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ZenMaster posted:Yeah, agreed, probably not, it's fairly small. The easiest fix is to replace the garbage TP-LINK router with a decent dual-band model, and make sure both routers in the building are using widely separated channels. Having dual bands means the newer devices are all going to jump onto the clear 5Ghz band, leaving older and crappier devices on the now MUCH less congested 2.4Ghz band. This might be enough to fix the issue on its own. A guest network makes it so users can't see other devices on the network for security and wouldn't help performance at all. Similarly, MAC address prioritization affects Internet bandwidth usage and does not directly affect radio or router CPU congestion, which are the actual issues you're encountering. If you some users hogging the bandwidth QoS could help, but it doesn't help when there's too many users for the bandwidth to go around. Edit: you could also move the TP-Link router to the location where you need access for only a handful of devices and make it the private router, and use the better Netgear dual-band router in the sanctuary or whatever as the public-access router. Note that the TP-Link router may not be fast enough to route traffic for everyone, however. Alereon fucked around with this message at 20:00 on Feb 17, 2015 |
# ? Feb 17, 2015 19:55 |
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# ? Jun 5, 2024 04:50 |
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doctorfrog posted:Thanks for the reply. My use case is that I'm just some dude with digital stuff of pretty high personal value, but also work product for various companies, some big, some small. I mostly don't want douches who would steal a drive to be able to see my stuff. Or use the drive at all, the bastards. But it would be even better if it were not hackable by anyone, ever. Bringing this old query of mine back, it looks like my concerns were more or less valid: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/02/how-hackers-could-attack-hard-drives-to-create-a-pervasive-backdoor/ Welp, back to TrueCrypt. I still don't have a single bit that the NSA or anyone else is interested in, but why not be as secure as possible? (Or at least as secure as a unsophisticated nobody can be?) edit: quote:So, in theory, if an attacker was able to use another exploit to gain remote access to a machine and identify the hard drive on the system, they could then drop a customized installer onto the victim system that installs modified drive controller code that gives them a persistent backdoor. The problem, of course, is having a custom set of ROM code for precisely the hard drives that are on the targeted systems—a bit of work that would quickly elevate the cost of development of the attack to something attainable only by an organization with deep technical skill and deep pockets, or a relationship with someone willing to pay for it. doctorfrog fucked around with this message at 20:59 on Feb 20, 2015 |
# ? Feb 20, 2015 20:33 |
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If you are not trying to hide your data from the NSA, use BitLocker if you have a version of Windows that supports it. It has the lowest performance impact and doesn't hurt SSD lifespan, and TrueCrypt is conceded broken. Keep in mind though that most people care more about being able to recover data from failed harddrives and corrupted Windows installations than keeping it out of the hands of people that might steal their computer. If your data is more important than that, encryption is a good choice.
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# ? Feb 20, 2015 22:49 |
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Is there any certifying agency for surge suppressors? (The wall-plug kind, not the whole-house kind.) How do you determine what a reputable surge-suppressor manufacturer is? Or does it matter? This is for a gaming PC, and solely for the purpose of having a fuse blow rather than expensive hardware.
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# ? Feb 21, 2015 03:24 |
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The SATA-to-USB module/adapter of my WD My Book Essentials is apparently damaged (I get a "fatal error" message whenever I try to access the drive) so I had to remove the hard drive from its enclosure so I can use it on my desktop. The BIOS can detect it but it doesn't show up on Windows at all; not even on the "give it a letter" part. I've read somewhere that these drives are encrypted so I won't be able to use it as an internal drive - is that true? If that's the case can I buy a SATA-to-USB adapter so I can just use it again as an external drive?
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# ? Feb 21, 2015 12:13 |
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Any recs for a decent UPS? I guess I'm with Arsenic Lupin here. Not sure what brand is good/not selling overpriced "magic." My (3 years old?) CyberPower 550SL just poo poo the bed a few minutes ago. The voltage was 100-140, the wattage 330. More than enough to meet my needs. Unfortunately, the batteries all died apparently simultaneously, and as a result no power is available through those outlets at all. I don't overclock or run more than one desktop off the block, just occasionally charge a laptop, so I don't require anything super awesome.
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# ? Feb 21, 2015 19:10 |
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Is there any certifying agency for surge suppressors? (The wall-plug kind, not the whole-house kind.) How do you determine what a reputable surge-suppressor manufacturer is? Or does it matter? This is for a gaming PC, and solely for the purpose of having a fuse blow rather than expensive hardware. RedTonic posted:Any recs for a decent UPS? I guess I'm with Arsenic Lupin here. Not sure what brand is good/not selling overpriced "magic." *Modern computers and electronics use power supplies with Active Power Factor Correction (PFC), these models no longer have a voltage switch and usually happily run on anything between 90-250V. Active PFC monitors the shape of the incoming AC waveform to keep load steady. The blocky shape of the modified/approximated waveform from cheaper UPS models makes the power supply draw power in brief, large pulses. This can cause overloads in the UPS or reduce UPS and power supply lifespan, as well as harming efficiency. This universal voltage capability of modern power supplies also makes UPS protection less relevant these days, as even wild swings of the input voltage are still within your power supply's nominal input range. A UPS is still helpful if your power goes out frequently and you don't want to risk data loss or potential drive corruption, but you no longer need the voltage regulation they provide. Black is what the sine wave should be, red is what you get from a cheap UPS, blue is the stepped square wave from SUPER cheap inverters. Alereon fucked around with this message at 19:42 on Feb 21, 2015 |
# ? Feb 21, 2015 19:12 |
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Alereon posted:Otherwise there's the risk that you could plug your stuff into an ungrounded outlet and not get any surge protection (and perhaps experience other issues). You don't need to go crazy on a high-end model though, spending more isn't going to get you meaningfully better protection. Thank you for the rec! Good to know that this brand wasn't garbage, at least. Looks like I'll be buying a pricey new tool. And I also want to point out that 3 prong ungrounded outlets are more common than one would expect. With the exception of GFCI outlets (the ones you see near sinks, generally), every apartment and house I've lived in has had ungrounded 3-prong outlets. Sometimes every single outlet was, in fact, ungrounded. I've had power supplies in various desktops get blown out thanks to this issue. (Happily, the power supplies all did their duty and nothing else took a hit.) Getting the wiring fault indicator is worthwhile!
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# ? Feb 21, 2015 20:50 |
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Thanks a bunch, Alereon. I just ordered two APCs with the features you mentioned and appropriate plug spacing. (I also hadn't realized that suppressors wear out in a non-dramatic way. We definitely had a couple of power outages in the last year, so I'm replacing a crucial one.) One of these years I need to look into a whole-house suppressor.
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# ? Feb 21, 2015 21:59 |
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Disharmony posted:The SATA-to-USB module/adapter of my WD My Book Essentials is apparently damaged (I get a "fatal error" message whenever I try to access the drive) so I had to remove the hard drive from its enclosure so I can use it on my desktop. The BIOS can detect it but it doesn't show up on Windows at all; not even on the "give it a letter" part. I've read somewhere that these drives are encrypted so I won't be able to use it as an internal drive - is that true? If the controller board that has the encryption stuff on it is dead, I think you might be boned. If the USB port is physically damaged you could solder some wires around it if you have the gear and a steady hand. Showing up in the BIOS means the PC sees the controller, but that doesn't mean the drive itself is okay. If the BIOS displays correct info, like the drive size is good and the serial number is not random bullshit, that's a good sign for recovery. However, if the drive contents are encrypted and the encryption hardware is damaged then I doubt you'll be fixing it yourself. Maybe a replacement circuit board with the exact same revision/model number would get your disk reading again? That would depend on if the encryption keys are unique to each board or not, and I've no idea.
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# ? Feb 22, 2015 03:33 |
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Thanks but I don't really care much about recovering the data, just that I can get anything to detect it again and use it. Is there a way to wipe the drive and remove said encryption feature?
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# ? Feb 22, 2015 12:48 |
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See if it can be read by a unix box or with a live boot CD or a Mac or something. If so, format it from there. If not, the problem is probably beyond what you can do yourself. That is to say, if you have a standard SATA connector on that drive and it still is not detected even by non-Windows systems then there's probably not much more that you are going to able to do with it. Do you know for sure that "fatal error" means the drive is fine but the USB controller is bad? Could you just be wasting your time with a completely dead disk?
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# ? Feb 22, 2015 13:57 |
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RedTonic posted:And I also want to point out that 3 prong ungrounded outlets are more common than one would expect. With the exception of GFCI outlets (the ones you see near sinks, generally), every apartment and house I've lived in has had ungrounded 3-prong outlets. Sometimes every single outlet was, in fact, ungrounded. I've had power supplies in various desktops get blown out thanks to this issue. (Happily, the power supplies all did their duty and nothing else took a hit.) Getting the wiring fault indicator is worthwhile! Arsenic Lupin posted:(I also hadn't realized that suppressors wear out in a non-dramatic way. We definitely had a couple of power outages in the last year, so I'm replacing a crucial one.)
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# ? Feb 22, 2015 14:59 |
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This is a hardware/software question. Apologies if this is the wrong thread. I have a Mac formatted hdd from a 2008 unibody MacBook pro that suddenly died on me several years ago. I forget what OS X version it was running. I'm pretty sure it was pre lion though. I've finally gotten around to removing the drive since I was bored this morning. Anyway I have a Windows machine running Win 7. As I understand it I'll need some software to read my files (photos, artwork, and music) from the Mac drive. I need a recommendation for a preferably free program that'll allow me to migrate the files to my Windows drive.
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# ? Feb 23, 2015 01:20 |
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dog nougat posted:I need a recommendation for a preferably free program that'll allow me to migrate the files to my Windows drive. I use TransMac, it's a bit primitive, but it does what you're looking for. It's not free, but there's a 15-day full-featured trial available for download. www.acutesystems.com
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# ? Feb 23, 2015 06:17 |
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I used MacDrive a few years back. All these programs tend to have free trials for a week or two, thankfully.
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# ? Feb 23, 2015 12:39 |
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Cool, thanks! Now to see if I have a spare SATA power cord lying around.
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# ? Feb 23, 2015 15:49 |
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I have an i7-4790k and an ASUS Z97-A, what settings do I need to disable to make sure my CPU doesn't downclock? When I turn my computer on there is horrible audio crackling and just a sluggish feel to the computer. The audio is ran through my GTX 970, but I believe the CPU is the problem. Because even under low loads like 10% or so, YT videos slowdown if I switch over to another task. Windows is saying the CPU is running at 800MHz. When I play a game there is no problem. Edit: Not my CPU apparently... It's my GPU. For some reason when it switches to 3d rendering settings everything messes up, but when it goes back to 2d clocks everything is fine. SlayVus fucked around with this message at 19:46 on Feb 25, 2015 |
# ? Feb 25, 2015 19:36 |
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I need to migrate an older hard drive to a larger backup, but I haven't used disk imaging software, uh, ever. Can someone recommend a free utility to do so, and answer basic questions? Do I need to put a file system on the new drive beforehand, or will an image take care of that? Basically, I'm moving from a 2tb to a 4tb, and want to just replace the drive while keeping file paths. (steam among them) I know it should be easy, I just don't want to gently caress it up.
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# ? Feb 27, 2015 10:55 |
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This is a shot in the dark but does anyone have a decent front panel audio/USB 3.0/card reader board they'd recommend? Preferably 5.25" slot, as I have an empty space (with no cover) to fill and my ancient case's USB/audio front panel ports died long ago. I've been Googling like hell but no-one seems to do one with just a few USB 3 slots, headphones/mic, and some card reader slots... it's all fan knobs, flashing LED screens and a bunch of nonsense non-internal connectors for the stuff, it's crazy. Basically something like this but from a reliable manufacturer with passable build quality?
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# ? Feb 27, 2015 15:39 |
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TheParadigm posted:I need to migrate an older hard drive to a larger backup, but I haven't used disk imaging software, uh, ever. Both Seagate and Western Digital offer a banded version of Acronis True Image cloning software for free on their site. Just plug in both drives, run the software, tell it to copy to from the old drive to the new drive and you're done. It's a very easy step-by-step program and you don't need to do anything to the new disk before cloning.
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# ? Feb 27, 2015 17:20 |
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Macrium Reflect's free version is another vendor-agnostic migration app that works fine.
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# ? Feb 27, 2015 17:39 |
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I woke to my win 7 pc running like poo poo and explorer wouldn't respond at all even with attempting a restart so I had to hard reset it. Now it won't boot to post and all I get is a dash in the top left hand corner and the letters B4 at the bottom right. Tested with RAM removed which kept on restarting as expected, all hdd disconnected except boot drive and then all hdds in total disconnected, pulled the vid card and ran off integrated vid card, again isolating everything but still get the same screen. I'm assuming my motherboard has poo poo the bed, (MSI Z77a-G43). I don't have a spare motherboard or power supply to test this however.
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# ? Feb 27, 2015 22:33 |
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A quick google says that some USB device is breaking things. Same diagnostic principle applies; just apply it to your USB stuff instead.
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# ? Feb 27, 2015 22:39 |
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Sir Unimaginative posted:A quick google says that some USB device is breaking things. Same diagnostic principle applies; just apply it to your USB stuff instead. Yeah I kinda jumped the gun on this, I totally forgot to remove USB stuff, seems it was a wireless network card I was testing for something was playing up.
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# ? Feb 27, 2015 22:46 |
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I just got a refurbished T430. When I plug in or unplug the power cable, the screen goes black for a second. Any idea of what it could be? I'd hate to have to send it back after I just got it, but I don't want to let a problem sit until the warranty expires.
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# ? Feb 28, 2015 08:47 |
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22 Eargesplitten posted:I just got a refurbished T430. When I plug in or unplug the power cable, the screen goes black for a second. Any idea of what it could be? I'd hate to have to send it back after I just got it, but I don't want to let a problem sit until the warranty expires. Then I'd make sure I was on the latest video drivers (beta if there is a dGPU). Though if it's related to either, it's completely innocent anyway. Might still be something else though.
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# ? Feb 28, 2015 09:46 |
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It turned out to be switching to a different refresh rate on battery than on the cable. edit: Okay, now when it's plugged in and tilted away from me (so it's making a v shape) it says there's no battery detected. When I unplug it and tilt it forward, it recognizes the battery just fine, and doesn't power down. Any idea what could be going on? The battery does feel a little bit loose. At least this one is not a real problem, since it functions just fine. 22 Eargesplitten fucked around with this message at 01:41 on Mar 1, 2015 |
# ? Feb 28, 2015 16:29 |
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Make sure both battery latches are locked. Even then the T430 batteries are usually pretty loose.
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# ? Mar 2, 2015 02:32 |
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Testing it again, it got fixed once I pulled out the plastic tab marking the SDCard slot. Not sure why they even put that in there.
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# ? Mar 2, 2015 02:47 |
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Hello people, I'm looking for some advice. I need a new headset for my pc (needs to have a mic so I can use skype, teamspeak and so on.) My budget is no more than £80. I'm a gamer and I'm looking for the best headset I can get for the price, that also won't ruin watching movies or listening to music with stupidly high bass boost (or at least has a bass control). So far I'm looking at either the Corsair 1500, the Logitech G430 or the HyperX Cloud. Can someone recommend any of these (or of course if you think another product is better, recommend something else).
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# ? Mar 6, 2015 19:06 |
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My HTPC wouldn't boot because the SSD was not showing up at all. It's a new build and had been running fine for a week. I unplugged and replugged the data cable, and made sure both ends of the power cable were secure. It then booted fine. Is there a most likely culprit in this type of situation? The cables all seemed secure before I reseated them.
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# ? Mar 8, 2015 21:38 |
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Germstore posted:My HTPC wouldn't boot because the SSD was not showing up at all. It's a new build and had been running fine for a week. I unplugged and replugged the data cable, and made sure both ends of the power cable were secure. It then booted fine. Is there a most likely culprit in this type of situation? The cables all seemed secure before I reseated them.
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# ? Mar 9, 2015 03:04 |
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Alereon posted:What SSD and motherboard?
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# ? Mar 9, 2015 03:14 |
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Germstore posted:gigabyte g1 sniper z97 and ocz arc 100 240gb Is it too late to return both?
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# ? Mar 9, 2015 03:17 |
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Rexxed posted:Is it too late to return both? No. Returning the motherboard would be a huge hassle though. e: How big a risk do you think keeping the mobo is? If I switch out the ssd if it failed again quickly I may still have time. Germstore fucked around with this message at 03:49 on Mar 9, 2015 |
# ? Mar 9, 2015 03:34 |
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Germstore posted:No. Returning the motherboard would be a huge hassle though. I'm mostly being an rear end in a top hat about your component choices because both gigabyte motherboards and OCZ SSDs are pretty bad. They should work, however, and if either is bad I'd assume there'll be an RMA available. It's probably the SSD but there's really no way to be certain unless it happens more often and gives you an opportunity to troubleshoot. Check the smart data of the SSD with Crystal Disk Info just to be sure there's nothing that stands out: http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html You want the standard edition, pick portable so you don't have to opt-out of adware with the installer version.
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# ? Mar 9, 2015 03:51 |
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Rexxed posted:I'm mostly being an rear end in a top hat about your component choices because both gigabyte motherboards and OCZ SSDs are pretty bad. They should work, however, and if either is bad I'd assume there'll be an RMA available. Thanks. I'll try that tool. I knew OCZ has a bad rep, but I thought gigabyte was top tier.
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# ? Mar 9, 2015 04:02 |
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Germstore posted:Thanks. I'll try that tool. I knew OCZ has a bad rep, but I thought gigabyte was top tier. Their video cards are alright, but they've been cutting corners on motherboards for a long time and are definitely to be avoided if possible. The most audacious recent example is releasing a Revision 2 of a positively tested board that's been redesigned to use worse parts and cash in on the good reviews of the Revision 1 version: http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/5835/spot-the-differences-gigabyte-motherboard-revisions-present-markedly-different-test-results
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# ? Mar 9, 2015 04:11 |
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# ? Jun 5, 2024 04:50 |
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You don't have any old sata spinning drives you could plug in to see if the cable/port is working?
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# ? Mar 9, 2015 05:46 |