A little piece of computer hell

[pete]

So, I have a problem (well, at least one problem): on occasion, sometimes every couple minutes or every few days, my 4K 60hz TV that I use as a computer monitor displays static. Higher resolution and color than you'd get from a 1980's or earlier TV tuned to a UHF channel, but you'd still call it "static." To temporarily get rid of the problem, you need to unplug and re-plug the HDMI cable on either the TV or video card.

My computer troubleshooting has always gone from easiest and least expensive repair to difficult and most expensive.

* Checked HDMI video cables. Even swapped with a new cable that I know works. Nope.
* Checked using different HDMI ports on my TV. Nope.
* I've got about a year-ish old "2K" monitor (2560 x 1440) that also has an HDMI input. It's also a 175hz monitor. The video card only supports up to 144hz. Worky. Hmmm.
* Set my 4K TV to 2K @ 60hz resolution. Seems to work OK.
* Tried a different video card, just because I have one. Works fine ... at 4K 30hz. The card doesn't support anything higher. Hmmm.
* Removed the test video card and popped in my old one. Set to 4K 30hz. Seems to work.
* Just for fun, I tried the original video card in a different PCIe slot at 4K 60hz. Nope.
* Well, I'm going to need a newer video card, anyway, so I bought one. So, 4K @ 60hz ... nope.

So problem is either the computer, itself, or the TV. One of them is disliking 4K @ 60hz. 30hz makes my eyes bleed after about an hour. The TV is still less costly than the computer, but not by much. I'll also have to wait several months to have enough $ to pay for either. I was hoping on not replacing either until Windows 10 is end-of-life in 2025.

 

[ghostler]

I understand what you are going through, Pete. I've built all of my home systems from the late 1980's on. Before that, 1981, had a Timex Sinclair 1000 that I did a lot of hardware mods on, then to a Radio Shack Color Computer II, with mods and upgrades, then on to business system building from the 8 bit CP/M days through DOS and the rest of the OS's.

REGARDING MONITORS
Lately am using a 10 year old Sanyo 26" LCD TV with VGA connector to PC. Referring to Ubuntu Linux as I no longer use Windows except on rare occasions. I believe this can be done in Windows also. I have the screen colors set to a black theme and color letters, which is easier on the eyes. It is 60 Hz, 1360x768 resolution. The darker colors make viewing a lot easier. In your forum, I enabled the ALL BLUE theme, which is also easier on the eyes. I don't know if changing your OS desktop and app color themes inverted to dark would help, but it helped me on mine.

COMPUTER RANT
BAD - My 15 year old Pentium Athlon-II system's hard disk just gave up the ghost, hard disk failed (S.M.A.R.T. error, sector read errors). It ran Linux just fine (too slow for Windows 7). Fortunately, I had the more important data saved on external USB drives.

GOOD - New system is a motherboard with high speed 3.8 GHz 4 core (8 virtuals) Intel i7 CPU, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD HD ($187 on Ebay). Cleaned up and gutted an older 20 year mid tower case, refurbed with a new power supply, multiple SD card reader and new DVD rewriter. Case has a floppy slot in it looks so old, it is a good anti-theft device. It is blazingly fast, just working through a few software issues.

 

[pete]

One thing I do eventually want to do is pick up a laptop that natively supports both DIN5 and PS/2, just so I can test vintage keyboards.

I do kinda like the idea of "sleeper" computers, i.e. it looks like it's from the 1990s, but it has brand new hardware inside. However, I've been a little fortunate to have picked up some modern cases on ebay, etc., for cheap.

 

[ghostler]

I searched on the 'bay, but many of the new inexpensive cases lacked any externally exposed drive bays. Seems people nowadays use the cloud or external USB drives (DVD/Blue Ray, card readers). Ones that did only had one 3.5" or 5.25" but not both. Glass covers are out because they most likely, would not survive rough shipment handling.

Spoiler: Ukulele shipment damage 2 years ago

This was a nice Mitchell wood body ukulele with built in preamp. Fortunately, Musician's Friend on-line music store accepted return at their expense and shipped me another at no additional cost.

Shipping box crushed.

Instrument box big end crushed.

Ukulele top split in couple places.

My decision to go with the older case was out of convenience. It was my former desktop, made of thicker gauge steel, very sturdy and still in good condition.

The very seller that I bought this case from 25 years ago has changed from good to worse. Their 'bay ratings have sagged. One I wanted, listing was vague. After messaging, they told me to look it up on the manufacturer's website. Manufacturer's webpage stated options but no other SKU's. I mentioned that and again asked clarification and I received a non-answer ("thank you for contacting us"). I will never buy from them again until they change.

This system is blazingly fast on Ubuntu based Linux Mint Mate. It boots up in less than 10 seconds, shuts down in 3. (I've yet to see that with the "market leader".) Just added a 7-port USB 3.0 short PCI-E card to the back (on clearance).

 

[ghostler]

One thing I do eventually want to do is pick up a laptop that natively supports both DIN5 and PS/2, just so I can test vintage keyboards.

I can understand that. In 2008, I bought a used General Music WK2 Arranger module for just under $400 US. Since, I used various arranger keyboards as controller through the DIN5 ports.

In 2016, I interfaced the WK2 with an old 1990's Yamaha QS300 workstation keyboard as controller. This now allowed me to use this system as a modern arranger. It has decent sounds, IMO using the technology of the day that morphed into their Genesys top of the line in the early 2000's.

It was limited by the smaller capacity of its internal hard disk and outdated floppy technology.

So, I replaced the WK2 3.5" floppy with a modern USB floppy emulator unit and the IBM 540mb ATA IDE2 notebook hard drive with 2gb CF card and IDE2 adapter. This allowed me to upload the data to the floppy emulator's memory by special PC software. I would select the emulator's floppy partition by use of the emulator's push buttons, with would display the partition I selected on the emulator's LED panel.

2016 photo shows 1gb CF test card on new IDE2 adapter. Final card installed was 2gb. GEM labels belie the fact that it is an IBM 540mb unit.

In 2016, I replaced the 280mAH NiCad battery with a 330mAH NiMH one (direct solder in replacement - stacked shrinkwrapped coin style cells with PC board pins; both NiCad and NiMH use the same charge characteristics, C/10). Apparently the overseas seller sold me old stock, it went bad 2 years later. 2018, I went direct to a reputable US supplier and replaced with an NiMH battery of different form factor (photo).

WK2 with floppy emulator installed.

The WK2 was designed during the day that floppies were still in use. When it came out in 1999, I believe its cost was between $2,000 - $3,000 US.

It stored the styles in 1.44mb partitions on the hard drive. Essentially, each partition was a floppy. One named each HD partition with an 8 letter name for easier identification, selectable through the WK2's panel. Practically speaking, one could have up to 8 styles in each partition. One could either select styles individually, or all 8 at once. (This however overwrote any other style stored in the WK2's memory for instant recall.)

Once the CF "hard disk" was initialized as multiple 1.44mb partitions, clicking the emulator buttons would allow selecting the particular "floppy" partition. Through the USB and special software, one would then upload a floppy's worth of data.

Since, I have moved on to more recent arranger keyboards.

 

[Gandalfe]

@pete, did you track down the issue? I had that same issue on my two-year old Dell with an upscale ASUS monitor. It was freakin' me out and I could always get out of it by rebooting the computer. Dunno what changed but it normalized itself without me doing anything. I looked for new app installs and stuff, but didn't find anything that stood out. So I chalked it up to yet another MS snafu that was fixed with an update.

 

[pete]

Not completely, yet. Amazon's going to be doing their Prime Day event on July 11-12. If I can find the TV I want, which is a mini-led 4K (I can't afford OLED), for under the going price of around $600, I'll buy one and see what happens.

I've had an interesting history with Linux. I'm now at the point where I have enough software that won't work on Linux, so I only have Linux MX installed in a VirtualBox. It works well because, even though my computer is about 6 years old, I've got 48gb RAM I can throw at it. I've also got NVMe hard drives, so that also makes VirtualBox speedy.