Yet another, "my friend" thread.

[VirtualLarry]

This has kind of morphed, into a "not just my friend's PC, that I'm trying to help him upgrade, but also his GF's PC".

I was thinking, I pulled another G3258 Haswell Pentium Anniv. Editon out of my "warehouse" this past weekend. I wanted to see if it had the GTX950 that it listed on the box. It did not.

But I was thinking, I could sell that one to her, and drop in an MSI GT 730 2GB GDDR5 card into both G3258 boxes, and they would have competent web-browsing / video-watching "His and Hers" boxes, for the next 3-5 years.

For around $350 total for both video cards and her new G3258 PC. Which is a bit cheaper, than I quoted them, for 2X Ryzen 2200G rigs. (Granted, those would have had 16GB of DDR4-3000, and 256GB M.2 NVMe drives, most likely.)

Does anyone know if VP9 decode is hardware-supported, or at least partially (shader processor supported) on Kepler? I know that I can watch 4K30 VP9 on my R7 260X, and that's only GCN 1.1. I can watch 4K60 VP9 on my 2200G with dual-channel RAM.

Edit: Another Q: How is the G3258's native video decode features, versus a Kepler GT 730 2GB GDDR5 for video decode? I'm not certain, but it's possible that the G3258 is actually slightly newer tech, I think. Neither will hold a candle to Skylake and Kaby Lake's media-decoding block(s), but still, they should be adequate for 1080P.

I don't know about VP9 decoding, though. I see that often used for 4K videos on YT, with my AMD dGPU Polaris cards.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I found a used / refurb Haswell Core i5-4590 3.3/3.6Ghz quad-core, for less than $150, with 8GB of DDR3, and a 128GB SSD, and Windows 10 Pro pre-installed.

Seems like the best deal so far. It has HD4400 iGPU, which I don't know, it could be as good or better than the Kepler GT 730 2GB GDDR5 (384CC) dGPU for video-watching.

Regardless, it already has the 8GB of RAM, and the requisite SSD, that I consider a minimum browser configuration these days.

It's a SFF chassis, though.

I bounced the idea off of my friend, and he said his GF was asking, "Am I getting a new computer?", followed by him explaining it would be $150, and that the new PC would be 3-4X faster, followed by him telling that she made a "sour face". Well, geez, "princess", it wouldn't hurt you to, you know, actually pay for something. Sigh. I was hoping to help them out. I'd buy the PC myself, because ebay has a 10% off site-wide coupon right now, but I don't have the money. (Dropped ~$120 on a pair of GT 730 2GB GDDR5 cards, ostensibly for their two machines, at least, that was the plan.)

When I tried to pitch it to my friend, he was like, "can I do streaming"? I was like, nah, you need a $1200 PC to do that. Something with more cores, more threads, more RAM, and more expansion slots (full-sized) for capture cards and the like.

So he was like, "not interested".

*Shrug*. They spend $100-150 on takeout food in a week. This PC would probably last them at least 5 more years.

I don't pretend to understand.

 

[UsandThem]

I swear from seeing so many of your "friend" posts over the years, I envision them being as cheap as Chris Rock's character in the movie 'I'm Going To Get You Sucka'.

You'd be so much better of not trying to help them out all the time because it seems they just cause you aggravation.

 

[VirtualLarry]

LOL. Spot on video.

My friend, the day or so after I upgraded his GF's FM1 APU rig, with the quad-core A6-3600 APU, was telling me that I told him that it was really a triple-core, and that when I told him $25 for a quad-core, if it was really a triple-core, then he wanted a partial refund.

So yeah, just like that movie quote...

Edit: Anyways, it was because, when I was first booting the rig after installing the quad-core APU, it was installing the CPU's "drivers", one ACPI entry for each core. It had installed three of them right away, then kind of stalled out. I was thinking aloud, and I said, "I hope that this isn't really a triple-core."

Of course, the drivers finished installing, a few minutes later, and I guess my friend didn't hear me when I said, "Oh, Good, this IS a quad-core", after checked for four CPU entries in Device Manager.

 

[VirtualLarry]

So, new development. Apparently, the FM1 rig with the A6-3600 is BSOD and restarting and freezing up. (While watching 1-2 Twitch streams.)

I had my friend download and install HWMonitor, which is showing CPU and iGPU temps north of 70C. I looked up the specs of the A6-3600 on cpu-world.com, and it is a 65W APU, with a max operating temp of 70.5C.

Sigh. So my current theory is, it's probably overheating and getting unstable.

But it could be the PSU (3 years old, unsure about quality, certainly don't think that the warranty is longer than 3 years on it, it was a budget PSU whatever it is), or maybe the ancient A55 ECS mobo. (ECS mobo's aren't great, and I don't think that this one has all solid caps on it, but I'd have to double-check that. Will have to visually inspect caps if I go over there.)

I've given my friend and his GF several options.

1) I show up, remove the A6-3600, and put back the A4-3420 or 3400 APU, the exact one that I removed. Box everything back up. No charge.

2) I show up, replace the chassis rear case fan, in case it's malfunctioning, and the CPU HSF with a new one. (If the problem is overheating, and not a mobo or PSU problem, this should, in theory, fix it.)

3) I sell them a new PC. They've tentatively agreed to consider a new PC. I have this Acer slimline i3-4160 Haswell rig, with 8GB DDR3 and an SSD, and Windows 10 on it. Quoted them $250, but told them that the $50 that they would be spending on parts, towards fixing the old PC, I would put towards the cost of the new PC if they bought it from me, in five monthly installments.

4) Maybe this is all just a driver / software issue, and they would be better off with a fresh SSD, and a fresh install of Windows 10, at least just for testing purposes. Run it like that for a week, see if it crashes. Probably try this after replacing the chassis fan and CPU HSF.

Edit: Oh yeah, friend said that was restarting / BSODing / freezing, starting from two weeks ago. I only installed the A6-3600 quad-core FM1 APU a week ago. Technology-wise, PC is from 2011, but mobo was supposedly new when built, and has been deployed for only three years. It's possible that the mobo or PSU is going, or that the newly-added A6-3600 APU was damaged in some way (static?).

Seems like the G3258 will be an improvement. Note that it's OCed to 4.0Ghz, which may make its rating higher, but I remember from older reviews of the G3258, that for Gaming, at least, the i3-4160 is still faster, overall.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compar...-3600-APU-vs-Intel-Pentium-G3258/19vs25vs2267

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, I thought about it, checked out what types of desktop PCs were available at BestBuy and Walmart (mostly crap, unless you want to spend $600), and decided that I would spend money that I didn't actually have in my account (yet), to order a new APU (an A6-3670K for $17), and a new AMD 125W heatpipe heatsink ($17), along with last night, I ordered some 120mm case fans ($3 ea.). I figured, for around $70, I could get this issue cleared up.

So, we talked last night, after he called, and was basically complaining strongly, hinting at blaming me for the freezing and BSODs (even though I only upgraded the APU last week, and he claims it was acting up two weeks ago), and I was supposed to go over there today and look at it, and maybe install a new rear case fan, and a new CPU HSF.

So I wanted him to help me further diagnose the issue over the phone, because Lord knows, they would never pay me to actually show up and fix it, so I asked him to download OCCT, to stress test. I was going to have him take the side panel off, and see if that relieved the temps any, and allowed it to be stable, or if it would still crash, then that might point at the PSU failing. (It's an Allied 300W "case PSU", used for three years.)

He flat out basically said, "I already downloaded TWO programs for you last night" (AMD drivers, and HWMonitor, and CrystalDiskInfo/Mark), I'm NOT downloading a third one.

When I pointed out that I was trying to help him diagnose the issue over the phone, he said "But I'M the one diagnosing it. I'm pushing the buttons.". So I said, OK, YOU diagnose it. And hung up on him. And blocked his numbers.

He thinks that he's the one doing the diagnostic work, when he asks me, "left click or right click", every time I tell him to click on something. If he thinks he's doing it all himself, then fine, let him.

Edit: I guess, in summary, I love it when someone complains that their PC is too slow to do X, even though it was FREE three years ago, and then when you upgrade it, they complain about BSODs and freezing, but also mention that it was happening before you worked on it, but somehow blame you, and want another free PC, or a free fix, but don't want to pay the going rate for it, and then when you try to walk them through diagnosing it, they flat-out refuse to help any further, as if it's a waste of their time, and YOU'RE supposed to just simply "fix it", and "give them an answer".

 

[jsalpha2]

I want to be your friend, Where is that friend button. My Celeron 847 is kind of slow.
Can you come to Yuma, Arizona, bring me a $2,000 computer and hook it up for me?
I will get tamales and beer!

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I want to be your friend, Where is that friend button. My Celeron 847 is kind of slow.
Can you come to Yuma, Arizona, bring me a $2,000 computer and hook it up for me?
I will get tamales and beer!

Lies! No one goes outside in Yuma.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, I called him back later, to at least explain why I hung up on him. (His refusal to go along and do what I asked, when he was asking for tech support.)

Anyways, I dropped off a new HSF for him to put on his GF's FM1 rig, and I told him that if he did it, instead of me, then I wouldn't charge labor ($30). He seemed hesitant, even though he built the PC a few years back (under my direction). I told him I'd walk him through it over the phone, that it was fairly straightforward and easy.

I don't know how he can memorize 27 million different combo moves and tech traps in the newest fighting games, but he can't seem to figure out how to put on a heatsink after cleaning the CPU off and applying some thermal paste. Go figure. I think I should just tell him, it's a "computer combo move".

But I had also offered to bring by a PC, for her to take a look at and try out for a week. I decided not to, because I didn't want to sell her older tech that was again a stop-gap system, instead, I wanted to sell her something more modern, that would last (technology-wise) for longer, and not have to be upgraded again in three years, when Microsoft and Intel decide to stop supporting Haswell iGPU drivers, etc. (Just theoretical at this point, but not unheard of.)

I was just thinking, I've got this Coffee Lake i3-8100 ITX build sitting here in the case since I built it, and it's not doing me any good. (Could have turned it into a pfSense router, but I couldn't be arsed, I'm getting gigabit throughput from my Asus AC68R anyways.) It has a spot for an M.2 PCI-E NVMe SSD, and 2x4GB GSkill DDR4-2800 RAM, would make a fine browser / video-watching box. Plus, it's petite and takes up little room. (Female appeal.)

I don't think that it supports VGA-output, though, although my ASRock DeskMini units do. It also costs aroound $500 worth of parts, but it should be viable for at least 3-5 years, and she could always drop in a 6/8-core 1151 (300-series) CPU later on, probably, if she needed MOAR COARS.

I think that I'll pitch that one to her, and see what she thinks.

Edit: I dug out my Coffee Lake i3-8100 ITX board/CPU/RAM, opened it up, swapped in my new 512GB Adata SX6000 M.2 NVMe SSD, and then tried to power it up. Sparks when I plugged it in, won't turn on, fan twitches when I press the power button, then PSU board inside ITX case goes "POP". Ugh.

So, that might be out, as an option, unless I can get a hold of a new board cheaply. Holding out for the Gigabyte H310 DDR3 board to be released in USA.

So, I went a little crazy on Newegg's Black November sale, picked up an RX 470 4GB "mining card" (only DVI-D output), for my friend's Athlon II X4 640 rig, and a new PSU for both him and his GF's rig, and a new 1080P LCD HDMI/DVI/VGA monitor for her. (Her current monitor is not 1080P, nor HDMI.)

I've been trying to ask my friend, about temps on the A6-3600 APU. His answer? The temps last night, reached 100 percent. (What?)

He obviously is having difficulty reading HWMonitor's readouts.

I want the temp in degrees Celcius, he gives me percent. I assume he's looking at the Core Utilization.

Edit: Ok, I just looked at GF's FM1 PC. No wonder temps were upper 70C-100C overnight. FAN WAS STOPPED.

I pushed on it, it started spinning, but it was obviously sticking, and not cooling well.

Replaced HSF with an AMD one I picked up a year or two ago off of ebay for $7 or so, BINGO. Temps maxing at 36C, with two Twitch streams going, no crashing, no BSODs.

Going to let my friend "push" the PC a bit the next week, see what happens. I'm thinking, it should be fine now.

Also, with two streams, temps were 26C, and core utilization was like 15-20% (if that) across four cores.

Seems like this problem was solved, finally.

So back to my friend's Athlon II X4 rig. I'm just going to let him use it as-is, and if/when he comes to me, then we can figure something out.

 

[VirtualLarry]

So, I fixed my friend's GF's FM1 APU rig, with a quad-core APU, and a brand-new AM2/3/FM2/+/etc. HSF. That's all good. (Although I did not get paid anything for my labor or expertise. That's not so good. At least I got paid for the parts, at cost.)

So, now his Mom's PC is on the fritz. I sold it to her maybe 2-3 years ago. It was a Gateway slimline PC, Sandy Bridge Pentium, 8GB of DDR3 (I think that I upgraded it before selling it to her), and the original pristine 500GB factory HDD, that I removed the first time I opened the PC and set aside. With Windows 7 64-bit.

I figured that that PC should last another 3-5 years, but it's only been 2-3, and possible the HDD is failing, or possibly something else, or maybe she just got some nasty malware or something on it.

Friend said, it has trouble shutting down, can't click buttons / tabs on web browser, internet loses connection after five minutes.

Puzzling over it, I figure that maybe either the HDD is going, or maybe the PSU's +5V line, and thus the USB devices and stuff. Or maybe both. I did use the PC for 2-3 years prior to selling it to her, although I kept it mostly dusted out, and very clean, it was like new when I sold it to her, with the factory-fresh HDD.

Anyways, trying to get her to bring it over to my "lab" for diagnosis and repair. Originally quoted her $150 to replace HDD with HDD or SSD, and re-install OS (Windows 7 or Windows 10, there's a Win7 OEM COA on the box, so it should be good for either OS.)

Then I said I'd do it all-in for $100, after she said that one of her relatives might be buying her a new PC.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, I fixed my friend's mom's rig, over the phone, with him at the console. It took a few hours, but I figured it out. She had both Norton and McAfee installed, which tanked disk performance (HDD system) after a few minutes of booting Windows 7. (I've seen something similar before, with one of my other (late) friend's rigs, when he somehow had two A/V suites installed. A disk benchmark was mysteriously showing like 1MB/sec, instead of the proper 120-150MB/sec.)

Anyways, speaking of "one rib". My friend had said that he wanted to get me a certain PC game this Christmas, which was like $60. So, after I fixed his mom's rig, I casually mentioned, that I charge $30/hr for phone or remote support, and since it was at the 2.5 hour mark, I was going to charge them $60. She of course, said "sure". He was like, OK, $60, you got your choice, either the game, or cash. Like that was my "present", getting paid for 2.5 hours of mental work over the phone. Sigh.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Well, I fixed my friend's mom's rig, over the phone, with him at the console. It took a few hours, but I figured it out. She had both Norton and McAfee installed, which tanked disk performance (HDD system) after a few minutes of booting Windows 7. (I've seen something similar before, with one of my other (late) friend's rigs, when he somehow had two A/V suites installed. A disk benchmark was mysteriously showing like 1MB/sec, instead of the proper 120-150MB/sec.)

Anyways, speaking of "one rib". My friend had said that he wanted to get me a certain PC game this Christmas, which was like $60. So, after I fixed his mom's rig, I casually mentioned, that I charge $30/hr for phone or remote support, and since it was at the 2.5 hour mark, I was going to charge them $60. She of course, said "sure". He was like, OK, $60, you got your choice, either the game, or cash. Like that was my "present", getting paid for 2.5 hours of mental work over the phone. Sigh.

Sorry, I'd have told him to forget both and move on.

 

[VirtualLarry]

So, I picked up the $60 from my friend, that was from his mom, and I was telling him about this Haswell Dell desktop mini-tower I picked up off of ebay, and a refurb GTX 1060 3GB card I planned to put in it. He was like, "got no money". I told him I'd go halves with him on it, as a present. He said he'd get back to me, after he figures out how to pay off his bills.

So I put it together tonight, just to make sure that everything was working OK.

I ended up NOT replacing the PSU on the Dell. (It has a proprietary 8-pin mobo connector, besides the 4-pin 12V connector.) I did pick up an ATX adapter wiring harness, but I chose not to use it. Instead, I pulled the EVGA GTX 1050 3GB out of my Ryzen R3 1200 rig, and put the GTX 1060 3GB into that rig. The GTX 1050 3GB doesn't need any supplemental power connectors.

Put in new 16GB GSkill DDR3-1600 kit, new 256GB Silicon Power SATA 2.5" SSD, and a new WD Blue 2TB 5400RPM drive. (Yeah, I know, 5400RPM, but for cheap game storage, that's where it's at. Or maybe Toshiba or Seagate, they offer 7200RPM. Not paying $50/TB for WD Black just to get 7200RPM WD drives.)

It came with a Windows 7 Ult COA, and an activated copy of Win10 Pro 64-bit on the 250GB HDD that was included. I stored that safely away, and put a fresh copy of Win10 Pro 1809 64-bit on the SSD.

Works great, thus far. Total cost? Under $500, like $499 if I include a DVD-RW drive. (It didn't come with one, strangely enough.)

So, half would be $250, which is a decent amount to pay for a Haswell quad-core 3.4Ghz (ACT), 16GB of DDR3, and a 256GB SSD and 2TB HDD, and a GTX 1050 3GB card. Heck, you would spend $400-450 on ebay for a pre-configured equivalent rig from a MS Certified Refurbisher.