Reviving a "bricked" PC

[target2019]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MRG All computers wait at the same speed.

Sometimes you just wanna change to keep your chops up.

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by target2019 In 2020 I hope to start a new computer project of some type, just to keep up with the tech. Not sure what I'll pick or will go forward with. Probably a good idea just ot upgrade home network for newer standards. Something of interest might grow out of that.

One thing I have in mind, but have not had the free time to do it, is to build a NAS with the Raspberry Pi 4 and SSDs.

I currently have 4 NAS:

1) Iomega 1TB
2) Buffalo, RAID-5 (parity), 1TB
3) Windows Home Server 2007, RAID-1 (mirror), 3TB
4) Windows Home Server 2011, 1TB

Only NAS 1 above is left on 24/7. The other 3 are turned on as needed, because they are power hungry.

I could convert 1) and 2) to SSD, but that takes some real work, not just swapping out drives.

NAS 3) and 4) are built from old PCs, so converting to SSD is trivial, but would not save that much power. I use them for archival storage, and to run whole-system backups for all the PCs in the household, so only turn them on as needed.

A NAS with Raspberry and SSD should be very low-power, and takes just a few watts compared to the servers I have now. And SSD will eventually get cheap enough that I will do mirroring throughout.

[target2019]

I looked at Raspberry Pi last week. What stood out were complaints about the level of heat without adding cooling fan.

[dvalley]

Nice work! You took me back to the mid to late 90s when I did that sort of stuff in college and then at my first job, mostly burning assembly programs into micro-controllers and then programming PLCs. It's been a loooong time now. Oh and my first PC was an XT with 256k RAM and a Turbo button that went from 5MHz to 7MHz...and it cost a lot of money because my dad (RIP) told me I'd better put it to good use. I learnt BASIC on my own, then took up CS as my major...so I did put it to good use. Thanks dad.

Lots of fellow geeks around here

[sailor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by target2019 I looked at Raspberry Pi last week. What stood out were complaints about the level of heat without adding cooling fan.

I have one Pi 3B+ and one Pi Zero running 24x7 for over 2 years with no noticeable heat with avg CPU load around 20%.

What are you planning to use it for? Anywhere close to 100% CPU?

[target2019]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sailor I have one Pi 3B+ and one Pi Zero running 24x7 for over 2 years with no noticeable heat with avg CPU load around 20%. What are you planning to use it for? Anywhere close to 100% CPU?

Meant the Pi 4. Watched a youtube about how to install latest update for the thermal problem, and alternative cooling methods. Mildly interested in this, for now.

[sailor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by target2019 Meant the Pi 4. Watched a youtube about how to install latest update for the thermal problem, and alternative cooling methods. Mildly interested in this, for now.

I also have a PI4 on the bench and it's warm, but not hot. But I use mine in a vertical position, which explains why I have not run into problems described.
I honestly would probably not notice with the use I have, it went into thermal cutoff.
But your comments gave me a boost to install new firmware thanks!

https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/the...aspberry-pi-4/

[misshathaway]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dvalley Oh and my first PC was an XT with 256k RAM and a Turbo button that went from 5MHz to 7MHz...and it cost a lot of money

That was my first work computer!

format c:

No! Don't do that!

[Ferd]

Why update a bios? If it's been working for years, what possible advantage could there be? I've never updated a bios in my life & I've used some pretty old PC's. I am very skeptical of updates and never let PC's auto update. I've had far more problems caused by updates than fixed by updates.


Glad you got the problem fixed but after all this did it make one bit of difference?

[DougJohnson]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeWras ...I built one in 2011 that still smokes

Every PC I've built that smoked, did not smoke very long before it died.

On the other hand, I just retired my 2009 homebuilt. Never thought it would last 10 years. But I do love my new iMac.

-- Doug

[catii]

When I was a Senior Engineer for Motorola SPD, back in the Dark Ages, we built the very-first high-density, multi-layer chips. How things have changed!