Coconut Monkey Cornerclub

[Zed Clampet]

I was just thinking that youre over paying. I have a black belt in homeopathy and I'll fix you right up with some distillations for the low low price of 5k a month.

$5000 is too much for fake medicine. Plus, my insurance pays for almost all of it, but they might reject your witch doctor water bottles.

 

[Pifanjr]

I finally got around to setting up Pi-hole. It's a piece of software that blocks ads for your entire network, which includes, for example, ads in phone apps. I just put it on my desktop PC, as I don't have anything else I can put it on, but my desktop is on most of the time anyway.

 

[Brian Boru]

I finally got around to setting up Pi-hole

Cool. If it satisfies, I assume you'll get the addon fanjr-Hole, needed for the full experience.

Will you be able to compare internet speeds with and without PH?

---

Interesting claim, but I'm always wary of another layer in the network software stack:

 

[Zed Clampet]

That's a little much for me, particularly since I haven't seen an ad in years just by having the Ublock extension on Chrome.

 

[Pifanjr]

Will you be able to compare internet speeds with and without PH?

I'll try to remember to do a test when I get home from work.

Interesting claim, but I'm always wary of another layer in the network software stack:

Why? It's just a little piece of software running on my own device that blocks calls to certain addresses. I can't imagine it will slow down regular network traffic by a noticeable amount and any ad that doesn't need to be downloaded is time saved.

That's a little much for me, particularly since I haven't seen an ad in years just by having the Ublock extension on Chrome.

It's mostly for the couple of mobile games I have, especially the few that my daughter likes to play occasionally.

 

[Brian Boru]

Why? It's just a little piece of software running on my own device

Mostly cos I'm fairly ignorant about all this. I forgot about you only putting on one device, when reading about router config.

blocks calls to certain addresses

Sounds like you'll use it like I used a Hosts file in the 00s, which went well at the time. Anyway, cool stuff 🙂

 

[Pifanjr]

Mostly cos I'm fairly ignorant about all this. I forgot about you only putting on one device, when reading about router config.


Sounds like you'll use it like I used a Hosts file in the 00s, which went well at the time. Anyway, cool stuff 🙂

It's pretty much exactly like the Hosts file. The Hosts file is the first place your computer looks to resolve a URL to an IP address, so you could add all of the URLs of ad companies to your Hosts file and point them to 0.0.0.0 so they're ignored (or download an existing Hosts file with those URLs).
After looking at the Hosts file, your PC checks a DNS server to ask what the IP address of a URL is. The Pi-hole is a local DNS server that blocks ads and passes on every other request to another DNS server to be resolved. It's a bit more convenient than using a Hosts file on every device (especially since you need to root your phone if you want it to use a Hosts file).

I haven't done a speed test yet, but once your PC knows the IP address of a URL, it doesn't need the DNS server any more, so internet speed really shouldn't be affected much.

 

[Pifanjr]

One of our RAM sticks seems to have broken. I've gotten some blue screens over the last two weeks or so, but a memory diagnostic didn't turn up anything. Then this morning the PC wouldn't start. The case fan turned on, but the CPU one didn't. It also wouldn't show anything on the monitor, nor did it power my keyboard or mouse.

I tried waiting and I tried restarting, but eventually I realised that the CPU was heating up, which seemed bad when the fan didn't work, so I turned it off and let it cool down for a while. I then took two RAM sticks out and the PC started again. Then I shuffled the ones I took out with the ones that were still in and it still worked. I thought that was that, but the next time I started the PC it did the same thing, so I suppose I have to keep two of them out until I can either replace all 4 or replace the one that died with a similar one.

 

[Brian Boru]

I suppose I have to keep two of them out until I can either replace all 4 or replace the one that died with a similar one

Dunno if you read the Hardware forum, but the gurus there like @Kaamos_Llama will smack you if you mix in a new stick 🙂

Their advice is always to use a set of all the same—ie bought together as one set—which is on the motherboard's QVL [qualified vendor list].

I'm not clear on whether 2 sticks are better than 4 these days, if you have 4 slots—there's a thing around 'dual channel' which one of our experts needs to confirm.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Mixing RAM and using kits not on QVL can cause problems, seen it quite a bit over the years. Less likely to be a problem if you're using JEDEC timings but still not guaranteed. Not always catastrophic, can be weird hangs, program crashes, long boot times, other weird behaviour thats hard to diagnose. MEMtest86 and other normal memory diagnostics dont usually find it because theyre not so good at finding instability, which is what you get when lower RAM timings have different tolerances between sticks. It can also just work, but most times not worth taking the risk if you can avoid it.

Dual channel just means you need to use the correct slots on the motherboard as per the manual, and use pairs of sticks, obviously.

 

[Brian Boru]

Dual channel … use pairs of sticks

So 4 works as well as 2?

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

4 can be harder to keep stable at higher speeds and lower timings depending on a lot of things, but generally yes.

 

[Pifanjr]

Seems like it isn't the RAM that's the problem, as my PC again didn't start this morning, but did start after putting the RAM in that I took out yesterday. I suspect the problem lies with the motherboard, though I should at least clean all of the dust out of it to see if that helps.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Seems like it isn't the RAM that's the problem, as my PC again didn't start this morning, but did start after putting the RAM in that I took out yesterday. I suspect the problem lies with the motherboard, though I should at least clean all of the dust out of it to see if that helps.

One stick of RAM in each slot and boot until it doesnt time. Hopefully its just one slot then you can at least work around it.

 

[Brian Boru]

Seems like it isn't the RAM that's the problem

Could be the power cable going bad. Try a diff one.

clean all of the dust out

For sure. While on that, look around mobo CSI-style with a flashlight to detect any bulging capacitors or scorch marks from shorts.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Seems like it isn't the RAM that's the problem, as my PC again didn't start this morning, but did start after putting the RAM in that I took out yesterday. I suspect the problem lies with the motherboard, though I should at least clean all of the dust out of it to see if that helps.

I assume you checked all the wires connecting to the MB, so I don't know what the problem could be outside of a failing power supply.

But, hey, if you don't show up for awhile, at least we'll have an idea of what happened, unlike with @mainer who is probably waiting for a Black Friday sale to buy a new CPU. Meanwhile I'm picturing him being abducted by aliens.

 

[Brian Boru]

I'm picturing him being abducted by aliens

You can jump on an 'other' ship sometimes in Starfield—there's a mission called sth like Storm Bringer where apparently it's a sure thing at the end of it, alien ship lands and if you kill the guys inside you can hop in. However, when the ship takes off again, it's supposed to dump you out.

I bet Mainer tried this and it didn't dump him out. So yes, he may now be in a galaxy far, far away…

 

[Zloth]

Wait, I missed something. Your PC didn't start, with a fan not working but the CPU doing... something, and your fix was "I'll take half the memory sticks out!?" I certainly wouldn't have thought of that! Were you trying to reduce how much power the PC needed?

Meanwhile I'm picturing him being abducted by aliens.

They wouldn't have survived past release day for Starfield if they didn't take him home to play it. Or maybe not - Mainer is pretty clever. He might have put the dangers of causing an interstellar war above his need to play Starfield.

 

[Brian Boru]

Were you trying to reduce how much power the PC needed?

Just testing for RAM gone bad, or a RAM slot gone bad, or particular RAM sticks deciding to not play nice together anymore. RAM is very persnickety, and sth easy to check, so always worth an early shot.

That said, it's rare. I don't think I've ever had a bad RAM problem in ~35 years of PC use.

 

[Pifanjr]

Wait, I missed something. Your PC didn't start, with a fan not working but the CPU doing... something, and your fix was "I'll take half the memory sticks out!?" I certainly wouldn't have thought of that! Were you trying to reduce how much power the PC needed?

I had gotten a blue screen before that for which bad RAM was listed as a probable cause, so it seemed like it was worth a shot. I did also check the power cable and I tried removing all USB cables before that.

The problem being the motherboard makes more sense though. I got this set-up second-hand and some of the screws were lost, so the motherboard has always slightly sagged. Which seemed like it might be bad, but the PC kept working. It's possible something eventually bent too much.

Just testing for RAM gone bad, or a RAM slot gone bad, or particular RAM sticks deciding to not play nice together anymore. RAM is very persnickety, and sth easy to check, so always worth an early shot.

That said, it's rare. I don't think I've ever had a bad RAM problem in ~35 years of PC use.

I think I've had it only once in about 25 years.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I've built a few PCs. I've bought a bunch. But I've rarely upgraded anything and almost always, until my current PC, gotten rid of it within about 2 years and started over. It wasn't until very recently that you could keep components for years because they would be woefully out-of-date. So I basically never had a component failure in a desktop.

On the other hand, I've had half-a-dozen crap laptops. But I don't count those.

 

[Zed Clampet]

The thing is that if the motherboard is sagging, then you are jostling it every time you put RAM in and take RAM out, which is probably temporarily fixing a bad connection somewhere. Then it sits for awhile and the connection slips away again.

 

[Pifanjr]

I've built a few PCs. I've bought a bunch. But I've rarely upgraded anything and almost always, until my current PC, gotten rid of it within about 2 years and started over. It wasn't until very recently that you could keep components for years because they would be woefully out-of-date. So I basically never had a component failure in a desktop.

On the other hand, I've had half-a-dozen crap laptops. But I don't count those.

I don't remember ever buying an upgrade for a PC, but I used mine for probably closer to 5-6 years, so I have had to replace components that broke occasionally. Though I suppose adding a SSD next to my HDD was a sort of upgrade.

The thing is that if the motherboard is sagging, then you are jostling it every time you put RAM in and take RAM out, which is probably temporarily fixing a bad connection somewhere. Then it sits for awhile and the connection slips away again.

That's my current theory too. Luckily it only goes wrong sometimes when starting the computer or waking it from sleep. Once it's running it keeps going, so I'll just shut it down less for now.

I'll start saving up for when it inevitably breaks down completely, which hopefully will take a while.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I've decided I'm leaving the sports forum I've been posting on for about 25 years ( it's evolved a ton over that time. When I first started there it just looked like a list on a white background).

No idea how many $99/year subscribers they have, but they have 5 full time reporters, so it has to be a lot.

What they don't have anymore are mods for the message board. I haven't posted in a long time, but just reading the other people's posts and interactions has completely turned me off. Tennessee lost last weekend, and it's been ugly. I mean really, really ugly. Threats of violence against other subscribers is only the tip of the iceberg.

Sadly, I just paid my $99 for the year a couple of weeks ago, so I'm stuck being a member for now. The articles, though poorly written, are the best part anyway, so I'll just read those and ignore the forum.

 

[Brian Boru]

I'm leaving the sports forum I've been posting on for about 25 years

That sucks. Worth a message to whoever owns/runs the place, maybe they don't know—and you're surely not the only one.