Cysero

My Sony VAIO VPCEH1L8E has gradually stopped charging over the past 18 months. At first it would charge intermittently then it would only charge using certain sockets and in the past 6 months it has stopped charging almost entirely. It occasionally charges to no more than 9% then stops. I am looking at replacing the PSU first then the battery. The PSU cable is worn in sections from being caught in covers for recessed floor sockets so needs replacing anyway. Should I purchase a replacement Sony VGP-AC19V33 from eBay or should I purchase a universal laptop charger? Bearing in mind around 5 years ago I upgraded the Core i3-2310m (35W TDP) to a Core i7-2720QM (45W TDP) which was never an option on this model. The CPU appears to boosts very close to its advertised maximum frequency of 3.3GHz when under load so it must be drawing more power than the system was designed for. Just wondering whether the laptop would benefit from a more modern and powerful charging solution. As an aside I would also appreciate any thoughts on purchasing a replacement laptop battery in the UK. There are a lot of online retailers that sell the correct battery but not sure what quality and lifespan I should expect from a third party battery.

Formatting options are either as internal or external storage. It is the 2019 release of the Nokia 3.2. Only options I have found to make this phone usable again is flashing it back to Android 10 which is lighter on storage or perhaps trying Linux which may enable me to move apps across storage devices. This has reassured me that defaulting to iPhone time and time again was not a bad choice. Even Apple give you enough storage to download one app. Glad this is not my phone.

Unsurprisingly, this is an old model so way beyond its return period. Presumably the 16GB storage is soldered to the mainboard but are there alternative versions of android that are either lighter on storage or allow apps to be installed on a secondary micro SD cards?

This Nokia 3.2 has 16GB of internal storage with Android 11 + Google apps taking up 15GB. I installed a new SanDisk Extreme PRO UHS-I Card - 256GB in the SD card slot and formatted it as internal storage. It is detected by the phone but I am unable to move or install apps on it. The only files I can migrate to it are temp files or default storage folders. Is there a solution to this or is this just built in obsolesence for a cheap phone? Disclaimer: I am a novice Android user and it is not my phone.

Plugged in the forward cables and the drives were detected with no issues. In the process of reassembling the house but looking to move this project forward very soon.

Backwards cable description: "The SAS8087S4R50 SFF-8087 to four SATA reverse cable features one 36 pin plug (SFF-8087), which fans out to four SATA seven-pin receptacles, providing a reliable solution for connecting a Mini SAS backplane to a SAS/SATA RAID controller or motherboard." Everyday is a learning day. Back ordered the forward cables and went for StarTech again. Trying to retain a black and red colour scheme to tie in with the existing Lenovo colours. Will update again when they arrive.

I have not looked at this during the week so just getting back to it. I think I have the wrong cables. I have the reverse cable but I should have the forward cables according to this: https://forums.unraid.net/topic/76161-h310-it-mode-drives-not-detected/ Any ideas before I chuck some money at different cables? I have verified the new Samsung SATA drives work by connecting them directly into the one spare SATA port on the motherboard.

I have plugged two SSDs and a 500GB HDD from an old laptop which have not been detected which begs the question have I got the correct cable? https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008KF73CA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 This PC is the 'new' office PC so will be used as a windows 10 machine. The intention was that the drives on this PC would be public/shared with the other devices on our local network so files can be easily archived by anyone with the safety net of a mirrored array rather than a disorganised mess of external HDDs and limited cloud storage. We did have a MyCloud NAS which worked for this purpose but WD discontinued support so it is now a paperweight. Flashing it back does sound like a learning curve which I would like to avoid if I can. Would TrueNAS/Unraid be simple to use from other machines i.e. like OneDrive/Google Drive file stream where it is integrated into file explorer.

RAID card I should think. If I use Windows storage spaces then if I change OS down the line I will need to set up the array again I'm guessing? I'm not sure how you tell it is in IT mode but the listing below said it was in IT mode. I haven't worked out how to boot to the RAID cards BIOS. The Dell support page says Ctrl + R at boot but it doesn't work (presumably because it's not being booted in a Dell desktop). It doesn't show as a bootable device in the Lenovo BIOS but the card is detected in Windows 10 device manager and it is flashing green which is promising. I'm not convinced it will boot in a non-Dell desktop with Dell firmware?

I wanted the extra SATA ports so I could connect enough drives so I could mirror my data in a RAID setup so I think the second option is what I'm going for.

Thanks, purchased the Dell H310 and I am now trying to work out how to set it up. It is detected in Windows 10 under device manager but it is not detecting my drives. No idea how to boot into the setup utility to initiate the drives. Tons of information out there to sift through so should get there eventually. So far all I have achieved is taping over the B5 and 6 pins because the H310 disabled my third stick of RAM which is now back in action.

Interesting, I was not aware of those extra features and variations. I will do some more research into the models that are available on fleaBay. There is not much of a computer store presence here. The closest dedicated computer store is Novatech which do not deal in second hand goods. Repair shops would be the only option which I will try this week.

Looking at either https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275199193309?hash=item40132670dd:g:YkIAAOSwh8pisZaR or https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255716106142?epid=5040542546&hash=item3b89de1f9e:g:JiIAAOSwVFtjGcou&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoPthDrCaoUWsnYnMpN0At0W1SJvVWLp%2BaSsN999zZb3ZwMfmAYkikpEEGW%2FSvSybk%2BecVZ00WOMXb4w6sDZv8yT8HOmlRTtdrmVuyqwj5RrZtYCxla%2BixPxYDLIM6W1V1m2mrjGV4lL3IcyC34PHmf%2FPnNRT07kuIhjXrlkR18S46hE%2FLlqlU%2FMmV%2BmqmKOc6Y8HJhqV9pb%2BASHcqkJBz%2BI%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR8rBneXlYA&autorefresh=true for my office PC/ home server so I can add additional SATA drives. The PC is a Lenovo Thinkstation M93 10A2 SFF. It runs an i7-4790k, 24GB RAM and a GTX 1650. I have installed an IcyDock 6 drive enclosure into the 5.25 inch bay and uprated the power supply to a Silverstone SST-TX700-G. I will continue running Windows 10 on this system then when support ends it may become a dedicated NAS. What are the main differences between these LSI SAS cards? Some are manufactured for other vendors like Dell. Some were manufactured in 2011 while others were manufactured as late as 2016. Not familiar with SAS cards or their different modes. Is there a preference or do they all perform the same?

True, I knew this would come up. I was very fortunate to receive the Lenovo for nothing. It did not meet the organisations security policy so they were all going to be recycled so I wanted to make something a little different of the one I saved. There is very little space in this case for 3.5 inch drives so I went with 2.5 inch SSDs purely because I will be able to fit more in and I will keep this system in some form for at least 10 years (I run a 10+ year old laptop, a 7 year old phone). I tend to hold onto stuff until it falls apart so the intention is the SSDs may be bottlenecked now but in years to come their performance will be utilised as of when limitations change. Nonetheless, based on your and @HeroRareheart suggestions I think the solution moving forward for now would be a windows installation with shared drives that can be accessed by other PCs on the local network. There is one 3.5 inch bay, I'm guessing a 3.5 inch HDD would be best suited as a back up drive and one 4TB SSD for primary storage. I am still keen to have an SSD for primary storage. We have noticed when copying files across from DSLR cameras, especially the Nikon D800e, that we receive less errors and better performance when using an SSD rather than HDD. Not sure the reason for this but it helps when there are time pressures. I will forget the NAS functionality for now. I have a number of redundant laptops which could be suitable for a small scale NAS if I decide to pursue this in the future. One is a HP G5000 (sister of the Compaq C500) sporting an Intel Core2Duo T7400 and 2.5GB RAM. Would this be suitable for a NAS? The other options are single core and very old single core (Toshiba Satelite T130-11H with a Pentium U2700, 8GB RAM and a Toshiba Satelite Pro A10 running a Pentium 4-M and 1GB RAM).

1. Budget & Location £1000 & UK 2. Aim The system will primarily be used as a central storage device for photographs, CAD files and documents. I acquired a Lenovo ThinkCentre M93 Desktop - Type 10A2. It is a small form factor case with an Intel Core i3-4150 (3.5GHz). This is the basic system I will be using for my build. So far I have upgraded to 24GB RAM (soon to be 32GB). I have also installed an Icy Dock ToughArmor MB606SPO-B to fill with 2.5 inch SSDs as of when they are required. For the time being I am planning to order two Samsung 870 Evo 4TB SSDs which will take up roughly £870 of my budget. I estimate 3-4TB of data will be moved onto them straight away. There is a 3.5 inch bay in the case and possibly room to mount another 2.5 inch drive. There are three SATA ports and one eSATA port on the motherboard. I am looking to get a PCIe SATA expansion card but not sure what to get as there are a lot of them on the market from different manufacturers. The ThinkCentre does not have a WiFi card and there are no ethernet sockets in the house. I looked at powerline adapters for a wired connection to the router. I have other devices like TV boxes that I would like to give an internet connection to as well. We receive about 50 Mbps download and 14 Mbps upload. Running ethernet cables under the floor finishes is not an option either. Perhaps USB WiFi adapters would be better? Can you have too many WiFi devices? It would be nice to upgrade it to an i7-4790 and a low profile GPU but with the current price situation I will not be doing so. In terms of potential desktop use it would be running Autodesk Revit, Adobe CC and Rhinoceros 3D. 3. Monitors Currently there is only one office monitor a 19 inch HP w1907 1440x900 LCD Monitor. However, if I ever get hold of a new power adapter for my LG monitor then I will be able to move my stand-in monitor, a SAMSUNG LS34J550 Quad HD 34" LED Monitor (3440x1440) into the office. 4. Peripherals Windows 10/11 would be the most user friendly option given everyone will use it. It would be nice to have the full NAS functionality that the MyCloud had but shared drives on a local network may be sufficient. There is one Mac device that would need access. I have looked at TrueNAS and UnRaid and the possibility of running a VM on the ThinkCentre but would appreciate any advice on this as it is not something I have done before. I have read and watched a lot on different home server/ NAS set ups and it looks an absolute minefield. I also need to set up a reliable back up system so there is that as well. 5. Why are you upgrading? Our 2TB Western Digital MyCloud NAS is full and is about to lose support and security updates. It would be a lot easier to have a secure central system for storage rather than lots of HDDs none of which are organised. Currently there is not a desktop in the office with laptops instead being interchanged with a monitor but a communal office desktop would be a lot more desirable.