Category: Computer Hardware

Categories
Computer Hardware Gaming General Computing

Steelseries GG sucks – get the last version of engine

As most people seem to be aware, the Steelseries GG software sucks, and those of us who just needed Engine, are forced to upgrade. So I dug around for the last version of Engine only, none of the GG bloat and this was it: SteelSeriesEngine3.20.0Setup.exe

This is the direct link, while it works to steelseries’ website: https://engine.steelseriescdn.com/SteelSeriesEngine3.20.0Setup.exe

If they pull it, you can download here: https://vivithemage.com/extra/SteelSeriesEngine3.20.0Setup.exe

If you download it from steelseries or vivithemage.com, these are the hashes:

MD5: E0828A3D321418513CEC2B273CF33607
SHA1: 5B1E48E51C02C685B236199C1A71F07E0396780E
SHA256: 7527895C81CB5C42CE51F5463FA7FAB79766952E1F8F34B5E6F1268CD2681EA0
SHA512: 534C496B597DF513863CC004BF4F413E3CDE6830748D2EF03897C7049075E381DADFCBD968B5A298D1F845DF9D6658555133A469D0D40E3D46F768920B15DC0F

If you were forced to upgrade to GG, make sure to uninstall and then install this version of Engine. This is currently working fine for my Windows 10 Pro 21H2 patched PC.

Categories
Computer Hardware Dell

idrac6 Unable to boot on Virtual iso file

I was playing around with an older idrac 6 server Dell R210 ii and discovered this when I was trying to run a memtest remotely. It was a simple fix, although I wish the error was a little more obvious. The fix is to go to:

In the idrac 6 interface; go to system > console/media, then click configuration and enable virtual media, and click auto attach. Once you do that, click Apply.

I circled the options in the following image with handy dandy SNIP, ha ha.

Categories
Computer Hardware Windows 10

microsoft surface pro 6 battery bar stuck at 100%

You would think this is a good thing, but no, haha. It’s nice to know what your battery is actually at. While the tablet was logged in, I did this key combo, and that resolved it:

hold volume + and power button for 15 seconds and that should fix it.

Categories
Gaming General Computing Video Cards

nvidia color settings resetting after reboot

I am using the nvidia settings to manage some color settings, and as of a recentish anniversary update for windows 10, it kept resetting every reboot. Luckily someone at Tom’sHardware found the resolution, which I am shamelessly posting here with source:

This issue is caused by the WindowsColorSystem scheduled task running at user logon. The NVIDIA driver hooks the user’s logon and then applies the settings, however, the Microsoft scheduled task that initializes the Windows Color System runs just after and loads the default color profile for the monitor (timing issue). Since I prefer to use the driver manufacturers’ control panels to manage my color settings, I disable the “Task Scheduler Library\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsColorSystem\Calibration Loader” task.

Categories
Computer Hardware Gaming

ncase m1 v5 and i9 9900k work great

I just built my new rig, and the temps are solid. When running a stock blend test, I am getting about 70-75C. I could use more fans, I am only running the two on the cooler, and 1 120mm case fan.

ncase m1 v5
nvidia 1080 gtx FE
ADATA SX8200 PCIE NVME GEN3X4 m.2 2280 960GB ASX8200NP-960GT-C
ADATA XPG GAMMIX D10 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3200 (PC4 21300) AX4U320038G16-DB10
ASRock Z390 PHANTOM GAMING-ITX/AC LGA 1151
Intel i9 9900k
be quiet! dark rock TF air cooler
Corsair SF600

The only issue I had was some slight fitment with the be quiet cooler. I made zero alterations, but you can see it’s definitly a little tight with the Ram, as it’s pushing it a smidge. Not enough to worry me though. If I had lower profile sticks, it’d be fine.

Categories
Computer Hardware HP VMWare ESXi

HP GEN8 Microserver Raid 5 transform times with 4x8TB WD RED’s

I opted to drop a 4th 8TB WD RED in my raid 5 array on my HP Microserver Gen8. It has a P222 raid card in it running the latest, as of today firmware: 8.32. I had the server running for about 2 years in it’s current configuration, with no issues, but I wanted a little more disk. If I had more slots, I would have opted for a raid 10, but I wanted smaller footprint, so this is what I am working with.

So far the transform has been about 36 hours, and running:

/opt/smartstorageadmin/ssacli/bin/ssacli ctrl slot=1 ld 1 show

in ESX 6.7, I am at 40%, oooofta. I imagine rebuilds with these large disks would be just as painful. Good news though, Unrecoverable Media Errors is 0.

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE BACKUPS, AND THAT YOU TEST SAID BACKUPS!!
MAKE SURE YOU HAVE BACKUPS, AND THAT YOU TEST SAID BACKUPS!!

Also make backups before you toy around with your raid, I have backups if this goes south, but always have backups.

Did I mention, HAVE BACKUPS AND TEST SAID BACKUPS!!

Categories
Computer Hardware Laptop

Gigabyte P35X V6 review vs my Desktop PC with 970 GTX

So I got one of the new [easyazon_link identifier=”B01KB8RCL0″ locale=”US” tag=”vivithemage-20″ cart=”n”]Gigabyte P35X v6-PC4K4D[/easyazon_link] laptop from Gigabyte. I chose it because it was not gaming looking, which tended to have lots of colors, and weird angles. I also went to Microcenter and touched a few 1070GTX laptops first (not the P35X, as they do not stock them). They (Asus and MSI brands) all felt very cheap, plasticy, and hollow feeling. My wife also mentioned how plastic they felt, and cheap.

So going home a bit bummed I had wanted a P35X since v2, so I was glad they got some beefy power in it, to replace my desktop which has an i5 4690k, 970 GTX, 1TB Samsung SSD, and 16GB DDR3.

So at first glance here were my numbers:
DESKTOP:
Csgo – 250 on mirage – 300ish on average in dust2
BF1 – 60/50 medium settings
H1z1 – 70-80ish
Rocket league – 180-200

40-55 db on fan – barely audible imo as it sits under my desktop, but raised up.

OCCT – 320 FPS on laptop 310 FPS on desktop
OCCT – 79C on laptop and 50C on desktop

CSGO laptop – 76C – fan pretty loud like 200-250 fps
Rocket league – 86C – fan pretty lout at like 200-250 fps
H1Z1 laptop – 83C on gpu and cpu – fan pretty loud about 70-80fps

PCMark 2016 Vantage I got 37k on the laptop and 30k on my desktop.

Overall, I am impressed what this thing laptop can handle. One thing I wish Gigabyte did was send over an SSD with NVMe, not this Transcend Sata M.2. If anyone wants some specific benchmarks, let me know. The screen is gorgeous, 4k is awesome. I do not think I could ever go back to FHD/1080p!

Some random info about the laptop:

Display: 15.6″ 4K UHD 3840 x 2160 IPS anti-glare display LCD | Features: Incredible slim & light design, recommended for VR
Processor: 6th Gen Intel Quad Core i7 6700HQ (2.6-3.5GHz) | GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 GDDR5 8GB (NVIDIA Optimus )
RAM: 16 GB (8GB*2) DDR4 2400MHz Memory | Storage: 512GB M.2 SATA SSD, 1TB 7200rpm HDD | ODD: Super Multi DVD RW (Additional Hot Swappable Bay for ODD/HDD/SSD/empty) | OS: Windows 10 Home 64 Bit
Keybaord: Full-sized Auto-Adjusting Backlit Keyboard | USB 3.1 Type-C | HDMI 2.0 | Exclusive Software: XSplit Gamecaster + Broadcaster, System Gauge, Fan Tweak, TriDef SmartCam
Dimension: 15.16 x 10.63 x 0.83 inch | Weight: 5.29 Ibs | Warranty: 2 years global warranty

Categories
INTEL NUC Kodi Windows 10

Windows 10 1607 anniversary update broke my RC6 remote KODI/XBMC

My RC6 remote up and broke on my when I updated Windows 10 to update 1607 ‘anniversary’ edition in Windows 10 on my Intel NUC. Long story short, I found out what it was, huzzah!

This was the remote I used: [easyazon_link identifier=”B01H1XUTYK” locale=”US” tag=”vivithemage-20″]Rosewill Accessory RHRC-11002[/easyazon_link] coupled with this older [easyazon_link identifier=”B00HVKLSVC” locale=”US” tag=”vivithemage-20″]Intel NUC DN2820FYKH [/easyazon_link]

So I had some free time to dig around on this on my own. Oddly enough, I had a back up from 2015 of this system, so I went to check my registry, and found out that this bit of the hive is volatile (only stored in memory), so I looked at the older ones in that save under currentcontrolset001/002 and found one difference. On my running system I went to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HidIr\Remotes\745a17a0-74d3-11d0-b6fe-00a0c90f57da\

and changed:

“CodeSetNum0″=dword:00000008

to:

“CodeSetNum0″=dword:00000001

GOOD TO GO, works fine now.

Oy. I don’t even remember what told me to change it to 8 in the first place.

Categories
APC

Having issues upgrading APC firmware?

I was upgrading my firmware found on apc’s website, it seemed to fail via the sh file you get from the exe downloaded from apc’s website. It was throwing: APC PDU Error: The application was not able to load.

I could still telnet, and look around. I tried rebooting the management interface, it still showed the error. So what I did was do the FTP upload to reflash, and that resolved it. NO need to do a total reset of everything on it, that most seem to recommend.

*Here is the FTP login/upgrade instructions: (Taken from this [kbase article|http://nam-en.apc.com/cgi-bin/nam_en.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=768])*

For AP9617/18/19 cards that have AOS 1.2.0 firmware and below, you will need to first upgrade to AOS 2.0.2 before upgrading to the latest firmware. AOS 2.0.2 should be included as part of the firmware executable located on the firmware download page.

Items are in bold are the commands.

1. To perform an upgrade with this method the Management Card must have been previously configured with a System IP, Subnet Mask, and Default Gateway and attached to the network. In addition, FTP Server must be enabled.

2. Open an MS-DOS command prompt window on a PC which is connected to the network. Change to the directory which contains the firmware upgrade files.
C:\>cd\apc
C:\apc>

3. Open an FTP client session.
C:\apc> ftp 192.168.1.100 (192.168.1.100 being the IP address of the web card)

4. Log in using the Administrator User Name and Password. Your passwords may be different than the defaults, “apc” and “apc”. Typically, the password will appear on the screen as ***.
Connected to 192.168.1.100
220- APC FTP server ready.
220
User (192.168.1.100 :(none)):*apc*
331 User name okay, need password.
Password:*apc*
230 User logged in, proceed.
ftp>

5. Upgrade the aos first. The aos module is the file with the aos prefix.
ftp> bin
200 Command okay.
ftp>
ftp> put aosXXX.bin (XXX being the version number downloaded)
200 Command okay.
150 Opening data connection for aos301.bin
250 Requested file action okay, completed. Management Card
Rebooting….
327680 bytes sent in 5.99 seconds (54.70 Kbytes/sec)
ftp>

6. Close the FTP client session.
ftp>bye
C:\apc>

7. Wait about 20 – 30 seconds.

8. Repeat Steps 3 – 8 again for the application module (sumx for Smart Ups/Matrix, sy for Symmetra, etc). In Step 6, substitute the sumx module file name, in place of the aos module file name. Or the sy prefix for the Symmetra.

Categories
INTEL NUC

Intel NUC NUC5i5RYH – disable speed step

I am running some homelab stuff with NUC5i5RYH running ESXi. I wanted to know why everything showed up as 1.6ghz and not the 2.7ghz it should burst to. I got a reply from INTEL stating:

The Intel® Core™ i5-5250U Processor is an Ultra-Low power processor (because of the U at the end of the model).

Any U processor cannot disable speedstep which would have allowed me to run full speed, just an FYI to those wanting to do it! You will only get the downclocked speed.