Xathian

Congratulations you have solved a mystery that 2 years of google results could not. Thank you for your help.

Ok this has been an issue for me for 2 years now, I have tried everything short of reformatting (I'd rather not do that) so I am going to ask you guys to see if you can solve this mystery. I get almost nothing from a hundred google searched on the matter but here it goes About 2 years ago I installed VMWare to run a few VMs to test things, nothing was really an issue with the install (and later uninstall) however I came to find that after using VMWare whenever I try to go to any Spotify link (Specifically any link that starts as https://open.spotify.com, which are mainly song and playlist URLs) the website will get stopped by my browser (Happens in every browser) saying the SSL cert is invalid. If I use the "Ignore this and continue" option it just directs to a 404 error. I tried opening the Certificate window and I found that apparently somehow this website has become bound to a VMWare certificate on my PC. Here's a picture: I have tried deleting the browsers certificate cache, reinstalling the browser, I exported this VMWare Cert from the browser and put it in the Windows Trusted Root Authority (Probably not a safe thing but I was trying everything) and nothing will fix it. Couldn't get support from VMWare on it (They appear to only care to help if you're a vSphere user or some other high paying enterprise client) and I am entirely out of ideas now.

I am a backer of the newest maker board coming from UDOO, the Bolt V8. The board features a few different storage options but there is a problem. As the spec sheet lists here: https://i.imgur.com/Qn6KL2h.png The board features an NVMe 2080 M.2 Key M socket and a SATA 2060 M.2 Key B socket. According to a post on the comments of the page, the NVMe slot is not SATA compatible (I'm not aware of the technical workings but he said that having it SATA compatible requires something to handle SATA over PCIe that is not present on this board?). I would like to purchase a SATA M.2 drive (An offering such as Crucial's MX500) because where I am located the cost of an NVMe drive is over twice that of a SATA drive yet has half the total storage. I would rather have double storage than the speed of NVMe. The problem here is that the SATA based M.2 slot on the board is 2060, of which there are very few options on my local retailers and they're astronomically expensive (more expensive than even the NVMe offerings). So I was wonder if on a technical level the M.2 2060 socket is the same as the 2080 socket just with a shorter length before the ground pin, and if so, can you purchase an adapter plate or something that would let you slot a 2080 into that 2060 socket? I am aware the tech specs also list a standard SATA3 connector but the metal case the board comes with may not have room for internally mounting a 2.5" SSD (unconfirmed as of now) so I am just assuming that won't be the case for now and preparing otherwise.

Well we got the items and they work but there is a problem. Almost every day, he will suddenly lose keyboard and mouse power and function, even with the hub power plugged in. Once this happens, the devices CAN NOT receive power or any signal at all again over the extension until reboot. Even if he unplugs and replugs them, and even swaps the USB port the extension is plugged into. You will hear the USB disconnect/reconnect sound but the devices LEDs (both mouse and keyboard) will not turn back on until the PC is rebooted. Haven't the slightest clue what could possibly be causing this, changing the USB port should at least re-initialize the connection. Hell, his keyboard has a standby LED light show mode so even if it's not re-initialized, they should still be lighting up from the hub power alone. Even at once a day, this is serious given this entire set up was based around gaming. Losing controls mid game (Which just happened 20 minutes ago, prompting this post) is not really acceptable.

Thank you for the suggestion but we considered all this after seeing that video and then we went and priced it out. A 30 foot Thunderbolt cable like he used from Corning is $300, cheapest we could find even after currency conversion was $229. The Elgato hub for USB and video he used was $226 (USD), ASUS card he used was $100. It's an elegant solution, sure, and we'd love to use it but Linus' idea of achieving these things is warped by his partnerships and review stuff he's sent (The video shows him crediting Acer (or Asus?) for the monitor and he takes his optical drive off the shelf of the shop) his little ideas for these things have no grasp of reality for the cost to the average person. $600 to run some cables 25 feet is certifiably insane. These things I ordered, barring this idea works (which is why I made this thread to ask), cost a grand total $38, a little bit cheaper than the $600 Thunderbolt system.

Ok so I just ordered what I figured would be a solution for my issue after reading some information online, but as I often do, after I ordered I noticed a couple of unfavourable reviews mentioning the thing I was planning and am now starting to doubt it will work. So to sum it up, my brother and I like to do our gaming in the same room when we're playing together, consider it a daily little LAN party between us. Due to heat and sound of having 2 PCs in 1 small room, we wanted a solution where we could keep his PC out of the room. He got himself a Steam Link to try the streaming route. It works somewhat okay, but even on wired there is this tiny mouse delay that really frustrates, almost makes it feel like there is mouse smoothing on at all times. Also there are strange "disconnects" when certain things open (Steam notifications, Avast alerts, several game launchers such as ESO and SWTOR) and his keyboard/mouse will stop functioning, he can move the mouse but clicks and keystrokes do nothing, he has to go back to his PC, plug in a mouse and close it there. Also during highly visually active scenes (such as moving through a forest quickly such as the game ARK we've been playing) even with a 50Mbps NVENC stream, the image goes to a pixellated nightmare. So that lead to the current plan, just running the cables down the hall into the room. So I read up and figured this would work (before my above mentioned sudden second thoughts after ordering) to give a simple illustration, this was the plan, also yes there is a 25 foot HDMI just going directly between rooms. (His PC) ----25 Foot Active USB cable----> (Powered Hub) ---> (Keyboard and Mouse) Now from what I read there's a 250mA limit over a cable this length, so the Hub would need to be powered since he has a K70 with backlights and that might have been too much power draw. My fear came when suddenly I saw people saying having a keyboard and mouse caused disconnects, but never mentioned if their hub was powered or not, so I am somewhat worried now. Logic dictates, along with other reviews, that putting just a Keyboard and Mouse signal over a single USB should be no problem at all, even at 25 feet, but I can't shake the worry.

I don't have much experience with SSD brands, so I am not sure about the overall quality (or lack thereof) for most brands. Since I've been almost entirely using HDDs in the past my preference toward Western Digital is moot in the SSD game and I need help with this purchase. I was looking for an SSD in the $250 CAD range and I noticed on sale this week at NCIX there are several SSDs in the 480-500GB range. Sounds great, enough space for plenty of things. So I started to look into each and I noticed a pattern. All the traditional 2.5" SSDs offering 480-500GB all seemed to be closer to $260-$300 while offering around 440-450 write speeds, and variable reads. Meanwhile, the Crucial M.2 MX200 2260DS/2280 are both on the lower end of the price range, about $250, offer 500GB and have speeds of 500-550MB/s read and write. Being weary of some bad purchases in the past, it sets off a red flag for me that the cheapest solution is offering the highest speeds and storage than the alternatives. While I have limited knowledge of SSDs, I have absolutely ZERO knowledge of M.2, so what is the catch? Does M.2 have some issues? Is Crucial crap and priced as such? I really want to move to an SSD but reviews and prices are all over the place and I can't figure out what is good and what isn't.

I have a G400s, and after a year and a half its microswitch in the left button is failing, typical thing that failing switches usually do, randomly registering several rapid clicks on a single click or when trying to hold down the click. I've been trying to get an RMA since I have over a year left on the warranty but the CS reps just keep running me in circles telling me to change the windows double click speed and try unplugging/replugging the mouse in, etc. I am starting to get mad.