MeLE Quieter Mini PC Freeze Up Issue

📅 January 27, 2023
“My Quieter3Q just froze up! Why?”

Not sure since this happens to me as well. The MeLE Quieter2Q and Quieter3Q are handy mini PCs packing a moderate punch of computing power with low power consumption. 100% silent. Small. Supports NVMe. What could go wrong?

How about a freeze up? I have been using the Quieter2Q as a dedicated Pi-Hole device and the Quieter3Q as a dedicated Ubuntu Cinnamon desktop system, and both work perfectly — as long as they remain working. For some random reason, the Quieter2Q (and the Quieter3Q) will freeze and become completely unresponsive if left on continuously as Pi-Hole needs to be. The only solution is a hard power cycle upon which the Quieter will function normally until the next random freeze up a few days later.

Over the past few months, I have been trying to diagnose the issue with no success by experimenting with a variety of usage by Linux OS, where the OS is installed, kernel upgrades, and so on.

I might have found the culprit, but I am not sure, so here are my experimental results in an attempt to help give others ideas.

What? The Linux Installer Crashed?

📅 September 23, 2022
“I tried to install Linux from a LiveUSB, but the message Installer crashed appeared and Linux will not install. Fix it!”

This happened to me when installing the latest Linux Mint 21 ISO or Ubuntu Cinnamon 22.04 ISO from a bootable LiveUSB. It always worked in the past, so what went wrong this time?

Here is one possible solution that worked for me.

Fixing the Windows Setup “Missing Media Driver”

📅 September 8, 2022
“What? Windows is missing a media driver during Windows Setup? Why?”

There might be times when we need to install Windows 10 or 11 for testing purposes, such as benchmarking hard drives or running graphics software only compatible with Windows.

I needed to install a temporary Windows 10 lab system for experimentation, but I encountered a completely new (for me) and strange error reporting that Windows Setup was missing media drivers. How odd. What could have been the cause?

If you think that the solution is to install missing media drivers like I did because that is what the message is prompting, then you are completely misled and mistaken.

Here is what I discovered, and it involves Linux.

How to Fix APT Update Error: “Is not valid yet”

📅 March 30, 2022
“What? My system cannot be updated for another 3,005 days?”

Linux is continually full of surprises, and this error involving system updates is one of them. I was performing a regular system update using apt like I always did, except that this time the system would not update at all. Instead, it warned about the repository not being valid for a given length of time.

Hmm. What could be the problem? It worked before, so why now?

This error involves a problem with the computer’s hardware clock, and it is easy to fix.

Fixing a Slow 1550MHz Ryzen 5 2600 CPU Speed in Linux

📅 June 22, 2018
So, you purchased a brand new Ryzen 5 2600 3.4Ghz processor only to discover that Linux reports its speed as 1550 MHz. Why? Can it be fixed?

It turns out that that newer motherboards (X470, for example) for Ryzen CPUs include extra features. One feature is called PSS Support, and it needs to be disabled when using Linux in order for Linux to show the 3400 MHz CPU speed rating.

Computer Improvement Tips

📅 February 27, 2018
“I wanted to build a new computer, but RAM and video cards are too expensive!”

Given the ridiculous skyrocketing costs (as of the time of this writing) of RAM and GPUs due to cryptocurrency mining, you might feel dismayed at the prospect of building a new computer system. Whether it be a fancy SLI gaming system or a virtualizing system hosting servers, the current costs will make it more expensive than it would have been a few months ago.

But does this mean give up and wait for prices to fall before doing anything?

There is plenty to do with your current system right now. In fact, learning to work with what you have and improve it to the best of your ability will increase your skills and knowledge.

For hardware and software, here are a few tips that will make your system more pleasant to work with and seem faster than it actually might be.

Thunar Not Showing Thumbnails

📅 January 4, 2018
“Thunar is not showing any thumbnails despite thumbnail generation enabled. Why?”

I ran into this issue in Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon when using the Thunar file manager. Traversing directories functioned fine, but no thumbnails were generated for media files, such a images, videos, and music containing album art.

Here is one technique I tried to make the thumbnails appear.

Fix the Immediate Resume Following Suspend

📅 December 5, 2017
Linux Mint 18.3 was released a few days ago!

Despite being a superb Linux distribution, some fundamental problems remain. One such problem is the suspend/resume feature.

After installing Linux Mint 18.3 MATE, I found that if I assign a keyboard shortcut to suspend the system, the Linux system will go into suspend mode but immediately resume.

Power management issues, such as suspend and hibernation, have plagued Linux systems with a variety of distributions across a variety of hardware that I have tried, but since Linux Mint is my preferred distribution, this it the one I am focusing on.

Windows does not have this problem from my usage. Given the same hardware, I have found that Windows will suspend/hibernate/shutdown without any of the problems that are apparent with Linux, such as blank resume screens (requiring a system reset button press), no resuming, dead hibernation (never waking up), or immediate resumption following a suspend.

This article shows a quick way to fix the suspend issue so that we can assign a keyboard shortcut that will suspend Linux. Pressing the power button on the computer will wake up the system.

Speed Up Linux Boot by Disabling Services

📅 June 19, 2017
What’s this? You installed Linux to a speedy M.2 NVMe SSD but boot times are not as fast as expected?

It might be a software issue. When Linux boots from power on, it runs a number of services before you ever see the login screen. Some of these services have timeouts and increase delays. Other services might be completely unnecessary, but they are loaded during boot anyway.

By disabling unneeded services, the Linux boot time can be reduced by a few seconds.

Reduce a Computer’s Audio Output Line Hum

📅 August 30, 2016
“Why do I hear a faint hum from my computer’s audio output?”

Computers are electrically noisy environments, and all of those wires and fans and whatnot operating at various frequencies can have unpleasant side-effects on a computer’s audio output.

If you enjoy listening to music played from your computer and if you use the computer’s analog stereo outputs (the 3.5mm line out jack) to connect to an external amplifier or receiver, then you have no doubt encountered the low-frequency hum effect.

Not a mere hiss due to a noisy sound card, but a low hummmmmmmmm that is heard consistently whether or not audio is playing and regardless of the volume level.

This can happen with any home audio equipment, not just computers. Often, it is caused by a ground loop, and the best way to reduce or nearly eliminate this hum is to electrically isolate the audio output (from the computer) from the audio input of the receiver/amplifier.