What's on your mind today?

[Dark Lightning]

I used to design specialty tooling for various spacecraft endeavors. I'd like to see what kind of problem(s) they're having. Sometimes the experts are too close to the problem. One program I worked on, a vendor-supplied part had a fastener fail due to having too much torque applied to the screw. The mechanical analysts were all over the failure, talking via email about the tensile strength of the titanium screw...when it was the weak-ass insert nut that failed, and the maximum torque was spec'ed right on the drawing (far below the titanium screw torque capability). When I pointed it out, email traffic stopped, and my supervisor said, "That's true".

[Tank]

[Dark Lightning]

In all fairness, I've fallen down a few ratholes, myself. But these guys and gals have, at a minimum, B Sc degrees in mechanical engineering.

[Icarus]

There are academics and then there are mechanics. There are also some academic mechanics who can open that box PDQ.

The tools need to be sterile?  What is keeping us from sterilizing a small impact tool? If that fails then a sterilized drill will take care of the stubborn fastener. 

[Tank]

There are academics and then there are mechanics. There are also some academic mechanics who can open that box PDQ.

The tools need to be sterile?  What is keeping us from sterilizing a small impact tool? If that fails then a sterilized drill will take care of the stubborn fastener. 

I would think that's exactly what they are doing right now.

[The Magic Pudding..]

Hat-tip to The Magic Pudding..

I hope you don't mind too much me sticking my oar in. 

Of course not.

I wonder if I should request a hairdryer for Christmas, in case I get Covid, or a preventative even. 

[Asmodean]

Iceland be falling into an volcano... I wonder what the implications for christmas air traffic might be.

[Tank]

Iceland be falling into an volcano... I wonder what the implications for christmas air traffic might be.

Nothing to catastrophic. We'll have to wait and see.

[Tank]

Icelandic quakes. it looks like it's iminent.

[Asmodean]

Nothing to catastrophic. We'll have to wait and see.

Famous last words..?

[billy rubin]

opening that asteroid box is interesting. obviously the tools need to caregully vetted. you want a precise metallurgical analysis of whatever they are made of in case a piece of metal dust falls into the sample. ditto with any lubricants.

even a screwdriver would have to be specially prepared.

im not sure why it jammed. i heard once that the mechanism was clogged with asteroid grit.

[Icarus]

I gotta live with Michael Johnson as the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. This kook is dangerous.

https://religiondispatches.org/mike-johnsons-porn-monitoring-isnt-just-creepy-its-a-window-to-the-fascist-desire-driving-the-white-evangelical-will-to-power/?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=daily

[Dark Lightning]

At the rate the Rs fuck up, we'll end up with an unfunded gov, sometime soon. Of course, that's their intent, deep down. For their own causes, of course. Don't want "big gov", want invasive, government control of uteri. I vote for tumbrels and the guillotine. Two-faced assholes. This is the mentality of the people who jacked the Native Americans out of their lives and livelihoods.

[The Magic Pudding..]

My main computer has an i5-9400 (the 9 in 9400 designates it as a 9th generation, current is 13th) with integrated graphics and 32GB of memory, Radeon RX 6600 EAGLE video card Windows 10.

There was an AMD AM4 motherboard going cheap so I bought it, and another faster 32GB of memory and a Ryzen 5 56000 G (G means integrated graphics)  Less than $400 AUD $250 US, not a compilation that would impress anyone but a step up none the less.

Of course I know what I'm doing, I've been doing it for 25 years or more.

I don't enjoy fitting heat sinks/fans, those twisty things seem dodgy.
This one though has screws, neigh bolts that screw into a metal plate on the other side of the motherboard, proper engineering.

Of course I put the processor in gently, I'm no nube.
The heat sink/fan this way, no that isn't right, it has glued itself to the processor and I've pulled it out of its socket and I have the dreaded bent pins.
This shouldn't happen, never met a sticky clingy processor before, the thermal stuff used to be solid 'till it got hot.
Well I've got my bargain desk lamp with a flap you can lift to unleash magnification that I liked so much I bought another.



Rightio then, I think all the pins are straight.

Beeeeep beep beep

Ah, Google says that means a memory problem.

I've got four memory slots and two sticks of mem.

This is supposed the proper way A2 B2
Beeeeep beep beep
Maybe this way
Beeeeep beep beep
Try one stick
Beeeeep beep beep
Try some the memory from the old comp
Beeeeep beep beep
this way that way
Beeeeep beep beep
Did I not turn power off properly when I did my 39th attempt? 

Another look at the pins, I've my sleek box cutter thing this time, to put the pins in order.

Try it without heat sink, just for a bit,
Beeeeep beep beep

Not pressed in firmly enough

beep
The oh so sweet sound of the jolly single beep      

What is this!
Install it again
Install it again
Microsoft no longer accepts my old legit windows 7/8 serials for a Windows 10 install!
Did Han shoot first, did Pudding resort to a $5 serial?
Macrium Reflect doesn't want to be free anymore.

[Asmodean]

Ouch. Yeah, I've bent a few pins in my time with a combination of some improperly-over-zealous use of thermal paste and just-the-right-amount of brute-fucking-force. . Never ripped an chunk out of a unit though... But yeah, there be a lesson there. Release the CPU retainer clip before applying violence to the heat sink.

Just in case someone needs a protip;

If you suspect a bent pin, take a piece of white paper, shine a light on the processor pins and insert the paper between the rows of pins one row at a time. That "isolates" the pins in said row a bit more, such that any bendy ones get easier to spot. Repeat column by column just in case you missed one bent in a different plane, carefully straighten the defects and you should end up with a straight-pinned CPU. Oh, and be careful when contemplating voilence upon the pins - they may be a bitch when bent, but they are a far longer string of expletives when broken.