ManazMakesIT

I'm Andrew, and this is my life so far...

Tag: Computer

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

January 26, 2024 / / 0 Comments

It has been a long time coming, but in two weeks, I start the final two classes for my bachelor’s degree in IT, Application Development, and Enterprise Development using J2EE.

When I started this degree plan five years ago, at my 15-year mark in the Air Force, I decided to only do one class at a time, so as not to burn myself out between work and school. In retrospect, I should have taken more than one at a time. Over the years I got burnt out anyway, not from the amount of school work, but from how long it was taking to finish. The finish line, never really seemed to get closer, it was only a distant dream for so very long.

During my last year in the military, I decided to take time off school to focus on my retirement. After I did my retirement ceremony, after I started my internship, and after I finally got settled into my civilian job, I decided to commit to two classes at a time so I could finish in the Spring of 2024. I am so happy to have stuck with that commitment because I am so close to finishing. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Last year, I wanted to get my CompTIA Security+ certification, but that didn’t end up happening. Between work, restarting college classes, and not fully committing myself to studying, it fell to the side. Guess what? I’m committing to getting this certification by June 2024. Previously, I didn’t want to spend money on study material, and I also think that had a hand in my commitment issues, as I didn’t think I had anything to lose. Not this time, I purchased study material including a subscription to to ITProTV.com from ACI Learning. Their videos, practice tests, and labs, not to mention the money I spent, I believe will motivate me to finally attain this certification.

Hopefully, the next six months will see me not only with a BS in Information Technology but also a CompTIA Security+ certification. I’ll keep you posted on progress.

Teen Computer Woes

August 1, 2023 / / 0 Comments

About 10 months ago, my child, who is a teenager, came to me saying that their computer wasn’t displaying on their monitor. I looked at it, the computer was running, one of the fans wasn’t running, and neither was the fans on the GPU. The CPU on this machine has a built in GPU, so I moved the HDMI cable from the GPU to the the I/O panel, we had picture! I pulled and repeated the GPU, didn’t work, I checked the drivers, all updated. My thought was it got too hot and fried. I ordered a new fan and a similar GPU. Installed both and it all worked fine!

Then, about 2 months later, my teen comes to me again saying their computer just shut off and won’t turn back on. Ok, well then, let’s take a look! My first thought, best cast it’s just a PSU, worst case, it’s the motherboard.

I went and looked at it, it didn’t turn on. I checked to make sure it was plugged in, still nothing. I moved the PC to a known working power outlet, still nothing. There were no POST lights, nothing. The motherboard looked fine from a quick glance, but the PSU fan was pretty dirty. I didn’t have any spare PSU’s around, so I went ahead and ordered one with more output, and a better efficiency rating so that we could upgrade in the future. I had a feeling we would be needing to.

The PSU came in pretty quickly, thanks Amazon! After figuring out where everything was supposed to go, I installed the new PSU and BAM, it worked! I talked to my teen about ensuring the computer stayed clean and clear of obstructions and established a cleaning schedule, which we still do today with no new problems (knock on wood).

Until next time, cheers!

My First Problem With My PC

August 1, 2023 / / 0 Comments

It didn’t take long to find my first problem with the PC I just built.

After putting everything together, I plugged it in for the first time and pressed the power button…then held my breath. It POSTed and brought me right to the UEFI/BIOS screen! I sat and monitored the CPU temp for a bit, I was nervous my thermal paste job wasn’t going to hold up. But everything looked good! After flashing the UEFI/BIOS with the updated firmware from MSI, I restarted and continued.

It saw my RAM, the GPU, and both SSD’s, so I was reasonably confident it all worked. After watching a YouTube video of what to do after building your PC from JayzTwoCents and watching a comprehensive PC build from LinusTechTips, I was ready to install the operating system and go through all the updates. For the OS, I chose Windows 11 Home.

After quite some time updating drivers, installing applications from the part manufacturers, all while marveling at the wonder RGB lights from my case, CPU fan, and RAM, I had my first deep dive into the computer.

Problem one found, the second SSD (the 1 TB Samsung) wasn’t showing up. What the heck? I went back into the BIOS to make sure it was still showing up, it was. I restarted more than a few times, and finally started to Google the issue. Apparently, you can’t just expect a storage drive to be ready for use when you install it. I figured out I need to go into Disk Management, active the drive, assign it a drive letter, and the format it before I could start using it. That wasn’t too bad.

I documented the problem and the fix and went about my day figuring out what to do first.

That’s it for now, cheers!

I Built My First Computer!!

August 1, 2023 / / 0 Comments

After months of planning and collecting parts, I finally had everything I needed to assemble my first computer. My wants for it were for some light gaming, video processing, coding, but mostly for the experience. If I was going to work in IT, I NEEDED to build this computer. Plus, it will help with gaining experience in building a home network, and building labs in virtual environments.

First thing I had to figure out was what processor to go with, AMD or Intel. After considering what I want to use the PC for, I decided on the Intel i5 12600K. With 12 cores and 16 threads, it was more than enough for the job I was going to ask it to do. And to cool it, a Vetroo V5 cooling tower and RGB fan.

For the motherboard, I wanted to make sure it had built in WiFi, be DDR4 capable and have plenty of input/output (I/O) ports for various peripherals and add-ons. With that in mind, I decided to go with MSI MAG B660 Tomahawk WiFi DDR4 ATX Gaming Motherboard. It has the space for DDR4 RAM, enough M.2 slots for the solid state drives I planned on putting in it, and just a bunch of I/O ports.

Because I like to multi-task, memory was also important for me. I went with two 16 GB DDR4 RAM sticks from Corsair. My intention is to add two more just like it, bit 32 GB will be good for now.

Storage was going to be two M.2 SSD’s from Samsung. A 500 GB SSD for the operating system, and a 1 TB SSD for the main storage.

For the graphics processing unit (GPU), I didn’t need top of the line, my bank account also didn’t need it. But I wanted to be able to play games, and run video processing so I couldn’t go super cheap either. I landed on a Zotac GeForce RTX3060, which I couldn’t be happier with at this stage. Plus, I got it for under 300 on Amazon Prime Day!

Lastly. I wanted to make sure the power supply unit (PSU) was up for the task of powering everything and then some, so I went with a Thermaltake 750W fully modular PSU. I was only rated to consume less than 400W, but wanted to make sure I had room to grow.

So, what now? As Ham Solo once said, “That’s the trick isn’t it?”, I can do whatever I want. First, Diablo 4, then start learning Active Directory using a virtual machine. I’ll keep you posted.

Cheers!

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