On 12/24/2013 4:37 PM, Mark Lloyd wrote:
On 12/23/2013 09:56 PM, nestork wrote:

[snip]

Also, I'm being told by tech support at IOGear, that I CAN't use PS2 to
USB adapters with my PS2 KVM switch. They say it wouldn't work, but
didn't provide any reason.

The little "adapters" that come with some mice are only plug adapters
and don't change protocols (which are very different). They work only if
the mouse (or KVM switch) is capable of operating in either mode.

IIRC, the mouse operates as a PS2 device until it receives the
initialization command sent by a USB controller.

That sounds like the problem I had with the Cirque touchpad.
When windows booted, it changed the mode.
The kvm switch to linux got all confused.
And all the cool features quit working.

On 12/24/2013 2:04 PM, Oren wrote:
On Tue, 24 Dec 2013 01:42:24 -0800, mike wrote:

I never learned whether teamviewer sends info thru their servers
or just uses them to set up a direct connection. That could make
a big difference for local use.

PDF:

After the handshake through our master servers, in 70% of
the cases a direct connection via UDP or TCP is established (even
behind standard gateways, NATs and firewalls). The rest of the
connections are routed through our highly redundant router network via
TCP or http-tunnelling.

Yep that's it. If the data has to go out thru my isp and back in to
get to my intranet, performance sucks.
If it doesn't, I don't need teamviewer at all.

I don't like anybody having access to my computers if it's not
necessary. VNC is all you need locally.

On 12/24/2013 4:37 PM, Mark Lloyd wrote:
On 12/23/2013 09:56 PM, nestork wrote:

[snip]

Also, I'm being told by tech support at IOGear, that I CAN't use PS2 to
USB adapters with my PS2 KVM switch. They say it wouldn't work, but
didn't provide any reason.

The little "adapters" that come with some mice are only plug adapters
and don't change protocols (which are very different). They work only if
the mouse (or KVM switch) is capable of operating in either mode.

IIRC, the mouse operates as a PS2 device until it receives the
initialization command sent by a USB controller.

I have an external ps2 keyboard/mouse to usb converter that seems to
work well.
Belkin F5U119-E

Have no idea what happens when you add a KVM to the mix.

On 12/24/2013 4:01 PM, philo wrote:
On 12/24/2013 04:46 PM, nestork wrote:
'philo*[_2_ Wrote:
;3171940']
BTW: Rather than reload Windows in the event of a major problem...since

hard drives are so cheap, why not just clone you drive. It's a good
backup precaution.


I think I'm already one step ahead of you.

On my business computer, the program I use to do 99% of my business with
(Microsoft Works) and all of the files I use are on a 128 GB solid state
drive that plugs in to a USB port on the front of that computer.

Not clear what you mean. If the SSD merely holds the files, you're
probably safe.
If it hosts the operating system, you've got stuff to worry about.
Especially if you didn't add the SSD tweaks to optimize the system
to minimize writes.


So, if anything ever happened to that computer, I could simply plug that
drive into my other computer. I'd just have to move the printer cable
to my other computer, and I'd be back up and running.

I understand that solid state drives are considerably more reliable than
conventional hard drives because they don't have a motor and magnetic
platter. They're basically just a huge flash drive.

I think that's true if you bang 'em around a lot and never write 'em.






I never trust my data to less than three separate HD's.

SSD's are good in that they have no moving parts to wear out but they do
have a limited number of read/ writes.

Right now, the only one I have is on a laptop I rarely use.


The thing is, when an SSD does fail, it can do so with no warning.

With a conventional drive there is usually some type of warning first
such as a SMART error, developing bad sectors or R/W errors.

On Tue, 24 Dec 2013 19:39:44 -0600, philo* wrote:

On 12/24/2013 07:23 PM, wrote:




I never trust my data to less than three separate HD's.

SSD's are good in that they have no moving parts to wear out but they do
have a limited number of read/ writes.

Right now, the only one I have is on a laptop I rarely use.


The thing is, when an SSD does fail, it can do so with no warning.

With a conventional drive there is usually some type of warning first
such as a SMART error, developing bad sectors or R/W errors.
I've had as many "hard " failures on hard drives as "soft" failures.
Work perfectly one minute - and totally useless the next.




Only once have I gotten on my bench a standard HD that went into
instant failure mode.

I lucked out and found an SMT cap. with a cracked solder joint and
repaired it.

The next day I gave the owner of the machine a very severe lecture on
making backups!
Of the last 5 HD failures I've had come in, 2 were "hard", one had
been slow for months, and the other one had occaisionally had access
problems, which, in hindsight, were a warning. Because it would
generally boot on the second reboot other problems were suspected -
not the drive. When it quit completely, the drive could not be
accessed even as a second drive. Not sure if a new drive would have
fixed it completely as we junked the computer.

On Tue, 24 Dec 2013 19:14:07 -0800, Oren wrote:

On Tue, 24 Dec 2013 20:26:52 -0500, wrote:

On Tue, 24 Dec 2013 14:14:37 -0800, Oren wrote:

On Tue, 24 Dec 2013 15:00:29 -0500, wrote:

So, for your situation... bottom line.... TeamViewer. It's a
no-brainer as far as I can see.

The only problem with team viewer and any other "software" solution
is booting the computer if it is on a network or requires entry of a
password or any other keyboard input to boot.

Wake-on-LAN: Wake up your computers remotely
whenever you need access.

That is "wake". How do you START the computer with no keyboard or
mouse (or monitor to knoow if it HAS started)?

That is the "Wake-on-LAN". A packet hits the adapter and tells the
unit to get out of bed

Windows® system service: Install TeamViewer as a Windows system
service and access remote computers directly after starting Windows
and before the Windows login.


Might work - but it sounds too much like VMWare with no monitor to me.
If it doesn't work you have no idea what didn't work.

So you investigate, right?
Yup. By connecting a monitor, keyboard and mouse.
Not a problem for me because I have a 4 port KVM on my home setup.
Have a 5 port at the office which was great with the hypoer-v server,
but is not a whole lot of use since we switched to VMware. Now I have
a laptop on my desk and I have to RDP into the box to do anything at
all.

Remote reboot: Restart computers remotely –
even in safe mode.

http://www.teamviewer.com/en/res/pdf/TeamViewer-Remote-Control-Brochure-en.pdf

On 12/24/2013 8:39 PM, philo wrote:


Only once have I gotten on my bench a standard HD that went into instant
failure mode.

I lucked out and found an SMT cap. with a cracked solder joint and
repaired it.

The next day I gave the owner of the machine a very severe lecture on
making backups!

I got some malware, one time. Wiped out my HD, and
two external HD. That was seriously expensive.

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On 12/24/2013 10:24 PM, Oren wrote:
On Tue, 24 Dec 2013 19:39:44 -0600, philo wrote:

The next day I gave the owner of the machine a very severe lecture on
making backups!

How severe was it?

The customer went away, crying?

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On 12/24/2013 7:39 PM, philo wrote:
On 12/24/2013 07:23 PM, wrote:




I never trust my data to less than three separate HD's.

SSD's are good in that they have no moving parts to wear out but
they do have a limited number of read/ writes.

Right now, the only one I have is on a laptop I rarely use.


The thing is, when an SSD does fail, it can do so with no
warning.

With a conventional drive there is usually some type of warning
first such as a SMART error, developing bad sectors or R/W
errors.
I've had as many "hard " failures on hard drives as "soft"
failures. Work perfectly one minute - and totally useless the
next.


Only once have I gotten on my bench a standard HD that went into
instant failure mode.

I lucked out and found an SMT cap. with a cracked solder joint and
repaired it.

The next day I gave the owner of the machine a very severe lecture on
making backups!

I have a small very bright flashlight that I use when I hold a circuit
board up close to look for bad solder joints. Of course the first place
to look is anywhere there's a connector or jack but these days, I've
found that when someone screws up a surface mounted jack on a circuit
board, the time and trouble to repair it will cost more than a new
board. I had a kid bring me an external hard drive case that had the
mini USB data connector. The thing had been handled too roughly and the
USB cable jerked out sideways which destroyed the circuit board where
the jack was surface mounted. I ordered him a new better case with the
full sized USB connector from Amazon for $26.00 and that one hasn't
broken yet. I remember a guy with a radio/TV shop who would have a
customer bring in a small dead transistor radio. The shop owner would
take the dead radio, drop it on the floor, stomp on it then reach over
and take a new radio of the shelf, hand it to the customer and say,
"That will be $7.95 please". ^_^

TDD

On 12/24/2013 9:24 PM, Oren wrote:
On Tue, 24 Dec 2013 19:39:44 -0600, philo wrote:

The next day I gave the owner of the machine a very severe lecture on
making backups!

How severe was it?


I'm wondering if he used whips, chains and rubber underwear? ^_^

TDD

On 12/24/2013 11:40 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 24 Dec 2013 19:39:44 -0600, philo
wrote:

On 12/24/2013 07:23 PM, wrote:


I never trust my data to less than three separate HD's.

SSD's are good in that they have no moving parts to wear out
but they do have a limited number of read/ writes.

Right now, the only one I have is on a laptop I rarely use.

The thing is, when an SSD does fail, it can do so with no
warning.

With a conventional drive there is usually some type of warning
first such as a SMART error, developing bad sectors or R/W
errors.
I've had as many "hard " failures on hard drives as "soft"
failures. Work perfectly one minute - and totally useless the
next.


Only once have I gotten on my bench a standard HD that went into
instant failure mode.

I lucked out and found an SMT cap. with a cracked solder joint and
repaired it.

The next day I gave the owner of the machine a very severe lecture
on making backups!
Of the last 5 HD failures I've had come in, 2 were "hard", one had
been slow for months, and the other one had occaisionally had access
problems, which, in hindsight, were a warning. Because it would
generally boot on the second reboot other problems were suspected -
not the drive. When it quit completely, the drive could not be
accessed even as a second drive. Not sure if a new drive would have
fixed it completely as we junked the computer.

I'm getting into solid state drives but the only mechanical hard drives
I buy are enterprise class drives designed to run 24/7. The drives cost
a little more and I haven't had any of them gronk on me. ^_^

TDD

On 12/24/2013 6:48 PM, Oren wrote:
On Tue, 24 Dec 2013 23:46:08 +0100, nestork
wrote:

I understand that solid state drives are considerably more reliable
than conventional hard drives because they don't have a motor and
magnetic platter. They're basically just a huge flash drive.

I've read a little about 'em. The SSD is much faster in read and
wrights and worth having. I will eventually. When they FAIL, it is
sudden, dead, done, put a fork in it.

An HDD may give some warning, like a clicking sound. Get your stuff
off then. Just a matter of time until you can harvest rare earth
magnets and platters from the drive. G


You can make hi-tech hand cuffs from the magnets and the shinny platters
can be hung up with fishing line somewhere and used for target practice. ^_^

TDD

On 12/25/2013 8:36 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:

I remember a guy with a radio/TV shop who would have a
customer bring in a small dead transistor radio. The shop owner would
take the dead radio, drop it on the floor, stomp on it then reach over
and take a new radio of the shelf, hand it to the customer and say,
"That will be $7.95 please". ^_^

TDD

I'd never go back to a jerk like that.

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On 12/25/2013 8:36 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:

I remember a guy with a radio/TV shop who would have a
customer bring in a small dead transistor radio. The shop owner would
take the dead radio, drop it on the floor, stomp on it then reach over
and take a new radio of the shelf, hand it to the customer and say,
"That will be $7.95 please". ^_^

TDD

At least he's not a doctor!

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On 12/24/2013 09:24 PM, Oren wrote:
On Tue, 24 Dec 2013 19:39:44 -0600, philo wrote:

The next day I gave the owner of the machine a very severe lecture on
making backups!

How severe was it?




Not that bad really but he does back everything up now!

On 12/25/2013 06:17 AM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
On 12/24/2013 10:24 PM, Oren wrote:
On Tue, 24 Dec 2013 19:39:44 -0600, philo wrote:

The next day I gave the owner of the machine a very severe lecture on
making backups!

How severe was it?

The customer went away, crying?



No, he is a good friend of mine and I did him a favor.

On 12/25/2013 07:37 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:
On 12/24/2013 9:24 PM, Oren wrote:
On Tue, 24 Dec 2013 19:39:44 -0600, philo wrote:

The next day I gave the owner of the machine a very severe lecture on
making backups!

How severe was it?


I'm wondering if he used whips, chains and rubber underwear? ^_^

TDD



The guy's specialty is nudes...so I did not want to lose him as a friend
and customer.


BTW: The stuff he does is very tasteful, he projects B&W patterns on the
women. I'd post a link but I am not sure if anyone here would want to
look at nudes.

On 12/24/2013 11:40 PM, wrote:



Only once have I gotten on my bench a standard HD that went into
instant failure mode.

I lucked out and found an SMT cap. with a cracked solder joint and
repaired it.

The next day I gave the owner of the machine a very severe lecture on
making backups!
Of the last 5 HD failures I've had come in, 2 were "hard", one had
been slow for months, and the other one had occaisionally had access
problems, which, in hindsight, were a warning. Because it would
generally boot on the second reboot other problems were suspected -
not the drive. When it quit completely, the drive could not be
accessed even as a second drive. Not sure if a new drive would have
fixed it completely as we junked the computer.




There is very little around here that I junk.


If it's a P-4 or above it's well worth keeping.
I have boxes of spare parts and can get just about anything going again.

On 12/25/2013 07:44 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:

Only once have I gotten on my bench a standard HD that went into
instant failure mode.

I lucked out and found an SMT cap. with a cracked solder joint and
repaired it.

The next day I gave the owner of the machine a very severe lecture
on making backups!
Of the last 5 HD failures I've had come in, 2 were "hard", one had
been slow for months, and the other one had occaisionally had access
problems, which, in hindsight, were a warning. Because it would
generally boot on the second reboot other problems were suspected -
not the drive. When it quit completely, the drive could not be
accessed even as a second drive. Not sure if a new drive would have
fixed it completely as we junked the computer.

I'm getting into solid state drives but the only mechanical hard drives
I buy are enterprise class drives designed to run 24/7. The drives cost
a little more and I haven't had any of them gronk on me. ^_^

TDD



Nothing like those enterprise drives.

Standard drives, even if put in sleep mode don't seem to hold up too
well for 24/7 use.

On 12/25/2013 06:16 AM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
On 12/24/2013 8:39 PM, philo wrote:


Only once have I gotten on my bench a standard HD that went into instant
failure mode.

I lucked out and found an SMT cap. with a cracked solder joint and
repaired it.

The next day I gave the owner of the machine a very severe lecture on
making backups!

I got some malware, one time. Wiped out my HD, and
two external HD. That was seriously expensive.



Sheesh I have no idea how it could have gotten that bad...


I switched to Linux as my full time OS 5 years ago to lessen the chance
of something like that happening.

On 12/25/2013 07:36 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:
ure mode.

I lucked out and found an SMT cap. with a cracked solder joint and
repaired it.

The next day I gave the owner of the machine a very severe lecture on
making backups!

I have a small very bright flashlight that I use when I hold a circuit
board up close to look for bad solder joints. Of course the first place
to look is anywhere there's a connector or jack but these days, I've
found that when someone screws up a surface mounted jack on a circuit
board, the time and trouble to repair it will cost more than a new
board. I had a kid bring me an external hard drive case that had the
mini USB data connector. The thing had been handled too roughly and the
USB cable jerked out sideways which destroyed the circuit board where
the jack was surface mounted. I ordered him a new better case with the
full sized USB connector from Amazon for $26.00 and that one hasn't
broken yet. I remember a guy with a radio/TV shop who would have a
customer bring in a small dead transistor radio. The shop owner would
take the dead radio, drop it on the floor, stomp on it then reach over
and take a new radio of the shelf, hand it to the customer and say,
"That will be $7.95 please". ^_^

TDD



Great story!

Even though I am a firm believer in fixing rather than replacing, I
rarely bother with "board level" repair, it's not worth it.

As to laptops, the only H/W repair I do on them is hard-drive, RAM or
keyboard replacement.


The HD I repaired was an exception of course as it had data on it.

On 12/25/2013 08:55 AM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
On 12/25/2013 8:36 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:

I remember a guy with a radio/TV shop who would have a
customer bring in a small dead transistor radio. The shop owner would
take the dead radio, drop it on the floor, stomp on it then reach over
and take a new radio of the shelf, hand it to the customer and say,
"That will be $7.95 please". ^_^

TDD

At least he's not a doctor!


But the radio was dead so would it matter?

On 12/25/2013 10:04 AM, Bill wrote:
On 12/25/2013 08:55 AM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
On 12/25/2013 8:36 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:

I remember a guy with a radio/TV shop who would have a
customer bring in a small dead transistor radio. The shop owner would
take the dead radio, drop it on the floor, stomp on it then reach over
and take a new radio of the shelf, hand it to the customer and say,
"That will be $7.95 please". ^_^

TDD

At least he's not a doctor!


But the radio was dead so would it matter?

It shows a disrespect for the customer's
property. It still belongs to the customer,
until stated otherwise.

You wouldn't want me to stomp on your liver,
and then sell you a transplant?

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On Wed, 25 Dec 2013 07:44:04 -0600, The Daring Dufas
wrote:

On 12/24/2013 11:40 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 24 Dec 2013 19:39:44 -0600, philo
wrote:

On 12/24/2013 07:23 PM, wrote:


I never trust my data to less than three separate HD's.

SSD's are good in that they have no moving parts to wear out
but they do have a limited number of read/ writes.

Right now, the only one I have is on a laptop I rarely use.

The thing is, when an SSD does fail, it can do so with no
warning.

With a conventional drive there is usually some type of warning
first such as a SMART error, developing bad sectors or R/W
errors.
I've had as many "hard " failures on hard drives as "soft"
failures. Work perfectly one minute - and totally useless the
next.


Only once have I gotten on my bench a standard HD that went into
instant failure mode.

I lucked out and found an SMT cap. with a cracked solder joint and
repaired it.

The next day I gave the owner of the machine a very severe lecture
on making backups!
Of the last 5 HD failures I've had come in, 2 were "hard", one had
been slow for months, and the other one had occaisionally had access
problems, which, in hindsight, were a warning. Because it would
generally boot on the second reboot other problems were suspected -
not the drive. When it quit completely, the drive could not be
accessed even as a second drive. Not sure if a new drive would have
fixed it completely as we junked the computer.

I'm getting into solid state drives but the only mechanical hard drives
I buy are enterprise class drives designed to run 24/7. The drives cost
a little more and I haven't had any of them gronk on me. ^_^

TDD
Most I work with are enterprise too - which is why out of about42?
drives in the one office I've had 2 or 3 failures in the last 5 years.
The machines get replaced at about 7 years.

On Wed, 25 Dec 2013 08:22:46 -0600, philo* wrote:

On 12/25/2013 07:44 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:

Only once have I gotten on my bench a standard HD that went into
instant failure mode.

I lucked out and found an SMT cap. with a cracked solder joint and
repaired it.

The next day I gave the owner of the machine a very severe lecture
on making backups!
Of the last 5 HD failures I've had come in, 2 were "hard", one had
been slow for months, and the other one had occaisionally had access
problems, which, in hindsight, were a warning. Because it would
generally boot on the second reboot other problems were suspected -
not the drive. When it quit completely, the drive could not be
accessed even as a second drive. Not sure if a new drive would have
fixed it completely as we junked the computer.

I'm getting into solid state drives but the only mechanical hard drives
I buy are enterprise class drives designed to run 24/7. The drives cost
a little more and I haven't had any of them gronk on me. ^_^

TDD



Nothing like those enterprise drives.

Standard drives, even if put in sleep mode don't seem to hold up too
well for 24/7 use.
And they stand up even worse when started and stopped every dat or
more.

On Wed, 25 Dec 2013 08:21:10 -0600, philo* wrote:

On 12/24/2013 11:40 PM, wrote:



Only once have I gotten on my bench a standard HD that went into
instant failure mode.

I lucked out and found an SMT cap. with a cracked solder joint and
repaired it.

The next day I gave the owner of the machine a very severe lecture on
making backups!
Of the last 5 HD failures I've had come in, 2 were "hard", one had
been slow for months, and the other one had occaisionally had access
problems, which, in hindsight, were a warning. Because it would
generally boot on the second reboot other problems were suspected -
not the drive. When it quit completely, the drive could not be
accessed even as a second drive. Not sure if a new drive would have
fixed it completely as we junked the computer.




There is very little around here that I junk.


If it's a P-4 or above it's well worth keeping.
I have boxes of spare parts and can get just about anything going again.
This was one of the limited number of "acer power" computers that had
problems with sound and compatability with certain printers. It had
been put into a low stress application for the last 6 years - and it's
time had come.

The decent rejects get raffled off to employees for home use.
Sometimes hard to get takers for 7 year old or older computers around
here (silicon valley north) (aka "the technology triangle")

On Wed, 25 Dec 2013 08:24:21 -0600, philo* wrote:

On 12/25/2013 06:16 AM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
On 12/24/2013 8:39 PM, philo wrote:


Only once have I gotten on my bench a standard HD that went into instant
failure mode.

I lucked out and found an SMT cap. with a cracked solder joint and
repaired it.

The next day I gave the owner of the machine a very severe lecture on
making backups!

I got some malware, one time. Wiped out my HD, and
two external HD. That was seriously expensive.



Sheesh I have no idea how it could have gotten that bad...


I switched to Linux as my full time OS 5 years ago to lessen the chance
of something like that happening.
Likely had to replace all 3 drives because he didn't know how to
restore them. EXTREMELY rare for any malware to actually DAMAGE a hard
drive - particularly a non-system drive. Sure, it can screw up the
format but that is USUALLY solveable.

On Wed, 25 Dec 2013 08:54:52 -0500, Stormin Mormon
wrote:

On 12/25/2013 8:36 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:

I remember a guy with a radio/TV shop who would have a
customer bring in a small dead transistor radio. The shop owner would
take the dead radio, drop it on the floor, stomp on it then reach over
and take a new radio of the shelf, hand it to the customer and say,
"That will be $7.95 please". ^_^

TDD

I'd never go back to a jerk like that.
The kid likely ended up with a BETTER radio, unless the damaged one
was a really high end one (which MOST definitely were not)

On Wed, 25 Dec 2013 08:28:05 -0600, philo* wrote:

On 12/25/2013 07:36 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:
ure mode.

I lucked out and found an SMT cap. with a cracked solder joint and
repaired it.

The next day I gave the owner of the machine a very severe lecture on
making backups!

I have a small very bright flashlight that I use when I hold a circuit
board up close to look for bad solder joints. Of course the first place
to look is anywhere there's a connector or jack but these days, I've
found that when someone screws up a surface mounted jack on a circuit
board, the time and trouble to repair it will cost more than a new
board. I had a kid bring me an external hard drive case that had the
mini USB data connector. The thing had been handled too roughly and the
USB cable jerked out sideways which destroyed the circuit board where
the jack was surface mounted. I ordered him a new better case with the
full sized USB connector from Amazon for $26.00 and that one hasn't
broken yet. I remember a guy with a radio/TV shop who would have a
customer bring in a small dead transistor radio. The shop owner would
take the dead radio, drop it on the floor, stomp on it then reach over
and take a new radio of the shelf, hand it to the customer and say,
"That will be $7.95 please". ^_^

TDD



Great story!

Even though I am a firm believer in fixing rather than replacing, I
rarely bother with "board level" repair, it's not worth it.

As to laptops, the only H/W repair I do on them is hard-drive, RAM or
keyboard replacement.


The HD I repaired was an exception of course as it had data on it.
I'll occaisionall replace a display or a backlight or inverter.

On 12/25/2013 09:58 AM, wrote:



Sheesh I have no idea how it could have gotten that bad...


I switched to Linux as my full time OS 5 years ago to lessen the chance
of something like that happening.
Likely had to replace all 3 drives because he didn't know how to
restore them. EXTREMELY rare for any malware to actually DAMAGE a hard
drive - particularly a non-system drive. Sure, it can screw up the
format but that is USUALLY solveable.




The chance of malware physically damaging a hard drive is probably not
possible. I have seen on very rare occasions where a partition table got
corrupted...but using a partition editor, was able to fix it.

On 12/25/2013 8:18 AM, philo wrote:
On 12/25/2013 07:37 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:
On 12/24/2013 9:24 PM, Oren wrote:
On Tue, 24 Dec 2013 19:39:44 -0600, philo
wrote:

The next day I gave the owner of the machine a very severe
lecture on making backups!

How severe was it?


I'm wondering if he used whips, chains and rubber underwear? ^_^

TDD

The guy's specialty is nudes...so I did not want to lose him as a
friend and customer.

BTW: The stuff he does is very tasteful, he projects B&W patterns on
the women. I'd post a link but I am not sure if anyone here would
want to look at nudes.

Looking at nekid women on The Interweb?! Are you kidding?! Bring em on! ^_^

TDD

On 12/25/2013 9:52 AM, wrote:
On Wed, 25 Dec 2013 07:44:04 -0600, The Daring Dufas
wrote:

On 12/24/2013 11:40 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 24 Dec 2013 19:39:44 -0600, philo
wrote:

On 12/24/2013 07:23 PM, wrote:


I never trust my data to less than three separate HD's.

SSD's are good in that they have no moving parts to wear
out but they do have a limited number of read/ writes.

Right now, the only one I have is on a laptop I rarely
use.

The thing is, when an SSD does fail, it can do so with no
warning.

With a conventional drive there is usually some type of
warning first such as a SMART error, developing bad
sectors or R/W errors.
I've had as many "hard " failures on hard drives as "soft"
failures. Work perfectly one minute - and totally useless the
next.


Only once have I gotten on my bench a standard HD that went
into instant failure mode.

I lucked out and found an SMT cap. with a cracked solder joint
and repaired it.

The next day I gave the owner of the machine a very severe
lecture on making backups!
Of the last 5 HD failures I've had come in, 2 were "hard", one
had been slow for months, and the other one had occaisionally
had access problems, which, in hindsight, were a warning. Because
it would generally boot on the second reboot other problems were
suspected - not the drive. When it quit completely, the drive
could not be accessed even as a second drive. Not sure if a new
drive would have fixed it completely as we junked the computer.

I'm getting into solid state drives but the only mechanical hard
drives I buy are enterprise class drives designed to run 24/7. The
drives cost a little more and I haven't had any of them gronk on
me. ^_^

TDD
Most I work with are enterprise too - which is why out of about42?
drives in the one office I've had 2 or 3 failures in the last 5
years. The machines get replaced at about 7 years.

In my experience over 4 decades or so, is that "heat" is the enemy of
any electronic gear especially computer systems. I have a program on the
workstation I'm using right now that keeps an eye on all the
temperatures and overall health of the drives in my system. I just mouse
over the icon and a window pops up with the temps. If I double click, it
opens the main window to give me a detailed report on the S.M.A.R.T.
data. It's "Ashampoo HDD Control" I got it for free at Give Away Of The
Day when it was up on their site. HDD Control 2 is now available from
Ashampoo. ^_^

http://www.ashampoo.com/en/usd/pin/0...oo-HDD-Control

http://preview.tinyurl.com/29vkna4

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/

TDD

On 12/25/2013 11:08 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:


In my experience over 4 decades or so, is that "heat" is the enemy of
any electronic gear especially computer systems.

Absolutely!


I am sure the drives I've replaced on machines run 24/7 failed due to
heat rather than simply "being on" all the time. They were set to "spin
down" after and hour or so of non-use.


I have a program on the
workstation I'm using right now that keeps an eye on all the
temperatures and overall health of the drives in my system. I just mouse
over the icon and a window pops up with the temps. If I double click, it
opens the main window to give me a detailed report on the S.M.A.R.T.
data. It's "Ashampoo HDD Control" I got it for free at Give Away Of The
Day when it was up on their site. HDD Control 2 is now available from
Ashampoo. ^_^

http://www.ashampoo.com/en/usd/pin/0...oo-HDD-Control


http://preview.tinyurl.com/29vkna4

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/

TDD

On 12/25/2013 9:56 AM, wrote:
On Wed, 25 Dec 2013 08:21:10 -0600, philo
wrote:

On 12/24/2013 11:40 PM, wrote:



Only once have I gotten on my bench a standard HD that went
into instant failure mode.

I lucked out and found an SMT cap. with a cracked solder joint
and repaired it.

The next day I gave the owner of the machine a very severe
lecture on making backups!
Of the last 5 HD failures I've had come in, 2 were "hard", one
had been slow for months, and the other one had occaisionally had
access problems, which, in hindsight, were a warning. Because it
would generally boot on the second reboot other problems were
suspected - not the drive. When it quit completely, the drive
could not be accessed even as a second drive. Not sure if a new
drive would have fixed it completely as we junked the computer.


There is very little around here that I junk.

If it's a P-4 or above it's well worth keeping. I have boxes of
spare parts and can get just about anything going again.

This was one of the limited number of "acer power" computers that
had problems with sound and compatability with certain printers. It
had been put into a low stress application for the last 6 years - and
it's time had come.

The decent rejects get raffled off to employees for home use.
Sometimes hard to get takers for 7 year old or older computers
around here (silicon valley north) (aka "the technology triangle")

Many of the computers, LCD monitors, mice, keyboards, inkjet and laser
printers, switches, routers, wireless routers and speakers around the
office and house are dumpster rescues or poor abandoned equipment that
needed a good home. That doesn't include the phone systems. We have a
service call tomorrow on a phone system at a drug store and when we do
installations and repairs, all those rescued parts and equipment can be
recycled for use on the job. ^_^

TDD

On 12/25/2013 11:18 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:



snip
This was one of the limited number of "acer power" computers that
had problems with sound and compatability with certain printers. It
had been put into a low stress application for the last 6 years - and
it's time had come.

The decent rejects get raffled off to employees for home use.
Sometimes hard to get takers for 7 year old or older computers
around here (silicon valley north) (aka "the technology triangle")

Many of the computers, LCD monitors, mice, keyboards, inkjet and laser
printers, switches, routers, wireless routers and speakers around the
office and house are dumpster rescues or poor abandoned equipment that
needed a good home. That doesn't include the phone systems. We have a
service call tomorrow on a phone system at a drug store and when we do
installations and repairs, all those rescued parts and equipment can be
recycled for use on the job. ^_^

TDD




I tell everyone I know that I will take their old machines.
If I end up with stuff I cannot use, it gets properly recycled.

Years ago I'd find them on the curb all the time...but today the
scavengers get them way before I ever have a chance.

For the amount of money they spend in gas...driving up and down the
streets, after a trip to a junk yard they probably end up with a $5 profit.

On 12/25/2013 8:28 AM, philo wrote:
On 12/25/2013 07:36 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:
ure mode.

I lucked out and found an SMT cap. with a cracked solder joint
and repaired it.

The next day I gave the owner of the machine a very severe
lecture on making backups!

I have a small very bright flashlight that I use when I hold a
circuit board up close to look for bad solder joints. Of course the
first place to look is anywhere there's a connector or jack but
these days, I've found that when someone screws up a surface
mounted jack on a circuit board, the time and trouble to repair it
will cost more than a new board. I had a kid bring me an external
hard drive case that had the mini USB data connector. The thing had
been handled too roughly and the USB cable jerked out sideways
which destroyed the circuit board where the jack was surface
mounted. I ordered him a new better case with the full sized USB
connector from Amazon for $26.00 and that one hasn't broken yet. I
remember a guy with a radio/TV shop who would have a customer bring
in a small dead transistor radio. The shop owner would take the
dead radio, drop it on the floor, stomp on it then reach over and
take a new radio of the shelf, hand it to the customer and say,
"That will be $7.95 please". ^_^

TDD

Great story!

Even though I am a firm believer in fixing rather than replacing, I
rarely bother with "board level" repair, it's not worth it.

As to laptops, the only H/W repair I do on them is hard-drive, RAM or
keyboard replacement.

The HD I repaired was an exception of course as it had data on it.

I picked up 3 non functioning laptops a couple of months ago from a
pawnshop for $100.00. Two HP's and a 17" Toshiba which I was glad to
get. I got the Win7 HP and Win Vista Toshiba working straight away but
the older HP has a problem recognizing the hard drive. The Toshiba has
no problems now and the Win7 HP needs a battery which I can get from
Amazon for very little money. I do LCD panel replacements on laptops for
people who've smashed them but I see if it all works on an external
monitor first. ^_^

TDD

On 12/24/2013 07:30 PM, wrote:

[snip]

The little "adapters" that come with some mice are only plug adapters
and don't change protocols (which are very different). They work only if
the mouse (or KVM switch) is capable of operating in either mode.

No the little adapter that connects a USB mouse to a PS2 port will
connect any PS2 mouse to a USB port - the usb port does the
negotiating.

Maybe you misunderstood. I was talking about a mouse that can operate as
EITHER USB or PS2. THAT MOUSE can operate on either port. Most seem to
be like that now.

IIRC, the mouse operates as a PS2 device until it receives the
initialization command sent by a USB controller.

My experience has beeh the mouse doesn't operate AT ALL untill the
USB controller recognizes it and the OS installs the driver/starts the
service. Same with the keyboard


That doesn't make sense for the mouse I was describing (one that can
work with the adapters, and needs to be able to work with NO USB port).
There are USB/PS2 keyboards like this too.

BTW, I prefer USB on systems that can handle it. A PS2 mouse or keyboad
has to be plugged in while the computer is initializing. USB devices
don't have that limitation. Also, USB connectors don't fall out as easily.

--
Currently: (Wednesday December 25, 2013 12:00 AM for 1 day).

Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us

"The Bible is not my Book and Christianity is not my religion. I could
never give assent to the long complicated statements of Christian
dogma." [Abraham Lincoln]

On 12/25/2013 11:32 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:


I picked up 3 non functioning laptops a couple of months ago from a
pawnshop for $100.00. Two HP's and a 17" Toshiba which I was glad to
get. I got the Win7 HP and Win Vista Toshiba working straight away but
the older HP has a problem recognizing the hard drive. The Toshiba has
no problems now and the Win7 HP needs a battery which I can get from
Amazon for very little money. I do LCD panel replacements on laptops for
people who've smashed them but I see if it all works on an external
monitor first. ^_^

TDD



Some guy gave me eight non-working laptops, one needed a new mini-SSD
but the rest were "beyond economical repair".


A few weeks later a friend came over who had a bad keyboard on his
machine and I'll be darned I had an exact replacement and got him going
in about a half hour.

On 12/24/2013 10:05 PM, mike wrote:

[snip]

I have an external ps2 keyboard/mouse to usb converter that seems to
work well.
Belkin F5U119-E

Have no idea what happens when you add a KVM to the mix.

It should if this is really a protocol converter (I think it is), not
just a plug adapter like the little ones that seem to come with most
mice now.

--
Currently: (Wednesday December 25, 2013 12:00 AM for 1 day).

Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us

"The Bible is not my Book and Christianity is not my religion. I could
never give assent to the long complicated statements of Christian
dogma." [Abraham Lincoln]

On Wed, 25 Dec 2013 10:33:54 -0600, philo* wrote:

On 12/25/2013 09:58 AM, wrote:



Sheesh I have no idea how it could have gotten that bad...


I switched to Linux as my full time OS 5 years ago to lessen the chance
of something like that happening.
Likely had to replace all 3 drives because he didn't know how to
restore them. EXTREMELY rare for any malware to actually DAMAGE a hard
drive - particularly a non-system drive. Sure, it can screw up the
format but that is USUALLY solveable.




The chance of malware physically damaging a hard drive is probably not
possible. I have seen on very rare occasions where a partition table got
corrupted...but using a partition editor, was able to fix it.
The onlky "physical" damage I have seen is a program that thrashed the
heck out of the drive for about 8 hours every night and litterally
"burned out" the drive - and that was over 10 years ago - heck -
likely 20 years ago - with a servo head drive, not voice-coil - full
height 5.25" esdi drive ( worth over $600 for 35MB of capacity)