https://www.maketecheasier.com/6-too...-linux-distro/

The above site with tools to create your own custom Linux distro is excellent. Sometimes it is best to just make your own distro by removing older browser etc.,
that stops working, add a more recent one and then roll it into a distro. This can be shared for convenience of others also. Now, this is also encouraging to google and read other similar articles related to making your own distro.

Related videos for convenience below.

Thermal Paste Use
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAXrtbox6Zw

Alternatives for Thermal Paste:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-pr4cf70qY

How to remove thermal paste off a CPU:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9MJUuU58vE

Edited to add, thread elsewhere on how often to replace CPU paste:
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/...mal-paste.html

so ketchup wins!
i once saw a similar video which iirc also tried and recommended cheese. :D

Thanks for this comment. Here are some more related videos:

Cooling CPU with Cheese:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16qSDmMO3zQ

Other Household items to cool CPU:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMQ5MYrGIbs

What Parts to collect from older PC:

Presently if I still come across an older PC abandoned I might collect the following parts as I don't have space for the entire PC anymore:

1. Fans, Ram, CPU and Hard Drive (Collect and keep all)
2. PSU - Keep only 3 spares at a time.
3. DVD drive - Keep only 3 spares at a time.
4. If I find more recent Mobo with all components, then replace older Mobo with
newer
5. Special components like Card Reader etc., Keep three of each.

This will save space but also help recycle efficiently. Comments welcome.

They didn't say ketchup, it said tomato paste, this is pureed tomato and is
a lot more solid than ketchup.

Here are few more related sites to create your own distro:
https://www.linuxvoice.com/build-your-own-linux-distro/
http://www.wikihow.com/Build-Your-Ow...x-Distribution
http://www.tuxradar.com/content/buil...ution-easy-way
http://www.buildyourownlinux.com/

Evidently, this is a lot more popular than I had expected. I recall that once I did this with Puppy Linux almost 7 years ago or so but it had some problems that couldn't be resolved. Can try this again in future when I have time and feel like it.

An old PC is no good if the power is off for an extended period of time, there is an evacuation ordered due to natural disaster etc.,

Puerto Rico has been affected very badly after Hurricane Maria:
http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1.../p2p-94672816/

If emergency evacuation is declared then old PC is no good to bug out with, in this case I have to agree. For this scenario it helps to have battery operated mp3 player with radio, nice set of spare batteries, tablet PC, cell phone, recharge kit etc., Also helps to keep backup of old PC burned to DVD or backed up to external portable HD for quick and convenient exit.

Knoppix is the opposite of older PC and minimalistic distro. The latest version
usually had a lot of bloatware but one can learn a lot from looking at the different software it has and testing some of their features. Knoppix was my favorite distro from 2003 to 2006 or so, haven't used it in a long time.

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix-info/index-en.html

Just got next months flyer from local discount store by mail.
Used C2D with KB, Monitor, 3Gb Ram and 250 Gb HD costs 99
bucks or 115 with taxes. Used Lenovo i7 with 4Gb Ram, 160Gb HD with detachable
monitor that can be used as a tablet for 199 or 230 with taxes.
Prices for used PCs are really falling, so guess folks just discard older
PCs and keep on buying as latest as they can afford. Must keep an eye
out for abandoned, useful used PC components in future. At these prices,
it is cheaper to buy entire used PC than to try and buy individual used
components, no wonder some don't even bother taking out few components and
abandon entire used PC.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/t...b0b24aee4bcc63

Will be nice to have a software that reminds and guides to appreciate
things daily. This will make our lives richer and even help a few folks who are lonely etc., Excellent use for an older PC.

You can use the Linux motd to make a daily reminder

Youtube video of Rescued old computer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngQXzlAlu5U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GebwKXZKEb4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EP-FL8sSCi4

Lots of touchy loose contact on the above, very poor tabs that connect
front panel to case, DVD drive didn't work, no PS2 ports etc., many issues
with it, personally not worth updating in my opinion, this PC can fail
any time due to loose contacts. If I got such a PC, I will use the parts
that are good and will certainly recycle the case and mobo. Folks are
throwing away lots of older PCs, there is a good choice out there.

When watching the last Video above, video hung on my older PC and only heard
audio for 2/3rds of video. CPU usage went upto 84% when watching, no wonder
in high heat the Xwindows crashes on my present PC with slow specs also.

http://www.offthegridnews.com/grid-t...ld-emp-attack/

As per the article above, a computer will not survive an EMP attack due to all the connected cables that act as an antenna. What about an older PC that is disconnected and not in use, can this survive an EMP attack ? What about any other electronic devices that are not connected and in storage, will these survive EMP attack ?

The thing abbout EMPs is that they induce a current in ALL circuits.
While unpowered cicuits will suffer less, there will still be some induced current that will cause damage.

This P4 old PC has 1Gb of Memory and youtube video hangs a lot with just audio playing. Before it was ok but with time it is getting PAINFULLY much worse. In a few years, it appears that Video will just not work on this older PC as the quality of videos being produced is a lot higher these days.

Adding more memory might help to increase the lifespan of this PC, so this is one vital thing to keep an eye out for.

Here is a site in regards to Memory requirements for different users that is helpful:
http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/store-...emory-required

What web browser do you use? I find that chromium is much more efficient than Firefox for YouTube and other video sites.

As for RAM, I know 1GB is not enough for Firefox to play Netflix videos. You can sluggishly navigate around, but if you actually try to watch a video, playback will crash in less than 10 seconds. 2GB is adequate. Unfortunately, Netflix requires DRM so chromium won't work.

I use SeaMonkey old version. The thing is that video was ok in this PC before but with time it is getting harder. Why is it this way ? Why does video need more memory now and not in the past ?

Another old IT stuffs collector stops efforts due to lack of space and saturation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW5OjudzyBY

I must have forecast this in advance and prepared to collect more older software, OSes. Even now it is not too late to do this.

The whole e-waste thing is becoming pretty bad. People are disposing of perfectly good systems that others can put to use. It is a big waste.

Manufacturers are making more and more new estuffs. So it is becoming simpler to buy even used estuff. Every few years folks are throwing away good stuffs and in my experience locally even the very poor don't take them. Personally, I have all the IT stuffs that I need for my lifetime pretty much.

At this rate of waste, our society itself will collapse as per Jared Diamond and others who have studied collapse of past societies. Dr. Jared Diamond has written a book even titled Collapse. Even Matt Malone one of the biggest IT dumpster divers interviewed by wired magazine had a chat with a Prof. of anthropology I think if I recollect correctly, he also said that any society that wasted at this rate in the past has collapsed with time.

$5 bare bones thrift store PC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6naa5_O1dzk

CPU usage is directly related to energy consumption I was told. Most of the times,
my CPU usage is around 15%, I have a 350W PSU, so it is around 50 Watts per hour
approx when in use. This is not too bad for an older PC.

Having a Mini PC is excellent in terms of saving space. This is one good reason,
folks may discard an older PC for a Mini PC.

True only in the absence of other factors. Anything with a motor might draw more power than the CPU under some circumstances. Even in isolation, CPU usage to power is not that kind of direct relation (even at 0% CPU usage the power draw will not be 0). Directly measuring power usage with a meter gives a more accurate number.

How are you measuring CPU usage?

htop process in Linux gives the top processes along with % CPU usage.

Edited to add:
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-re...gy-consumption

There is one response with a study above that shows linear correlation between
CPU usage and energy consumption.

Also system load and other good information. Htop is a good tool, if you take its limitations into account and understand what it does and does not tell you. I like other tools for reporting cpu usage better, but it is nice.

When I run Akregator, Chromium, Palemoon, and Thunderbird at the same time on my old HP/Compaq 6400 with 2.5G ram and Intel Centrino Duo processor I get one core at 1% and the other at 2% when running htop. I have to wonder what is driving your use to 15%.


A machine that uses 200W at idle and 250W fully loaded and busy with a direct and linear relation between CPU load and power. It is still not very efficient. Just something to keep in mind.

I tend to just keep a couple of old motherboards & PSUs, to test 32bit distros, when I had the time, but they're rarely used, as I have several old laptops that function much better for day to day use, but some date back to 2002, so mainly still using 'old stuff'. :)

Haven't bought a new laptop since about 2010, but I did buy myself a Raspberry Pi3 to see how Linux (& BSD) run on them this last year. It's hooked up to an old monitor most of the time, but I did buy an HDMI 11.5" monitor specifically to try out the HDMI way of doing things. ;)

The only monitor I have is a TV with VGA input. I have an HDMI to VGA adapter I use with my Pi's.
That and the 7" Pi touchscreen. I've used laptops since 1998 but always had spare machines for testing stuff until around 2002 when I got off of windows so the (linux) host OS was actually efficient enough to run virtual guests so if I want to test anything its under virtualbox now.

I remember actually using tron and troff in Microsoft BASIC on my TRS-80 Model III. It's not just a movie name! Those computers seemed much more free and open than the fascist security machines we're given today. For example, I could peek directly at memory locations and poke data directly into them too. ;) I remember coding my own Space Invaders clone using ANSI graphics characters. Each row of aliens was a string of those characters and the main loop just peeked at the keyboard buffer for user input.

Man, what a huge security risk to the homeland, fatherland and motherland those days were! I feel much more safe and secure today. :rolleyes:

You still can today, its called 'bare metal' programming since your talking directly to the hardware and not through an OS.

Now I think I know why my xwindows is crashing. Say I have several programs open.
Using seamonkey browser for video or even images really boosts the CPU usage high, from 80 to 100% at the start. So if have a few programs open and the seamonkey browser has a site loaded with scripts or ads etc., then the CPU usage goes above 100% momentarily and this crashes the xwindows. Only way to prevent this is to have fewer programs running and use seamonkey in a limited manner.

Edited to add
CPU usage also jumps when I change from one program to another. So if I have
seamonkey open and change programs then it affects a lot more.
Opening certain programs for the first time also jumps memory use greatly,
for eg., seamonkey again. So doing multiple resource demanding tasks at
same time is leading to Xwindows crash more often, it was not like this before.
Also getting worse with time.

^ have you ever told us what your system specs are? or distro?
also if your main machine reflects on the ethic you're advertising here, i'd say hardware failure should be considered...


post of the day!

1Gb ram, 2.4Ghz P4 single core Processor, Puppy Linux older version distro from 2012 or so are the specs, have shared it before and glad to share it again. Feel free to ask if any other info. is needed.

If it is hardware failure, which part of hardware can be failing exactly ? Will just replacing the CPU paste solve the issue or is it much more than that ?

Thanks in advance.

Edited to add:
Came across this thread with similar issue that was solved on replacing the thermal paste of CPU
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/...asionally.html

Appears I have to give this a try before other things, if not, the issue will
only get worse with time.

Another contact suggested that I use only one program at a time and to also
change programs, open/close them slowly. This seems to be a temporary solution but in longer run will not help also if thermal paste is the issue.

This PC is quite old and the thermal paste has not been changed in this for
over 10 years or so.

likely all 3 aspects contribute to your problems.

overheating cpu and/or other parts, hard drive dying... who's to say?

try cheese! :D

This was getting worse, so I opened my PC and there was quite a bit of dust insides
but not as bad as the last two times. These were blown away. The inner sides of the blades of the CPU fan had dust on them that was not removed before, this I removed
now. Unable to remove the CPU heat Sink Two clip Latch, will check youtube for this.

One vital reason I was not having crashes before was that I didn't run my PC constantly and gave it adequate rest, used it only when needed. There is no reason to run an older PC constantly and overheat it. Will try and see if this helps.

Need to clean the bottom sides of fan and inbetween the heat sink blades with alcohol dipped cotton swab. Will reserve this for future.

This video explains the likely reason as a broken mounting bracket that doesn't hold the heat sink in place, I have exactly this type of bracket:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZdKq8Tjzx8

However, mine isn't broken. I have to certainly try replacing the thermal paste,
but after watching this video, I am not too keen as the bracket maybe broken
causing a major issue, I am not a fan of buying things on ebay, never done it before. This is too much hazzle for an older PC.

So will try to reduce its consistent use, give it atleast few hours rest daily and see if it helps, if it does then glad that issue is solved. Time will tell.

This video shows how to remove the clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNkJXTYZ9JE
Can try this in the future if needed.

You need to tell some scientists about that!!
When actually doing something, if your cpu is NOT running at 100% (single channel) then there is something wrong, that is what it is supposed to do!
Lack of RAM is most of your problem. Also you should check that it is not overheating as suggested.
I have a 2.4Ghz P4 with 2Gb ram and that copes with anything I trow at it WEB wise.

1GB of RAM should be adequate, but not with Puppy and probably not with Seamonkey web browser. The problem is that Puppy eats up a good chunk of that RAM on its semi-compressed file system, and things will get progressively worse if you don't reboot the computer because more and more of it will be de-compressed into a union'ed tmpfs (without even freeing up the space from the compressed file).

In contrast, if you install Debian (with lightweight DE/WM, such as XFCE4 or IceWM), and use chromium web browser, the amount of RAM consumed at idle will be reduced and the chromium web browser will be relatively efficient with the remaining RAM.

I checked on the Ram usage, only about 180 Mb or so is used normally and about
350 Mb when playing videos. I also have swap, that is also hardly used. So this doesn't indicate the need for more Ram.

After I gave it a good rest, CPU usage on viewing video, opening/changing apps
etc., is at 80% max approx. Moreover, most times it is around 40% for viewing video. So the total shutdown when not in use is helping with its cooling.

wikihow.com is failing to load on this PC now on old SeaMonkey and Opera web browsers with the error message below. So trying a live CD of a more recent OS is needed in future for this PC, it is actually needed right now but I am delaying it some.



Secure Connection Failed

An error occurred during a connection to www.wikihow.com.
Cannot communicate securely with peer: no common encryption algorithm(s).
(Error code: ssl_error_no_cypher_overlap)

The page you are trying to view can not be shown because the authenticity of the received data could not be verified.Please contact the website owners to inform them of this problem.

^
relevant?

Slacko Puppy version 5.3.3, released May 2012

I gave it enough rest and started PC, xwindows crashed again. This time it is not just rest, overheating, there is some hardware issue for sure that has to be managed.

If it is not the CPU paste, then it is the onboard video card perhaps. As with the
hard drive malfunction, entire PC may freeze or shutdown etc., Checkedout all the capacitors on the mobo, they all seem ok, no leaks on top.

At this point it seems best to take whatever is possible from this PC and discard the Case, Mobo etc., Either that or replace the Mobo, CPU etc., and see if that helps. Must also experiment and learn as much as possible from these problems. This is a great PC to learn from. Lastly must backup all data that is not backed up ASAP.
Anytime this PC can fail at this stage. This PC is taking its last few breaths it seems, sad but accepting this gives peace.

Ok, had to REALLY, REALLY do this as it was getting to be quite bad.

Removed the heat sink, it was a struggle with the clip both when taking it off
and putting it back on. There was quite a bit of dust below the CPU fan on the inner sides of the blades, on the heat sink and on top of the CPU itself. There was
so CPU paste and it was totally gone. Cleared all the dust, even washed the fan blades with moist paper towels. Applied TOMATO PASTE on top of the CPU, it is a bit
moist, so used it sparingly and lightly. Also used this chance to oil the CPU fan. Then put everything together and back on. Turned on PC and it is working fine.
Will see how it performs now and if/how often the crashes happen now. Will be interesting to observe. Will observe this for a week atleast.

Next is to try a different OS after this for the web. Perhaps a more recent OS may also help improve the performance. Will wait for this.

Bending down and struggling with the brackets was a bit demanding as I age. So, for those trying it, helps to prepare to do this slowly and in steps. Don't rush or push if anything doesn't seem right. It can break the brackets etc., and then
this is very big trouble.

Edited to add:
Tried to play a youtube video to see how CPU performs after these changes. It went to 100% on open but quickly dropped to 50% or so and then stayed around
that range just going to about 60% or so few times, so this is a very huge change in performance from before even an hour ago. Looks promising for now.

Since the tomato paste was a bit too watery, I kept a bit of it on a paper towel for a while for the moisture to be absorbed, next time will even add a tiny bit of baking soda or corn starch etc., to make it a bit more thick, this might improve performance even better.

Edited again to add further:
In reflection, here is how the problem started and got worse. When I tried to get rid of the dust inside my PC, a bit of the dust from the fan went inside
the heat sink and also behind it. This is a very small amount for us, but it is enough to cause heat issues for the CPU. Since I get more dust indoors, this means every few years this issue will present itself and I have to do the same.
So, have to reduce the need to dust the PC insides too often. Also, find a way perhaps to clean the dust without having it go inside the heat sink and CPU area too much. Lastly must consider getting extra brackets in advance and keeping if the one I have on this PC breaks. This will avoid any frustrations. Will reflect further on and see.

Member response
 

Hi,
Never heard of Tomato Paste for a CPU compound. Your not using a silicon based compound? You should clean the CPU so no old paste is left. Then apply a thin spread of quality Silicon compound, good choice would be Artic Silver or just plain white silicon thermal compound. If a thermal pad then you must remove the old pad completely. I use plastic razor blades so no scratches made to the top of the CPU.
I always place the systems on a chest high workstation therefore no strain and things are worked at chest level to keep from hurting myself. No bending and I can see things close up.

Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!
:hattip:

WFT, tomato paste? The acidicness of it will probably damage something long term though it will it will probably rot and stink first.

I saw it as a replacement for CPU paste in one video, folks also tried other different things like cheese etc., Another good try will be tooth paste with some baking soda.

Yes, the last suggestion did help. However, for chest high, the table I have will not horizontally hold this PC. Hence, I was forced to place it on the ground. Also got a scratch on leg when moving around from leg scraping on PC case edge. Shortage of space, so did the best I can. Glad this issue cameup now than later on in winter when static is very high indoors locally.

There is a guy who made a video of himself testing his own bulletproof vest on himself, are you going to try that too?

I'm being facetious here but the point is you can't always trust everything you see on a video. Food doesn't mix with electronics very well, your going to cause more problems than what you fix.