|
So, over the last 20+ years, I think I'm on my 4th laptop. I buy them for development, and I specifically look for expandability and reliability. I rarely toss them (I'm working with my therapist on this). I used to buy Dell, but they got squirrely with their consumer brands (xps1530 was excellent except for the motherboard graphics chip set). The last Dell I bought was a precision M4700 and it's a beast. I've moved on to Eluktronics - sort of a custom maker, but damn good hardware. Just watch out when they solder ram to the motherboard, but that's on me. Anyway, back to the 4700...
So, not the thinnest or lightest, but excellent display, great keyboard, add SATA SSDs and it will just go. But I had this quirky issue where it would blue screen and weird random times. This has been happening for over 5 years. Cleaning it up, it needed a new battery - $40 later done. no more complaints about charges, but boom blue screen. On reboot, it kept fussing about losing it's BIOS settings. Now, when any computer says this, the battery backup on the motherboard is dead. I had never thought of this. These are $2 from your grocery store. $5 if dealing with Dell's stupid stuff.
The laptop has been sitting there running for 2 weeks, all issues resolved.
When in doubt, go for the simple solution.
Charlie Gilley
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
Has never been more appropriate.
|
|
|
|
|
Okay, I would like ideas from people that are smarter than I am about my next great USB plan.
THE PROBLEM...
I find that I keep on having these mysterious behaviors Which cost me over an hour to locate, and it always turns out to be that the USB hub has just plain and simply worn out physically.
MY NEXT SCHEME...
- Build my own computer
- Install a specific USB Expansion Controller Card Adapter (The more ports, the better)
- When I buy that card adapter, I will buy two or three (identical) replacements for the future when its jacks wear out
- Use the same cheap hubs that wear out after a year or two, And plug them into a specific Jack on the controller card.
Put this all together, and I'm wondering if this will provide me a workable solution until the time that USB goes away and is replaced with the next Disco Baboon Technology of the future
|
|
|
|
|
C-P-User-3 wrote: I keep on having these mysterious behaviors Which cost me over an hour to locate, and it always turns out to be that the USB hub has just plain and simply worn out physically.
That description suggests this is not a hardware problem. Hubs should not really be breaking a lot.
Perhaps it is a usage problem.
Perhaps you throw your hubs, literally, into the back of a van when you go somewhere.
Maybe you are using the cable itself to pull out plugs. And at odd angles.
Maybe you are custom wiring something and the final product is a little rough around the edges.
At any rate for situations like that you should look at how you are treating the hub.
Alternatively you are running a business and you deliver systems and support them. And the hubs 'seem' to keep breaking.
Several possibilities there.
You have an employee that doesn't know what they are doing.
You should probably spend a bit more on the hubs that you buy. Cheap general means cheaper parts and construction.
Your customers are messing with something that probably shouldn't (see prior list for possibilities.)
One general solution if you do have something that you unplug and then plug back in a lot is to use a short extender cable. Plug that into the hub and leave it there. Then the other device is only plugged into the extender. If anything breaks then it is the extender.
And depending on the situation for the prior there are usb switches. Leave everything plugged in but use the switch to go back and forth.
|
|
|
|
|
as jschell replied, need more details especially the type of failures.
Over the past 20+ years, I have worked with usb hubs and have had 0 failures. I lost a couple, but that's a different issue. On my banker's/lawyer's desk, I have two USB hubs that have been double stick taped there for at least 10 years. One is USB 2.0, because for a long time I have had to support an Xp development environment. The other is USB 3.0. because I support a Window 10/11 environment that uses newer usb hardware. The only problem I have found is dealing with USB adapters - serial devices, ethernet, and I mix them up.
Now I build my own machines. The BS from OEMs and the shortcuts they take, I just don't do that anymore. Would I install something in my desktop? Based on my experience, no. I'd daisy chain to an external hub.
The one thing that I have found that drives me as a developer near insane is the stupidity of Microsoft. It's starting to creep into Unix, but we shall see. Microsoft decided to help save power, so there are default setting that turn off your USB devices. OS update? Let's turn it off. Wait the user explicitly said not to do that - meh, f' the user, climate change. And their goes my 6 month soak test.
I have 15 years of h/w - laptops - around me. Almost all of my cycles (insert/remove/insert) are on the laptops. No failures. This leads me to suspect that something else is going on.
Charlie Gilley
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
Has never been more appropriate.
modified 27-Aug-24 8:28am.
|
|
|
|
|
Where can I get and download CodeProject version 2.0.8 for my Windows 7 computer with Blue Iris? I've read that this version works well on Win 7. I want to try this version because the newer versions do not install properly.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Greetings Kind Regards
I stupidly attempted to charge a hand held vacuum cleaner via one of the USB ports on my PC. Since then the screen has been blanking momentarily out periodically id est approximately 2-3m. Did I destroy this machine?
Thank You Kindly
|
|
|
|
|
I would doubt that is the cause of the problem. USB provides limited power. The device can't suck out anything else. But if it did then it would more likely be a problem with the computer (poor design) and now the computer has a problem.
You didn't mention how old the computer/monitor is. They do fail. I have a failed monitor sitting on the floor next to my desk. That specific brand fries capacitors every couple of years. So I just need to break out the soldering iron open it up and replace them.
|
|
|
|
|
Thank you for your kind and informative reply. The monitor is an ONN brand. The computer is a refurbished DELL OptiPlex 7040. Each are approximately 2y old as best as I recall. Oddly enough after turning the computer open side down to shake out any roaches which may have made a home inside the problem has not reappeared for several hours now. This also coincided w/ reading of the fix to the CrowdStrike outage which I assume does not affect me though it seems to have affected my doctors' office as they canceled my appointment for today for that stated reason.
Thank You Again Most Kindly
|
|
|
|
|
BernardIE5317 wrote: The computer is a refurbished DELL OptiPlex 7040. Each are approximately 2y old as best as I recall.
The OptiPlex 7040 was introduced in 2015, so you are talking about a 9 year old computer, not a 2 year old.
If the problem manifests as the screen blanking out, and this disappeared after "shaking" the computer, I would suspect a soldering that has gone bad after nine years - not so bad that there is no connection ever, but vibrations can make it crack up, breaking contact, another shaking might bring the pieces together again. (Isn't that Gyro Gearloose who fixes cars by giving them a proper kick in the right place?  )
I agree with jschell: This probably has nothing to do with your USB Power Delivery. Even in USB 2.x, there was a negotiation between the consumer and the USB controller, the consumer asking for so-and-so many units. If this is within the capacity of the USB Host, there is no problem. If the request exceeds what is available, the host says: Sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that, and it simply won't deliver what it can't deliver.
In any case, a USB interface has so little to do with your display interface that there is little probability that a problem with one would affect the other. I can imagine a poorly designed USB circuit not handling overload properly, causing other USB devices to fail - but not the display interface.
Religious freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make five.
|
|
|
|
|
trønderen wrote: The OptiPlex 7040 was introduced in 2015, so you are talking about a 9 year old computer, not a 2 year old.
Not to be picky, but maybe he bought it after 2015? Is it possible that they made that model for a few years?
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
|
|
|
|
|
I am on a Windows 7 64 bit OS and have been using AOEMI BackUP ver 4.6.0 (old version)
I have created a Bootable Media and Incremental BackUP's on a External USB Hard Drive
The last backup was with a Asus PA248 Monitor which has decided to go south after 11 years
Now I have a Asus PA279CRV with no driver support for Windows 7 so I am using the driver from the Asus PA248
I have the screen resolution on the new monitor set to 1920 X 1200 same as the old monitor
Question: If I do a incremental backup now and in the future need to do a complete system restore
will the current incremental backup's think it is running the old monitor ?
Thus it might try to find a Asus PA248 and fail because that is no longer connected to the computer.
|
|
|
|
|
Instead of "continuing" to do "incremental" backups, take a "full" backup now (or after any "changes"); then, continue with incremental backups (for that "full" backup).
"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I
|
|
|
|
|
Thanks Think I will scrub the USB External Hard Drive
Then create a Bootable Media do a Full BackUP and Incremental every 2 months
Might try to save the current USB External Hard Drive to another USB Hard Drive just encase
Not sure what software to use for that procedure will do a little Duck Go search
|
|
|
|
|
UPDATE: I just contacted DigiCert support, and the rep couldn't figure it out either. He said everything looks OK with my certificate, so he escalated it to their development team. I might hear back from them on Monday.
I have a Windows Filtering Platform driver that I have signed with a DigiCert EV code signing certificate.
I submitted the package to the Windows Partner Center as a hardware submission, and it was successfully signed by Microsoft. I chose "Test Signing" and I checked the boxes for every listed version of Windows that was not ARM based.
So when I run this command:
signtool verify gsllc.sys
It gives the following response:
File: gsllc.sys
Index Algorithm Timestamp
========================================
SignTool Error: A certificate chain processed, but terminated in a root
certificate which is not trusted by the trust provider.
Number of errors: 1When I attempt to load the driver into Windows, the event log shows the following error:
The gsllc service failed to start due to the following error:
A certificate was explicitly revoked by its issuer. My certificate is only days old, and it hasn't been revoked according to DigiCert.
Anybody have any idea what could be wrong here?
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
modified 18-Feb-24 10:25am.
|
|
|
|
|
Richard Andrew x64 wrote: root certificate
Well the error means nothing is wrong with your actual cert.
But certs have an parent chain (best phrase I can think of) and it doesn't like one of the parents.
I didn't google but I am rather certain there is probably a tool that will tell you what the chain is.
I will say that probably won't help with your problem since it is likely nothing you can do with a parent. But maybe something to so with how you created the cert in the first place. This supposes of course that just looking at the chain gives you an idea which one is a problem in the first place.
|
|
|
|
|
jschell wrote: But maybe something to so with how you created the cert in the first place
I'm impressed with the likelihood that you actually meant to use the word "so" to replace the word "do" in this sentence, so I think for a second, "what other substitutions can I make here that would still make sense and lend credence to authority and I came up with "io" ... lexicographers of the world UNITE! 
|
|
|
|
|
Agreed. The signtool.exe can show the complete chain from the root to your certificate.
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
|
|
|
|
|
Hello,
I'm having trouble understanding the INF file(s) that I must submit for microsoft test driver signing.
If I'm submitting a driver for both of the x86 and x64 platforms, must I submit a separate INF file for each version of the driver?
SOLUTION:
The same INF file can be used for both x86 and x64 binaries.
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
modified 17-Feb-24 15:15pm.
|
|
|
|
|
A transistor is a “device” in which a high power current acts as a switch that can turn on and off the circulation of a lower power current. The later then may act as a switch in another transistor. To get this working you need to amplify the incoming low power current from the first transistor to make it a high power current that will pass through the second transistor is this correct?
|
|
|
|
|
Calin Negru wrote: a high power current acts as a switch that can turn on and off the circulation of a lower power current
Rather the other way around: A low power current can switch a higher power current on and off. Or, in analog transistors: Turn up or down the high power current proportionally to the controlling low power current. So the purpose of the transistor was to amplify the signal.
In digital circuits, you really do not need this amplification. The output from the first transistor need only be strong enough to turn the second transistor on (i.e. opening it to let a signal through) or off.
Under special circumstances, where the output of the first transistor is distributed to a whole row of second transistors, e.g. located on the row of plugin cards on a mainboard bus, the output signal must be strong enough to feed everyone of them. You don't see much of that any more: In the days of S100, ISA and MCA buses, you could plug 4-5-6-7 cards into a bus, side by side - the bus was like an AC power strip, delivering signals to a lot of recipients. You don't see much of that any more, partly because lots of what once required a large extension card now is provided on the CPU (or supporting 'chip set'), and partly because new bus standards have reduced the maximum 'fan out', to reduce the requirements for the bus electronics. Actually, lots of what we today refer to as 'bus' interconnects are really one-to-one signal lines.
(For the pedantic ones: It still isn't wrong to call it a 'bus': (Omni)bus means no more than 'For everyone'. In the days when the COM and LPT ports were used for 'everything', they were '(omni)busses', linguistically speaking.)
But talking about bus fanout and that sort of thing are special cases. Within a CPU, the current delivered from the output of a transistor is always enough to drive the input of the following transistor(s), even if there might be two or three of them receiving the same signal.
|
|
|
|
|
trønderen wrote: Or, in analog transistors:
I'm one of the pedantic ones. 
A transistor is a transistor. There's no analog transistor and no digital transistor, it's a transistor.
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
|
|
|
|
|
OK, you are certainly right about that.
Also: Turning an ordinary light switch 'off' doesn't create an absolute insulation between the poles of the switch. The air gap just increases the resistance. A sufficiently high voltage may be able to cross that air gap.
Certainly: That kind of voltage would also be able to do wonders to your PC and other semiconductor eqipment.
|
|
|
|
|
trønderen wrote: That kind of voltage would also be able to do wonders to your PC
Not to mention flammable materials as well.
|
|
|
|
|
Thank you for your answer
> Rather the other way around
In that case doesn’t the output power of the first transistor need to be reduced? To create Boolean logic you need low power to act as a switch on the second transistor
modified 14-Dec-23 7:38am.
|
|
|
|
General 
News 
Suggestion 
Question 
Bug 
Answer 
Joke 
Praise 
Rant 
Admin 
Submit an article or tip
