Athlon Scope...

Rob Lancaster

Active Member
Thanks guys!
So far so good. We love our new li'll square thing. HA!
After setup, I immediately got my Norton Security loaded up.
The windows updates were so fast it made our heads spin.
Now we're just reloading personal settings, apps and other data. nice!!
I'm so glad I ran all my concerns by you guys. Especially you Randy. You dah man!!
Oh hey, my anchent Dell monitor here is starting to fade. Oh boy, here we go again! I want a Norad sized one, HA! LOL!!

Anyway, I'm working on my mom's sewing machines foot pedal. Yeah her Bernina 830 Report machine was bought way back in 1975. Now my mom sews A LOT. So she said she wants it fixed yesterday. So get on that little box of yours and get me a new one, HA! Nice....... The original Type 213 petal was upgraded in the late 70's because of over heating and or the variable resistor setup is really funky. I never seen anything like it.
 

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RandyDSok

Well-Known Member
Glad to hear it is working out well for you. As for monitors, I've been using larger and larger screens over the years which helps with my eye sight a lot. At home, I've got a 27" currently and my next one will likely be a 32". Considering you aren't gaming etc.. look for an IPS type screen with 75 hz or faster refresh rates in the size you are considering or a perhaps size larger ( none of us are getting younger ). A 60 hz monitor may be fine but it is also the same rate the lighting in your house would have which can cause flickering to show up so going with a different refresh rate like 75 hz ( or higher ) avoids that potential issue.

Sorry... I don't know the first thing ... ok maybe the first, but not the second thing about sewing machines. :D

None of the computer techs I know of ever EVER recommend either McAfee or Norton ... ever. Both seem to cause more trouble than they fix or protect against, typically cause system slow downs, blocks good programs from working properly and not telling the user... and the built in Windows Defender protect better than either according to the current test results.

Both AV / Protection softwares charge more than others, don't provide any after the sales support without charging extra and as mentioned, don't provide as much protection as the included free option provided with Windows for free. My recommendation is to uninstall your Norton and never renew it again.
 

Rob Lancaster

Active Member
Wow! I'm surprised to hear that Norton is not as I thought it was. But then again, that's par for the course for me. Thanks for the heads up on that for sure. I'll have questions on that topic for sure in the near future.

We did more data downloading today. Not done by no means yet, but I did download my RF9 sim and I'm back on the gimbals. Nice!

Oh hey, you don't know about sewing machines,,, ha, we thought you knew everything, but now our bubble has burst. LOL.................... Nah, nah, your awesome bro! Anyway I hope this story ends with the replacement of the old pedal unit as a whole because it has been upgraded and it ain't got one of those funky rheostat in it. I ordered one last night so I'm going to find out soon.

I told my mom, you'll just have to fine something else to do missy, until I fix your baby. HA! I've longed to say that. She always says that to us (not the missy part) when the computer or something else fails, LOL!

Time to take out the new SSD from the old computer. I need much of the data on it.

Stay tuned............................
 
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Rob Lancaster

Active Member
Ok, I'm back so soon.
About the SSD I took out of the old computer.
I thought I could use a SADA cable to connect with my new computer. But noooo,,,, can't get that far so I can't get the data from it. HELP! Again! LOL!!!!
 

RandyDSok

Well-Known Member
Ok, I'm back so soon.
About the SSD I took out of the old computer.
I thought I could use a SADA cable to connect with my new computer. But noooo,,,, can't get that far so I can't get the data from it. HELP! Again! LOL!!!!

If that is a 2.5" SATA SSD that is 7mm or less thick... you can add it to the MiniPC in the bottom area that they provided just for that reason. There is a small thin ribbon connector cable in the kit that has a SATA connection on one side and a fine connector that plugs into the motherboard on the other. See minisforum

When accessing your data, it's probably in your user folder located at whatever drive letter it assigns \Users\[username]\ . When accessing it for the first time, it will tell you that you don't currently have permission/access and do you want to add it... just say yes and it'll go in and mark you as having permission. How long that will take depends on how many files/settings were stored in there, so be patient and just let it make the changes needed to give you access.
 

Rob Lancaster

Active Member
Hi Randy,

This is Thomas, Rob's brother. First off, thanks for all your help on this computer stuff!

Just to let you know, Rob and I share the same computer with only one account, under Rob. I mean emails and everything.

Below is a screen shot of our Account Settings. Can you tell us if this is correct or incorrect and why and how to make changes in Windows 11 if necessary. I'm getting confusing information online. I know that there must be at least one Administrator Account so certain settings or changes can be made to the computer if necessary. I read online that an Administrator Account open and used as the main Account all the time can leave the computer open to security threats. Thus far our Account is set as "ROB, Local Account, Administrator" as you can see from the screen shot below or at least in one of the encircled items anyway. I also don't know why there is a difference in the two.

I'm wondering if it would be wise to have two accounts, one with a Local Account only that would normally be open or used until dire changes need to be made to the computer. If we need to, can you show us how create an extra Local Account.

Thanks a 1x10 to the sixth power!

Thomas...
 

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Rob Lancaster

Active Member
Ok, It's my turn now! HA!
After he crashed the hell out of the new computer, Actually, it wasn't that bad. But there was a time I wanted to conk him on the head. And now I'm back online. Whew!

Randy, when I saw this little connector thing, I wondered what it was for. But not anymore! I get it now. Can do! Excellent!!!
You dah man!!!! Keep it coming teacher.........
 

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RandyDSok

Well-Known Member
Hi Thomas,

Computer security is a very very complex and nuanced subject with so many facets to it in which each just adds to the complexity. The answer to which security measures you may want will differ between individuals, families, friends and small/medium/large businesses. What does that mean for you two, well that is hard for a third part like myself to say or suggest since every situation depends on only things you two know and understand. Security best practices are not what every individual or group needs, you can't rabbit hole everyone into the same setup and have it work best for their needs.

Yes individual accounts is the more secure setup but it also divides and increase the complexity of setting up a computer. Do each of you need to separate set of documents, music, pictures and videos etc... do each of you need your own email and other types of accounts. If you need things separated, then you actually have 3 sets of stuff to setup. You would have his stuff, your stuff and the stuff you both want to share. This does have the advantage of each user having their own preferences... if you like to have a dark themed look and your brother a light colored one... you can. Of course that extends to the other stuff as well but to do that... each one plus the shared one ( called Public typically in Windows ) would have to be setup separately which does add that complexity to the situation. Remember that this also means that each one would also do their own backup of their setups. If you do have another computer failure of some type... you would then need to possibly restore those 3 different setups.

Now dive a little deeper into what having different account types adds to the above considerations. While Windows can support many different types of user accounts which I won't cover here... two are setup by default. That would be the Administrator and Standard user account types. Administrators can do just about anything on a system such as installing software, setting up network connections ( like internet ) and other things, while the Standard users can only use other programs that the Administrator has installed and/or setup. So if you were to have your own Standard user setup... then anytime you wanted to make changes to the computer... the Administrator account would have to approve of it and actually do that work. An advantage to this type of setup is that the Standard user is less likely to be able to screw up something by installing something they shouldn't... or if the Standard user forgets their password, the Administrator could reset it for them.

Administrator accounts themselves operate by default in two modes as well for security. By default, everything an Admin does is done as if they were a Standard user. If they try to make changes to the system like installing something... Windows will ask if they really want to make those changes, if they answer Yes... it switches them to Admin mode ( so to speak ) and allows it. Because of this two modes of operation... often you will see recommendations that the Admin user "right click" on a file and manually select "Run as Administrator" just to make sure that is happening properly and nothing is blocking the change or installation of the system. Then they will again be asked if they want to permit the changes. This gives a measure of security in that Admin users only normally operate as a Standard user so malware can't use their accounts inappropriately but it doesn't limit the user if they do need to make changes. Sort of the best of both worlds as long as the user is aware and not just approving every popup they see without first thinking... Did I ask the computer to do something or is this popup coming from "out of the blue" by itself and should be now allowed to proceed.

Some programs such as system utilities like backup, malware protection or firewalls and many others... can only be run by Administrators. When installed, these are still going to be available as shortcuts or menu items on the Standard users menus... but if they try to run them, they will then be prompted to provide an Admin user/password in order to proceed.

The situation for you and Rob can be summarized...

With a household of kids and adults... having the two types of accounts of admins and standard users makes a lot of sense. When there are just adults only, you have to then consider issues like if privacy and ownership are needed to determine if separate accounts are needed. If the other user is just a guest, you probably don't want them making system changes but if the user isn't a guest and is capable of making good decisions about the computer... then the accounts ( if separate ) should probably be Admin accounts. Just remember that if you do go with separate accounts, that increases the complexity and both accounts need to be backed up and setup separately. Both would have different email accounts to setup even if one may be shared. Having a second account is also good as a fall back just in case the other user account somehow gets corrupted as long as they are both Admin accounts... the other user could if needed recover the other users data.
 

RandyDSok

Well-Known Member
I forgot to add this...

To add a second account, go to the User account screen you were already on. Select "Other users" from the selections you were given... Add user is an option you'll find there, when asked for an account email address... tell Windows you do not have it ( so it's setup as a local account ). By default, Windows will setup that new user as a Standard user, if needed you can change the account type over to Administrator if wanted after that point.
 

Rob Lancaster

Active Member
Hey Randy,

Thomas again.

Awhile back I purchased a driver updater (OneSafe Driver Manager Pro). Well last night I reinstalled it on the new Windows 11 computer. There were 11 updates that had to be done so I did them. A couple of which the computer needed to be rebooted to apply them so I did. The computer took about 1 hour and 17 minutes to load Windows after the computer brand screen (MinisForum) started. A Norton pop-up screen said there were several things wrong including registry errors. Norton support helped me fix those issues and now Windows takes only about 17 minutes to load after the MinisForum screen. This morning I found out that the driver software I had originally purchased was for Windows 10. Norton support told me that could be how the problem started, OS incompatibility. I think I really screwed up here. The good news is that once Windows loads, the computer operates normally with the exception of audio and video, like on YouTube, is very jittery. As far as I can tell, everything else is ok... as far as I can tell. MicroSoft support is no help as usual. :sorrow:

Any ideas?

Thanks...
 

RandyDSok

Well-Known Member
If you haven't already tried it... run System Restore and restore back to a point before you installed the Driver software. I would be surprised if Norton hadn't suggested that possible solution... but you never know. If all else fails, you can also do a system reset but then the system would have to be completely setup from scratch again. How to do the system reset can be easily found in an internet search so I won't post it here. A clean system without other software should boot in the 30 second range, after installing a lot of other legitimate software that may increase to over a minute. Something is wrong if it is taking 17 minutes even on a 10 year old computer.

Almost all driver utilities I've seen mentioned these days are considered malware... including OneSafe. So I'm not surprised you were having problems after installing it. It falls in the class they refer to as "potentially unwanted programs" PUPS for short.

When updating hardware drivers... get your drivers directly from AMD. You'll want the chipset and video drivers. Windows itself will also provide the lesser important drivers that you may need as they get updates, they may not be the very latest but they aren't critical ones like the chipset and video drivers either.
 

Rob Lancaster

Active Member
Ok we reset the computer and after about 5 hours, the MinisForum screen went dark and the monitor went into sleep mode. The power button light on the computer stayed on in a steady state. After quite awhile, we forced a shut down and after a few minutes restarted the computer. After about 10 seconds, the MinisForum screen displayed and once again Windows didn't load. Oh well.

So what do you think? Should we stick a stamp on it and send it back to Amazon for an exchange?

Thanks Randy,

Thomas...
 

RandyDSok

Well-Known Member
Rob mentioned possibly adding the old SSD drive to the system... if that happened, take it out no matter what you do next.

There are two methods given to address problems with a Windows installation... One is the Reset you mentioned ... I don't recall the other words used but it is a Clean Install and it doesn't save any data. If your account of what happened is true, and why wouldn't it be... then the computer itself isn't bad, your software Windows installation is just compromised. Also remember, the warranty is going to be for hardware failures, not corruptions that you may have caused. ... But if all else fails then perhaps a return would be in order.
 

Rob Lancaster

Active Member
Rob never added the old SSD to the new computer... we nevver got that far yet.

Yes, I did a complete reset (clean install). We didn't have any files saved on the computer anyway. Also, I downloaded Windows from the Microsoft cloud not a local install. The computer never asked me to sign into the cloud or Microsoft for that matter. I don't know if that has anything to do with the Windows reinstall failure.
 

RandyDSok

Well-Known Member
When performing a clean install from a USB key that you created from a MS download... you will also need to delete the current partition before it starts the installation process. You will also need the drivers from Minisforum at minisforum. Put the drivers on the USB key ( ie thumbdrive ) so you don't need to connect to the internet until after the initial setup like I mentioned earlier.
 

RandyDSok

Well-Known Member
Computer disks, when you get them, have no information on the disk area itself. The operating system ( OS ) must define some start and end points in the disk ( typically several these days as they get more complex )... and then format them so the OS knows where to place the data on the disk partition.

The analogy is... think of a parcel of land, place a fence around it ( partition ) and then plow it ( format ) so you can plant stuff.

Today, Windows will have between 2 and 3 partitions with one of those being made into your C: drive where the main OS files are put. The other 1 or 2 would be the EFI partition and possibly ( it's optional ) a recovery partition. Some people also choose to further divide the disk in some cases for whatever reasons they have. Adding a brand new blank disk to that, would then require the new disk get a partition and format into 1 or more partitions depending again on the users needs. The drive from the old system should already have a partition and have been formated, so it'd get assigned the next drive letter available or the user could assign a specific letter if they wished.

Partitions, being just a software defined layout can be corrupted and therefore "lost" in a sense. When this happens, if the data is important... it is also important to not write anything to the drive and a tech must "find" and fix the partition table so the data that still exists on it can be accessed.

By default, if a partition already exists... Windows will try to reuse it. Normally this should be fine but if problems exist on the partition then those problems can also affect the new install also. So anytime I'm doing a "clean" installation, I will disconnect any secondary disks and completely remove on partitions on a primary disk so those possibilities doesn't affect the new installation.
 
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Rob Lancaster

Active Member
AH hoy, hoy........
Ok quick update...
We were cut off completely just after the last entry. The computer wouldn't do nothing. Control was totally lost. Then there was an explostion and fire swept threw the lab. We were all killed! HA! LOL!!!

But seriously, the loading of this driver porgram thing took out the computer. So we sent it back and ordered another one. This time we won't repeat that mistake. Should be here by Friday. The delay was because my brother needed his laptop back, for a short time. How selfish of him! HA!

Anyway, we had some whippy thunder showers here. The local news calls them savere. Say what!? Listen, we get what I call, "fag storms"... You guys get nuked over there. It looks like Nagasaki over there!! Oh jeezzo man, get below man!!!!!
 

Rob Lancaster

Active Member
Hi Randy,

Thomas again.

We received the new computer (MinisForum UM450 as before) today. I understand the set-up procedure with the exception of the forced MS Account part. I already have an MS Account which I use to download and install my MS Office Home & Business 2016 package.

Are you saying that account will hamper what we want to accomplish with the initial set-up of the new computer?

Sorry Randy, I wish I totally understood the last pargraph in your March 11 2023 post. I really think I wouldn't of even written this post if I did.

The way I understand it is that as long as I have a local account, that should be it. I sign in when the computer boots and after it comes out of sleep and that's it.

Thanks,

Signed, someone confused...
 
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