Misc tips for avoiding computer problems

Garuda Community
21

I know we’re way OT, but I thought I’d give one more cautionary tale about hard drives and Linux. Just because a drive is diagnosed as “healthy” in smartmon or other testing utilities does not mean it’s 100% solid.

This story happened a while back when the kernel was updated from I believe 4.14 to 4.19. After the 4.19 update I started to have transient full lock up’s on my system. Not every day, but often enough to be really annoying.

If I stuck with kernel 4.14 no freezes occurred, but I really didn’t want to remain stuck on an older kernel forevever. I started trying to find a fix for the freezes. After checking my logs I found I/O errors when running any newer kernel and I was affected by freezes.

Kernel 4.19 saw the introduction of a different I/O scheduler. So after finding the I/O errors in my logs I switched back to the old scheduler in use on kernel 4.14. Using the old scheduler the system seemed stable, so I put the freezes down to changes with the kernel. I figured the issue would resolve itself as the kernel recieved updates, but it never did.

Over time I began to suspect an old drive hard drive was part of the problem, as it had started making the occasional weird noise. I ran numerous dignostic tests and every time the drive passed the diagnostic tests with flying colors.

Before too long I realized that if the old drive wasn’t attached to the computer when running a newer kernel things were fine. However, as soon as I plugged in the old drive the freezing issue came back. I retired the old drive, and the freezing issue was a thing of the past.

The moral of this story is, you can’t rely on software diagnostic tests to be a 100% reliable predictor of problems/failure with hardware. Ram can also test fine, but when you eliminate 1 stick of 4 matching ram sticks sequentially and reboot you can sometimes find the freezes disappear (even though all the Ram tests fine). Sometimes selectively removing hardware is the only way to truly be sure if it’s causing a problem.

Way off topic, but sometimes other people’s experiences can save you a lot of frustration and wasted time if you are warned in advance.

Storage technologies change over time and one thing I’ve found is the old tech is far from perfect when stored for long periods of time.

I was shocked how many floppies were unreadable or contained errors when I tried reading floppy disks that had been stored for years. The same thing happened when I moved and temporarily had no internet access. I took my movie collection out of mothballs and was shocked to find how many discs couldn’t be played properly after being stored for years. Even DVD’s degrade over time, so I would also suggest cloud backup for irreplaceable data such as photos.

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22

If stored properly, in a cold, dark, dry environment, a DVD can last a century. But yes, it can degrade, especially if scratched, heated, or exposed to UV light. Therefore it shouldn’t be the only form of backup. Multiple copies, each on a separate disc, as well as on HDDs and other media. Diversify your backup as much as possible.

“Cloud” backup is, in my philosophy, entirely out of the question. “Cloud” is nothing but other people’s computers. I have no control over that, therefore I don’t do it.

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I tend to agree for sensitive documents such as financials, but I really don’t see much risk of the NSA or hackers stealing my kids baby pictures. :wink:

24

I had exactly same thing happened to me about 8 years ago :upside_down_face:

So i’ve learned to always test system failures barebones:

  1. Disconnect everything
  2. Boot from LiveUSB
  3. Connect stuff one by one, to see what fails
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25

I quite agree with that methodology. I have an extensive guide on hardware troubleshooting in our tutorials section.

Have a read if you feel so inclined:

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26

Don’t threaten me with good time!
:clown_face: :sunglasses:

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27

Most people that want their freezing issues solved on the forum you’ll never hear from again if you post the link to that very extensive tutorial. Most people expect someone else to solve their problems for them. Usually when they see that long read, they are flummoxed just go back to Windows or Ubuntu. :rofl:

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28

Well…Writing a clear and non-lengthy guides is a VERY hard art, i’m always trying my best too :joy:

btw, if you haven’t messed all of them up (you can destroy those even by playing after 15-20 years of nothing), floppy disks must be cleaned with some special cleaner…i can dig up the video about it, if you still need it.

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29

Yes, you are undoubtedly right here! But I will say even more harshly - I do not at all consider it reliable to store any valuable information on a computer! I place all valuable data in encrypted form with the help of archivers on several external hard drives and on a couple of reliable and proven cloud services over the years so as not to put all my eggs in one basket if something happens. This is enough for me in terms of reliable storage and has really helped out several times. This is extremely important in our time, when even power surges can deprive you of everything valuable over many years of work.

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30

My late father used to print out all of the source code for his projects (at least those he deemed important enough), and he would bind it in large books. It’s a very safe form of archiving text files, but extremely tedious to restore such a backup. :slight_smile:

But for important files, it is an option.

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31

Book can burn…i’d carve them in stone! :rofl:

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Well, if my house burns down, I have much bigger problems than backup of files.

But the important stuff, burned on DVDs, I give that out to multiple trustworthy family members and friends to keep safe. It’s encrypted, too, just in case. It is extremely unlikely that all of them will be corrupted, in case all of my own local copies get destroyed.

At a certain point, you have to stop and say: it’s good enough.

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33

Photos & written memories. Those are the only physical things worth storing long-term.

But even then, who remembers anything about three-times-removed Old Aunt Hattie, even her name?

I’m looking at old pictures of people taken while I was a child. When I’m gone, so will those memories.

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That simplifies things, if you think about it. Because in that case, you only need to ensure that those files outlive you. Keeping them beyond that point is not worth your present effort, so you may let your descendants worry about that, if they care.

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35

Your…who?
You’re Linux user, stop dreaming! :rofl:

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36

Thing is, I’m using a laptop thats used by my parents. They can’t and won’t use linux for their tasks so I have to dual-boot with windoze.
Anyways I’m not gonna see dows again until I have NO OPTION! :joy:

37

Just open them fullscreen Windoze VM, they won’t notice anything :rofl:

38

You should consider getting your own laptop, the freedom of not having to share a computer with others is invaluable.

An old, used ThinkPad, for example, is not very expensive – I’m sure you can save up for it, with some determination and austerity. It’s going to last you years, especially with Linux.

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39

And it will be 100 times better than anything new, because you can go full FOSS mode with LiIbreBoot and removed Intel ME :sunglasses:

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40

My mum uses Arch, btw. She doesn’t know what Arch is. :slight_smile:

I take care of it for her, she never has any problems with it. She can browse the net, watch videos and chat with her friends on soycial mEdIA, use LibreOffice to write stuff, play Solitaire… She has no idea how this is different from windoze.

In fact, if I installed windoze on her laptop in the current year, she would almost certainly be revolted, being used to the simplicity of KDE.

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