E-Chat Quick Question Thread

[charger29]

I found a video on youtube of a guy opening one of these up when it wouldn't power on at all. One of the comments said they had the same thing and they fixed it by unscrewing then rescrewing the fan/heatsink and getting rid of the dust around it. I tried that last night and it was what happened the last time (December 19, no problems since then) with nothing, but I gave it another go today and... here we are.
I feel as if you're trying to punish me for my comments about Japanese video games with your link to that disk reading thing (Ed - I've now done this and it doesn't seem to be setting off any alarms), but I'm going to give it a go. I'm going to spend the day backing up around 800GB, apparently. That's a lot of porn!

Not sure what type of heatsink or CPU you have but if there's thermal paste involved you're not really supposed to take the heatsink off/on often unless you clean the paste off and replace it. It can cause overheating issues with the CPU.
Not sure about thermal pads.

[Miguel Sanchez]

54 minutes ago, charger29 said:

Not sure what type of heatsink or CPU you have but if there's thermal paste involved you're not really supposed to take the heatsink off/on often unless you clean the paste off and replace it. It can cause overheating issues with the CPU.
Not sure about thermal pads.

Yeah I changed the paste. I did that the last time it happened just for something to do. It's not cleaned off perfectly and this morning I didn't take the whole thing off completely - just loosened it a bit then re-tightened it. 

If this is the problem it just seems weird it's worked fine for a year and a half then stopped one day.

[BFTD]

I was going to mention the paste, but (clearly incorrectly) assumed it would have used a shitey pad.

If you fancy cleaning it off properly, use some rubbing alcohol on a cotton bud after you've wiped off the most of it. Also, make sure none of the paste goes near any circuitry, as it's conductive and can f**k things up. Get some good quality paste rather that using the shite you normally get for free, as it can knock a surprising amount off your average temperatures. Dunno it Arctic Silver's still at the top of the tree.

Did the screws feel loose when you were taking the heatsink off? The vibration from the fan might just have been slowly slackening them off. Those things are normally attached really tightly. Thank Christ you don't have to forcibly latch them on to the socket with a screwdriver anymore  

[Homer Thompson]

14 minutes ago, BFTD said:

I was going to mention the paste, but (clearly incorrectly) assumed it would have used a shitey pad.

If you fancy cleaning it off properly, use some rubbing alcohol on a cotton bud after you've wiped off the most of it. Also, make sure none of the paste goes near any circuitry, as it's conductive and can f**k things up. Get some good quality paste rather that using the shite you normally get for free, as it can knock a surprising amount off your average temperatures. Dunno it Arctic Silver's still at the top of the tree.

Did the screws feel loose when you were taking the heatsink off? The vibration from the fan might just have been slowly slackening them off. Those things are normally attached really tightly. Thank Christ you don't have to forcibly latch them on to the socket with a screwdriver anymore  

No, you just have to try and work out how the fuckin back plates work 

I fitted one just the other day, it was an absolute pain. The screws into the backplate feel like  you're snapping the mb

[BFTD]

1 minute ago, Mr X said:

No, you just have to try and work out how the fuckin back plates work 

I fitted one just the other day, it was an absolute pain. The screws into the backplate feel like  you're snapping the mb

Aye, it's an absolute pisser when you have to remove the whole motherboard from the case just to change the heatsink  

Had to take out the ridiculous aluminium/copper colossus on mine last week and was delighted to find I bought one with a sensible attachment procedure seven years ago  

[Homer Thompson]

13 minutes ago, BFTD said:

Aye, it's an absolute pisser when you have to remove the whole motherboard from the case just to change the heatsink  

Had to take out the ridiculous aluminium/copper colossus on mine last week and was delighted to find I bought one with a sensible attachment procedure seven years ago  

I was saved by both sides of the case coming off!

[54_and_counting]

7 hours ago, Miguel Sanchez said:

I have no idea what the license status of this machine is. Don't feel bad about the heatsink, I had jiggled that already before I started posting here, in fact I think I tried it twice. Maybe it is just that. 

To answer @54_and_counting's question, I haven't downloaded anything from any new sources recently. The last new thing I did was on Sunday when it was last on, I was using the SD card reader and had to try a few times before it registered me inserting anything. 

The fact your hard drive connected to the laptop causes the laptop to not boot up sounds like something on the hard drive is corrupting the start up

Can you get another hard drive from anywhere and see if your pc starts up with that one instead

Also, might not be the brightest idea, incase something fries the laptop, but if the hard drive connected doesnt allow the laptop to start up, what happens if you connect the hard drive once the laptop is up and running, thats a risky option mind you if something on the hard drive is corrupting stuff it may pass to the laptop

[Miguel Sanchez]

22 minutes ago, 54_and_counting said:

Also, might not be the brightest idea, incase something fries the laptop, but if the hard drive connected doesnt allow the laptop to start up, what happens if you connect the hard drive once the laptop is up and running, thats a risky option mind you if something on the hard drive is corrupting stuff it may pass to the laptop

This is what happened yesterday. My laptop was on, I plugged the hard drive in, the laptop turned off and wouldn't turn back on until I'd unplugged it.

[54_and_counting]

4 minutes ago, Miguel Sanchez said:

This is what happened yesterday. My laptop was on, I plugged the hard drive in, the laptop turned off and wouldn't turn back on until I'd unplugged it.

Ah i thought you meant you plugged the hard drive in first and the laptop wouldn't boot up

Defo something is corrupt on the hard drive, and given its not even connecting as an external drive to the laptop without causing issues it might not be possible to check what it is

[Miguel Sanchez]

Just now, 54_and_counting said:

Ah i thought you meant you plugged the hard drive in first and the laptop wouldn't boot up

Defo something is corrupt on the hard drive, and given its not even connecting as an external drive to the laptop without causing issues it might not be possible to check what it is

Well I've been backing up my PC for about... 6 hours or so, doesn't seem to have run into any problems so far. The thing Dave recommended didn't show up any problems. I'm not doubting there could be something wrong with it but I guess if there is I'll find out sooner rather than later.

[DA Baracus]

On 21/03/2021 at 11:57, Mr X said:

You could burn to CD on the new pc but that's seems like a major faff.

A network drive on one machine that the other could access would work but that needs a network cable for the old pc

I tried the CD method. They copied fine on to the CD on the laptop but when I loaded up the CD on the old PC there were no files found on the CD. I even checked again on the laptop and the CD showed the files fine.

Windows 10 can just f**k off. If it wasn't for this stupid Bitlocker pish there would be no issue. 

On 27/03/2021 at 00:02, Quiet Riot said:

Do you use the XP PC for anything else?  If not, does it matter if it is briefly exposed to a bit of malware?  Especially if you are disconnecting it after?

Otherwise can you upload the music files to a cloud service like Google Drive then download them from there?  Even if it;s to a different machine then you can use a USB from there?

It's got loads of old games on it. Don't have a cable to connect it to the internet.

[BFTD]

5 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

I tried the CD method. They copied fine on to the CD on the laptop but when I loaded up the CD on the old PC there were no files found on the CD. I even checked again on the laptop and the CD showed the files fine.

Windows 10 can just f**k off. If it wasn't for this stupid Bitlocker pish there would be no issue. 

It's got loads of old games on it. Don't have a cable to connect it to the internet.

I take it the Bitlocker thing is something your work has enforced through group policy. Windows 10 isn't that mean out of the box!

Is the CD drive on the XP machine reading other discs without problem? If you have any other discs written on the same brand of CD, do they work on the XP machine? CD-Rs showing up as blank can be an indicator that the drive isn't happy with it.

[Homer Thompson]

It's got loads of old games on it. Don't have a cable to connect it to the internet.

What bftd said. Sounds like the disc type isnt compatible with the old drive and bitlocker isn't a mandatory Windows 10 thing, must be something your work has setup.

A network cable costs a few quid. Might just be easier to buy one and connect the old machine to the Internet, or at least the local network.

[DA Baracus]

9 minutes ago, BFTD said:

I take it the Bitlocker thing is something your work has enforced through group policy. Windows 10 isn't that mean out of the box!

Is the CD drive on the XP machine reading other discs without problem? If you have any other discs written on the same brand of CD, do they work on the XP machine? CD-Rs showing up as blank can be an indicator that the drive isn't happy with it.

Seems to be work enforced as I just tried to disable Bitlocker but said I had to submit a request to do so! So that option is out.

The CD drive in an external one (just plugs in via USB) and I've used it before to burn CDs and play games on the XP machine. Not sure if I've used the same type of disc though (a cheap set of 5 out of Poundland!).

Edited April 2, 2021 by DA Baracus

[DA Baracus]

3 minutes ago, Mr X said:

What bftd said. Sounds like the disc type isnt compatible with the old drive and bitlocker isn't a mandatory Windows 10 thing, must be something your work has setup.

A network cable costs a few quid. Might just be easier to buy one and connect the old machine to the Internet, or at least the local network.

Aye thinking the network cable might be a solution now.

[BFTD]

10 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

Aye thinking the network cable might be a solution now.

If you're going to be connecting them directly, you might need an Ethernet crossover cable, depending on how old the XP machine is.

If you're connecting both to your router, you'll be fine with just a regular old Ethernet cable.

[DA Baracus]

1 minute ago, BFTD said:

If you're going to be connecting them directly, you might need an Ethernet crossover cable, depending on how old the XP machine is.

If you're connecting both to your router, you'll be fine with just a regular old Ethernet cable.

I don't know what any of that means!

I will have to do some research here.

[BFTD]

5 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

I don't know what any of that means!

I will have to do some research here.

OK, if you want to connect the two machines together directly, buy this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1m-RJ45-CROSSOVER-Cable-Cat5e-Network-Ethernet-Lead-X-Over-CROSS-WIRED-GREY/353160431029?hash=item523a0085b5:g:BbUAAOSwlDNfKZL0

(that's just the cheapest cable on UK eBay from a seller with reasonable rep)

I assume both machines have a port on the back that looks like this?

[DA Baracus]

13 hours ago, BFTD said:

OK, if you want to connect the two machines together directly, buy this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1m-RJ45-CROSSOVER-Cable-Cat5e-Network-Ethernet-Lead-X-Over-CROSS-WIRED-GREY/353160431029?hash=item523a0085b5:g:BbUAAOSwlDNfKZL0

(that's just the cheapest cable on UK eBay from a seller with reasonable rep)

I assume both machines have a port on the back that looks like this?

Cheers man, I'll give that a shot.

[BFTD]

1 hour ago, DA Baracus said:

Cheers man, I'll give that a shot.

You'll need to set up file sharing on the XP machine when they're hooked up, but it's pretty straightforward. This looks like a reasonable guide. You just need the bit up to 'Connecting from client', as it isn't an XP machine you'll be connecting from: https://www.eduhk.hk/ocio/content/faq-how-share-files-windows-xp-simple-file-sharing. Just copy any files you want to transfer into the Shared Documents folder.

On the Windows 10 machine, you just go to File Explorer, click on 'Network' on the left-hand pane, then select your XP machine. Any shared folder will show up. Look in the Shared Documents folder, and your files should be there. Just select and copy them over to wherever you fancy on your Windows 10 machine.

You might need to set up static IP addresses on the two machines before they can talk...but you might get lucky, it's been a while since I've done this. They'll probably default to addresses that can communicate automatically. It might not work without a bit more configuration, but nothing we won't be able to help with.