Inexpensive show computer

[bdwillie]

After fighting our show computer for some time, and having weird unexplained issues during last seasons show that had never happened before, we replaced the show computer with a refurbished unit from amazon.  So far with testing and running last season's show I am happy to say that none of the weirdness has returned!  For the price I thought this was a pretty good deal.  Did have a chuckle as it states it's wifi and bluetooth, but it did come with both a wifi and bluetooth usb plug in!  Posting a link in case anyone else may need one.  I couldn't be happier!

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08L42TQW4?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

[k6ccc]

For a show computer, it does not take that much horsepower.  Therefore, it is pretty easy to get a fairly inexpensive computer to run the show.  My current show computer was bought in 2017.  Still working fine.  Upgraded it to Windows 10 last year and upgraded it from 4 to 32 GB of RAM (Windows 10 does not like 4GB of RAM - yes, 32 was overkill).

 

[dgrant]

Rarely ever happens but it does...ram memory failure will cause issues, some terribly serious whereas others are small but still serious. More likely is a hard drive issue.

[bdwillie]

The one we were using must have had a failing motherboard.  We experienced all sorts of random weird crap during last years show even in sequences that were several years old.  Fading issues, 100% on props dropping offline, maybe they would come back, maybe not, even using the dim down and up 5% trick.  Whole area effects not always happening, not lagging, just not happening. As an example, in one song there is a whole yard side to side sweep, left-right-left-right.  Sometimes when this was supposed to occur, the whole yard would go dark, both the LOR and DMX lines, and then pick back up when the effect was over.  The next rotation it would work perfectly.  I replaced all cat 5 cables to rule out bad connections on the LOR boxes, but it would occur across both the LOR and the DMX line boxes.

USB ports would randomly drop out requiring a reboot, or unplug/replug of the usb item to get it back, didn't matter what it was, mouse / keyboard / LOR dongle, DMX dongle. Finally for the last 2 months or so CPU usage would be running continuously at 100% as per task manager with nothing but task manager open and this rendered it virtually unusable.  The only thing that was installed on it was LOR, windows defender and an old version of office. 

Upgraded the memory on it and that didn't help, it already had an ssd, and hard drive usage was not much percentage wise.  Did wipe it and install windows from MS to make sure there wasn't a virus running in the back ground, or some of the bloatware from the manufacturer.  Did find a BIOS firmware update the manufacturer said was "urgently required", but that didn't help either.  Also had a pair of headphones and a bluetooth speaker that charged on this computer ( it is out in the workshop) and I even moved those to a dedicated USB charger to remove them from the computer.  That didn't help either.

So far with in the shed testing, I haven't had any return of issues!

[TheDucks]

1 hour ago, bdwillie said:

After fighting our show computer for some time, and having weird unexplained issues during last seasons show that had never happened before, we replaced the show computer with a refurbished unit from amazon.  So far with testing and running last season's show I am happy to say that none of the weirdness has returned!  For the price I thought this was a pretty good deal.  Did have a chuckle as it states it's wifi and bluetooth, but it did come with both a wifi and bluetooth usb plug in!  Posting a link in case anyone else may need one.  I couldn't be happier!

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08L42TQW4?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

I got its big brother (Optiplex 9020)  2 years back because something happened with my daily driver (Optiplex 780) and I could not get any video card to run over 1024 and a reinstall did not correct. FWIW Mine had SSD and a 1T HD, only issue was the HD had not been BIOS enabled nor a 'mount' established.

🗯️ I was loading a Demo of LOR 6.2 and it was complaining about DirectX. WTH... Found it (directX12) at M$ and loaded it. Presto, 2+ years of frustration gone (I had been using USB graphics, but that caused the system to crawl if any screen activity). For some reason neither Dell Diags nor MS update found or updated Direct X.  LOR, why not put a link to MS download in the message?

[TheDucks]

8 minutes ago, bdwillie said:

The one we were using must have had a failing motherboard.  We experienced all sorts of random weird crap during last years show even in sequences that were several years old.  Fading issues, 100% on props dropping offline, maybe they would come back, maybe not, even using the dim down and up 5% trick.  Whole area effects not always happening, not lagging, just not happening. As an example, in one song there is a whole yard side to side sweep, left-right-left-right.  Sometimes when this was supposed to occur, the whole yard would go dark, both the LOR and DMX lines, and then pick back up when the effect was over.  The next rotation it would work perfectly.  I replaced all cat 5 cables to rule out bad connections on the LOR boxes, but it would occur across both the LOR and the DMX line boxes.

<snippage>

So far with in the shed testing, I haven't had any return of issues!

I assume, you looked for Bulging Caps. That is very common. Another is Fans. IMHO, the smaller, the more they fail to maintain speed. (lost more graphics cards due to fans. I go with fanless models as I do not need the speed)

[bdwillie]

5 minutes ago, TheDucks said:

I assume, you looked for Bulging Caps. That is very common. Another is Fans. IMHO, the smaller, the more they fail to maintain speed. 

Yessir on both.  I did replace the cpu fan as it was making noises, but it was running.  That is the only fan it has.  No bulging caps.  

[TheDucks]

59 minutes ago, bdwillie said:

Yessir on both.  I did replace the cpu fan as it was making noises, but it was running.  That is the only fan it has.  No bulging caps.  

No fan in the PSU? (That used to be the only fan back in the 8080-80286 days). Lint buildup on the hidden grill (behind the plastic front panel) is another issue.

💡 don't place you computer (or anything cooled by fan) directly on the floor: That is the Max lint location.

Sounds like you have experience maintaining your computers.

[bdwillie]

6 minutes ago, TheDucks said:

No fan in the PSU? (That used to be the only fan back in the 8080-80286 days). Lint buildup on the hidden grill (behind the plastic front panel) is another issue.

💡 don't place you computer (or anything cooled by fan) directly on the floor: That is the Max lint location.

Sounds like you have experience maintaining your computers.

No PSU internal, just an external brick like a laptop, verified it was fine .

I have been maintaining a bunch of them for some time, along with our home server.  At one time, when we had a small cottage business, we had 9 going in the house, all being backed up to the server.  Now since we don't have the business anymore we are down to 4 and the server.  

You are so right about being on the floor!  When time changes, they all get shut down and blown out with compressed air to get rid of the accumulated dust.  Always what is dirtiest for us is the external drive bays on the server

[dgrant]

So many people don't realize just how fast the dust accumulates and when it does, it clogs up all the various cooling devices. Can't tell you how many computers I've repaired for people that most started with overheat failures.

[Mr. P]

11 hours ago, dgrant said:

So many people don't realize just how fast the dust accumulates and when it does, it clogs up all the various cooling devices. Can't tell you how many computers I've repaired for people that most started with overheat failures.

My show computer is a 2012 model laptop and I just took it apart last year to clean it out and replaced the thermal paste. It's an old gaming laptop and I keep because it has seven usb ports and is still plenty fast enough to run a show.