Question on Calibre's requirement for files to be local

[haertig]

I'm afraid my motherboard must be toast. I've tried everything I can think of, and everything you all here have suggested. I'm out of thoughts on what to try next.

(1) New power supply
(2) New memory modules
(3) Cleaned off old CPU thermal paste and applied new
(4) Checked all fans for proper operation
(5) Cleaned out all dust from inside (heat sinks especially)
(6) Inspected motherboard for bulging caps
(7) Disconnected all peripheral components that I could: All hard drives, the SSD, one of the two optical drives. The only thing left connected is the primary optical drive so I have something to boot from.
(8) Booted with a Linux LiveCD (different distro than was installed on the SSD for normal boots).

And I still have unexpected shutdowns. And they are now more frequent than they used to be. System is not hot, all heat sinks are cool to the touch when it shuts down.

The system is about as bare bones as I can make it: Motherboard, CPU, memory, power supply, one SATA optical disk drive, USB keyboard, USB mouse, monitor connected to DVI output, booted from optical disk. No GPU installed - I am using onboard graphics. I do still have one PCIe x1 card installed ... to provide USB 3.0 (which is fully functional). I suppose I could pull that out too, but I don't really see the need.

[ownedbycats]

You could try soldering new caps onto the motherboard (even if the existing ones look ok), but considering its age it might be at the end of its lifespan anyways.

[compurandom]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

You could try soldering new caps onto the motherboard (even if the existing ones look ok), but considering its age it might be at the end of its lifespan anyways.

I'll second both of these points. Just because it isn't obviously bulging doen't mean the cap is good. I've had to replace a number of them where you really had to look hard to see any external damage.

[haertig]

This motherboard is not worth the effort. Were it only the mobo I had to replace, I'd have a new one purchased in a heartbeat. They aren't THAT expensive. But, replacing an old mobo with something newer means replacing the CPU, the memory, and (probably) the SSD. So it gets more expensive because of that. But even given this added cost, there's only so long a mobo will last, and I'm probably well past average on this one. Even replacing the bare minimum of components, I'll bet I'm looking at $600+ That's not going to bankrupt me, but I still don't have any great desire to spend it. My computer needs are relaxing as I get older. And I run Linux, which needs 1/4 the resources of an equivalent Windows computer.

[compurandom]

Originally Posted by haertig

This motherboard is not worth the effort. Were it only the mobo I had to replace, I'd have a new one purchased in a heartbeat.

Been there, done that. I usually carry my storage over to the new mobo, but add a new one, as by that time, the storage is about to die too, just carry it over to copy it onto the new faster shiny media at my leisure.

Last time my mobo died, I tried to spec out a similar replacement (replacing mobo, ram, cpu), and couldn't find anything that slow. Ended up selecting the mobo with the largest number of USB ports. Not regretting it, not sure I have any left at this point.

[Quoth]

A decent mobo might last 40 years.
A problem with later ones is that to read "foreign" floppy formats you need a real floppy port which can be wired to 8", 5.25", 3.5" or 3" drives. Apple II drives and some others won't work, but every CP/M, MPM. ISIS, DOS format should.

Also some interfaces are only on PCI slots, not PCIe, or else horrendously expensive PCIe cards, and cheap or you already have them on PCI, such as: SCSI, GPIB, DVB-S2 card, older 5V and later 3.3V PCMCIA (very many PCMCIA card functions never made it to Express Card or USB). A USB interface for joystick, serial or parallel might not work properly compared to PCI, which seem compatible with older ISA.

I did regretfully send a lot of working XT, AT and 486 mobos, some CRTS, PSUs and old Pentiums (II, III, 4), inc one with EISA slots and a Pentium Pro to recycling. Ran out of space.

Oldest working laptops are 2000 and 2002. Lots of newer laptops and netbooks from family unrepairable and gone to recycling.

A current 64 bit Linux is better on old mobo that has a floppy port to read strange floppies than any Windows since XP. Even XP was difficult. Real DOS 6.22 with NICE22 and a CP/M emulator was easier.

[ableal]

Originally Posted by haertig

I would be hesitant to use syncing with any of these products while Calibre is running however. "Hesitant" is not the best way to say it, ... "I wouldn't do it, period" is a better way of stating things.

Agreed, forgot to mention that quitting Calibre before leaving one machine and moving to the next is part of the flow.

I think that Linux and MacOS don't care, but Windows mostly holds on tight to its open files - for instance getting 7zip to archive a library fails if the database file is open in Calibre.

[haertig]

I think I lucked out. I was talking with one of my friends, discussing my computer problems, and he had an unused CPU (better than the one in my problem computer) and a 32Gb ram kit that he's giving me. I had to buy an older mobo that would work with the CPU (it needs an Intel 1150 socket), and we found a decent one used on eBay for $100 (which is the exact model my friend had used for this CPU/memory in the past). I may have a compatible CPU cooler in my spares chest in the basement. If I don't, I'll have to go buy one. So I will end up with a "not exactly new" computer, but still newer and more powerful than the one it is replacing.

I am upgrading from a Gigabyte GA-MA78G-DS3H, AMD Phenom II X6 1045T 6 core 6 thread, 8Gb DDR2 system to a Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD4H, Intel I7-4770K 4 core 8 thread, 32Gb DDR3 system. Certainly not state of the art anymore, but a reasonable upgrade for $100 (possibly a bit more cost if I don't have, and need to buy a CPU cooler). I would have settled going from a non-working computer to a same spec working computer for $100, but this one is a bit of an upgrade as well. My servers are higher-end systems, but this one is my desktop which doesn't really need a ton of power (no gaming for me).

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by haertig

(no gaming for me).

Not even Windows Solitaire???

[haertig]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Not even Windows Solitaire???

No Windows for me either!

The last computer game I played was Warcraft II. And I did play that one on Windows, back in the mid-90's I think it was. Must have been Windows 3 or maybe Windows 95 at that time (???) I switched to Linux permanently sometime in the Windows 2000 era. The switch to Linux was a natural move, since I had been Unix since the late 70's at work. I dabbled in Linux in the 90's, but still dual-booted it with Windows back then.

[datostar]

Originally Posted by compurandom

These are exactly the kinds of things that kill calibre libraries. Most of the cloud sharing services don't honor filenames and like to mangle them. Dont Do It!

I've used OneDrive for a couple of years now for Calibre backup/sync with a Mac program called OneWaySync. Calibre is always shut down before running the backup operation. On one occasion I totally messed up my Calibre db and was able to download the whole lot from OneDrive with no problems. I use One Drive extensively for other purposes too and have never come across a mangled filename.

[ownedbycats]

Mangled filenames are mostly Google Drive. it strips the (####) from the folder names as they're used internally for revisions.