My now ancient desktop - a Novatech box based on a Gigabyte GA-B75M
i5-3450 - has the oddest problem. It's a very long-standing one - been
there for years off and on; mercifully more off than on.
When powering up, the (PSU?) fan will sometimes come on at full pelt. It
will then either just sit there like that, or spontaneously restart
within a few seconds. Usually no video signal in this state. Then
repeat. Occasionally, it will restart with a lower fan speed, and
sometimes even reboot properly. Just sometimes, I get a partial BIOS
screen appearing.
Mike Scott wrote:
My now ancient desktop - a Novatech box based on a Gigabyte GA-B75M
i5-3450 - has the oddest problem. It's a very long-standing one - been
there for years off and on; mercifully more off than on.
When powering up, the (PSU?) fan will sometimes come on at full pelt.
It will then either just sit there like that, or spontaneously restart
within a few seconds. Usually no video signal in this state. Then
repeat. Occasionally, it will restart with a lower fan speed, and
sometimes even reboot properly. Just sometimes, I get a partial BIOS
screen appearing.
Try with some memory removed/swapped. Does CMOS battery need replacing?
Disable any overclocking features, or auto-recovery features in BIOS.
See if any BIOS upgrade is available.
On 20/11/2023 13:09, Andy Burns wrote:.......
Mike Scott wrote:
My now ancient desktop - a Novatech box based on a Gigabyte GA-B75M
i5-3450 - has the oddest problem. It's a very long-standing one -
been there for years off and on; mercifully more off than on.
When powering up, the (PSU?) fan will sometimes come on at full pelt.
It will then either just sit there like that, or spontaneously
restart within a few seconds. Usually no video signal in this state.
Then repeat. Occasionally, it will restart with a lower fan speed,
and sometimes even reboot properly. Just sometimes, I get a partial
BIOS screen appearing.
(*) which of course has no PCI slot, so my ancient-but-still-perfectly-functional SCSI GT-5000 scanner won't have anything to plug into. Oh well. :-{
(*) which of course has no PCI slot, so my
ancient-but-still-perfectly-functional SCSI GT-5000 scanner won't have
anything to plug into. Oh well. :-{
There are things for sale on eBay ( like this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/145192969996 ) which claim to be PCIx to PCI converters, although you might have a bit of a problem fitting one in
the case.
I would be interested to know if you manage to get one to work as I have
a similar problem with a sound card.
Alternatively there are some PCIx adaptors around for the various
flavours of SCSI
All may not be lost ....
Thanks for the note. I'd not seen the pci-e to pci converter - but I
can't at all see how the pci backplate can fit securely. But I'll think
about that one.
I've taken the easy route and ordered a new machine(*).
But this one still puzzles me - it's so close to working OK. I managed
after several power cycles to boot it yesterday, and it ran perfectly
well all day. I shut it down last night and immediately tried to restart it.... no luck; yet today it came on first go.
(*) which of course has no PCI slot, so my ancient-but-still-perfectly-functional SCSI GT-5000 scanner won't have anything to plug into. Oh well. :-{
It's disappointing that there are no USB to SCSI adapters
Theo wrote:
It's disappointing that there are no USB to SCSI adapters
I think they're all in landfill, this one looks like it's been dug-up
<https://ebay.com/itm/134721516952>
On 22/11/2023 13:12, Andy Burns wrote:
Theo wrote:
It's disappointing that there are no USB to SCSI adapters
I think they're all in landfill, this one looks like it's been dug-up
<https://ebay.com/itm/134721516952>
assuming that the $398 + shipping is not enough of a deterrent ?
Thanks for the note. I'd not seen the pci-e to pci converter - but I
can't at all see how the pci backplate can fit securely. But I'll
think about that one.
Thats what I meant by "although you might have a bit of a problem
fitting one in the case"
There are some projects for a Raspberry Pi or similar to pretend to be a
SCSI hard drive, for plugging into old computers. I did find one (can't
find the link now) that had some support for going the other way (ie plug in SCSI drive to Pi, and Pi can access its data), but don't think I saw one for talking to scanners.
Unless the scanner is particularly special, I'd just replace with a USB scanner. Could be worth it for pro scanners though - I've seen some for
sale that include a 'free' SCSI Mac as part of the package.
Theo
I'll see what the pcie-to-pci riser looks like first.
You can get PCIe to PCI converters, which are in two parts joined by a
USB3 cable (nb the connection isn't actually USB, it's just a convenient cable type fast enough for 1x PCI lane) so you can position the slot somewhere different within the case e.g. a drive bay using double sided
stick foam tape, or some meccano brackets.
e.g. <https://ebay.co.uk/itm/126069579654>
The bridge chips will likely be the same as would exist on an older motherboard with mixed PCI/PCIe
Mike Scott wrote:
I'll see what the pcie-to-pci riser looks like first.
You can get PCIe to PCI converters, which are in two parts joined by a
USB3 cable (nb the connection isn't actually USB, it's just a convenient cable type fast enough for 1x PCI lane) so you can position the slot somewhere different within the case e.g. a drive bay using double sided
stick foam tape, or some meccano brackets.
e.g. <https://ebay.co.uk/itm/126069579654>
The bridge chips will likely be the same as would exist on an older motherboard with mixed PCI/PCIe
But yes, any scsi interface these days seems to cost more than a new usb scanner.
I nearly ordered a cheapish Canon (LiDE 400) with the new machine, but
doubts over linux support lingered. I'll see what the pcie-to-pci riser
looks like first.
It's a nice scanner, but I find that the quality of most of the old photographs I wanted to scan isn't so high that I need all that
resolution. The detail in many of my old Dad's colour slides can be
captured at only about 72dpi :-(
If the slides are mounted then its possible that you will get quite acceptable results using a slide copier attachment for a SLR / DSLR
I nearly ordered a cheapish Canon (LiDE 400) with the new machine, but
doubts over linux support lingered. I'll see what the pcie-to-pci riser
looks like first.
I nearly ordered a cheapish Canon (LiDE 400) with the new machine, but
doubts over linux support lingered. I'll see what the pcie-to-pci
riser looks like first.
Well, it came. The riser, that is. Pretty speedily too from China.
I assume the electronics would install one. It's mechanically impossible
to insert a PCI card into the adapter, because the two backplates would interfere with the PCI card inserted into the adapter's socket.
I did wonder when I saw the original image on the web, so I'm not
surprised; just disappointed at what seems a noddy design error.
Oh well. Ali-X do seem to offer a returns procedure. Should be interesting.
On 23/11/2023 08:40, Mike Scott wrote:
.....
I nearly ordered a cheapish Canon (LiDE 400) with the new machine, but
doubts over linux support lingered. I'll see what the pcie-to-pci
riser looks like first.
Well, it came. The riser, that is. Pretty speedily too from China.
I assume the electronics would install one. It's mechanically impossible
to insert a PCI card into the adapter, because the two backplates would interfere with the PCI card inserted into the adapter's socket.
I did wonder when I saw the original image on the web, so I'm not
surprised; just disappointed at what seems a noddy design error.
Oh well. Ali-X do seem to offer a returns procedure. Should be interesting.
Mike Scott wrote:....
You can get a flexible PCIe 1x extension that should overcome the
mechanical issue if your case has a spare slot that's away from the motherboard (or you don't mind a blutack and rubber-band approach).
<https://amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C9T9L99V>
Oh well. Ali-X do seem to offer a returns procedure. Should be
interesting.
I should think the P&P will cost more than that cable!
On 05/12/2023 09:21, Andy Burns wrote:
Mike Scott wrote:
Oh well. Ali-X do seem to offer a returns procedure. Should be
interesting.
I should think the P&P will cost more than that cable!
Actually not; I was surprised - I got a tracked-48 prepaid label to an address in the UK. They offer to refund cost+postage. Whether they'll
accept the produce has a design flaw will be interesting to see,
although I doubt it's worth their time to argue on a low-value item.
On 5 Dec 2023 at 10:26:32 GMT, "Mike Scott" <usenet.16@scottsonline.org.uk.invalid> wrote:
On 05/12/2023 09:21, Andy Burns wrote:
Mike Scott wrote:
Oh well. Ali-X do seem to offer a returns procedure. Should be
interesting.
I should think the P&P will cost more than that cable!
Actually not; I was surprised - I got a tracked-48 prepaid label to an
address in the UK. They offer to refund cost+postage. Whether they'll
accept the produce has a design flaw will be interesting to see,
although I doubt it's worth their time to argue on a low-value item.
Not so much a design flaw as 'not designed for your use' - as Andy says,
a PCIe 1x ribbon would be the way forward. If you had eg an ITX or mATX
board in an ATX case there could possibly be a hard adapter that would
go sideways and down to mobo level and use the empty case slot(s) that
the mobo isn't using, but it wouldn't be this shape. Assuming the Ali
one you got is like the eBay one someone posted, that looks to be for a custom stubby PCI card with a mounting bolt hole to the oddly shaped backplate.
Cheers - Jaimie
It looked like this one (I suspect the exact same bar the price ratio): <https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/145192969996>
with its own backplate. There'd clearly be a height issue; I'd not
really considered that they'd not allow for the double back-plate
thickness. It's clearly intended for a PCI board with its own
back-plate, as it has a huge cutout so any sockets will poke through.
a PCIe 1x ribbon would be the way forward. If you had eg an ITX or mATX board in an ATX case there could possibly be a hard adapter that would
go sideways and down to mobo level and use the empty case slot(s) that
the mobo isn't using, but it wouldn't be this shape. Assuming the Ali
Mobo backplane has two slots only, aligned with the first and 4th places
on the case rear; I'm not sure though that it will allow anything to
mount in the 2nd and 3rd places.
Maybe I'll just save up for a new scanner.... I've had a hankering for a sheet feed one for a while.
The other thing with ancient SCSI cards is the drivers probably aren't updated (assuming you use Windows). So a recent USB scanner may be safer in
that respect.
Theo
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