start

:UpdateBackup if 2 is selected this command runs
robocopy P:\ S:\ /B /MIR /V /R:1 /W:1 /XD P:\System Volume Information /XF P:\Autorun.inf /XD P:\$Recycle.Bin
pause Suspends processing of a batch program and displays Press any key to continue . . .
goto start will take you back to :Start

:RestoreBackup if 3 is selected this command runs
robocopy S:\ P:\ /B /E /V /R:1 /W:1 /XD S:\System Volume Information /XF S:\Autorun.inf /XD S:\$Recycle.Bin
pause Suspends processing of a batch program and displays Press any key to continue . . .
goto start will take you back to :Start

:FixSourceAutorun if 4 is selected this command runs
robocopy P:\Grayfox\ P:\ autorun.inf
pause Suspends processing of a batch program and displays Press any key to continue . . .
goto start will take you back to :Start

:FixDestinationAutorun if 5 is selected this command runs
robocopy S:\Grayfox S:\ autorun2.inf
attrib S:\autorun2.inf -H -S -R
ren S:\autorun2.inf autorun.inf
attrib S:\autorun.inf +H +S +R
pause Suspends processing of a batch program and displays Press any key to continue . . .
goto start will take you back to :Start

:Exit if 0 is selected this command runs
Exit this command closes the cmd prompt


This is what it looks like

 

[Sonygamer455]

Plugged my PS3's original HDD in and copied GT5's game data to my computer and I did the same thing with my new hard drive, except this was GT5 1.0's game data whereas the other was on 2.17. I am trying to find a way to revert back to update 2.11 without losing my custom tracks, photos, and replays. I analyzed some of GT5's update files's and I think I know how I can, but I don't know for sure. Whenever I get a decent size flash drive, i'll find out and see.

 

[Grayfox]

Since my seacrate External HDD died, I had to replace it and now I am backing up my RAIDbox.
All 5.2TB of data.

 

[sesselpupser]

I've just used the Mac in my office to set up SSH keys on two remote computers in the museum so one can rsync its backups to another, so I ended up with two shells open where I SSH'd into each remote computer, then SSH'd from those into each other.

In other news, I just got my first one of these, I'm planning to get another to replace my (also 500GB but really slow for an NVMe drive) Intel 600p:

 

[Grayfox]

In other news, I just got my first one of these, I'm planning to get another to replace my (also 500GB but really slow for an NVMe drive) Intel 600p:

View attachment 720208

I have one too.

Not that slow.

 

[sesselpupser]

I have one too.

Not that slow.

Compared to the 960 Evo it is, I mean the gap between the 600p and 960 is as big as (if not bigger than) the gap between the 850 and the 600p...

 

[TB]

Factory resetting some Google Nexus 10s that we don't use anymore so they can be sold.



Not shown, the fifth one that was too dead to reset so I'm hunting for a cable.

 

[Nexus]

Updating KDE on my laptop caused a blackscreen, so I took this opportunity to install Xubuntu. I don't really like the XFCE environment though (and the OS itself is a bit too barebones for my taste), so I'll be installing Fedora KDE on it soon.

Edit: Managed to install Fedora, I think I'll stay with this. I don't want to start distro hopping.