PC fettling and repairs thread

[DCBassman]

Just time consuming...

Yup, troubleshooting compatibility from the do-it-deliberately side can be a bit teeth-grinding...

 

[DCBassman]

Yup, troubleshooting compatibility from the do-it-deliberately side can be a bit teeth-grinding...

And still didn't fix it. More drastic measures needed, so some research showed what bits of software needed disabling. That definitely worked.
Also, now fully loaded with 8GB RAM. It runs well, and looks great!

 

[Andy_R]

Just replaced the HDD with a Samsung 970 Evo Plus SSD. System now boots Win10 into a usable state in just over 10 seconds.

 

[MrGrumpy]

Eldest just put together a PC for youngest son. The SSD had windows 7 on it . Just upgraded to 10 and it’s not activating , boooo . Might have to buy another copy . Not sure on the history of the original install .

 

[JoeyB]

Eldest just put together a PC for youngest son. The SSD had windows 7 on it . Just upgraded to 10 and it’s not activating , boooo . Might have to buy another copy . Not sure on the history of the original install .

I usually grab an OEM licence key from eBay for £3/4 ish.

 

[MrGrumpy]

I usually grab an OEM licence key from eBay for £3/4 ish.

Think that’s what I did the last time but….. think EBay have tightened up on some stuff /cough

 

[DCBassman]

Updates:
Dell XPS laptop now fully geared up for TV.
Also used it for iPlayer here at the house-sit, watching Vigil via a big HDMI cable and the TV set.
Asus TP200SA: a convertible mini-pc/tablet donated by older son, along with a Huawei P20 Pro smartphone. The Asus is running W10Pro ok-ish, but is hampered by 32GB storage and 2GB RAM, neither of which are upgradeable. So will need a new OS for that at some point. Took me a while yesterday to learn how to unlock the BIOS to enable boot from USB stick...
Great cameras on the P20, lenses by Leica.

 

[DCBassman]

Asus TP200SA now running Linux Mint 20.2 Xfce, entirely ok, but no tyre-burner.

 

[ColinJ]

Hmm... I might try putting Linux on a diddy laptop donated to me by a mate. One of those old Asus EEEPCs.

It is running Win 7 and is SLOW. I'd be interested to see if it is usable for anything with Linux on it.

Mind you, I already have Linux on my old Dell and I don't use that...

Any ideas for dedicated use of underpowered devices? It seems a shame to recycle working tech but what is it good for!

 

[Bonefish Blues]

I'm going to have a bash at replacing a failed hard drive in an iMac with an SSD. How hard can it be because YouTube 😄

 

[MrGrumpy]

Hmm... I might try putting Linux on a diddy laptop donated to me by a mate. One of those old Asus EEEPCs.

It is running Win 7 and is SLOW. I'd be interested to see if it is usable for anything with Linux on it.

Mind you, I already have Linux on my old Dell and I don't use that...

Any ideas for dedicated use of underpowered devices? It seems a shame to recycle working tech but what is it good for!

Choose something lightweight OS wise. Been a long time since I delved into the dark side.

 

[DCBassman]

Asus TP200SA now running Linux Mint 20.2 Xfce, entirely ok, but no tyre-burner.

Re-installing this from scratch in order to put /home on a second drive, in this case a fast 128GB SD card. main drive was a little cramped at only 32GB, so we'll see how this works. Will have to put the Timeshift system restore cache on there too.
All good nerdy fun!

 

[yello]

Any ideas for dedicated use of underpowered devices? It seems a shame to recycle working tech but what is it good for!

Plenty of lightweight distros available, depends on the spec of your machine. Even a pure debian install might work for you. Ime, it's often the desktop enviroment that slows older machines down because of the memory. Obviously, older machines tend to have less memory than newer ones. So choose the aforementioned Xfce, or lxde or MATE or....

Just web search 'lightweight Linux distros' and take your pick. Some distro names to look at; Lubuntu, Xubuntu are often mentioned but there are also lesser 'name' choices like Zorin, CrunchBang++, LinuxLite, Bodhi, LXLE.... the list is quite long. Please don't choose 'Puppy Linux' though. Good as it may be, I find it darned twee!

 

[ColinJ]

I am sure that I will be able to find a distro to do the job; the real problem is deciding what that job IS!

I've also got 2 old Dell laptops and an old desktop PC lying around doing nothing. They are so old that the local computer recycling charity doesn't want them. (They don't meet the minimum spec for refurbed computers for African village schools.)

If just playing around with Linux then I can use the better of the 2 Dells for that.

 

[MrGrumpy]

I used to setup old desktops as routers or servers . There is that ? Big enough HD store content or stream stuff on the network. To be honest I was just playing around and teaching myself stuff .