PC fettling and repairs thread

[MrGrumpy]

Anyone use the Epson eco tank printers ? Keen on views . Currently the Mrs uses an HP printer , it was cheap , it’s slow and the cartridges are costing a bit as going through a lot . We did think about a laser printer but they cartridges are spendy as well . Eco tanks seems ok ?

Ps I’ve done the copy cartridges before but I find they are a hit and miss and tend to dry out ! This was on Epson printers .

 

[ColinJ]

I have put in a bid for the other speaker. Hopefully, that will be accepted so I can replace both speakers at the same time.

The vendor DID accept my offer on the other speaker too. It would have been weird to accept it for the left side speaker but then turn down an identical offer for the right side one. I'm just hoping that these replacement speakers are not ALSO blown. They come from a dismantled laptop so it is possible!

 

[lazybloke]

Anyone use the Epson eco tank printers ? Keen on views . Currently the Mrs uses an HP printer , it was cheap , it’s slow and the cartridges are costing a bit as going through a lot . We did think about a laser printer but they cartridges are spendy as well . Eco tanks seems ok ?

Ps I’ve done the copy cartridges before but I find they are a hit and miss and tend to dry out ! This was on Epson printers .

I have a Canon equivalent, the G3520.
The initial ptr cost was high but ink lasts ages and is cheap to buy refill bottles.
Bought because my wife's course required massive amounts of printing...


She eventually hit the service interval so i had to pay more for various bits to be replaced. Wasn't too impressed, as i think we were only on the 2nd ink refill, and had to pay for a service.

Reckon i'll look at colour laser (or other technologies?) next time.

 

[MrGrumpy]

I have a Canon equivalent, the G3520.
The initial ptr cost was high but ink lasts ages and is cheap to buy refill bottles.
Bought because my wife's course required massive amounts of printing...


She eventually hit the service interval so i had to pay more for various bits to be replaced. Wasn't too impressed, as i think we were only on the 2nd ink refill, and had to pay for a service.

Reckon i'll look at colour laser (or other technologies?) next time.

I’ll put up a separate post for laser printer recommendations. A bit of Googling has highlighted issues like you say with the tanks as well .

 

[lazybloke]

I’ll put up a separate post for laser printer recommendations. A bit of Googling has highlighted issues like you say with the tanks as well .

No problems with the tanks or print head, andni'm on my second such printer in about 10 ;yrs.. The 'sponge' used to absorb ink during nozzle cleaning was said to be the primary cause for the service interval.

The motors and gearing are a bit noisy.

 

[DCBassman]

Well, apart from actually doing some bike fettling this week, including a very short ride, I have mostly been wrangling Apple Macs.
As they are both pretty old, the versions of macOS they will run range from useless (El Capitan) to OK-ish (High Sierra). So Linux is the order of the day.
Late 2009 Core 2 Duo 27" iMac: doddle. Standard USB stick, plug it in, boot it, install it. Job done. Just like any old Windows box. And what a beautifull 1440p screen!
Early 2008 Mac Pro, model 3,1: absolute friggin' nightmare. Would not even see the stick as a bootable device. Surprisingly, there was no knowledge I could find as to why this might be. I tried formatting the stick every which way. Nuffin. Then, just in case, I tried a different stick. For the record, this was USB3 and much larger capacity, neither of which should matter at all. Bingo! There it was in the Mac EFI boot screen, and selecting it produced a GRUB menu. Now we're cooking! Hit enter to run the live image, as usual. Zip. Just sat there with a static cursor in the top left-hand corner. Next, I burnt the ISO file to an external SSD and tried that. Same result. Then, out of sheer desperation, I took the SSD out of its case and plugged it straight into the Mac Pro backplane.
It bloomin' worked. Having figured out how to do it, I switched it all off, installed all the drives I wanted the machine to have, and went for it. Flawless install, and it runs really well. After that, deciding I don't need to see the Mac boot screen, I added an Nvidia GT1030 and connected the monitor to that. Linux did its thing, and I'm now able to use the full power of the GT1030 or switch back to the Mac native Radeon HD2600XT for power saving, or if I need to swap a macOS drive back in. The Nvidia card is invisible and useless to macOS, which has rarely played well with Nvidia kit.
So now I have a very stylish and quite powerful Linux box, twin 2.8GHz Xeon X5462s and 16GB RAM. Not bad for £20.

 

[Grant Fondo]

Quick one, want to use an old Win 7 licence off a laptop to transfer to a much newer Dell laptop (ex work one). Best to wipe the SSD or bung a new one in for ease of install?

 

[DCBassman]

If you're gonna wipe, what's the difference? Unless you want to upgrade for space, of course. If not, save pennies! then upgrade it at least to Win 10, 7 isn't remotely safe to use these days.

 

[StuAff]

Deffo won't run latest iOS, probably High Sierra at best.

Mojave was the last officially supported OS for 5,1 Mac Pros. Running it on mine. Newer OSs are possible with one of multiple hack methods.
Did you buy it?

 

[pubrunner]

Well, apart from actually doing some bike fettling this week, including a very short ride, I have mostly been wrangling Apple Macs.
As they are both pretty old, the versions of macOS they will run range from useless (El Capitan) to OK-ish (High Sierra). So Linux is the order of the day.
Late 2009 Core 2 Duo 27" iMac: doddle. Standard USB stick, plug it in, boot it, install it. Job done. Just like any old Windows box. And what a beautifull 1440p screen!
Early 2008 Mac Pro, model 3,1: absolute friggin' nightmare. Would not even see the stick as a bootable device. Surprisingly, there was no knowledge I could find as to why this might be. I tried formatting the stick every which way. Nuffin. Then, just in case, I tried a different stick. For the record, this was USB3 and much larger capacity, neither of which should matter at all. Bingo! There it was in the Mac EFI boot screen, and selecting it produced a GRUB menu. Now we're cooking! Hit enter to run the live image, as usual. Zip. Just sat there with a static cursor in the top left-hand corner. Next, I burnt the ISO file to an external SSD and tried that. Same result. Then, out of sheer desperation, I took the SSD out of its case and plugged it straight into the Mac Pro backplane.
It bloomin' worked. Having figured out how to do it, I switched it all off, installed all the drives I wanted the machine to have, and went for it. Flawless install, and it runs really well. After that, deciding I don't need to see the Mac boot screen, I added an Nvidia GT1030 and connected the monitor to that. Linux did its thing, and I'm now able to use the full power of the GT1030 or switch back to the Mac native Radeon HD2600XT for power saving, or if I need to swap a macOS drive back in. The Nvidia card is invisible and useless to macOS, which has rarely played well with Nvidia kit.
So now I have a very stylish and quite powerful Linux box, twin 2.8GHz Xeon X5462s and 16GB RAM. Not bad for £20.

A very interesting posting.

I've a 2011 Mac Pro and you've given me a few ideas of what to do with it.

I've just been working on an iMac of similar vintage -i5 cpu, 900gb SSD 32gb ram and now running Windows 11.

I find it rewarding, to get a few more years out of 'old' equipment; just wondering what to do with a couple of old Samsung NC10s - I'm happy to chuck them out . . . but I might first try making them into Chromebooks.

 

[DCBassman]

A very interesting posting.

I've a 2011 Mac Pro and you've given me a few ideas of what to do with it.

I've just been working on an iMac of similar vintage -i5 cpu, 900gb SSD 32gb ram and now running Windows 11.

I find it rewarding, to get a few more years out of 'old' equipment; just wondering what to do with a couple of old Samsung NC10s - I'm happy to chuck them out . . . but I might first try making them into Chromebooks.

I'm particularly incensed by Apple's blatant planned obsolescence, so it's good that these nice but very awkward machines get a second life. I particularly like the big iMac as a nice piece of kit, but upgrading that will be a nightmare...

 

[DRM]

I have a 2010 MacBook Pro, it’s running High Sierra, Safari started being a bit hit and miss as to what websites would work on it, so I just downloaded Firefox, normal service resumed with a minimum of faffing about

 

[DCBassman]

I have a 2010 MacBook Pro, it’s running High Sierra, Safari started being a bit hit and miss as to what websites would work on it, so I just downloaded Firefox, normal service resumed with a minimum of faffing about

Indeed, but for how much longer, before Firefox won't update? Not likely to be that long. However, that machine might be fairly easy to patch up to the next macOS edition.

 

[pubrunner]

me, II'm particularly incensed by Apple's blatant planned obsolescence, so it's good that these nice but very awkward machines get a second life. I particularly like the big iMac as a nice piece of kit, but upgrading that will be a nightmare...

I certainly agree with you about 'Apple's blatant planned obsolescence', especially when one considers the quality of the components. The Mac Pro was so well (over ?) engineered and with a modular design that lends itself to being upgraded.

My iMac is the 21.5" version; I put Windows 10 on it and it was great. I then installed Windows 11, which also works well, but for the life of me, I can't get sound from the audio port, or get the (excellent) built-in speakers to work. I've got around the sound issue, by having a small speaker which is connected to a USB port and works well. Should be good for another couple of years.

If, in later years, Windows becomes unmanageable, I'll then go down the Linux route. I've a couple of laptops - one with Q4OS and one with Zorin - both are very good and I think Windows users would probably find both easy to use.

 

[fossyant]

Sort of PC fettling. My son's Samsung screen packed in during this weekend's heat (he was at a motoracing event) and it overheated and ping, no screen (no cracks, Samsung S21). Fortunately he has insurance, but has had a mare with finding the IMEI etc and also two stage authentication as his phone is borked. I pulled the protective case off, and could see the IMEI on the back but it was that tiny, neither of us could read it. His works Apple couldn't get a good ic, so I used my S23 Ultra camera - bingo nice picture of the code.

So insurance 'repair sorted', he now needs to check phone - fortunately there is SAMSUNG DEX built in the phone, so he was able to plug the phone directly into my Thinkpad USB C hub, so he has mouse and keyboard access, and the 'screen' on a monitor. At least the can get at the 'important' emails etc.