Category Archives: computer tips

Resolving External USB HDD Mount Issues on Synology NAS (exFAT) (1813+ and others)

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Resolving External USB HDD Mount Issues on Synology NAS (exFAT) If you’ve recently connected an external USB HDD to your Synology NAS and encountered an error message like “System failed to mount external device [USB Disk 1] partition [1]”, you’re not alone. This issue often arises when the external device is formatted in the exFAT filesystem, which requires additional support on Synology systems. In this post, I’ll guide you through identifying the issue and implementing a simple solution using the

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Topaz Video AI 5 Mac Mini M4 benchmarks

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Topaz Video AI v5.3.6 System Information OS: Mac v15.01 CPU: Apple M4 32 GB GPU: Apple M4 21.333 GB Processing Settings device: 0 vram: 1 instances: 1 Input Resolution: 1920×1080 Benchmark Results Artemis 1X: 07.97 fps 2X: 04.57 fps 4X: 01.57 fps Iris 1X: 13.16 fps 2X: 02.89 fps 4X: 00.92 fps Proteus 1X: 08.80 fps 2X: 05.25 fps 4X: 01.54 fps Gaia 1X: 02.36 fps 2X: 01.70 fps 4X: 01.19 fps Nyx 1X: 01.49 fps 2X: 01.28 fps Nyx

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How to Reverse/Fix Scroll Wheel Direction on a Mac Mini M4 (and Pro)

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If you’re new to a Mac Mini M4 or recently switched from a Windows PC, you might find the default scroll wheel direction on macOS a bit counterintuitive. Apple’s “Natural” scrolling mimics the motion of a touch screen, which may feel odd for traditional mouse users. Fortunately, reversing the scroll direction is quick and straightforward. Here’s how to do it: Step 1: Open System Settings Step 2: Navigate to Mouse or Trackpad Settings The next step depends on whether you’re

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Combined two unallocated 2TB partitions into 4TB [SOLVED]

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Recently I started to repurpose a 4TB 2.5″ SATA SSD but ran into an issue utilizing the entire SSD. Specifically, even after deleting the existing partitions I could only allocate ~2TB and ~2TB (as shown on Disk1 below) Eventually, I realized that the issue was the drive had been setup as MBR instead of GPT. Here are the steps to remedy that and create a large contiguous 4TB partition. First the screenshot shows the steps, then the commands are listed

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AMD Ryzen 3700X (Desktop) vs AMD Z1 Extreme (Ally portable)

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Hands-On Experience: Ryzen 3700X Triumphs in Handbrake Encoding Over Asus ROG Ally’s Z1 Extreme CPU While compressing some video recently, I conducted a hands-on test to compare two contenders in my personal collection: my trusty desktop PC powered by an AMD Ryzen 3700X CPU (released in 2019 almost 5 years old!), and the compact portable powerhouse, the Asus ROG Ally mini gaming system (released 2023), equipped with an AMD Z1 Extreme CPU. The battlefield chosen for this performance duel was

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Lenovo M14 portable monitor compatibility list

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Lenovo M14 and Dell laptop

NOTE: I recommend using a high quality (and relatively short) USB-C cable for best results. When I initially used a generic USB-C cable I did not have success. These are devices that I have personally tested my M14 monitor with: Devices that do work with the M14 display Samsung S23 Ultra (works well, can be used with Dex or in screen mirroring mode) Dell Latitude 7490 (works well) Devices that do not work with the M14 (as of 3/21/24) Acer

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Something went wrong… when resetting Samsung phone [SOLVED]

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Summary: make sure you are connected to the internet with a good data connection and that your phone’s date and time are up to date đź‘Ťđź‘Ť Details: I encountered an unusual issue recently while trying to factory reset my wife’s phone. Specifically, every time I would try to reset it or remove the Samsung account, it gave me an error “Something went wrong…” Finally I realized that my wife’s phone was not showing any internet access over the WIFI connection.

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